The Tri-state Terror: The Life And Crimes Of Wilbur Underhill Book

Wilbur Underhill?the "Tri-State Terror"?is the Boogeyman of Depression-era outlaws in more ways than one. For nearly a decade in the turbulent period of the 1920s and 30s, he was one of the most infamous and feared criminals in the Southwest. Convicted of one of his murders in Oklahoma he was sentenced to life and escaped, killing a cop and receiving another life term in Kansas, and then escaped again, leading ten others in a mass breakout. In the last months of his life, he rose to national notoriety as a prolific bank robber and suspect in the infamous Kansas City Massacre and became the first criminal ever shot down by agents of that fledgling agency which would soon become the FBI. True criminal immortality seemed to elude Wilbur after his death, his name eclipsed in the national headlines by the likes of John Dillinger, "Pretty Boy" Floyd, and "Baby Face" Nelson. But scratch the surface and he?s still there. -- From his native Joplin where Underhill began his career modestly as a "lovers lane" bandit, -- to the Tri-State mining district where he is best remembered as a lone wolf scurrying about the night terrorizing the populace and committing a half-dozen robberies at gunpoint, -- to Wichita, Kansas where he was known as a vicious cop-killer, -- to Jeff City, Lansing, and McAlester where he became a legendary figure among the inmate populations and seemingly possessed a talent to break out at will, -- to the Central Oklahoma oilfields and his hideouts in the wild and wooly Cookson Hills, -- to the many towns he struck in Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Kentucky, and Arkansas his impact is still felt. Underhill emerges from the shadows at last in this work, thanks to the tireless research of R.D. Morgan. The Tri State Terror is a natural follow-up to Morgan?s previous works (especially Bad Boys of the Cookson Hills) but easily stands on its own as the definitive biography of a long lost superstar of thirties crime whose position in the criminal constellation is reaffirmed.Read More