Although little remembered today, Robert Boatright was one of the greatest con men of the early 20th century. With the assistance of a confederacy of crooks known as the Buckfoot Gang, he preyed upon the gentry of the Midwest and fixed athletic contests in turn-of-the-century Ozarks, leading one scholar to call him “the dean of modern confidence men.”
In a discussion of her award-winning book Men of No Reputation: Robert Boatright, the Buckfoot Gang, and the Fleecing of Middle America, historian Kimberly Harper sheds light on Boatwright’s elaborate scams, as well as the string of missteps and subsequent court cases that ultimately brought his criminal enterprise to an end. She further details how Boatright’s swindles spurred other con artists after his death.
A seventh generation Ozarker, Harper earned a master’s degree in history from the University of Arkansas. She received the Missouri Humanities Council’s Distinguished Achievement in Literature (nonfiction) Award for her book White Man’s Heaven: The Lynching and Expulsion of Blacks in the Southern Ozarks, 1894-1909, and the 2025 Missouri Conference on History Book Award for Men of No Reputation.
