# @thekansascitystar on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/CwLrCSINnnb
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/18810307-thekansascitystar-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/thumbnails/2f1870fd95.jpg
- **Posted:** 2023-08-20T22:00:06.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** Kansas City Star (@thekansascitystar) — https://gondola.cc/thekansascitystar

## Caption

Detectives and attorneys described Mattie Howard as “the most dangerous criminal ever in Kansas City,” and The Kansas City Times called her murder trial in 1919 “one of the most spectacular in Kansas City’s court history.”

Yet Mattie Howard has been a forgotten figure in the city’s gangster past. Virtually nothing was written about her locally in the past 70 years.

Howard lived a colorful life, spending most of her childhood in a convent before she gained national notoriety for her involvement in the beating death of a Kansas City pawnbroker and jewelry dealer, Diamond Joe Morino.

Her saga spilled across multiple states, entailing manhunts, shootouts, killings and love affairs, and was highlighted by that murder trial in which Jesse James Jr., son of the infamous outlaw, defended her.

At the link in our bio, read more about Howard, featured in Star journalist Dan Kelly’s new book, “The Girl With the Agate Eyes: The Untold Story of Mattie Howard, Kansas City’s Queen of the Underworld.”

#TrueCrime #KCHistory

## Stats

- **Views:** 0
- **Likes:** 1,468
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- **Comments:** 16

## Tags

truecrime, kchistory

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