Murder Mayhem In Missouri

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.

"This book will deal with notorious incidents that occurred throughout the state of Missouri from before the Civil War through the gangster era of the 1920s and 1930s"--

Many are under the assumption that crime is on the rise, but a look back at the history of major crimes in Randolph County, Missouri shows that over the 130 year history of the county crime has dropped to an all time low in the 21st century. Murder and Mayhem in Randolph County, Missouri covers many of the major crimes committed before 1960 in the county. You will read about murderer Hade Brown whose tale was sensationalized in the Kansas City papers, the tragic death of Julie Duvall, the robbery of the Wabash Depot in Huntsville, the murder of Thomas Bagby, lynchings, cold cases, and much more,

If you like to have fun, this tabloid-like investigation of some of Santa Fe, New Mexico's most extraordinary events is for you. Here are "beyond belief" stories of the present and the days of yore that picture many compelling, serious and humorous events that have woven themselves into Santa Fe's colorful history. Many myths and facts are explored, and many bubbles are burst: Billy The Kid, Russian spies, hauntings, UFOs, the Santa Fe Trail, to name a few. This eccentric Santa Fe guide is full of sensationalism, revulsion, truths, lies and pleasant distractions. Written in a "Noir" fashion, the book mixes humor with hard-boiled memorable moments that could only happen in Santa Fe, The City Different. ALLAN PACHECO is a native Santa Fean who has a B.A. degree and has attended Law School. He has many patents (auto tool) and for years was primarily involved in international manufacturing and trade. Allan's love for Santa Fe knows no bounds. Perhaps it's in his DNA since his ancestors were Spanish Conquistadors who helped found the city.

The haunting true story of a triple murder in the Ozarks, two lovers on the lam, and a death-row inmate saved by the pope. On a spring day more than ten years ago, sixty-nine-year-old Lloyd Lawrence was gunned down in rural Missouri. The shooter also turned his twelve-gauge shotgun on Lawrence’s wife and their paraplegic grandson. The crime took place in a region known mostly for Pentecostal fervor, country music, and family-friendly tourism. But soon the murders would expose a dark underbelly in the Ozarks: Lloyd Lawrence was a notoriously violent crystal-meth kingpin, killed by an aspiring drug dealer named Darrell Mease.Capturing the raw circumstances that took Mease from his clean-cut youth to the front lines of Vietnam and an aftermath of drug use, Almost Midnight unites an unforgettable range of characters in some of America’s most peculiar locales. When Mease and his girlfriend fled to the Southwest on a hair-raising road trip, this only brought Mease closer to death row. After his conviction, he claimed to receive a religious revelation guaranteeing that his life would be saved by miraculous intervention, a long-shot prediction that came true. A bizarre twist of fate brought Pope John Paul II to Saint Louis, where he pleaded with Missouri Governor Mel Carnahan to commute the sentence just months before Carnahan’s fatal plane crash. In a triumph of investigative journalism, Michael Cuneo gained unprecedented access to Mease and immersed himself in the culture of the Ozarks, exploring its bucolic farms and seedy strip joints, and the lives of its preachers, cockfighters, and outlaws. By turns chilling and riveting, Almost Midnight brilliantly evokes the life of controversial renegade Mease, and the stranger-than-fiction world he still inhabits.

From railroad towns like Ladore to cow towns like Newton and Wichita, southeast Kansas pulsed with rowdy activity during the late nineteenth century. The unruly atmosphere drew outlaws, including the Dalton Gang, and even crazed serial killers the likes of the Bender clan. Violent incidents, from gunfights to lynchings, punctuated the region's Wild West era, and the allure of the frontier also attracted the everyday people whose passions sometimes spawned bloodshed as well. Award-winning author Larry E. Wood explores thirteen of these remarkable episodes in the criminal history of southeast Kansas.

True stories of Ma Barker, Belle Starr, Bonnie Parker, and other historical female desperadoes of the Midwest . . . Includes photos. Marauders like Jesse James and the Younger gang earned Missouri the title of “Outlaw State,” but the male desperadoes had nothing on their female counterparts . . . Belle “Queen of the Bandits” Starr and Cora Hubbard kept Missouri’s sensationalist newspapers and dime novelists in business with exploits ranging from horse thefts to bank heists. Missouri native Ma Barker and her murderous sons rose to infamy during the gangster era of the 1930s, while Bonnie Parker crisscrossed the state with Clyde Barrow. From savvy burlesque dancers to deadly gold diggers, historian Larry Wood chronicles the titillating stories of ten of the Show-Me State’s shadiest ladies.

The story of General Nathaniel Lyon, whom the author aptly calls a “Missouri Yankee,” is a drama of stirring political-military events breaking on the Western Border in the spring of 1861. In exactly 90 days, Missouri was forever lost to the Confederacy. The Lyon story is high tragedy staged at the sanguine second battle of the American Civil War—Wilson’s Creek. Colonel Hans Christian Adamson in Rebellion in Missouri combines all the necessary elements in the dramatic story. He expertly re-examines Lyon’s generalship of the Union Army of the West. He ably reflects upon the significance of the Battle of Wilson’s Creek now, a century later, in the light of all the evidence. Moreover, he brings to us, during the centennial year of Lyon’s death, a monumental biography of Lyon. The others are eulogistic and written in the stilted and artificial speech of the eighteen sixties.