Mississippi Scoundrels

The Magnolia State is a rogue's gallery of thieves and murderers, beginning with the nation's first serial killers: the Harpe brothers. The passage of time has transformed some of these rogues into folk heroes, like "King of the Train Robbers" Rube Barrow and Texas Red, Franklin County's African American outlaw. In these pages, Jesse James struts into Corinth, the Mississippi Mafia calls the shots in Biloxi and a former newspaper editor kills the mayor of Jackson. The "Casanova Killer" stalks his prey, and Ouida Keaton and Ruth Thompson off their mothers. From river pirates to highwaymen, train robbers and the all-out vile, Alan Brown serves up a rundown of the most atrocious figures in state history. --