The Encyclopedia of Lawmen, Outlaws, and Gunfighters by Leon Claire Metz

Author:Leon Claire Metz [Metz, Leon Claire]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Non-Fiction, History, Old West
Publisher: Facts on File (Crime Library)
Published: 2002-11-01T04:00:00+00:00

Jesse James (Robert G. McCubbin Collection)

When the Civil War ended, Jesse tried to surrender on April 15, 1865, but took a bullet through the lungs as he rode into Lexington, Missouri, under a white flag. After recovering, he and the James and the Younger brothers had the option of going back to farming or continuing as they had during the last few years. They agreed to take up bank and train robbing. Oddly, although Jesse was the baby of the bunch, he was also the unquestioned leader. On February 13, 1866, the James boys and the Youngers robbed the Clay County Savings and Loan in Liberty,

Missouri. The only casualty was a 19-year-old boy who happened to run across the street at the wrong time. Otherwise, the bleak countryside swallowed up the outlaws. On October 30, they robbed a bank in Lexington, Missouri. Other banks also went down. In the confusion, no one could say whether the Youngers and James boys had been involved.

By now the Pinkerton National Detective Agency had been called in, and from this moment on, for a lot of reasons, bank robbery suddenly became a more dangerous occupation. Still, on December 7, 1869, Jesse, Frank, and Cole Younger hit the Daviess County Savings Bank in Gallatin, Missouri. Shooting started, people died, Jesse's horse threw him in the middle of the street, and Frank went back to get him. Everyone made it safely out of town. A bank robbery in Columbia, Kentucky, followed. Then as the countryside began concentrating on protecting banks, the gang changed its style by throwing in an occasional train robbery.

The Pinkertons retaliated. In 1875, two men thought to be Pinkerton agents fire-bombed the James homestead, mutilating the arm of Zeralda James (now Zeralda Samuel) and killing Archie Samuel, the nine-year-old half brother of Jesse and Frank. Meanwhile, both Frank and Jesse had married in 1874; both now had families. When not out killing and robbing, the two were attentive fathers and husbands. Jesse even wrote frequent letters to the newspapers denying he had robbed such and such a bank or train.

The gang now headed to Northfield, Minnesota, where on September 7, 1876, they robbed the First National Bank, wounded the teller, and killed the cashier and a bystander. The gunfire alerted the community, however, and the gang had to shoot its way out of town. In the process, outlaws Clell Miller and William Stiles were killed, and Bob and Cole Younger were wounded, Bob the more seriously. The outlaws fled, only to be pursued by a relentless posse in what became one of the West's most intense manhunts. Since the Youngers could not keep up, the James boys struck out on their own. Within days, the pursuing posse killed Charlie Pitts and captured Jim, Bob, and Cole Younger.

All three Youngers went to the Minnesota State Prison at Stillwell. Bob died there of tuberculosis in 1889. Cole and Jim were released in 1901. Jim committed suicide. Cole sold insurance, ran a Wild West show with Frank James, and lectured against evil.

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