More than 120 years after the White Caps terrorized Sevier County in East Tennessee, longtime residents still won't talk about the lawless band of vigilantes who would disguise themselves with a full-body covering of white fabric with holes cut for the eyes. Though the description may summon images of the Ku Klux Klan, the White Caps focused their wrath on what they perceived as immoral behavior--although some of their activity targeted blacks and...

"In 1834 Virgil Stewart rode from western Tennessee to a territory known as the "Arkansas morass" in pursuit of John Murrell, a thief accused of stealing two slaves. Stewart's adventure led to a sensational trial and a wildly popular published account that would ultimately help trigger widespread violence during the summer of 1835, when five men accused of being professional gamblers were hanged in Vicksburg, nearly a score of others implicated with...