Swindler. Murderer. Scoundrel. Robert Boatright was one of Middle America’s greatest confidence men. Although little remembered today, his story provides a rare glimpse into America’s criminal past. Working in concert with a local bank and an influential Democratic boss, “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.
Kimberly Harper earned a master’s degree in history from 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.
“Only a historian and writer of Harper’s caliber could cope with all of this. There are so many bad guys, so many victims, and so many powerful enablers such as Joplin’s mighty Gilbert Barbee—part of the miracle of this book is how amazingly well Harper manages the whirling cast and script.”
—Steve Yates, Ozarks Watch, December 2024
“Harper’s dogged research in archives, court records, and newspapers across the central and southern heartland reveals the underside of a nation built by men on the make—both con men and their marks. … Harper’s excellent research should disabuse any reader of the idea that somehow the small towns and medium-sized cities of the American heartland were immune to the worldly ways of tricksters, gangsters, and confidence men. As Men of No Reputation convincingly demonstrates, Midwest communities of all sizes offered fertile ground for gambling, rigged athletic contests, bribery, collusion, and the eternal hope of getting something for nothing. Although Harper avoids sweeping statements, it is not too much of a stretch to say that the confidence man—from P. T. Barnum in the early republic to the wire con in the Great Depression and in other forms to the present—is as American as apple pie.”
—Susan Curtis, Missouri Historical Review, October 2024
“Historian Kimberly Harper, a noted voice on Southern violence and post-Reconstruction issues, brings (back) to life one of the greatest confidence men you’ve never heard of: Robert Boatright. As the head of the Midwest’s Buckfoot Gang, Boatright was every bit as dangerous and influential as Western conmen like Soapy Smith and Big Ed Burns. Through Harper’s meticulous research, Boatright’s story is again brought to national attention and exposes the seedy underbelly of Boatright’s criminal influence on the otherwise idyllic Midwest at the dawn of the 20th century. Men of No Reputation is an insightful book about menacing criminals and offers a spotlight into the world of men whose lives led them into the shadows as well as those who sought to catch them.”
—Erik Wright, Tombstone Epitaph, June 2024
“Harper explains, with examples pulled from news reports and court records, precisely how the con was managed with the help of a friendly bank as well as police and politicians who were willing to look the other way. The law catches up with most of the Boatright Gang in the end, and Harper does an admirable job following the thread of each core member’s biography while also proving these were not suave, honorable thieves as portrayed in films like Ocean’s Eleven but rather hardened criminals capable of murder or worse. Men of No Reputation takes a magnifying glass to a little-understood underworld in a region that is too often ignored. It seems aimed to please both the amateur history buff as well as the academic, and one could easily see it becoming a Martin Scorsese film in the not-too-distant future.”
—Evan Alan Wood, Missouri Life, July 2024
“Men of No Reputation is about the confidence racket in the Ozarks circa 1900, but along the way Kimberly Harper gives a compelling account of local politics, prizefighting, foot races, attitudes toward crime, and much else. I finished reading this wonderfully written book feeling I’d just been educated.”
—Daniel Woodrell, author of Winter’s Bone
“Harper’s finely tuned study of this successful con-artist gang shows how capitalist dreams blurred into criminal schemes as confidence men, shady bankers, perfidious cops, and crooked politicians turned a bustling Ozarks community into a swindler’s paradise. Men of No Reputation brings to life a forgotten story of greed and corruption that sounds a timely warning amid today’s cons, big and small. For readers interested in charlatans and their marks, this book is a sure bet.”
—Jarod Roll, author of Poor Man’s Fortune: White Working-Class Conservativism in American Metal Mining, 1850–1950
“Masterfully woven and grounded in meticulous use of newspapers and court records, Men of No Reputation is a solid, flesh-on-the-bones contribution to the literature on American confidence men. Harper leaves no stone unturned as she tracks down a sophisticated, understudied gang of Ozark swindlers who fleeced high-stakes suckers in rigged foot races and prizefights at the turn of the twentieth century. A further reminder of the American culture of greed and crime in an age of flimflam and humbug.”
—Gregg Andrews, author of Shantyboats and Roustabouts: The River Poor of St. Louis, 1875–1930
“An original work fully supported by sound scholarship, Men of No Reputation will prove indispensable to regional historians, legal scholars, and afficionados of the American underworld.”
—Eric B. Easton, author of The Life and Crimes of Jared Flagg: Adventures of a Gilded Age Huckster, Swindler, and Pimp
