Introduction: Crime in the Cotton Shadows They weren’t the Corleones. They didn’t sip fine wine or speak in Italian whispers. The Dixie Mafia was as American as moonshine and murder, a syndicate of criminals born in the heart of the Deep South. For decades, they ruled roadhouses, rigged courthouses, and operated out of small-town motels […]
After the Civil War, many former soldiers, particularly from the Confederacy, found themselves in dire straits. Unemployment was rampant, and reconstruction policies often left these men destitute and disenfranchised. Some turned to crime as a means of survival, and among the most famous and notorious of these were Jesse and Frank James. The James brothers […]