"The Bloody Vendetta of Southern Illinois" by Milo Erwin & Jon Musgrave
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In the 1870s the Bloody Vendetta wreaked havoc in the heart of Southern Illinois leaving a half dozen men assassinated and property values in freefall. As a defense attorney Milo Erwin represented many of the suspects involved. Following the trials of 1875 and 1876, Erwin published the first detailed account of the Vendetta. Now Jon Musgrave pieces together the rest of the story, combining Erwin's work with contemporary newspaper accounts, as well as, modern research. He traces the rise and fall of the Ku Klux Klan as they took advantage of the chaos and details the events of what happened after Erwin wrote his book. Musgrave ties together the clues bridging the Vendetta from violence of the Civil War-era Aiken Gang a decade earlier to the second generation of outlaws that came of age in the Vendetta's aftermath. From the boys who grew up in Marion who later led the Jennings Gang of the Wild West and Hollywood westerns, to the not so glamorous delinquents responsible for robberies and murders in the Carterville and Carbondale, Illinois area of the 1890s, Musgrave uncovers their true stories for a new century.