Transcript
Chris Wimmer (0:02)
This episode is brought to you by Skinny Pop Popcorn Perfectly popped, Endlessly delicious. Oh so light and crunchy. Skinny Pop Original Popcorn is the snack you've been searching for. Made with just three simple popcorn kernels, sunflower oil and salt, Snacking never felt or tasted so good. Perfectly popped, Endlessly delicious. Give yourself permission to snack and pick up Skinny Pop Original Popcorn today.
Unknown Advertiser (0:33)
Wishing for a body wash made with natural ingredients? Dr. Squatch has got you covered. Manly scents that make you irresistible. A thick lather that leaves your skin moisturized all day. No matter what you're looking for in a body wash, rest assured, Dr. Squatch is your best bet. Pick up one today in store or@drsquatch.com it's Dr. Squatch body wash for men who prefer natural.
Unknown Narrator (1:15)
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.