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| Jesse James shooting John W. Cashier Sheets during Gallatin Bank Robbery |
Tuesday,
December 7, 1869, was a cloudy, misty day. As two
lone horsemen rode into town, the nearby hills were concealed behind a dense
fog. The riders hitched their horses outside the Daviess County Savings
Bank between 12:30 and 1:00.
Inside
the bank, Frank James asked Cashier John W. Sheets to change a
one-hundred-dollar bill. As Sheets sat down to
write a receipt, Jesse shot him twice—in the head and chest. Sheets fell to the
floor, dead.
Bank clerk William McDowell ran out the door. Frank fired two
shots. One shot tore through McDowell’s arm, but didn’t slow him down. Once
outside, McDowell sounded the alarm. The townspeople grabbed their guns and
began firing, but they were too late to slow the robbers down.
The bandits took what they found in the cash drawer and rode
away. Initial reports put their take at $60,000. However, a few days later, it
was reported that they might have gotten as little as five dollars.
Afterward, McDowell remembered the robber muttering something
about Sheets and Cox killing their brother, [Bloody] Bill Anderson, but he
wasn’t clear on the details.
That
led to speculation that the boys mistook Sheets for Samuel Cox, the leader of
the troops who killed “Bloody Bill” Anderson towards the end of the Civil War.
That’s possible. Sheets had served as a Missouri militia captain and engaged in
frequent skirmishes with the guerillas, so Jesse might have recognized him. On
the other hand, the bank’s owner, S. P. Cox, took credit for killing Anderson,
so there might have been a mix-up between the two men. But it’s just as likely
Jesse tossed out a lie, hoping to throw detectives off his track. Jesse was a
master of deception and misdirection, and would perfect his game over time,
passing letters to John N. Edwards, editor of the Kansas City Times.
Frank and Jesse bumped into Daniel Smoot a few miles outside of
town and switched horses with him. After dark, they ran into Reverend Helm and
forced him to guide them to the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad. Before he
left, Jesse told Helm, “I’m Bill Anderson’s brother. I killed S. P. Cox, who
works in the bank back there in Gallatin. He killed my brother in the war, and
I got him last night.”
It reinforced the bank clerk’s story, leading authorities to
wonder if the killer was Jim Anderson, “Bloody” Bill Anderson’s brother.
What tied Frank and Jesse to the robbery was that as they left
the bank, Frank’s horse reared. He was thrown from it with his foot caught in
the stirrup. After freeing himself, Frank jumped on the back of Jesse’s horse,
and they rode away. Afterward, his horse was captured and identified as
belonging to Jesse James.
The funny thing was that
the boys were virtually unknown. On December 16, 1869, The Kansas City Times
reported the horse left behind belonged to “a man named James whose mother
and stepfather live about four miles from Centreville, Clay County.” He was
accompanied by his brother, who had “much experience in horse and revolver
work.”
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| Jesse James |
The St. Louis Weekly Union described Frank and Jesse James as “desperate characters.” They said Jesse had been away from Clay County from 1862 to 1869, but came back twice “disguised in female apparel.”
The boys were described as walking arsenals. Jesse carried three
navy revolvers and a revolving rifle, while Frank had five revolvers buckled
outside his coat.
Sheriff Oscar Thomason and his posse chased the gang to the
James farm in Clay County. A fierce gun battle broke out as the sheriff’s men
rode through the yard. Thirty or forty shots were fired, and Thomason’s horse
was shot from under him.
The James Gang rode into Centreville about an hour later. They stopped at Captain John Groom’s store and told him he’d better round up a posse and send them to the farm. They had just killed Thomason and his men, and someone needed to bury them.
Sheriff Thomason told a slightly different story. He said the
James boys were in the stable when his men arrived. They approached as quietly
as possible, trying to position themselves between the house and the stable,
thinking the boys had left their guns in the house.
Thomason and his son, Oscar, got off their horses and walked to
the front door. The stable door flew open at about the same time. Frank and
Jesse burst out with a gun in each hand. And then, just as the posse made it to
the house, Frank and Jesse dashed off down the road toward Centreville.
The papers got a lot of the details wrong, but one thing they
got right was, “There is plenty of bloody work ahead.” Jesse had twelve years
left on his run, and he would leave a long trail of blood and bodies.
On Christmas Day, 1869, Governor Joseph W. McClurg offered a
$3,000 reward for the capture of Frank and Jesse James. And then, in May 1870,
a Daviess County grand jury indicted them for the murder of John Sheets.
In June 1870, Jesse penned the first of many letters, denying
his guilt.
Gov. McClurg. Dear Sir:
I and my brother Frank are charged with a crime of killing the
cashier and robbing the bank of Gallatin, Missouri, on December 7, 1869. I deny
the charge. There is not one word of truth in it. I can prove by some of the
best men in Missouri where I was the day of the robbery and the day previous to
it, but I will not without a trial. The past is sufficient to show that
bushwhackers do not have any show in law in Missouri. Several bushwhackers have
been arrested in Missouri since the war, charged with bank robbery, and they
most all have been mobbed without trials. I will cite you to the case of Thomas
Little of Lafayette County, Mo.
A few days after the bank was robbed in Richmond, in 1867, Mr.
Little was arrested in St. Louis, charged with being one of the party who
perpetrated the deed. He was sent from St. Louis to Warrensburg under a heavy
guard. As soon as the parties arrived there, they found out that he (Mr.
Little) could prove by the citizens of Dover that he was innocent of the
charge. As soon as the scoundrels found out that he was innocent, a mob was
raised, which broke in the jail, took him out, and hanged him.
Governor, when I think I can get a fair trial, I will surrender
myself to the civil authorities of Missouri. But I never will surrender to be
mobbed by a set of bloodthirsty poltroons. It is true that during the war; I
was a Confederate soldier and fought under the black flag, but since that, I
have lived a peaceable citizen and I obeyed the laws of the United States to
the best of my knowledge. The authorities of Gallatin say the reason that led
them to suspect me was that the mare left at Gallatin by the robbers was
identified as belonging to me. That is false. I can prove that I sold the mare
the day previous to the robbery. It is true that I fought Deputy Sheriff
Thomason of Clay County, but was not my brother with me when we had the fight?
I do not think I violated the law when I fought Thomason, as his posse refused
to tell me who they were.
Three different statements have been published in reference to
the fight that I had with Thomason, but they are all a pack of falsehoods.
Deputy Sheriff Thomason has never yet given any report of the fight that I have
seen. I am personally acquainted with Oscar Thomason, the Deputy’s son, but
when the shooting began, his face was so muffled up in furs that I did not
recognize him. But if I did violate the law when I fought Thomason, I am
perfectly willing to abide by it. But as to them mobbing me for a crime that I
am innocent of, that is played out. As soon as I think I can get a just trial,
I will surrender myself to the civil authorities of Missouri and prove to the
world that I am innocent of the crime charged against me.
Respectfully,
Jesse W. James.
Despite Jesse saying he wasn’t involved,
most historians agree that Frank and Jesse James robbed the Gallatin bank. Some
say Cole Younger and Clell Miller took part. But if they did, there’s no record
of other participants, so they must have waited outside the town, ready to
swoop in if needed.
In The Outlaws of
the Border, published in 1882, R. T. Bradley said the James Gang wasn’t
involved, but he perpetuated the myth that a band of outlaws swooped down on
the city. He wrote that a “band of armed men swept through the town like a
whirlwind and made direct for the bank. They terrified all who were on the
street by demonic yells and indiscriminate and reckless firing of pistols.” The
problem is that contemporary newspaper reports don’t back him up. Two men
pulled the job.
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