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Vincent and Margaret Sherry were murdered in Biloxi, Mississippi in 1987. Due to the high profile nature of the victims, and their professional-style execution in their home, the case immediately attracted national attention.

Background
Governor Bill Allain appointed Vincent Sherry a circuit judge when Ruble Griffin moved up to the Mississippi Supreme Court in July 1986.

Margaret Sherry (nee' Smith) had served on the Biloxi, Mississippi City Council and unsuccessfully opposed Mayor Gerald Blessey in 1985, losing by a narrow margin. In 1986, Margaret sued Blessey over a campaign ad which stated, "Margaret Sherry and her husband profit from representing vice." The ad was critical of Vincent Sherry's legal representation of businesses regulated by the city's anti-vice ordinance. The libel suit was dismissed in August 1987.

Initial investigation
Vincent and Margaret were found dead in their home on Wednesday morning, September 16, 1987. Their bodies were found in different parts of their house a day after Vincent had failed to show up for work. A task force including the FBI, the Mississippi Highway Patrol, the Harrison County Sheriff's Department and the Biloxi Police Department initially reported that the victims were shot in the head several times at close rangewith a .22-caliber handgun. No weapons were found in the house, nor was there evidence of forced entry. Police quickly ruled out a murder-suicide but speculated that the victims knew their killer. The bodies had been initially discovered by Vincent's former law partner, Peter Halat. Traces of foam rubber, probably used to silence the gun, and the fact that the judge's date book was missing were the only clues.

The official investigation was slow going, with almost no progress made in the first year. The Sherry's children alleged that city officials, including the mayor, were somehow involved in the killing, and that they were slowing down the investigation. They speculated their mother had information that would expose wrongdoing by the city's elite. Although police said there was no evidence city officials were involved, local television stations frequently interviewed the children and ran reports on their "conspiracy theory" without allowing Blessey to respond.

Investigation of Halat
Meanwhile, the judge's former law partner, Pete Halat, was elected mayor of Biloxi in June 1988. In August of that year, news stations reported on a rumor that Halat had been involved with the murder of the Sherry's, based on the allegations of Louisiana state prison inmate Bobby Joe Fabian. Fabian said that Halat was present at a March 1987 meeting when inmates at Angola penitentiary in Louisiana decided to order Sherry killed. He said Sherry and Halat were outside contacts for a scam run from the prison by Halat's client, convicted murderer Kirksey McCord Nix Jr, reputedly the leader of the Dixie Mafia. Inmates placed ads in gay publications, giving outside addresses. Once a pen pal was hooked, the prisoners asked for money for various problems. Investigators believed the scam's proceeds in three or four years exceeded a million dollars. However, Fabian claimed the scam's ringleaders believed Sherry took $400,000, more than his share, and paid one-legged John Elbert Ransom $35,000 to kill the judge. Halat issued a 17 page rebuttal and threatened to sue WLBT for airing the report.