Murder & Mayhem in Missouri

by Larry Wood

Overview

Desperadoes like Frank and Jesse James earned Missouri the nickname of the "Outlaw State" after the Civil War, and that reputation followed the region into the Prohibition era through the feverish criminal activity of Bonnie and Clyde, the Barkers and Charles "Pretty Boy" Floyd. Duck into the Slicker War of the 1840s, a vigilante movement that devolved into a lingering feud in which the two sides sometimes meted out whippings, called slickings, on each other. Or witness the Kansas City Massacre of 1933, a shootout between law enforcement officers and criminal gang members who were trying to free Frank Nash, a notorious gang leader being escorted to federal prison. Follow Larry Wood through the most shameful and savage portion of the Show-Me State's history.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781625842190
Publisher:	Arcadia Publishing SC
Publication date:	05/10/2022
Series:	Murder & Mayhem
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	131
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Larry Wood is a retired public school teacher and freelance writer specializing in the history of the Ozarks region. His magazine articles have appeared in publications like America's Civil War, Blue and Gray, Gateway Heritage, History Magazine, Kansas Heritage, Missouri Historical Review, Missouri Life, Ozarks Mountaineer, Ozarks Reader, Show Me the Ozarks, True West, and Wild West. His previous books include The Civil War on the Lower Kansas-Missouri Border, The Civil War Story of Bloody Bill Anderson, Other Noted Guerrillas of the Civil War in Missouri, Ozarks Gunfights and Other Notorious Incidents, and two historical novels entitled Call Me Charlie: A Novel of a Quantrill Raider and Showdown at Baxter Springs. Wood and his wife, G.G., live in Joplin, Missouri.

Table of Contents

Preface 7

Acknowledgements 9

1 The Turk-Jones Feud: The Slicker War of Benton and Polk Counties 11

2 Burned at the Stake: The Lynching of Three Missouri Slaves in July 1853 23

3 Stranger Than Fiction: The Romantic Escapades of Desperado Billy Martin 33

4 The Greatest Sensation in Missouri History: The Assassination of Jesse James 41

5 The Most Noted Murder Case in McDonald County History: The Mann-Chenoweth Affair 51

6 The Murder of the Meeks Family: The Most Horrible and Brutal Crime in the Annals of Linn or Sullivan County 61

7 Two St. Louis Legends: Stagger Lee Shot Billy and Frankie and Johnny Were Sweethearts 73

8 You've Killed Papa and Now You're Killing Mama: The Most Brutal Murder Ever in Cape Girardeau County 81

9 Down for the Count: The Murder of Middleweight Champ Stanley Ketchel 89

10 A Dirty Mixup All Together: The Notorious Welton Murder Case 99

11 The Kansas City Massacre: An Arena of Horror 107

Bibliography 117

Index 123

About the Author 127