Psyched to finally read this @praddenkeefe.bsky.social

One last final clue included in Gibbs’ case file is this apparent threat that was mailed to the car dealership where Gibbs was apparently working. The writer is demanding money and includes the sinister line “wasn’t Mr. Gibbs a terrible sight.”

The FW Star-Telegram ran articles speculating whether or not Gibbs’ (using his alias George Thomas) murder was related to Dodd’s case. The term Dixie Mafia is also thrown around. No idea if Dodds’ murder is still considered open, Sansom Park PD thinks they lost the murder file in a flood.

His death strikes me as almost a statement. It was overkill, with six shots to the face. He also may have been tortured beforehand, with the police describing a cigarette burn to his leg. They thought he’d been murdered elsewhere, then driven in the trunk of a car to the ravine where he was dumped.

The investigators’ notes on his murder are some of the more tantalizing documents we dumped in the article. They include notes on his tattoos (including a skull with a top hat), his autopsy, interviews with people who knew him, his last known whereabouts, etc.

The police suspected he was the getaway driver in Bill Richardson’s murder in Corpus Christi, and they also noted that he was Sam Mena’s roommate in Azle, Texas. At trial, a witness called him “Sam Mena’s running partner in the streets.”

One of the biggest loose ends in my latest is the mysterious life and death of the (alleged) Dixie Mafia hitman “Tommy Gibbs.” We only have fragments of his life to work with, and some chaotic notes about his brutal murder. I have so many questions about him. www.bellingcat.com/news/2025/05...

RIP, king

The FBI redacted the names on the report, so we can’t know for sure if it was them, but they included reports of the arrests with Bass’ and LaBarba’s FOIAs. I interviewed the policemen on the left in this photo who made the arrests; he’s nearly 90 and held some of the dice in his hand as we talked.

Bass + LaBarba were investigated by the feds for gambling activity, and agents called them “dice hustlers” in documents we got through FOIAs. In 1967, police in Portland, TX arrested 5 men with pistols, crooked dice, and lists of nightclubs in Louisiana. One guy had a mysterious head wound.

Bruce Bass was also from Mississippi, and lived there after his prison term for the murder of Randy Farenthold. Months before his death, Bass was shot in the gut with a .380 in a motel bar in Jackson, reportedly after trying to seize control of a gambling operation.

In our story, there are some intriguing ties to Biloxi and Mississippi. Bruce Bass and Jerry LaBarba, friends of Bill Richardson, were investigated by the FBI for involvement with an illegal gambling operation run by a guy named Jack Kress. Kress was wanted on conspiracy charges issued in Biloxi.

Then in 1972, the Dixie Mafia’s reputed head enforcer Stanley “the Creeper” Cook was shot by a sniper leaving The Lemon Twist bar. The murder and his funeral made it on local tv news. With all this turmoil, could Gibbs’ murder have been tied to power struggles within the group? Open question.

Around the time of Richardson’s and Gibbs’ murders, the Dixie Mafia lost 2 of its leaders in Dallas. Kirksey Nix Jr. was arrested in Dallas in April ‘71 after being gut-shot robbing a New Orleans grocer who he killed in the gunfight. He’s the longtime reputed head of the group and still in prison.

Mentioned explicitly in some newspaper reporting about the brutal murder of alleged hitman (and suspected getaway driver in Richardson’s murder) Tommy Gibbs, the group was particularly active in certain cities like Dallas and Fort Worth.

One of the undercurrents running through my article on Bill Richardson’s murder in @bellingcat.com and the @texasobserver.org is the shadowy and loose-knit Dixie Mafia. A thread on them below. full story here: www.bellingcat.com/news/2025/05...

RIP Val, a true Hollywood icon at his peak when I was a kid in the 90s. He’s one of the reasons I always liked side characters better than the main. Stole the scenes in almost anything he did, especially Heat and Tombstone.