Brian Allen works as a teacher’s aide in an automotive technology class at Fort Scott High School. Because of a special interest in history, Allen sponsors the high school history club that meets monthly.

He is also president of the Bourbon County Historical Preservation Association.

 

Because of this love of history and wanting to create interest in the students, he started telling stories of local murders during a period of the late 1800s in Bourbon County.

 

 

“I started researching stories for the high school kids in history club (at the school) and found that they liked a good murder mystery or story,” Allen said. ” I did 30 years’ worth of short stories and asked Fred Campbell (a  local historian) to proof-read it for me. When he finished he insisted that I have it published.”

 

 

“The name of the book is Murder and Mayhem, and covers Bourbon County murders that occurred between 1868 and 1898,” he said.

 

 

 

“I never thought about doing it, but (Campbell’s) enthusiasm pushed me to go ahead and look into it,” he said. “This is the first book I have had published, but I do have three more manuscripts completed and am working on a fourth.”

 

 

“It was published in December of 2020 and was printed by SeKan printing here in Fort Scott,” he said. “Don Banwart designed the cover, and I included a photo of the original courthouse on it. It took me about a year to write it as it was never my original intention to publish it. It is available at the Hedgehog Ink as well as the (Fort Scott) Chamber of Commerce.”

 

Hedgehog INK is a bookstore at 16 S. Main and the chamber is located at 231 E. Wall.

 

“My future books will be about World War 1, a second murder book, and other crime and punishment stories in Bourbon County,” he said.

 

 

Allen also volunteers as a member of the Fort Scott Street Advisory Committee.

 

 

He graduated from FSHS in 1985 and graduated from Fort Scott Community College.

 

Allen is married and has three children and four grandchildren.