Murder & Mayhem in Southeast Kansas

Murder & Mayhem in Southeast Kansas
Author: Larry E. Wood
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
Total Pages: 123
Release: 2019-03-25
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1439666490

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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.

Murder & Mayhem

Murder & Mayhem
Author: Brian Allen
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release: 2020-11-03
Genre:
ISBN: 9781937088095

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Murder cases in the Bourbon County, Kansas area between 1868-1898

Murder & Mayhem on the Kansas Prairie

Murder & Mayhem on the Kansas Prairie
Author: Darren J. McMannis
Publisher:
Total Pages: 394
Release: 2019
Genre: Murder
ISBN: 9781099290817

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In this book you will find eyewitness accounts of the most shocking and deplorable murders committed in Kansas during the territorial years. Between 1854 and 1869, the hearty pioneers of Kansas - and some just traveling through - endured many exasperating hardships including the ever-present danger of murder by the Border Ruffians, Jayhawkers, and Quantrill's Raiders. Angry Indian tribes, soldiers from the Forts, claim jumpers, neighbors, and even bar-room buddies could kill you in the most brutal fashion at any time. Guns, knives, poisons, arrows, rope, and rocks were all convenient weapons, and did their job most effectively during those years of vigilante justice and limited medical assistance. This book contains hundreds of period newspaper stories reflecting the details as well as the editor's unique and very clear expression of shock and grief as each murderous affair was announced to Kansans - and to the nation - during some of the most turbulent years of Kansas history.

Deadly Encounters

Deadly Encounters
Author: Darren J. McMannis
Publisher:
Total Pages: 336
Release: 2019-08-27
Genre:
ISBN: 9781688268494

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Murder in the 20th Century became less about revenge and territory, as the cowboy days had passed and the residents of the Central Plains focused on building their farms and communities. Motivations to commit murder became more personal - domestic disputes and affairs, forsaken loves, and of course, money. This volume recounts over 90 murders in one Kansas county during this period of time, which includes plenty of mystery still waiting to be solved. Was there a reason that a cut up man stuffed under a building, with no knife to be found, was announced as a suicide? Who killed the young man walking home from his fiance's house - or was that suicide also? Whose skeleton was found burned on a strawstack in the middle of a country field? Harvey County was also connected to 2 notorious train robberies, a mechanic killed as he slept in his shop, a police officer who was said to be set up and shot by members of his own department, a piano teacher shot by an enraged father, a farm owner who was killed by his own nephew over a dispute over planting wheat or corn, another killed because of a fence, and still another for walking across a neighbor's field. This volume also recounts by eyewitness testimony the amazing stories of murder committed by the famous Aggie Myers, the first woman convicted of murder who was released because the Governor refused to be the first to hang a woman. In Harvey County, Kansas, a man killed his wife, a father killed his child, a nephew killed his uncle, a man killed his son-in-law, men killed their girl friends, a mistress killed a wife, and a policeman shot a drunken man in the back. Conflicts such as these may be common in some cities, but in a small rural county they shocked and stunned the peaceful residents who called it home."A shocking tragedy, the most terrible and revolting ever recorded in the annals of Newton, took place in the city and the citizens have not yet recovered from the horror and indignation which the crime aroused in their breast" wrote one reporter. Another writes, "All through this confession one is impressed with the thought that this man who says that he helped to commit one of the most fiendish murders in the history of Kansas and Missouri, was lamentably weak and compelled in the power of a woman." What caused hard-working Kansans to become so frenzied that murder appeared to them as a reasonable solution - and who were those who became the object of their wrath? Follow the progression in the development of a county seeking peace in the early 1900's by reading the stories of the most atrocious and fiendish crimes committed in her midst.

Deadly Encounters

Deadly Encounters
Author: Darren J McMannis
Publisher: Independently Published
Total Pages: 356
Release: 2019-08-23
Genre:
ISBN: 9781688062207

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Eyewitness newspaper accounts recall scenes that took place when Harvey County was little but unbroken prairie. It was accounted nothing strange in the halcyon days of the festive cowboy that a man should die without being put to the trouble of removing his boots before doing so. That useless point of etiquette was overlooked in numerous cases during the early years of Harvey County's existence.In the early days Harvey County passed through scenes of riot and of bloodshed such as no other frontier town was compelled to undergo. While it generally takes two to make a quarrel, in those days there was but one left to put on the finishing touches. These were put on by means of the unerring revolver in the hand of a cowboy. Before 1900 nearly every man in the area carried a revolver and knew well how to use it, often out of necessity more than desire. During this period when it was said "going to Newton is all the rage just now," you will read 100 fascinating tales of those who were not fortunate enough to leave town alive.

Suddenly Gone

Suddenly Gone
Author: Dan Mitrione
Publisher: Addicus Books
Total Pages: 292
Release: 2012-09-01
Genre: True Crime
ISBN: 1938803477

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First, legal secretary Teri Maness is found murdered in her Witchita town house in the summer of 1989. Two weeks later, Joan Butler disappears from her Overland Park apartment. Days later, roommates Christine Rusch and Theresa Brown of Lenexa are reported missing. Without a trace, they were suddenly gone. Panic and fear gripped Witchita and Kansas CIty as the realization slow sank in . . . a serial killer was on the loose. What finally linked the handsome, charismatic Richard Grissom to the murders? What was it about Grissoms's secret past that convinced investigators that he was capable of such heinous crimes? In Suddenly Gone, author Dan Mitrione, a former FBI agent, takes readers into one of the most exhaustive manhunts in Kansas history. With exacting precision, Mitrione shows the investigation unfolding, as uncovers information never before made public. Mitrione's story is ultimately one of tragedy, but it's also a story of love and commitment from family, friends, and investigators—all on a mission to find out why four young women were Suddenly Gone.

The Benders in Kansas

The Benders in Kansas
Author: John Towner James
Publisher:
Total Pages: 173
Release: 1913
Genre: Crime
ISBN:

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Winterkill

Winterkill
Author: Vernon Schmid
Publisher: Createspace Independent Pub
Total Pages: 148
Release: 2013-03-22
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 9781483922201

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Set in rural southeast Kansas in the 1950's this tale of murder, mayhem and love is the long awaited sequel to the popular novel SEVEN DAYS OF THE DOG.

Shadow on the Hill

Shadow on the Hill
Author: Diana Staresinic-Deane
Publisher:
Total Pages: 340
Release: 2013-03-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 9781593308155

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It was the most brutal murder in the history of Coffey County, Kansas. On May 30, 1925, Florence Knoblock, a farmer's wife and the mother of a young boy, was found slaughtered on her kitchen floor. Several innocent men were taken into custody before the victim's husband, John, was accused of the crime. He would endure two sensational trials before being acquitted. Eighty years later, local historian Diana Staresinic-Deane studied the investigation, which was doomed by destroyed evidence, inexperienced lawmen, disappearing witnesses, and a community more desperate for an arrest than justice. She would also discover a witness who may have seen the murderer that fateful morning.

Hell's Half-Acre

Hell's Half-Acre
Author: Susan Jonusas
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 369
Release: 2023-03-07
Genre: True Crime
ISBN: 1984879855

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One of NPR's "Books We Love" New York Times Book Review's "The Best True Crime of 2022" "Rich in historical perspective and graced by novelistic touches, grips the reader from first to last.”—Wall Street Journal A suspense filled tale of murder on the American frontier—shedding new light on a family of serial killers in Kansas, whose horrifying crimes gripped the attention of a nation still reeling from war. In 1873 the people of Labette County, Kansas made a grisly discovery. Buried by a trailside cabin beneath an orchard of young apple trees were the remains of countless bodies. Below the cabin itself was a cellar stained with blood. The Benders, the family of four who once resided on the property were nowhere to be found. The discovery sent the local community and national newspapers into a frenzy that continued for decades, sparking an epic manhunt for the Benders. The idea that a family of seemingly respectable homesteaders—one among the thousands relocating farther west in search of land and opportunity after the Civil War—were capable of operating "a human slaughter pen" appalled and fascinated the nation. But who the Benders really were, why they committed such a vicious killing spree and whether justice ever caught up to them is a mystery that remains unsolved to this day. Set against the backdrop of postbellum America, Hell’s Half-Acre explores the environment capable of allowing such horrors to take place. Drawing on extensive original archival material, Susan Jonusas introduces us to a fascinating cast of characters, many of whom have been previously missing from the story. Among them are the families of the victims, the hapless detectives who lost the trail, and the fugitives that helped the murderers escape. Hell’s Half-Acre is a journey into the turbulent heart of nineteenth century America, a place where modernity stalks across the landscape, violently displacing existing populations and building new ones. It is a world where folklore can quickly become fact and an entire family of criminals can slip through a community’s fingers, only to reappear in the most unexpected of places.