The Tri-State Terror: The Life And Crimes Of Wilbur Underhill

Thanks to Mr. Morgan's thorough research the REAL story of Wilbur Underhill has been told. I grew up in Shawnee hearing about the shoot-out just a half block from my great-grandmother's home and I used to pass the house where the shooting took place on my way home from school. For years the bullet holes were still evident until later owners covered them with siding. But the old timers had different stories about how Underhill came to be in Shawnee, who was with him, which way he escaped and even which furniture store he was found in. Mr. Morgan had the facts to back up his book and it was very interesting. I was bothered, however, with the lack of editing and struggled with the errors in spelling, grammar and punctuation. Would have been better if it had been "cleaned up" a bit.

I am one of the many fans of R.D. Morgan's books. The amount of time spent on research is very impressive, and he brings to light criminals that are less known. His subjects are long overdue in being covered and he does a GREAT job with them, BUT PLEASE, include NOTES and INDEX!! As a fellow writer and researcher, you know how valuable those things are!! Keep up the GREAT work! We want more!

Much thanks to Mr. Morgan for dusting off the name Wilbur Underhill and showing it off. This book was well researched and perfectly written- I could not put it down until I finished. Thank you Mr. Morgan, this was another fine piece of work and I am looking forward to your next.

I see this was published in Oklahoma, but that's no excuse not to have someone who speaks, reads and writes English as a first language to edit the text. I have never read a book with such an abundance of subject-verb agreement errors in my life. It's embarrassing.

An excellent look at one of America's lesser known public enemies from the "Golden Age" of depression era criminals. Morgan does a good job of keeping the facts interesting and offers a good bibliography for further reading.

A very interesting read about a man I knew of but had little knowledge of his story I enjoyed the read because of that but I found myself a little disappointed in the exploits of mr underhill

Wilbur Underhill, like John Dillinger and Baby Face Nelson, came of age while doing time in the brutal prison systems of in the U.S. that operated in the early part of the 20th Century. How much did poverty, social deprivation, and family migration influence the Depression-era desperadoes? Any student of the sociological aspects of criminal history, must read this book. From the rural economy of the late 19th century to the migration to the inner cities of the Midwest that occured in the era of the First World War, Underhill, like the Barrow brothers in Texas, was one of the "lost generation" of young males who robbed and killed in order to get their share.This long-overdue story of the criminal activities of Wilbur Underhill corrects old misconceptions. The definitive research charts Wilbur Underhill's many alliances to other, equally infamous desperadoes of the Depression era of the 1930s.It is a common demoninator that the "Depression" criminals who are famous today, started on their ill-fated paths in the decades long before the Stock Market Crash of 1929, wasting their youths in notorious prisons before parole or crash outs released them to a society unwilling to offer them a path to redemption. Wilbur Underhill was one such jail bird who became hardened and embittered.The author took the time to document the stories of some of Underhill's victims. As the "genre" of true crime history continues to evolve, researchers and writers have begun to focus on victims and the tangible losses their families endured. By focusing on some of Underhill's victims, this book pays homage to the aftermath of the criminal act, as it plays out not only on the families of the victims, but the families of the desperadoes themselves.Rick Mattix, the Foreword writer, has, in his well-written introduction to the book, cleared up many old misconceptions about the Tri State Terror.This book is a solid addition to the 1930s crime history and I highly recommend it!

Few true crime books about Depression era outlaws report facts that haven't been reported in earlier written accounts. Not so with R. D. Morgan's The Tri-State Terror, The Life and Crimes of Wilbur Underhill. Where previous writers have barely scraped the surface of his criminal career, Morgan takes us on an extremely well researched journey into the badlands he travelled as well as behind more than one prison wall that he called home. His examination of Wilbur's relationship with his mother and sister presents a human side of the dangerous killer. And dangerous he was. He also uncovers the true account from the lawmen's perspective. Most interesting is how Underhill was trapped, a version I had never seen in print before. Morgan did some great research and I couldn't put the book down until I finished it.

I have been intrigued by this title for some time, so i was happy to purchase the paperback edition. Highly illustrated, with "thrill a minute" text, i would recommend this title to anybody interested in this period of lawlessness in the USA! Ultimately like all his contempories, Underhill finds crime dont pay. Compaired to the "Jack rabbit" Dillenger, Underhill aint no "Press Darling", but he was a bad man through and through. Very good read!