I think it would be fair to state the Kansas military presence in Missouri hastened and steepened the border region's descent into a hellish war. However, I don't think it would be fair to characterize Kansas soldiers as THE villians. There were plenty villians on both sides to go around, and many Kansas soldiers undoubtedly served with honor. If you are going to finger THE villian, how the jayhawker political and military leaders such as Senator James Lane of Kansas? He more than any other individual was the force behind the massive jayhawking raids across western Missouri in 1861-62, a causitive factor in just about all the nasty stuff that followed. It would be hard to argue he was not an unsavory, unprincipled, power-mad, demagogue.