Fame, infamy, and Silver Dollar City. All three words co-exist with one group of men in the late 1800’s: The Bald Knobbers. After the Civil War, as the country was doing it’s best to get back on track, Chadwick, Missouri had become a hotspot for gamblers, hookers, and other “ne’er do wells” brought in by the rail road.

After feeling let down by the local law enforcement, Nat Kinney and other men decided that the moral compass of the town would be better off being straightened by those who knew it best. They donned white Muslin masks with cut-out eyeholes, they tied the excess into two “horns” on top of the mask. Then, in the dark of the night, the men got to work. They called themselves “The Bald Knobbers“, an inside reference to where the group met on top of a grassy hill, called “Bald Knob” in Taney County, Missouri.

Chadwick was quickly returned to a place of order and civility, with many of the townsfolk happy to have their home restored to peace. Others, on the other hand, banded together to create a group called “The Anti-Bald Knobbers”. These folks believed that vigilante practices would quickly lead to unneeded bloodshed. Nat Kinney took the sentiment to heart, disbanding the Bald Knobbers of Taney County.

While the Taney County chapter had dissolved, Dave Walker of Ozark, Missouri took it upon himself to create his own chapter: The Ozark Bald Knobbers. These men wore black masks, similar to the Taney County Bald Knobbers, but added tassels to their horns and stripes of white on the masks themselves. These men weren’t vigilantes fighting for good, though. No, these men were robbers, murderers, and thieves.

On March 11, 1887, the prophetic statements of the “Anti-Bald Knobbers” came to fruition. After a meeting, Billy Walker, the son of Dave Walker, took some of the men to go rough up William Edens, including Deacon John Matthews and his son Wiley. William had made the mistake of speaking ill of the group, which came with physical punishment. When the group arrived to the home, they discovered it empty. Furious at not being able to get their message across, they rode to the next home up the road: the home of William Eden’s parents, James and Elizabeth Eden.

The Green family was also staying there that night. Melvina (William’s sister) and her husband Charles had brought their young children to the home while Melvina recovered from measles. As the masked men fired shotguns into the home, William Edens and Charles Green fired back, ultimately losing their lives while taking two Bald Knobbers with them. James was seriously wounded after he was struck from behind with an axe.

As the gunshots rang out, neighbors rushed to the house. As the men rode off, Dave Walker rode up, hoping to stop his son. As the crowd gathered around Dave, he was taken from his horse and held until law enforcement arrived. The following 18 months was filled with the trials of 80 men, but only four were sentenced to hanging. The sentence was carried out on May 10, 1889. The sheriff, who hadn’t performed an execution before, left the ropes too long. While Dave Walker and Deacon John Matthews were killed instantly, Billy’s feet hit the ground. The crowd heard him cry out as another noose was slipped around his neck and he was subsequently executed.

Wiley had managed to escape the night before, and was never seen again.