One winter night in 1879, at a Kansas campsite near Crooked Creek, a man was shot to death. The dead man's traveling companion identified him as John Hillmon, a cowboy from Lawrence who had been attempting to carve out a life on the blustery prairie. The case might have been soon forgotten and the apparent widow, Sallie Hillmon, left to mourn, except for the $25,000 life insurance policies Hillmon had taken out shortly before his departure. The insurance...