This image is the cover for the book Wicked Joplin, Wicked

Wicked Joplin, Wicked

A strange sort of pride tends to embellish infamy, like the notion that Frank and Jesse James robbed every bank in Missouri. But the citizens of Joplin need not exaggerate their community's unsavory past. Founded in the 1870s as a booming lead-mining camp, Joplin was a wide-open town from the start, and its wild reputation persisted into the mid-twentieth century. A neighboring town's newspaper aptly described Joplin as a "naughty place."? Join author Larry Wood on a colorful tour of the city's raucous past.

Larry Wood

Larry Wood is a retired public school teacher and freelance writer specializing in the history of the Ozarks region. His magazine articles have appeared in publications like America's Civil War, Blue and Gray, Gateway Heritage, History Magazine, Kansas Heritage, Missouri Historical Review, Missouri Life, Ozarks Mountaineer, Ozarks Reader, Show Me the Ozarks, True West, and Wild West. His previous books include The Civil War on the Lower Kansas-Missouri Border, The Civil War Story of Bloody Bill Anderson, Other Noted Guerrillas of the Civil War in Missouri, Ozarks Gunfights and Other Notorious Incidents, and two historical novels entitled Call Me Charlie: A Novel of a Quantrill Raider and Showdown at Baxter Springs. Wood and his wife, G.G., live in Joplin, Missouri.

The History Press