Residents of Lawrence, Kan., and other border towns visited by the raiders in their salad days did not find the annual gatherings so amusing, particularly given the old guerrillas’ lamentable penchant for granting newspaper interviews and recounting their gruesome deeds in loving detail. Lawrence Judge Samuel Riggs, a survivor of the 1863 massacre, even attempted to dust off the 43 murder indictments handed down after the raid, but repeated requests that the governor of Kansas demand extradition of the old bushwhackers quietly died a political death.

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Inevitably, time had the final reckoning on Quantrill’s men, and the last reunion–the 32nd–was held in 1929. By then, only five ex-guerrillas were in attendance, and they voted to limit all subsequent gatherings to one day. As it turned out, they need not have bothered–no more reunions were ever held. On March 3, 1932, the last known survivor, Frank Smith, died on his 86th birthday, “his body parts worn out by age and steady work.” That was more than could be said for the countless wartime victims of Quantrill and his men.

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