Bald Knobbers

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For this remastered edition, I’ve dug deep into the vault and combined Episodes 7 and 77, both regarding post-Civil War vigilante action in the Ozark Mountains.

• The Giant Vigilante Captain Nat Kinney

Episode 7. Captain Nat Kinney was a large man, both in stature and reputation, and both seemed to grow to mythic proportions among the citizens of Taney County, Missouri, deep in the Ozark Mountains. Kinney was the king of the Bald Knobbers, a group of Christian citizens who organized to police themselves against the ruffians and hooligans who would interrupt their church services and raid their homesteads. The presence of the Bald Knobbers deeply divided the region between those who would let the law take its course and those who would take the law into its own hands. Music by Carter Bancroft and Alan Patterson.

• The Botched Execution of Chief Bull Creek Dave

Episode 77 is a sequel to the tale of The Giant Vigilante Captain Nat Kinney, about one of the Bald Knobber masked vigilante groups that sprang up in the Ozark region after the civil war. This story concerns the Bald Knobbers in the adjacent county to Nat Kinney, where once again, and another instance where vigilante justice backfires. It’s a good story and has a lot of action, including an exciting jailbreak. But my favorite part is the heart-breaking report of the artist who ventures into the hills to get sketches of the families of the condemned men just days before their scheduled execution.

Hear More Stories About Botched Executions

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