Post Art Library to Host Author Visit with Kimberly Harper on August 8, 2024

(Joplin, MO) – Swindler. Murderer. Scoundrel. Join the Post Art Library for an author visit with Kimberly Harper as she discusses her most recent book, MEN OF NO REPUTATION: Robert Boatright, the Buckfoot Gang, and the Fleecing of Middle America.

Robert Boatright was one of Middle America’s greatest con men. Although little remembered today, his story provides a rare glimpse into Middle America’s criminal past. Working in concert with a local bank in Webb City, Missouri, and an influential Democratic boss in Jasper County, Missouri, “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.

Harper holds degrees in history from Crowder College, Missouri Southern State University, and the University of Arkansas. She received the Missouri Humanities Council’s Distinguished Achievement in Literature (Non-Fiction) Award for her book White Man’s Heaven: The Lynching and Expulsion of Blacks in the Southern Ozarks, 1894–1909. She currently holds the position of Editor with The State Historical Society of Missouri.