For our July book club, we will be discussing Mary Hartman and Elmo Ingenthron’s “Bald Knobbers”.

“During the 1880s, the Ozark hills echoed with the sound of Winchester rifles. Ropes were hastily flung over tree limbs, and men were lynched without the benefit of a jury trial. Bundles of switches thrown on the porches of "loose" men and women by masked night riders served as a warning to "mend your ways."

In this action-filled saga of the notorious eight-year rampage, journalist Mary Hartman and historian Elmo Ingenthron (a direct descendant of a Bald Knobber) have produced the most comprehensive account ever written on the Bald Knobber era. They trace the vigilantism, dating from the border wars of the Civil War and the internal strife that plagued the southern Missouri-northern Arkansas area for 20 years afterward. Although the Bald Knobbers were active for only a short period, their reign of terror spawned a legacy of fear and hatred that only in recent years has begun to subside.
In this book, you will come face-to-face with the legendary leaders of this group. Mat Kinney, a giant of a man, helped found the Bald Knobbers and led them in building a grim reputation that spread like an Ozark brush fire. Seventeen-year-old Billy Walker, a hot-tempered youth, murdered two members of an innocent family. In a grisly scene, Walker, his father, and a third Bald Knobber swung from the gallows in the region's only triple hanging.

A scandalous tale indeed, Bald Knobbers is a must for history buffs, action-seekers, and enthusiasts of the American frontier era.”