New Orleans Biographies

Dixie Mafia: Stickup Men, Car Thieves, Drug Runners, And Contract Killers

Meet The Dixie Mafia by rl reeves jr

The Dixie Mafia were a roving gang of sadistic killers who did dirty business in the Deep South for the oldest reason of them all: money.

Powerboats, high-performance Cadillacs, and turbo-prop airplanes criss-crossed Louisiana, and the rest of the south as the cartel waged a reign of terror that saw dozens of killings, and enormous amounts of money go into the gang’s coffers

By the mid-seventies, 75 deaths of drug dealers, police officers, people in the wrong place at the wrong time, and enemies of the gang had been attributed to the cartel.

But a home invasion gone wrong in New Orleans’ Lakeview neighborhood would spell the downfall of the Dixie Mafia. Continue Reading

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The Closure of the Chicken Ranch Brothel in La Grange, Texas

The Closure of the Chicken Ranch Brothel in La Grange, Texas

47 years ago today the infamous Chicken Ranch whorehouse, out in La Grange, Texas shut down. I wrote a piece awhile back on what went on behind the scenes that led to the business being closed.

It had been the longest-running brothel (est. 1844) in the US til Marvin Zindler, a zealous TV newsman from Houston, stuck his nose into the affairs of madam Edna Milton.

Texas state attorney general, John Hill, was Zindler’s governmental mole who supplied the newsman with inside tips on the operation.

Zindler caught a fierce ass-whipping from local Sheriff TJ Flournoy for his troubles. When Mr. Zindler returned to La Grange a year and a half after his TV piece ran, the 71 year old Flournoy saw his chance and pounced, dragging Zindler from his black 1975 Continental Mark IV, and beating him from pillar to post, breaking his ribs and snatching his toupee right off his dome-then stomping it into the rich Fayette County dirt. more