During the war, Atchison was also the headquarters of numerous bands of jayhawkers. This included the notorious Charles Metz, who was known as "Cleveland". Metz, a former prisoner at the Missouri State Penitentiary, selected Atchison as his headquarters for raids into Missouri. He was accepted with open arms by the people of the town. During his period of operations, he stole hundreds of horses from Missouri farmers and sold them in Kansas. He robbed any suspected southern sympathizer and threatened several leading citizens with murder and robbery if they remained in town. He even ran off the first president of Atchison, P.T. Abell, who was forced into exile until after the Civil War ended. He defied all authorities but was finally shot and killed at some point in 1862. He is buried in St. Joseph, Missouri.