Hide Article Text (OCR)
Dallas police today said that a Big Spring man killed in an apparent shootout in Lubbock Tuesday was suspected of taking a key role in a Southern states gang called the Dixie Mafia. He was George A. McGann, owner of the Holiday Motor Co. here. Lubbock sheriff's deputies found the bodies of McGann and J. M. Meshell, Lufkin, lying in the kitchen and den area of a southside Lubbock house shortly after 6 a.m. Tuesday. McGann’s widow, Beverly, today denied that her husband had any connections with the Dixie Mafia. ‘Dallas police have been playing that thing for six months. George never had any connections with any gang. I feel the whole thing is imagined,” she said. In Dallas, Capt. Paul Mc Caghren, assistant police chief, said McGann was known to have connections in several Southern states. “To don’t care what you call it — Dixie Mafia or something else — McGann had connections in Texas, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama and Georgia. POSSIBLE LEADER “Law enforcement officers from most Southern states held a conference in Atlanta last year. We determined that there was a large gang with con nections in the South. McGann topped our list of possible leaders in the gang,” Mc Caghren said. Law enforcement officials blame the Dixie Mafia for 19 deaths. Lubbock authorities are con tinuing their investigation into the deaths of McGann and Meshell. Sheriff C. H. Blan chard said a closed-door inquest will be held at 2 p.m. Friday before Justice of the Peace F. H. Bolen. The three persons who were reportedly witnesses to the shootings have been released, and no charges have been filed, the sheriff said. 1968 CONVICTION McGann was convicted in 1968 of conspiring to steal $65,000 worth of television sets and sentenced to 10 years in a federal prison by a Dallas federal judge. While he was free under an appeal bond, Dallas police arrested him at Love Field, where they say he met a West Texas man to trade stolen jewelry for cash. The officers seized the expensive jewelry and $17,000 in cash at that time. McGann’s bond was rein stated by a U. S. district judge on the condition that he remain in Big Spring and get a job while his appeal was pending.
Newspaper Details
Big Spring Daily Herald
Big Spring, Texas, US
Wed, Sep 30, 1970
Page 1
Full Page
Clipped by
Robert B.
USA 20 Jun 2026
Other Publications Near Big Spring, Texas
Big Spring Stanton Herald
Big Spring Sunday Herald
Big Spring Weekly Herald
Big Spring Daily Herald
Big Spring Herald
