Crime in the Kingdom of Callaway: 1835 - 1899

Callaway, Missouri was the wild frontier. Gun fights and knife fights were common, justice was usually swift, and when it wasn't, citizen's justice sometimes led to a lynching. Trials and court cases were free entertainment, attracting large attentive crowds. Newspapers published blow by blow descriptions for the benefit of those who couldn't make it to the courthouse. Those newspaper articles about crime in the Kingdom of Callaway are arranged chronologically, annotated by the editor, and lavishly illustrated by vintage photographs and maps.Stories include: A gunfight in Portland, MO, where a Clanton walked away and left three men dead in the dust. The Kesslers, of Readsville, made a good criminal living, until old man Kessler was caught and lynched, while two lawmen lost their lives trying to save him. In Cedar City two men chased another down the street and shot him with half the town looking on. A girl in Barkersville walked up behind a man while he was eating his dinner and calmly blew his brains out. A man walked into a Fulton church during choir practice and shot his wife. And, of course, the well-known story of Celia, a slave.One of the local newspapers wrote "murder is the safest crime a man can commit." Those that faced trial were often acquitted, if convicted, prison sentences were light, and often commuted.The Civil War years are covered, especially as the war affected ordinary people: the war on the home front. The full story of the Brown Farm Massacre, where seven unarmed young boys were gunned down, is included. Also, the story of how Mrs. Maddox held off a squad of Union soldiers with an axe. Three men were repairing a school house roof when Union soldiers arrived to accuse them of providing medical care to a wounded guerilla. Before the day was over, William and David Givens and Charles Hill were dead. The school roof left unrepaired.Some of the stories have a touch of humor. For instance, a Millersburg storekeeper put out a bear trap to catch a burglar. In another, Guthrie citizens brought out every gun in town to catch thieves in the drugstore, and found only a boy small enough to hide in a hat box. Read more