part 3 - jiggs and the gang

8/9/2019 Part 3 - Jiggs and the Gang

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Part 3 – Jiggs and the Gang

It has now been eleven months from the time I took Jiggs and Rufus to the

Oakland Airport to board a plane to Mississippi to meet up with the other six members

of their gang. There were eight members in all. Six of them had been in Vicksburg for

over a month waiting for the weather to cooperate. With the arrival of Jiggs and Rufus,

they were ready to go forward as soon as the weather broke.

THE GANG: The leader's name was Dave. His typical dress was Adidas t-shirts,

levis and Adidas footwear. He had what looked like a huge Afro haircut, salt and

pepper gray, and he wore sunglasses at all times. He was white. His son, 19 years old,

was also a member, as was his girlfriend. There was also Milt, who was a friend of

Dave, and was a car salesman and friend of Jiggs. He was Jiggs' connection to

becoming a member of this gang. Then there was Wayne, a very nondescript guy, who

was brought on board to be the co-pilot for the flight from Columbia. The pilot, whose

name was Dixie, was a 350 pound, former World War II pilot, who had a full beard and

wore blue jumpsuits and a black beret. They were joined after a month by Rufus, a

black used car salesman from Oakland, CA. I have no idea who his connection was, but

since he flew down with Jiggs, I'm guessing he was a friend of Jiggs and Milt.

Then there was Jiggs. He's the only one I knew well. Jiggs was a hustler with a

line of bull that never ended. He had sold everything from used cars, to recreational

land outside of Chicago, to high rise condominiums, yes, and even cemetery plots. His

favorite phrase was “putting an 'up' (buyer) together like a two piece puzzle” and “in a



New York minute.” There was nothing he wouldn't say or do to make a sale. And that

propensity was carried with him to Mississippi. The sheriff told me they had all

determined that Jiggs was the money backer. I didn't bother telling him that in the

almost seven years I had been with him, there were many times when I didn't know

where my next $5.00 was coming from. The sheriff said the gang had been under

surveillance for the past month; they had given each gang member a nickname; and their

phones in the hotel they were staying in had been tapped. Well, it doesn't take a brain

surgeon to look at the makeup of the membership, and their style of dress, to know they

weren't locals.

THE PLAN: The plan was for the pilot and co-pilot to take off from Louisiana

and fly to Columbia, South America, where they would pick up a DC-3 load of

marijuana and fly it back to Vicksburg, Mississippi. There they would be met by the

rest of the gang and offload the marijuana to drive it back to California for distribution.

WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED: The weather finally broke. Dixie, pilot, and

Wayne, his co-pilot, took off from somewhere in Louisiana and flew to Columbia. The

entire plane load of marijuana, about three tons, was being given to them on

consignment. The DC-3 had been bought by Dave and Dixie for one dollar and other

valuable considerations.

After loading up, Dixie and Wayne took off from Columbia and headed for

Vicksburg. At about 3:00 a.m., they were on their final approach to the airport which

had shut down for the night. They flashed the landing lights on the plane and landed on



the runway with no lights. They taxied over to where the six other gang members were

waiting with two U-Haul rental trucks. The members on the ground began immediately

to offload the bales and load them into the first of the two trucks.

As they were about to finish loading the first truck, there was the percussive

sound, like when a rocket is sent up on the 4th of July carrying the fireworks to explode

in the sky. Within a few seconds, a parachute flare exploded and spread a bright light

over the entire scene. Suddenly, from out of the buildings and bushes there was a rush

of men carrying rifles and guns. They surrounded the “gang that couldn't shoot

straight”, a Jimmy Breslin story that came to mind when I first heard the tale from Jiggs

during my visit at the time of sentencing. All the gang members were hauled off to the

Vicksburg jail. The remainder of the bales of marijuana were loaded into the other U-

haul truck by the deputies, the Sheriff, the DEA agents, and whoever else were involved

in the bust.

Jiggs used his phone call to call me in Sausalito, California to inform me that he

had some bad news. I don't remember how long it was before they all pled, but I know

that when I flew down for their sentencings it was sometime in April, so my best guess

would be that they spent all of a month in jail before being sentenced.

At the time of sentencing, Jiggs had arranged for me to stay with a man named

Fred, whom he met his third night in jail. Fred was in jail on a drunk driving charge.

He picked me up at the airport. He seemed like a nice enough fellow, probably had

never done a night in jail before he was caught driving drunk. He drove me to his house



so I could leave my belongings, and settle into my room before going to the jail to see

Jiggs. It was from Fred that I learned what happened after the gang was arrested. He

even showed me a picture from the local newspaper. The picture was of the nose of the

DC-3. Standing on either side of it was the sheriff, and attorney who represented the

gang in court. The sheriff was selling the plane at auction, and the attorney was the top

bidder. The attorney paid for the plane with the fees he charged the gang members to

represent them. And Fred also showed me a film of the marijuana in a landfill where

the sheriff and his deputies soaked it with gasoline and set it on fire to show on the local

news station. Fred also said that as soon as the cameras were turned off, bulldozers

pushed dirt and covered the bales, snuffing out the fire. By the next night, the

marijuana was being sold on the streets of Vicksburg.

Fred told me that we would see Jiggs the next day at the courthouse at the time of

the sentencing which was scheduled at 10:00 a.m. The entire gang had one lawyer,

previously mentioned, but Jiggs opted to represent himself. What was going to happen

had pretty much been determined. The sentencing was a formality. Everyone was given

three years, with the exception of the girlfriend and son of the leader, who each got

eighteen months. They were all given the option to serve their time in the jail, which

everyone but Jiggs chose to do. Jiggs asked the sheriff where he should be to get out the

fastest. The sheriff said Parchman. So that's what Jiggs did.

After visiting Jiggs at the jail, Fred took me to the airport, and I flew back to

California. It would be eight months before I would go back to Mississippi to await



Jiggs' release.

On the day that Jiggs was to be released from Parchman Farm, I awoke early at

the hotel in Cleveland. I arrived at the prison before noon, the time he was to be

released. I had packed the limo with all my belongings, leaving room for whatever

Jiggs would be bringing with him, which wasn't much.

The limo was big enough, including the trunk, to carry a big trunk of clothes, a

television, a large box that contained books, games, shoes, jackets, coats and, most

importantly my pool cue; plus whatever else I had brought with me not knowing how

long I would be there. I packed the limo so that one side of the rear seat and the armrest

would be completely clear for taking turns sleeping while we drove straight through to

California.

I entered the prison, after the usual pat down, and waited for Jiggs to be brought to

the area where he would sign whatever documents he needed to sign for his release.

They brought him in, dressed in the clothes he had worn when he arrived at Parchman.

The sheriff was right. He said they gave Jiggs the nickname “Cowby” when he got off

the plane from California. That's what he looked like as he was released. He was

wearing a brown, felt 10 gallon hat, a denim jacket with snap buttons, and Tony Lima

cowboy boots he had bought in Wyoming when we were moving west several years

before. He had on dark glasses and was holding a cigar, which he lit as soon as we

walked out the gate and climbed in the limo. I drove. He didn't want to drive anywhere

in Mississippi.



But instead of heading immediately west, we had to go back to Vicksburg so he

could say goodbye to the gang members still at the jail. He also wanted to say goodbye

to the sheriff. I remember when he got out of the car at the jail and walked in the

building, the sheriff greeted him with a handshake and said, “The man with the plan.” I

could imagine what kind of tales he had told the sheriff before he left for Parchman for

the sheriff to make that reference.

OUT AND HEADING FOR CALIFORNIA

part 3 - jiggs and the gang

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