Shot All to Hell by Mark Lee Gardner

Author:Mark Lee Gardner
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins

A flood of telegrams came over the wires with reports of the capture and descriptions of the robbers. One telegram received by the Saint Paul Dispatch read:

ST. PETER, MINN., SEPT. 22.—WE HAVE SURRENDERED. MIKE HOY CAN NOW COME ON WITH SAFETY.

COLE YOUNGER

Written by some wag, the “Cole Younger” telegram subsequently appeared in newspapers across the state.

Several newspaper correspondents kept the outlaws occupied during their confinement at the Flanders. The boys admitted that they were the Younger brothers, but they refused to identify those killed or the two who broke the line at Lake Crystal. They made it a point, they said, not to speak of each other’s affairs, only their own. Still, that did not stop others from trying to coax the Youngers into admitting that the two who had escaped—nearly everyone now believed they were Frank and Jesse—were the notorious James brothers. A correspondent for the Saint Paul Dispatch told Cole and Jim of a recent report (which would prove to be false) that the two had been captured and that one was dead and the other dying. The journalist referred to the captured bandits as the James brothers, even though this identification had not been part of the report.

This got the outlaws’ attention, and they appeared to be genuinely distressed. Cole asked which one was dead, the smaller or the larger of the two. “Mind,” Cole quickly added, “I don’t say they are the James brothers.”

But, the journalist insisted, the two men confessed that they were the James brothers.

“Did they say anything of us?” Cole asked.

“No.”

“Good boys to the last,” Cole said with a smile.

The other burning questions were who had killed cashier Heywood and why. Bob Younger admitted to the Minneapolis Tribune reporter that he was one of the three robbers who had gone into the bank, but he refused to say who committed the murder.

“[I]t was a bad piece of business and very foolish,” he said. “It was not our intention to kill him; we have not wanted to kill anyone. It, of course, would do no good to kill the cashier, because then we couldn’t get into the vault anyway. Of course, I cannot say what the motives of the man were when he shot, but I suppose he thought the cashier was reaching down under his desk for his revolver.”

The correspondent replied: “Heywood was a brave fellow—do you not think so?”

“Well, I don’t know,” Bob answered. “I think it was more fear than bravery.”

While the Youngers sparred with reporters, Sheriff Glispin sparred with pushy state officials. The Minnesota governor was in Philadelphia attending the Centennial Exposition when he heard the news of the capture. He immediately telegraphed his secretary in St. Paul to have the Youngers and the body of Pitts transported to the capital.

Glispin initially agreed but then changed his mind after consulting with several Madelia citizens. It seemed to them that the Twin Cities were trying to steal the show, when the prisoners properly should go to Rice County, where there were warrants for their arrest, and where they would eventually be tried.

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