Though the man never even drew his weapon, he was shot in cold blood by the pro-slavery faction. His body was returned to Lawrence where the entire citizenry followed it to its burial, in the presence of his young wife and children, in Pioneer Cemetery. This event, more than any other, hardened the Free-Staters to the realization that they had come, not simply for an election to determine whether Kansas would be a free or slave state, but to fight a war over the issue.

Anti-slavery Jayhawkers clashed with Bushwhackers from neighboring Missouri as the two sides were provoked to bitter and often bloody struggles in Kansas Territory to sway popular decision to their own favor.

Both sides were abetted by desperadoes and opportunists where people were tarred and feathered, kidnapped, and killed. Confrontation and deadly skirmishes over the issue of slavery would continue in the Kansas Territory for the next five years in an era to be forever known as "Bleeding Kansas”.

The word Jayhawker came from a mythical bird that cannot be caught. At first, the term was applied to both the pro-slavery and abolitionist rebel bands. But, before long it stuck to the anti-slavery side only.  Those that favored the Confederacy soon earned the name of Bushwhackers, because they primarily lived in the "bush," or country, and their legs "whacked" the bushes as they rode. Both sides would eventually include semi-legitimate soldiers, and even grudgingly acknowledged by the Union and Confederate forces. However, other members of these two groups were simply bandits who had a quasi-military excuse for ambush, robbery, murder, arson and plunder.

In 1856 the proslavery territorial capital was "officially” moved to Lecompton, Kansas. In April of that year a three-man congressional investigating committee arrived in Lecompton to look into the Kansas troubles. The majority report of the committee found the elections to be fraudulent, and said that the Free State government represented the will of the majority. The federal government refused to follow its recommendations, however, and continued to recognize the proslavery legislature as the legitimate government of Kansas.

On May 21, 1856, a motley group of more than 500 armed proslavery enthusiasts raided Lawrence, the stronghold of the abolitionist movement. They burned the Free State Hotel (now the Eldridge Hotel), smashed the presses of two Lawrence newspapers, ransacked homes and stores and killed one man.