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Want to shop Walmart? Black Friday deals first Walmart plus members get early access to our hottest deals. Join now and get 50% off a one year annual membership. Shop Black Friday deals first with Walmart plus see terms@walmartplus.com WARNING this episode contains a disturbing description of an execution that may not be suitable for all audiences. Listener discretion is advised. On March 11, 1887, 52 year old James Edens had just drifted off to sleep in his one room cabin near the town of Chadwick in Christian County, Missouri. It was about 10:00 at night and Edens was exhausted. His daughter Melvina and her husband, Charles Greene, had a new baby as well as a three year old child. The Greens were staying with James and his wife so they could help care for the baby while also nursing Malvina back to health from the measles. Their son William Edens was also there with his wife who were both asleep. William jolted awake when he heard yelling outside. He sprang out of bed and shouted to his father. James Edens jumped out of bed. He felt for his pistol in the pocket of his coat that he had left hanging over his bed, but it wasn't there. In a panic, he turned to his wife, who already had the weapon in hand, and gave it to him. Someone on the outside fired three shots into the window on the western side of the house. After that, the two doors on either side of the house crashed open. Eight or nine men surged into the house. They wore terrifying masks, a tactic that prompted at least one person to say they had faces like devils. And the masks confirmed what James Edens already suspected. The intruders were bald knobber vigilantes. Three of them seized James Edens and tried to take away his gun. Edens shook off two of his assailants and raised his pistol. He fired one round, which struck a bald knobber in the leg. At the same time, Eden saw the glint of an axe flying toward his head. He managed to turn his head just enough to avoid taking the full force of the axe and he suffered only a glancing blow. But then someone fired a shot that hit him in the neck and knocked him out. When 52 year old James Edens fell to the floor, that was the last he knew of the events in his cabin that night. He would awaken the next day to learn the tragic news of deaths and injuries. But it was those events that finally led to the downfall of the vigilante groups. The vigilantes could no longer pretend to be righteous defenders of the law and Christian morality. Public opinion turned against them, naming them murderers and outlaws. The leaders of the Bald Knobbers, Nathaniel Kinney in Taney County, David Walker in Christian county, and his brother Joseph Walker in Douglas county would all come under fire. Two of the three and several others would pay the ultimate price. And the situation in southern Missouri would get much worse before it got better. 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 three. Faces Like Devils the Bald Knobbers in Douglas and Christian counties shared some basic traits with the original organization. In Taney county, they used the same semi military style of organization with a captain on top and several companies or legions based in various parts of the county. They also used an oath for new members that very closely resembled the one Nathaniel Kenney had created in Taney County. In Douglas and Christian counties, members had to swear to a lot of rules, including participation in physical violence against their own families if necessary. They also had to agree to wear the terrifying devil masks the groups had adopted. Good estimates of the strength of the Christian County Bald Knobbers are hard to come by, but evidence suggests there were anywhere between 200 and 800 men involved. Like most large groups, there's usually a smaller group of hardcore members who do most of the damage in Christian County. That smaller group was the Legion that was led by Dave Walker, the founder of the vigilante chapter in the county. Walker was a farmer like just about everybody else in Christian County, Missouri. In 1883, he noticed big changes happening around him. That year, the Springfield and Southern Railroad Company completed a feeder line into Christian County. The railroad used the city of Chadwick as a shipping center from which to purchase and ship wooden rail ties it needed elsewhere. The county's immense forests helped the company meet its demand for timber. Within a few years, locals started making a lot of extra money cutting down oak or hickory for railroad ties. With so much money suddenly passing through Chadwick vice industries sprang up just like they did with the California gold rush. Saloons and gambling houses popped up all over town. Men could drink hard liquor and gamble in establishments which locals called blind tigers. The Bald Knobbers thought the money being lost at the establishments should be going to the men's families instead. And they called saloon keepers agents of the devil. Two of the saloon keepers were John Rhodes and Russell McCauley. They owned a bar in Chadwick. And on the evening of November 9, 1886, Dave Walker and his legion of around 40 bald knobbers burst into their saloon. Rhodes and McCauley exchanged a few shots with the vigilantes, but they were outnumbered. They managed to get away and eventually left town. But that night, the vigilantes poured into the saloon, broke all the furniture and mirrors and dumped out every bottle of beer and whiskey. Their actions were meant to scare other saloons into closing, but it didn't work. Two nights later, another party of about 100 men rode into Chadwick to destroy more establishments. But as the bald knobbers started to pry open a whiskey barrel in front of a saloon, several citizens began firing at them from adjacent buildings. A gun battle erupted in the middle of Chadwick and the two sides fired more than 100 shots at each other. Finally, the vigilantes galloped out of town ahead of a hail of bullets. And surprisingly, only one vigilante was seriously wounded. That was the largest citizens resistance to date in the two northern counties. To be sure, some residents of Christian and Douglas counties hated the vigilantes. They correctly assessed the vigilantes as nosy, vindictive and dangerous. But resistance was never as organized or as vocal as it was in Taney County. Those who spoke out against the Bald knobbers in the northern counties were putting themselves at high risk, with no guarantee of backup from friends or neighbors. But there was a vocal minority, and one of the most vocal was William Edens. About a year before the vigilantes attacked his father's cabin, he bravely spoke out against the hypocrisy and dangers of the group. Edens specifically condemned the actions of the leader in Christian County, Dave Walker and his son William Walker. And similar to Taney county the previous year, it all started with an incident at church in the spring of 1886, around the same time that Missouri Adjutant General James Jamison was trying to broker a peace agreement in Taney County. 22 year old William Edens lived with his brother in law, John Evans, near Chadwick in Christian County. One night, bald knobbers led by Dave Walker showed up at the home in search of Evans. Supposedly, Evans had disturbed a Sunday worship service by showing up at the church drunk. The vigilantes wanted to punish him for his lapse in moral judgment. The exact details are lost to history, but the story that survives is William Edens tried to protect his brother in law John Evans, and he stepped between Evans and the vigilantes who had started whipping him. As a result, Edens took four bad whippings himself before vigilante leader Dave Walker yelled at his men to stop the attack. Embarrassed and angered William Edens. Afterward, he hated the Bald Knobbers and spoke out against them whenever he could. On one occasion he boasted publicly that if the Knight Riders ever came back, they would have to return again in the morning to count their dead in the light of day. When the Bald Knobbers heard about the threat leaders, Dave Walker and his son William led a group of vigilantes to William Eden's home. They dragged him out of the house and stripped him. Then they tied him to an oak tree and beat him bloody with sticks and switches. When they finished, they laughed and mocked him. In the months following the assaults on William Edens and John Evans, there were assaults on homesteader Edwin Helms and his wife and six children. Then an attack on polygamist Green Walker, and then night riding raids and whippings of other homesteaders like Hugh Ratliff. On March 11, 1887, about a year after the attack on Edens and Evans, things came full circle for William Edens. Earlier that day, William had visited a town called Sparta in Christian County. He seemed undaunted by the violence and publicly antagonized and insulted the vigilantes. The insults quickly reached the ears of William Walker, son of Dave Walker and his father's chief lieutenant in the vigilante group. Walker vowed revenge on Edens for the slander. That night, seven adults and two children were crowded into the one room cabin that belonged to William Eden's parents. William and his wife were there, William's parents were there, and William's sister Melvina was there with her husband, her three year old child and their baby. At about the same time, everyone in the crowded house was settling down to bed. Dave Walker and a group of about 30 bald knobbers started a meeting no more than a couple miles away. It was a cold night and the men were outside standing around a huge bonfire. Before long, more than half the group decided they weren't interested in doing anything that night and they went home. The other half decided to follow Dave Walker to the house of an alleged moonshiner they planned to pour out his liquor and maybe whip him if he put up a fight. But as they walked along the railroad tracks toward the moonshiners house, they realized they were close to William Eden's house. They changed their destination and then discovered William wasn't home. By that time they were excited by the prospect of starting trouble and they decided to see if William was at his father's house. About a quarter mile away, eight to ten vigilantes burst into James Eden's cabin. They shot 52 year old James in the neck and he fell to the floor unconscious. The vigilantes ordered William Edens to put up his hands. He complied and the vigilante shot him twice. He fell down, badly wounded but alive. Another vigilante shot Melvina's husband Charles Green in the side of the head. Melvina had been in bed with her three year old and her two month old baby. But with her husband and brother shot, she jumped out of bed. One of the vigilantes raised his gun to shoot her, but she threw up a hand and deflected the muzzle of the weapon. When the gun discharged, the bullet tore off the tip of her little finger on her left hand. The blast from the weapon caught her dress on fire. But Melvina fought her assailant and managed to pull the mask partly off of his face. In the confusion of the ordeal, she wasn't sure who the man was, but later accounts said he was probably William Walker. After that final confrontation, the vigilantes fled the cabin. Melvina turned back to face the horrible reality that her husband and her brother were mortally wounded. Both men died a few minutes later. No one else in the house was harmed, thankfully. But Melvina's father James was still unconscious on the floor and bleeding from the gunshot wound to his neck.