In January of 1991, a bizarre story out of Channelview, Texas, became a national obsession. Wanda Holloway, a mother from a blue-collar town east of Houston, was accused of trying to hire a hitman to kill the mother of her daughter’s junior high cheerleading rival.

But behind the “Pom-Pom Mom” headline was a deeper story about ambition, motherhood, resentment, small-town status, family dysfunction, and the danger of living through your children.

In this episode of The Southern Blueprint, we trace Wanda’s life from her upbringing in Channelview, her fixation on her daughter Shanna’s cheerleading dreams, the rivalry with Verna and Amber Heath, the recorded conversations with Terry Harper, the trial, the overturned conviction, and the aftermath that followed.

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Anne Bonny is one of the most famous pirates in history, but she may also be one of the most mysterious.

Born in Ireland and raised in colonial South Carolina, Anne Bonny defied nearly every expectation placed upon women in the early 1700s. Drawn into the dangerous world of Caribbean piracy, she left her husband, joined forces with the infamous Calico Jack Rackham, sailed alongside fellow female pirate Mary Read, and became one of the most feared women of the Golden Age of Piracy.

In this episode of the Southern Blueprint Podcast, we separate documented history from pirate legend as we explore Anne Bonny's remarkable life. From her childhood in Charleston and the bustling ports of the Atlantic world to Nassau's pirate stronghold, daring raids in the Caribbean, her capture by pirate hunters, and the dramatic trial that sentenced her to death, we follow Anne's story from beginning to end.

We also examine the enduring mysteries surrounding her life, including her relationship with Mary Read, the theories surrounding her disappearance after receiving a stay of execution, and the recently discovered Jamaican death record that may finally reveal what happened to one of history's most legendary pirates.

Was Anne Bonny truly the ruthless pirate described in eighteenth-century accounts? Did she escape the gallows and return to the Carolinas?

Join us as we explore the history, legends, treasure theories, and unanswered questions surrounding Anne Bonny, the Pirate Queen Legend.

On September 14, 1987, Circuit Court Judge Vincent Sherry and his wife, Biloxi city councilwoman Margaret Sherry, were found murdered inside their home on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

At first, the case seemed to point in several directions: local politics, city corruption, organized crime, revenge, or someone from Judge Sherry’s legal past. Margaret had been an outspoken critic of corruption in Biloxi and had told people she was working to expose what was happening inside the city. Vincent, meanwhile, had once practiced criminal defense law and had crossed paths with people connected to the Gulf Coast underworld.

But as investigators dug deeper, the case moved away from the obvious and into something stranger: a lonely-hearts scam being run from inside Angola Prison, money moving through a Biloxi law office, and a loose network of criminals often associated with what became known as the Dixie Mafia.

In this episode of The Southern Blueprint Podcast, we look at the murders of Vincent and Margaret Sherry, the rise of Kirksey McCord Nix’s prison-based scam operation, the role of Pete Halat, LaRa Sharpe, Mike Gillich, John Ransom, Thomas Leslie Holcomb, and the years-long fight by the Sherry family to uncover the truth.

This episode also explores what the Dixie Mafia actually was — not a traditional Mafia family with a formal hierarchy, but a loose Southern criminal network built on favors, fear, corruption, money, silence, and violence.

For background and reference, this episode draws in part from Mississippi Mud: Southern Justice and the Dixie Mafia by Edward Humes, along with court records, reporting, and public case summaries.

To support the show and for additional episode material, photos, notes, and deeper dives, join The Hidden Pine Lodge, our Patreon community.