Missouri Law Review Volume 77 Issue 2 Spring 2012 Article 2 Spring 2012 Getting Away with Murder (Most of the Time): Civil War Era Homicide Cases in Boone County, Missouri Frank O. Bowman III. Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.missouri.edu/mlr Part of the Law Commons Recommended Citation Frank O. Bowman III., Getting Away with Murder (Most of the Time): Civil War Era Homicide Cases in Boone County, Missouri, 77 MO. L. REV. (2012) Available at: https://scholarship.law.missouri.edu/mlr/vol77/iss2/2 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Law Journals at University of Missouri School of Law Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Missouri Law Review by an authorized editor of University of Missouri School of Law Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Bowman: Bowman: Getting Away with Murder (Most of the Time) Getting Away with Murder (Most of the Time): Civil War Era Homicide Cases in Boone County, Missouri Frank 0. Bowman, III* I. MURDER AT THE UNIVERSITY - AN INTRODUCTION On March 4, 1851, at the State University in Columbia, Missouri, there occurred one of those incidents that from time to time break up the stately progress of the academic year. It seems that young George Clarkson got in a brawl with a fellow student. Upon hearing of this unseemly affair, the faculty convened and docked each of the combatants fifty marks. Professor Robert Grant, coming late to the meeting, encountered Clarkson on the steps and asked how the matter had been resolved.