Bank robbers wreaked havoc in the Sunflower State. After robbing the Chautauqua State Bank in 1911, outlaw Elmer McCurdy was killed by lawmen but wasn't buried for sixty-six years. His afterlife can be described only as bizarre. Belle Starr's nephew Henry Starr claimed to have robbed twenty-one banks. The Dalton gang failed in their attempt to rob two banks simultaneously, but others accomplished this in Waterville in 1911. Nearly four thousand known vigilantes patrolled the Sunflower State during the 1920s and 1930s to combat the criminal menace. One group even had an airplane with a .50-caliber machine gun. Join author Rod Beemer for a wild ride into Kansas's tumultuous bank heist history.
Kansas native Rod Beemer is an independent writer, researcher and speaker who has authored and co-authored twelve nonfiction books, an e-book novel, numerous magazine and newspaper articles and anthologies. He is a member of the Kansas State Historical Society, West Texas Historical Association, Smoky Hill Trail Association, Westerners International, Fort Larned Old Guard and Custer Battlefield Historical & Museum Association. Rod lives in Minneapolis, Kansas, with his family.