William T. “Bloody Bill” Anderson was a notorious Confederate guerrilla leader with whom Jesse James associated for a brief period during the Civil War. Anderson’s nickname was “Bloody Bill” because he fiendishly murdered and butchered Union soldiers and sympathizers during the Civil War. Clearly demented, Anderson is considered one of the vilest figures on either side of the Civil War.

Though little is known of his early life, Anderson was born in Randolph County, Missouri, around 1838. His father, a hatter with Southern sympathies, moved his family to Kansas where they were met with hostility because they refused to fight against the South. After Anderson’s father was killed in a confrontation over a horse in 1862, Anderson sought revenge and killed a local judge and his brother-in-law. Then two of his sisters were imprisoned by order of Union commander General Thomas Ewing because they were suspected of being guerrilla supporters. One sister died and the other was crippled when the Kansas City building they were imprisoned in collapsed. This event further fueled Anderson’s vendetta against all Union soldiers.

Anderson then conducted one brutal raid after another. He joined forces with fellow bushwhacker William Clarke Quantrill and tortured and terrorized people in Kansas, Missouri, and Texas. Anderson was the most feared and vicious bushwhacker in Missouri, especially after he ordered and conducted the massacre of Union soldiers at Centralia, Missouri, on September 27, 1864, an event in which Jesse James participated.

On October 26, 1864, Anderson was killed by Missouri State Militia who had found his camp near Albany, Missouri, in Ray County. His body was placed in a wagon and transported to Richmond, Missouri. After his photograph was taken, Anderson was decapitated by militia officers.

Unless otherwise noted, text and images © 2007, State Historical Society of Missouri