At least 227 mob murders took place on Missouri soil between 1803 and 1981, all of which are identified, confirmed, and documented (with legal sources) in this first investigation of the state's lynching history. The first four chapters focus on lynchings that took place before The Chicago Tribune began its annual nationwide lists of the lynched in the 1880s. Topics covered in other chapters include legal efforts to punish lynchers; the link between black lynchings and rape allegations; horse/hog stealing, bank robbery, murder, sex crimes, and other notable offenses for which whites were lynched; and the still-unsolved lynching of a white man in Skidmore, Missouri, in 1981. The book also documents, usually with an in-state source, 50 falsely reported, doubtful, or foiled lynchings which took place between 1857 and 1930.