Missouri

Taking its cue from St. Louis architecture, the Show Me State operates as a gateway to discovery. The wonders of the 1904 World’s Fair, the scenic passage of Route 66 and the quest for that perfect meal in Columbia all testify to that exploratory drive. But like the restless rivers that gave Mark Twain his alias and inspiration, Missouri’s history proves no frontier provides uncontested passage. In the vicinity of Civil War guerillas or Prohibition Era bootleggers, an unlocked door could invite calamity. Crack open our catalogue of Missouri history books for a portal into the state’s adventurous heritage. [View all Missouri books]
6 products
Wicked Women of Missouri
Wicked Women of Missouri
$23.99
Missouri's Wicked Route 66:
Missouri's Wicked Route 66:
$21.99
Wicked Branson
Wicked Branson
$21.99
Wicked St. Louis
Wicked St. Louis
$21.99
Wicked Springfield, Missouri:
Wicked Springfield, Missouri:
$21.99
Wicked Joplin
Wicked Joplin
$21.99

Wicked Women of Missouri

9781467119665

$23.99 Save Liquid error (snippets/product-template line 248): Computation results in '-Infinity'%
Marauders like Jesse James and the Younger gang earned Missouri the title of "Outlaw State," but the male desperadoes had nothing on their female counterparts. Belle "Queen of the Bandits" Starr and Cora Hubbard kept Missouri's sensationalist newspapers and dime novelists in business with exploits ranging from horse thefts to bank heists. Missouri native Ma Barker and her murderous sons rose to infamy during the gangster era of the 1930s while Bonnie Parker crisscrossed the state with Clyde Barrow. From savvy burlesque dancers to deadly gold diggers, historian Larry Wood chronicles the titillating stories of ten of the Show-Me State's shadiest ladies.
Wicked Women of Missouri

Missouri's Wicked Route 66:

9781609497668

$21.99 Save Liquid error (snippets/product-template line 248): Computation results in '-Infinity'%
Tracing Route 66 through Missouri represents one of America's favorite exercises in nostalgia, but a discerning glance among the roadside weeds reveals the kind of sordid history that doesn't appear on postcards. Along with vintage cars and picnic baskets, Route 66 was a conduit humming with contraband and crackling with the gunplay of folks like Bonnie and Clyde, Jesse James and the Young brothers. It was also the preferred byway of lynch mobs, murderous hitchhikers and mad scientists. Stop in at places like the Devil's Elbow and the Steffleback Bordello on this trip through the more treacherous twists of the Mother Road.
Missouri's Wicked Route 66:

Wicked Branson

9781467137119

$21.99 Save Liquid error (snippets/product-template line 248): Computation results in '-Infinity'%
Branson's wholesome brand of entertainment made it the nation's destination for family fun, but the vacation wonderland can't claim a spotless past. Murder and mischief dogged the town's efforts at respectability from the very beginning. The founder's own brother, Galba Branson, was a prominent member of the notorious vigilante gang the Bald Knobbers. He died in a picnic shootout that originated in a church prank. Branson's transformation into a showbiz mecca brought quarrel and scandal in its wake, from provoked orangutans to wire-tapped dressing rooms. Three comedians and authors--Ed and Karen Underwood and John Pinney--offer this backstage pass to the seamier side of Branson's history.
Wicked Branson

Wicked St. Louis

9781609492984

$21.99 Save Liquid error (snippets/product-template line 248): Computation results in '-Infinity'%
Watch a duel on Bloody Island from the stern of a river pirate's ship and be glad that Abraham Lincoln did not have to keep his appointment. Venture into a brothel where a madam's grin was filled with diamonds or where Ta Ra Ra Boom de Ay" was hummed for the first time. Witness children forced into labor and aristocrats driven to suicide. Keep company with the gangsters who were a little too "cuckoo" for Al Capone. Visit Wicked St. Louis."
Wicked St. Louis

Wicked Springfield, Missouri:

9781609497354

$21.99 Save Liquid error (snippets/product-template line 248): Computation results in '-Infinity'%
From its founding in the early 1830s, Springfield was a rough frontier town where whiskey flowed freely, gunplay and fistfights abounded and gambling thrived. The Civil War not only brought the horror of warfare home to Springfield but also introduced worldly vices like prostitution that were scarcely known in previous years. Yet throughout its history, Springfield has managed to maintain a veneer of respectability not shared by certain other towns of southwest Missouri that were founded as wild, wide-open mining camps, like Joplin and Granby. Join Larry Wood as he digs beneath the surface of Queen City history to expose notorious characters and capers that would make even Joplinites blush.
Wicked Springfield, Missouri:

Wicked Joplin

9781609490935

$21.99 Save Liquid error (snippets/product-template line 248): Computation results in '-Infinity'%
A strange sort of pride tends to embellish infamy, like the notion that Frank and Jesse James robbed every bank in Missouri. But the citizens of Joplin need not exaggerate their community's unsavory past. Founded in the 1870s as a booming lead-mining camp, Joplin was a wide-open town from the start, and its wild reputation persisted into the mid-twentieth century. A neighboring town's newspaper aptly described Joplin as a naughty place."? Join author Larry Wood on a colorful tour of the city's raucous past."
Wicked Joplin