SYNOPSIS:

Stars Jesse and Frank James, Cole Younger, Bloody Bill Anderson and William Quantrill. Based on my novel, BLEEDING KANSAS: published October 2014 by World Castle Publishing: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00NU7GLIA By produced writer (9 feature films) and published author (2 novels). 1863 — James Deeter, 18, watches his drunken father heap abuse on the Confederacy and ride off to do battle, abandoning his Quaker wife and family in Pennsylvania. To make matters worse, a gang of Unionists shows up to forcibly enlist Deeter. Deeter escapes, seizing this chance to go "where a man can breathe free and spread his arms wide," and other blather Deeter has read about in the Western novels he's so fond of. But before Deeter gets anywhere near adventure, he falls for a young lady on a stagecoach, Anna Contreras. Aiming to get rich and win Anna's hand, Deeter loads barges in Lawrence, Kansas, a Free-State stronghold, in hopes of raising enough money to prospect for gold in Colorado. Instead, Deeter is attacked by Redlegs—Kansas Jayhawkers fighting for the Union cause—then waylaid by William Clarke Quantrill and his Missouri bushwhackers fighting for the Confederacy. Instead of "looking manly aboard an Appaloosa horse, long hair flying free from under a wide-brimmed, rawhide sombrero," Deeter lands smack in the middle of the bloody guerilla war along the border, an even greater affront to human decency than the Civil War itself, and a shock to Deeter's pacifist upbringing. To save his life, Deeter rides with teenagers Jesse James and Frank James, Cole Younger, "Bloody Bill" Anderson, and William Quantrill... To save his soul, Deeter tries not to hurt anybody... The bushwhackers learn that their women and children have been rounded up and jailed in Kansas City. Adding to the outrage, the prison building collapses, killing several innocents. In retaliation, the bushwhackers ride for Lawrence, and Deeter finds himself out front flying the black rebel flag next to Quantrill. Deeter's lack of enthusiasm for killing hasn't been lost on the bushwhackers—as a test, Deeter's forced to violate his pacifist beliefs and club a man to death with a Sharps carbine rifle while hundreds of Confederates look on. But that's just preliminary to one of the bloodiest episodes in American history: Quantrill's raid on Lawrence, Kansas. Amid the carnage, Deeter finds Anna Contreras and discovers she's not exactly the girl he thought she was. In fact, she's been carrying on with Deeter's pa, who has been up to his own no-goodness since abandoning the family back in Pennsylvania. Disillusioned, Deeter slips away and hits the trail, older and wiser, certain he's doomed to Hell, all his romantic notions of the West gone... Except that one about striking it rich in the gold fields of Colorado...