Men of No Reputation
eBook - ePub

Men of No Reputation

Robert Boatright, the Buckfoot Gang, and the Fleecing of Middle America

  1. 304 pages
  2. English
  3. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

Men of No Reputation

Robert Boatright, the Buckfoot Gang, and the Fleecing of Middle America

About this book

Winner, 2025 Missouri Conference on History Book Award


Swindler. Murderer. Scoundrel.

Robert Boatright was one of Middle America's greatest confidence men. Although little remembered today, his story provides a rare glimpse into America's criminal past. Working in concert with a local bank and an influential Democratic boss, "this dean of modern confidence men" and his colorful confederacy of con men known as the Buckfoot Gang seemed untouchable. A series of missteps, however, led to a string of court cases across the country that brought Boatright's own criminal enterprise to an end. And yet, the con continued: Boatright's successor, John C. Mabray, and his cronies, many of whom had been in the Buckfoot Gang, preyed upon victims across North America in one of the largest midwestern criminal syndicates in history before they were brought to heel.

Like the works of Sinclair Lewis, Boatright's story exposes a rift in the wholesome midwestern stereotype and furthers our understanding of nineteenth- and twentieth-century American society.

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Yes, you can access Men of No Reputation by Kimberly Harper in PDF and/or ePUB format. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Table of contents

  1. Cover Page
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright Page
  4. Dedication
  5. Contents
  6. Acknowledgments
  7. Introduction
  8. 1. “Blood for Blood”
  9. 2. “No Place for ‘Sissies’”
  10. 3. “Men of No Reputation”
  11. 4. “And a Funeral Will Be the End of These Races”
  12. 5. “He Had to Have Enough Grand Larceny in Him to Make a Good First Class Horse Thief”
  13. 6. “The Stars of the Profession”
  14. 7. “The Center of Gravity”
  15. 8. “He Was Not Dead at All, Went the Stories, but Had Long Since Taken to Far Away Climes”
  16. 9. “He Used Everybody For All He Could, and That Was the End of It”
  17. 10. The Man with The Red Automobile
  18. 11. “The Whole Story Will Never Be Told”
  19. 12. Red Leo
  20. 13. “The Big Store Is Closed”
  21. 14. Who Could Ever Really Go Straight?
  22. Notes
  23. Index
  24. A Note on the Author