In the category of
vigilante/outlaw team Historyectomy is proud to select
John Brown.
John Brown was an abolitionist and as such felt it was his duty to kill people who were pro-slavery. He led bands of similarly minded folk on raids into the slave state of Missouri to take action! Of course, the Missourians were raiding free state Kansas at the same time too, so his actions were not bourne purely from his abolitionist views and were not purely offensive in nature. Lincoln referred to him as a misguided fanatic.
In 1856 Brown and his Jayhawkers (now you know why the University of Kansas is the Jayhawks) killed 5 pro-slavery southerners in the Pottawattomie Massacre.
In 1859 he led an unsuccessful raid on the armory at Harper's Ferry, VA in an organized attempt to create a slave uprising there. It ultimately failed, but is often cited as a major piece of fuel for the Civil War which started less than two years later.
He was eventually arrested, tried and hung as a result.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Br...ions_in_Kansas
Here's a little song about John Brown.