In-depth study of Quantrill's life and involvement in the Civil War and the events leading up to it. It begins with the issue of Kansas becoming a state and ends with a "Bizarre History of Quantrill's Remains."

Originally published: New York : Random House, 1996.

Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1. "War to the Knife!": The War over Kansas Territory, 1854-1861 -- 2. "The Blight that Falls on Remote Generations": Quantrill Family Background and Early Years -- 3. "Hard and Scaly Times": Quantrill's Western Travels -- 4. "Abolitionist and Extreme Pro-Slavery Man": The Morgan Walker Raid -- 5. "Desperate Leader of the Most Desperate Demons": Quantrill Becomes a Guerrilla -- 6. 'The Bullets Were Whizing Thick and Fast Around me": Ambushes and Reprisals -- 7. "Boys, We had Better Surrender!": The Raid on Independence -- 8. "Meet Slaughter with Slaughter": Prelude to the Lawrence Massacre -- 9. "The Most Diabolical Deed of the Whole Civil War": The Lawrence Massacre -- 10. "We Prayed That Night or Succor Might Come": The Pursuit of Quantrill and the Issuing of Order No. 11 -- 11. "Brave Men and True Were Scattered and Strewn over the Ground": The Baxter Springs Massacre -- 12. "The History of Every Guerrilla Chief Has Been the Same": The Usurpation of Quantrill -- 13. "A Carnival of Blood": Anderson and Todd -- 14. "Here's a Sign to Those Who Love Me": The Death of Quantrill -- 15. "The Outlaw Is a Deformity of the Face of nature": The Postwar Years -- Epilogue: "What Would His Skull Be Worth to Your Society?": The Bizarre History of Quantrill's Remains -- Notes -- Select Bibliography -- Index.