Saw that documentary style movie on TCM in the last couple of years. Living there might have been a little like living in Concordia Parish when Noah Cross was sheriff, and his top deputy, Frank DeLaughter.

A movie about them is well overdue.

lsucoldcaseproject.com

quote:
Sheriff Noah Cross & The Morville Lounge

The Morville Lounge, a brothel and illegal gambling operation in Concordia Parish during the 1960s, was the eventual downfall of Sheriff Noah Cross. The lounge was in a small building that had once been a country store. As the operation grew, a new wing was added with extra rooms.

J. D. Richardson owned the lounge and made a deal with Curt Hewitt to manage the operation. Hewitt, along with pimps and prostitutes, was part of a network connected to the Carlos Marcello mob in New Orleans.

Cross was paid kickbacks every week for protection. His most notorious deputy, Frank DeLaughter, collected the payoffs for the sheriff. Both law officers were Klan members.

FBI agents John Pfeiffer and Ted Gardner helped launch the first federal investigation into the lounge in 1966. Pfeiffer would see the investigation through to the end when Cross, DeLaughter, Richardson and numerous pimps and prostitutes were convicted. As a result, both Cross and DeLaughter served time in federal prison in the 1970s. Both were forbidden to return to work in law enforcement and neither as convicted felons could carry a weapon.

Hundreds were interviewed by the FBI during the investigation, including bankers, dignitaries, prostitutes, cab drivers, hunters, politicians and local residents.

They had similar setups in motels in Ferriday and Vidalia. The Sheriff's Department being involved with the Klan made living there

It was sort of what people say Havana was like before the revolution. Fun, but dangerous. I wonder if I'm wrong to think a lot of Louisiana was the same way back in the day. Some places still are. God only knows what they had near the many clusters of camps along the river. As a kid you knew a lot more than fishing was going on for some of the drunks you saw down there.