Book excerpt: Between 1862 and 1870, nightriders rode, robbed, and murdered their way along the Natchez trace in North-Central Louisiana. The legend of these nightriders has persisted. Descendants say these outlaws killed countless migrants traveling from the southeastern states to Texas in search of a new start after the Civil War. These highwaymen were so successful they dug deep holes in the ground just to dispose of their victims' bodies. They continued to maraud until a famed Easter Sunday massacre, when vigilantes lynched much of their leadership. Afterward, vigilantes claimed to have found forty skeletons in one of the holes. Dan Dean and Laws Kimbrel were both Civil War prisoners. They knew each other. After they were released, Kimbrel returned to his extended family. The Kimbrel family robbed and murdered mercilessly. Dean too returned and did his share of killing, but he and Kimbrel developed differences. Dean grew disenchanted with his life of violence. Eventually a group of vigilantes - with Dean's help - challenged the outlaw nightriders, who included the Kimbrel family. And Dean and Laws Kimbrel faced each once again...