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- [00:02]
Chris Wimmer
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- [00:33]
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- [01:15]
Unknown Narrator
Shortly after midnight on December 19, 1885, a resident of Forsyth, Missouri was awakened by a bright light shining into his window. When he looked to see what was causing it, he could see flames coming out of the windows of the Taney County Courthouse. He ran outside and woke up his neighbors. Before long, a crowd was standing a safe distance from the fire and watching the building burn. One of the first men to arrive on the scene was County Clerk Thomas Layton. He made a desperate attempt to save something, anything from the fire. He smashed the window of a room that was on fire and managed to grab a book that happened to be lying near the window. The book was a record of all the land titles in Taney County. The only other man who was able to get anything out of the courthouse that night was County Treasurer Charles Groom. Groom rescued a good portion of Taney County's tax records, but neither man congratulated the other for his efforts. Everything else was destroyed as the entire courthouse burned to the ground. Immediately, conspiracy theories and accusations of arson started to fly. The large and power vigilante group known as the Bald Knobbers blamed the fire on their enemies like former Sheriff John Moseley, County Clerk Thomas Layton, and others. The vigilantes believed their opponents had been committing financial crimes and had taken the drastic step of burning down the courthouse to destroy the records of those crimes. Those who opposed the Bald Knobbers figured the vigilantes had burned down the courthouse to destroy all records of land titles. If there were no records of who owned the land, the vigilantes could more easily push people off their land. But the land titles had been saved by County Clerk Thomas Layton. It was five days before Christmas 1885 and everyone was on edge in Taney County. Over the past eight months, saloon owner James Everett had been killed by Al Layton, a cousin of County Clerk Thomas Layton. Al Layton was acquitted at trial, which did not sit well with many people in Taney County. Amos Ring had been killed by his stepson. The stepson's trial was moved out of the county and the son was eventually acquitted. The notorious Taylor brothers, Frank and Two Ball, had vandalized a store and shot the owner and his wife. Frank had done most of the damage, but Two Ball was there too. During that streak of violence, Nathaniel Kinney formed the Bald Knobbers. And the group's first official act of business was to hang Frank and Tubal Taylor. That could have been viewed as righteous, but the vigilantes quickly began to abuse their power. They went after anyone whom they perceived had slighted them or whose land they coveted. In short order, the vigilantes were as bad as the criminals. In response, a slow moving rebellion started. A few families refused to show allegiance to the Bald Knobbers and went so far as to call them out on their hypocrisy. The earliest of note were the Mercer brothers and the Cogburn family. Andrew Cogburn wrote songs that made fun of Nathaniel Kinney and the Bald Knobbers and the Cogburns reveled in singing them to show their disdain. The Cogburns and others also dared to make fun of Kinney at church sermons and Sunday school lessons. The Mercer brothers, Henry and Ephraim must have been vocal at church services also, because in September 1885, local authorities issued an arrest warrant for the brothers on the charge of disturbing public worship. When Deputy Sheriff Artur Kissy, a Bald Knobber, tried to arrest Henry Mercer, Henry tried to shoot the deputy. Deputy Kissey ended up killing Henry Mercer, which caused the growing anti bald knobber faction to place Henry's brother in a kind of protective custody. Next up, in the sights of the Bald Knobbers were William Taylor, brother of Frank and Two Ball and Andrew Cogburn. And as was becoming the norm for the vigilante group, there was plenty of collateral damage. From Black Barrel Media. This is Legends of the Old West. I'm your host Chris Wimmer and this season we're telling the story of Missouri's vigilante wars which were instigated by a terrifying group called the Bald Knobbers. This is episode two, Murder and Mayhem. Frances and Matilda Taylor were among the first people to flee taney county in 1885 after the bald Knobbers hanged their sons Frank and Tubal from an oak tree. The parents moved their surviving children to Marionville, about 50 miles northwest. In Lawrence county in Marionville. Their 25 year old son, William Taylor, enrolled in college and taught Sunday School. On February 24, 1886, William hired McKendree Dimmick to take him on a short trip to Taney County. McKendree, who was better known as Mac, was 19 and was intellectually disabled. Mac owned a horse, a buggy and a wagon, so William Taylor offered him a little cash to help him get some lumber and other items from his family's former homestead. Three days later, Taylor returned to Marionville with the horse, the buggy, the wagon and the lumber, but without McKendree. It's not clear who questioned Taylor at this early stage, but at least one neighbor, and presumably Demick's family, wondered where Mack was. Taylor either showed them or told them he had a bill of sale for the horse, the buggy and the wagon. He acknowledged that he wrote the text, but claimed that Mac had signed it. Allegedly, Mac sold everything to Taylor for $60 in cash and a promissory note for another 60. Taylor claimed he and Mac parted ways at a place called Camp Spring in Taney County. Taylor said Mac was headed to Springfield, Missouri, and then Mack planned to take a train Illinois to see his mother. Plenty of people were suspicious about Taylor's story, but no one investigated the matter until Mac's mother in Illinois grew anxious when she didn't see him or hear from him. She wrote to Deputy Sheriff Stafford in Marionville and asked him to find her son. Stafford set out for Taney County. He retraced the route Taylor and Dimmick had supposedly used. When he got to a town about 20 miles northwest of Forsyth, he learned that a body matching the description of Dimmick had been found three days before. Apparently, it was still lying in the spot where two boys had discovered it while hunting. Sure enough, Stafford found the body just inside the Taney county line. There was a bullet hole in the young man's head and the body had been dragged down a hill and thrown into a hollow. The lawmen brought the body back to Marionville, where someone identified the remains of the unfortunate victim as McKendry. Dimmick, Deputy Sheriff then filed murder charges against William Taylor. On March 30, 1886, authorities in Taney county issued an arrest warrant for William Taylor. Not surprisingly, William Taylor did not want to go back to Taney county, the home of the vigilante group that had hanged his two brothers. Taylor was suspected of murdering a disabled young man. He probably wouldn't last a day in the Taney county jail. Taylor appealed to the authorities in his own county of Lawrence to send him to Greene County Jail in Springfield. Greene county officials agreed with Taylor and granted his request. Taylor was arrested and and sent to jail in Greene county until the next term of the Circuit Court, which was slated for the next month. And while William Taylor sat in jail and hoped he was safe from the vigilantes, the Bald Knobbers were pursuing their second major grievance. A confrontation was brewing between the leader of the Bald Knobbers, Nathaniel Kinney, and his nemesis, Andrew Cogburn. The clash between the two was so intense it caused the State of Missouri to intervene. The previous summer in 1885, Andrew Cogburn and some of his family allegedly mocked Nathaniel Kenney during religious services. Kenney led regular Bible study lessons and was the president of the Sunday school for his local church. One day, parishioners arrived for the Bible study lesson and discovered a miniature coffin tacked to the door of the church. Inside the church, there was a sign with a skull and crossbones on it. Both displays were meant to disrespect or even threaten Nathaniel Kinney. No one expressly took credit for the actions, but the Cogburns didn't deny it either. Andrew Cogburn was well known for writing ballads that he and his friends loved to sing to annoy the vigilantes. The songs mocked the group for its pride, greed and abuses of power. In particular, the songs highlighted the hypocrisy of Nathaniel Kinney. One resident of Taney county later recalled that after that day in church, Kenny and the Cogburns were like tigers. They eyed each other warily and guarded against a sneak attack. But around the same time William Taylor allegedly murdered McKendree Dimmick. Nathaniel Kinney got the drop on Andrew Cogburn in the version of events that was told by the Bald Knobbers. Kinney's Sunday school met at the Oak Grove Schoolhouse near Kinney's hometown of Kirbyville. On February 28, 1886, Kenny took his young son Paul to the schoolhouse to conduct the lesson. Before Kenny arrived, one of his friends, most likely Deputy Sheriff Galba Branson, noticed Andrew Cogburn and his friend Samuel Snapp were also there. The deputy ran to warn the Bald Knobber chieftain to take precautions in case Cogburn and Snap meant him harm. Kinney holstered his revolver and headed toward the school. When Kenny and his son arrived, they tied their horses about 100ft from the schoolhouse door. They cautiously approached on foot, and Paul later told a friend that his father stayed out in front to protect him. There were several people in the schoolhouse who were waiting for the meeting to start. But as Kenny and his son approached the building, Kenny saw the shapes of two men loitering outside the door. According to Paul, it seemed at the time like a deliberate attempt to ambush his father. Nathaniel stopped, drew his revolver, and called out to the two dark shapes to raise their hands and step into the light. According to the story, Andrew Cogburn walked forward. He raised his left hand, but with his right he attempted to draw his revolver. Kinney drew and fired and shot Cogburn once in the chest. Cogburn pitched backward onto the ground. As Cogburn lay dying, Kenny leveled his gun at Sam Snap. He asked Snap what he planned to do. Snap replied that he had no weapon and would do nothing. Kinney told him to go into the schoolhouse and wait for the authorities to arrive. A deputy sheriff took Kenny into custody. An inquest was held the following morning that declared the killing a justifiable homicide and cleared Kinney of all charges. Notably, Kinney and several of his supporters showed up at the hearing heavily armed. Presumably they expected retaliation from the Cogburn family. Kinney carried a revolver and a double barrel shotgun. Even though he was still officially under arrest. The coroner's jury examined only one witness, presumably someone who was inside the schoolhouse at the time of the shooting and therefore didn't see it. Paul Kinney and Sam Snap were the only two people who saw the shooting and neither were asked to testify. Not surprisingly, when Sam Snapp talked about the killing, even though he didn't testify at the formal hearing, he told a very different story.
- [14:41]
Chris Wimmer
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- [16:41]
Unknown Narrator
According to Sam Snapp, he and Andrew Cogburn went to the schoolhouse to simply attend the Sunday school lesson. Given the Cogburn family history with Kenny, it seems reasonable to assume that the two young men might not have meant any physical harm, but they were certainly there to tease or otherwise harass Kinney. In Sam Snapp's version, Andrew Cogburn did not have a weapon, so he never tried to draw one. When Kenny shot Cogburn, the younger man had both hands raised and it was obvious there was no weapon in them. After the shooting, Kenny ordered Snap into the schoolhouse where other worshipers had been waiting during the confrontation. Bald Knobbers kept the doors to the building closed and didn't let anyone in or out for 90 minutes. When they finally allowed the worshipers to leave, Snap noticed a member of the vigilante group by Cogburn's body. Snap said the man was going through the pockets of Andrew Cogburn, probably to steal money or plant a weapon or both. Lastly, Snap said that no one asked him to testify before the coroner's jury, insinuating that Kinney's faction did not want the truth of the matter to be known. What really happened in those minutes is lost to perspective and history. Tensions in Taney county were so high at the time that everyone had a hair trigger. Cogburn and Snap had a history of being obnoxious and were probably there to harass Kenny but not hurt him. For his part, Kenny was a killer, but he also considered himself the leader of law and order in Taney County. He did not believe he was the kind of person who would murder an innocent young man in cold blood. He may have thought he or his son were in danger. On the whole, the context and the motive became irrelevant. The only thing that mattered was the leader of the vigilantes had shot and killed a young man who was a vocal opponent of the vigilantes. The killing served to harden the positions of both the Bald Knobbers and a growing faction of opposition. On March 1, 1886, the day after Andrew Cogburn's death, a group of around 40 people who opposed the Bald Knobbers met in the town of Forsyth. They drafted and signed a petition to the Governor of Missouri that asked him to intervene on their behalf and help stop the vigilantes illegal crusade for justice. Toward that effort, the petitioners wanted official permission to establish their own anti bald Knobber militia in Taney County. They also wanted weapons to protect themselves against the Bald Knobbers. The participants at the meeting appointed three men to carry their petition to the governor in Jefferson City. In the meantime, they started arming themselves with whatever weapons they could acquire and drawing up bylaws for their new militia. Of course, the following day, Kinney and several of his followers appeared in Forsythe and made public threats against those who planned to fight them. Kinney and other Bald Knobbers rode around town and told anyone they encountered that they knew exactly which men had been at that meeting and they vowed revenge. Faced with the intimidation, two anti bald Knobbers backed out of the trip to Jefferson city. One man, J.J. reynolds, decided he would risk it. On March 1 or March 2, 1886, Reynolds set out on the 180 mile trip to the state capitol. He hand delivered the petition to the governor on March 5. Despite Reynolds plea for help, Governor John Marmaduke only gave him vague assurances that he would intervene. Marmaduke was in a tough spot. His political supporters tended to lean toward the anti bald Knobber side, the side of Mr. Reynolds. But if the governor intervened on their behalf, he risked a new wave of bloodshed by the vigilantes. On top of that, many of the Bald Knobbers held elected positions which gave the group a kind of semi legitimate status even if their actions weren't legal. So the Governor did what all smart politicians do. He sent someone else to handle it. On April 8, 1886, Adjutant General James Jameson arrived in Forsyth. The next day, Jamieson held a summit with Kenny and several leaders of both factions. Around 500 people attended. Jamison gave them an they could stop fighting or he could send a militia down to do it for them. And he would charge Taney county for the expense. He would also bring investigators and make sure everybody who deserved it would face trial for murder and mayhem. Kenney didn't want to disband, but more moderate members of his group prevailed, and Kenny agreed he would abide by the peace agreement. The anti Bald Knobber leaders decided they would, too, and for a few weeks, the accord held up. But as Kinney soon found out, some of his followers had gotten a taste of power, anger, and vengeance, and they wanted more. At first, Jameson's visit seemed to have resolved the problem. A moderate faction of the Bald Knobbers agreed to dismantle the organization. Leaders of the Anti Bald Knobbers, including former sheriff John Moseley, county clerk Thomas Layton, and J.J. reynolds, agreed to the truce. For the most part, Anti Bald Knobbers believed peace would return so long as the vigilantes kept their promise to disband their organization. On April 10, it seemed like Jamison had secured a peace agreement. But in Jameson's private correspondence with the governor, he was skeptical of how effective he had been. Based on interviews with people for and against the group, he wasn't sure that Nathaniel Kenney would willingly tell his group to dissolve. And even if Kinney did, townspeople were concerned that he had lost control over his most ardent followers. After Jameson left on April 13, some bald knobbers continued to harass and intimidate Taney county residents. They continued to ride up to homes at night with torches, threatening owners for whatever reason and hurling insults and warnings to those they perceived as their enemies. On the evening of May 1, 1886, someone shot a horse that belonged to county clerk Thomas Layton and set fire to a fence on his property. About half of it burned down before the neighbors put it out. The following week, people who were thought to be Bald Knobbers burned down the home of a physician. The vigilantes continued their policy of forced evictions. According to Anti Bald knobber JJ Reynolds, they forced two men off their homesteads and expelled a widow with her small children. On May 9, the bloodshed resumed. Sam Snapp, whose friend Andrew Cogburn had been killed by Nathaniel Kinney, had been friends with a man named Washington Middleton. Middleton tried to join the local chapter of a popular agricultural society. Snap, who already belonged to the group, blocked Middleton's membership because of the role Middleton had taken in the Bald Knobbers. That role was primarily as Nathaniel Kenney's bodyguard. Middleton never forgave SNAP for the slightest. On May 9, witnesses saw and heard Middleton and Snap arguing. Snap had been drinking, and he made the fateful error of singing one of Andrew Cogburn's Anti vigilante songs to Middleton. Middleton returned the insults, calling Snap, among other things, a damn Bushwhacker. In that day and time, the insult was a bad one. At 30 years old, snap was far too young to have fought in the Civil War alongside men like William Quantrill and Bloody Bill Anderson, who became known as Missouri Bushwhackers. But Middleton's comment still stung. Later that day, for some reason, the two men met up in front of the general store in Kirbyville. Middleton pulled his gun and began firing. Snap tried to retreat, but Middleton scored three hits. Sam Snap fell down dead in the street. Street. The killing set off a firestorm of complaints to the governor's office. All of them referenced the murder as proof that the vigilantes had broken their promise to keep the peace. The complaints pointed out that Sam Snapp was already a widower and his death made orphans of his five small children. And the complaints reminded the governor that Snap had been an eyewitness to Kinney's shooting of Andrew Cogburn. It was possible that the bald knobbers had organized Snapp's murder to silence him, though to be fair, the case against Kinney had finished two months earlier and Kinney had been cleared of all wrongdoing. There was little reason to silence a witness who had never testified and couldn't do anything to hurt Kenny now. In reality, Snapp's killing was the result of bad blood between a pro vigilante and an anti vigilante, and some extra bad history thrown in the mix. Five months later, in October, an issue that simmered in the background flared up. William Taylor finally went to trial for the murder of McKendree Dimmick.
- [26:45]
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Chris Wimmer
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- [27:37]
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So you want to be a marketer? It's easy. You just have to score a ton of leads and figure out a way to turn them all into customers, plus manage a dozen channels, write a million blogs, and launch a hundred campaigns all at once. When that's done, simply make your socials go viral and bring in record profits. No sweat. Okay, fine, it's a lot of Sweat. But with HubSpot's AI powered marketing tools, launching benchmark breaking campaigns is easier than ever. Get started@HubSpot.com marketers William Taylor's trial was supposed to have happened back in April. Around the same time Adjutant General James Jamison traveled to Taney county to broker a peace deal. But Taylor secured a series of continuances and the trial finally happened in October. Understandably, a lot of anti bald knobbers feared the vigilantes would lynch Taylor like they had lynched his two brothers the previous year. But the bald knobbers pledged to allow Taylor to have a fair and impartial trial. The county prosecutor assured Adjutant General Jamison that he would keep Taylor safe. In addition, the prosecutor believed the vigilantes had no reason to lynch Taylor because the case against Taylor was strong and he would definitely be convicted. The case was so strong, in fact, that one of the vigilantes, an attorney, agreed to represent Taylor in court. The lawyer thought the trial was just a formality and it would end with a quick and obvious conviction. And then the jury found Taylor not guilty. Probably more surprising than the verdict was that the vigilantes did not attack Taylor. They left him alone and he wisely moved out of southern Missouri. Almost exactly a year later, in October 1887, in another surprise twist, a jury found George Middleton guilty of murdering Sam Snapp. Middleton may have been the most shocked because it was bald knobbers in the county government who likely helped get Nathaniel Kinney acquitted. Middleton expected the same courtesy, but he didn't get it. He was sentenced to 40 years in the state prison in Springfield, but he never served a day of it. A few days after his sentencing, Middleton escaped from the county jail in Forsyth and fled to Arkansas. Some bald knobbers hinted that they had helped him escape, but there was no proof to back up the claim. Middleton went on the run for eight months. At some point a posse caught up with him, but Middleton killed the leader of the posse and escaped again. Finally, a detective found him at a Fourth of July picnic in Newton County. When Middleton resisted arrest, the detective shot and killed him. Middleton's death was welcome news for Sam Snapp's family, and for the most part, it was welcome news for Taney County. Snap's murder signaled a pause in the vigilante related violence for the Time being, and Middleton's death seemed to balance the scales and calm the waters of discontent. But that wasn't the only reason. The bloodshed paused in November 1886, shortly after Middleton went on the run. Local elections resulted in three Bald Knobbers attaining the important positions of sheriff, county clerk and coroner. So the Bald Knobbers effectively controlled the county through their legitimate power in local government. And their desire for vigilante tactics lost some of its appeal. Ironically, the only vigilante candidate who did not win his race was Nathaniel Kinney, who lost a second bid for state representative. The anti Bald Knobbers were still angry and anxious about their enemy's grip on power. But they had no means to avenge the wrongs they had suffered. With the court cases settled, for better or worse and the election in the books, an uneasy peace settled over Taney County. But in nearby Douglas county, the bloodshed was just getting started. And it was the vigilantes of Douglas county who would create the most frightening and lasting image of the Bald Knobbers. Soon after Nathaniel Kinney and his cohorts founded the Bald Knobbers in Taney county in April 1885, new chapters of the group began sprouting up in other parts of southwest Missouri. During the summer of 1885, a farmer named Joseph Walker invited Kenney to help him establish a new chapter of the organization in Douglas county, north of Taney County. Then Joseph's brother David started a new chapter in Christian county, right next to Douglas County. The three counties shared borders and formed a triangle of vigilante power. The Bald Knobbers in Christian and Douglas didn't meet on treeless hills because that topography didn't exist. And unlike the founders in Taney county, the members in Christian and Douglas counties hid their faces behind terrifying masks. To make the masks, members typically used black calico that covered the whole head and face with holes cut out for eyes and a mouth. They stitched the edges of the holes with red thread, which created a buttonhole appearance. On the top. They added cloth cones that resembled horns. Lastly, they drew circles of white paint around the face holes to give the mask a ghostly aspect. The masks made the men who wore them look like hideous, devilish creatures, which was their goal on horseback, especially at night with glowing torches. The effect was ghastly. The members of the original organization in Taney county had no reason to wear masks. Their members essentially controlled the county government. But in the two northern counties, it was a different story. Evidence indicates that only a few held any office at all, and the vigilantes in Christian and Douglas Counties had slightly different beliefs. Very generally speaking, they didn't want economic progress or new homesteaders in their counties. They wanted to keep the population down and keep farming as the main way of life. And they spent more time harassing people for religious or moral reasons than for law and order reasons. In the summer of 1886, the Bald Knobbers in the northern counties started a campaign of night riding and intimidation. First it started with whippings. Among the first victims was Edwin Helms. On the evening of July 30, David Walker and a dozen bald knobbers rode up to the homestead of Helms in the eastern part of Christian county. Helms was 34 years old with a wife and six children and had settled there the previous year. The vigilantes broke into Helms home, dragged him outside and put a rope around his neck. They whipped him until he bled profusely and warned him to leave the county. They also whipped Green Walker, who was no relation to Joseph and David Walker. Greene was a polygamist. In August 1886, David Walker and about 19 others seized Greene from his house. They beat the hell out of him with hickory switches and told him to stop living with multiple women. Greene didn't, and in October, a party of Knight riders came back and again beat him to within an inch of his life. That time he took the hint and moved away. In November of 1886, a bald knobber captain led a band of armed and masked men to the residence of Christian county homesteader Perry Hirsch. They called him out of his house and ordered him to leave within 30 days or they would hang him. Wisely. Hersh moved in neighboring Douglas County. The vigilante group formed by Joseph Walker was doing the same thing. In November 1886, a bald knobber named John Denny led a party of knight riders to the home of Hugh Ratliff, a simple homesteader. The men broke down the door and burst into the house where Ratliff slept with his wife and their baby. Their 15 year old daughter slept nearby. Ratliff struggled with the attackers as several bald knobbers tried to pull a noose around his neck and four others tried to pull him out of his bed. While Ratliff fought back, his wife tried to help her husband while cradling her baby in one arm. In the chaos, the wife's arm got crushed between the bed and the knees of a bald knobber. Finally, the vigilantes wrestled Ratliff out of the house at gunpoint. They took him to the stump of an old tree where they held him down and whipped him Ratliff begged them to stop while also asking what he could have possibly done to deserve the treatment. It turned out Ratliff had loaned money to another homesteader to help him set up in the area, and the Bald Knobbers were angry at Moore county land going to an outsider. They told Ratliff to mind his own business and never speak of the whipping or they'd come back with a lot more than a warning. At the end of 1886, federal authorities charged 10 vigilantes with intimidating Ratliff and the other homesteader and forcing them out of the county. And it would be logical to think that the introduction of federal lawmen to Christian and Douglas counties would end the savagery. Instead, the savagery intensified until it included murder. Next time on Legends of the Old West, Vigilante leader David Walker organizes the murders of two adversaries and almost kills their wives and children in the process. The vigilante violence in Southern Missouri hits its peak and then leads to the downfall of the Bald Knobbers once and for all. That's next week on the final episode of the vigilante series here on Legends of the Old West. Members of our Black Barrel plus program don't have to wait week to week to receive new episodes. They receive the entire season to binge all at once with no commercials, and they also receive exclusive bonus episodes. Sign up now through the link in the Show Notes or on our website blackberrymedia.com the series was researched and written by Julia Bricklin. Original music by Rob V. I'm your host and producer Chris Wimmer. If you enjoyed the show, please leave us a rating and a review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you're listening. Check out our website blackberrymedia.com for more details and join us on social media. We're Old West Podcast on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter and all of our episodes are on YouTube. Just search for Legends of the Old West Podcast. Thanks for listening. It is Ryan Seacrest here. Everybody needs some variety in life. That's what I love about Chumba Casino. They know how to keep things fresh and exciting. All their games are free to play, like spin slots, bingo and solitaire. You can claim free daily login bonuses too. And they release new games every week. So spice things up with chumbacassino.com now for your chance to redeem some serious prizes. Sponsored by Chumba Casino. No purchase necessary VGW Group Void where prohibited by law, 18 + terms and conditions apply.