The story of Phenix City, Alabama is not widely remembered but in the '40s and '50s it was well known to the US Army which dubbed it "the wickedest city in America" because the crime syndicate that literally took over the town primarily victimized servicemen at Fort Benning, Georgia. The annual take from the soldier chumpsran up to a billion in today's dollars. For a town that was a bedroom for poor textile workers and without a significant tax base the rackets were not just loose change. The town was so corrupt for so long that the National Guard was required to restore order after the newly elected state Attorney General Albert Patterson, who had vowed to clean up Phenix, was assassinated. Martial law was declared in in the town by the Alabama governor; the first declaration of martial law in the South since Reconstruction. Troops deposed civilian law enforcement and began seizing private property associated with illegal vice rackets. US Person suggests watching this amateur video that describes an entire town consumed by depravity (3 parts, with unattributed still photos and clips from the 1955 movie Phenix City Story, also 12 Angry Men and Sin City):
Part Two
Part Three