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| Jesse James getting ready to stop a train |
Jesse and Frank James are perhaps the best-known bandits of
the Old West. They fought with Confederate raiders William Quantrill and
“Bloody Bill” Anderson during the Civil War. In October 1864, Frank traveled to
Kentucky with Quantrill, while Jesse made his way to Texas with Archie Clement.
After
the war, they returned to what remained of their home in Clay County,
Missouri, and shortly after that turned
outlaw.
The
James-Younger Gang committed their first bank robbery at Liberty, Missouri, on
February 13, 1866. “A dozen desperadoes, armed to the teeth and superbly
mounted swooped down on the city.” They overpowered the cashiers at the Clay
County Savings Bank and forced them to
stash over $72,000 into their saddlebags. While it’s unlikely Jesse was
involved in this robbery (he was still recovering from a severe chest wound he
received at the end of the war), Frank James, Cole Younger, and Archie Clement are said to have taken part.
Just
after noon on December 7, 1869, Frank and Jesse James robbed the Daviess County
Savings Association in Gallatin, Missouri. Two horsemen rode up to the door of
the Daviess County Savings Bank. One of them jumped off his horse and went into the bank. He ordered the
cashier, John W. Sheets, to put all the money in a bag. The robber put a bullet
in Sheet’s brain and another in his heart. One rider slipped off his horse
during their escape, got his foot caught in his stirrup, and was dragged for nearly fifty feet. The other
rider came back to help him amidst a flurry of gunfire. The two men made good
their escape with about $700.
Speculation
had it Jesse mistook Sheets for Samuel Cox, the leader of the troops who killed
“Bloody Bill” Anderson towards the end of the Civil War. But it’s more likely
he got caught up in the heat of the moment
and shot Sheets dead just because he could.
Six
men rode up to the Ocobock Brothers Bank in Corydon, Iowa, on June 13, 1871.
Three men entered the bank. Three men stood watch outside. They bound cashier
Ted Wock hand and foot and made off with
nearly $9,000 in cash, gold, and stamps. As they rode out of town, the boys paused at a political rally
where Henry Clay Dean was speaking. The bandits took a few moments to brag
about the robbery and rode off, leaving the townspeople bewildered.
Jesse and Frank mking off with the loot after robbing the Ocobock Brothers Bank
The Pinkerton Detective Agency said the James Gang switched tactics after the Corydon bank robbery and started robbing stagecoaches. They made a good job of it—working southern Missouri and Arkansas, particularly around Hot Springs.
The James Gang pulled their first
train robbery at Adair, Iowa, on July 21, 1873. Nine men, including Jesse and
Frank James, Cole, Jim, Bob, and John Younger, Clell Miller, Bill Chadwell, and
Charlie Pitts, derailed a section of track outside the Adair Depot just after
8:30 p.m. The gang expected the train to stop. But
the engine and two baggage cars were
thrown from the track when engineer John Rafferty slammed on the air brakes.
Rafferty was crushed and killed by the
engine. Fireman Dennis Foley was seriously injured.
Four
robbers entered the express car and ordered the agent, John Burgess, to open
the safe. The gang was disappointed when they discovered the safe contained
only $2,000, so they robbed the passengers. While the men inside the passenger
cars collected cash and jewelry from the passengers, the men outside fired
their guns into the air to scare them.
As
soon as they finished robbing the passengers, the robbers jumped on their
horses and made a clean getaway.
The
James Gang’s next target was the Iron Mountain Railroad at Gad’s Hill,
Missouri. The Salt Lake Herald said the boys “took possession of
the station, switched a train on the side track, and at their leisure...stripped
the passengers of their surplus wealth and robbed the express car of $11,500.”
The
gang put out a signal for the train to stop
and started a small brush fire to ensure they would catch the train crew’s
attention. Five masked, heavily armed robbers hopped on the train as it slowed
down. Engineer William Wetton and
Conductor C. A. Alford were taken prisoner, along with the rest of the crew. One
man rode amongst the cars, firing his gun
into the air to keep the passengers inside cowed. After they broke into the
safe and stole all the money from it, the robbers gathered up all the loot they
could take from the passengers.
Jesse
James handed engineer William Wetton a note for the press as they left. It
read:
The
most daring robbery on record
The Southbound train on the Iron
Mountain railroad was boarded here this evening by five heavily armed men and
robbed of _____ dollars. The robbers arrived at the station a few minutes
before the arrival of the train and arrested the agent and put him under a
guard, and then threw the train on the switch.
The robbers are all large men, none of
them under six feet tall. They were all masked and started in a southerly
direction after they had robbed the express. They were all mounted on
fine-blooded horses. There’s a hell of an
excitement in this part of the country.
The Northfield Minnesota bank raid on
September 7, 1876, was the farthest the James-Younger Gang had ever traveled
from their home base in Missouri.
The
Salt Lake Herald said, “on the afternoon of the 7th, the
desperadoes dashed into the town, shooting their revolvers and halting in front
of the Northfield bank. The citizens on the street realized what was going on
and opened fire on the robbers. Chadwell got
shot off his horse...and, in just a few minutes...Clell Miller was also killed...Jim
Younger had a bullet in his mouth, and Frank James one through his left leg.”
Jesse holding up a bank
Here’s the way it went down.
Three
robbers entered the bank; the rest
remained outside to keep watch. Cashier Haywood refused to open the safe.
Teller Bunker was shot in the shoulder by Bob Younger as he attempted to escape
through the front door. One robber shot and killed Haywood, saying it was “a
warning to those bank cashiers to open up when we ask them.”
Once
the shooting inside the bank started, the gunfire outside picked up. The
townspeople began an intense fire from behind doors and windows. “Two of [the
robbers] fell dead from their saddles. A third was
so sorely wounded that he nearly fell and was forced to beg his
companions not to desert him. One of them got on the horse with him and held
him during the retreat.”
Clell
Miller and Bill Chadwell died at
Northfield. The posse killed Charlie Pitts during the pursuit.
The
posse caught up with the gang as they crossed Lake Hanska Slough. Sheriff Gilpin ordered the robbers to
halt. They refused and retreated to the
Watonwan River amidst heavy gunfire. The posse chased them into the river and
the palm brush on the south side of the river.
One
robber threw up his hands and surrendered. He led the sheriff to where the rest
of the gang was holed up. The Mower
County Transcript reported, “Cole Younger and his brother were seen to fall
and were heard groaning, and the other brother, wounded at Northfield, stepped
out of the brush saying, ‘Don’t fire anymore, we are all shot to pieces.’ Cole
Younger and his brother were found lying together on the ground, badly
wounded.”
Jesse
and Frank James headed off in the opposite direction
and made good on their escape.
It
was the end of the James-Younger Gang. Jesse and Frank would later operate as
the James Gang, but nothing they did after this would be as spectacular as the
great Northfield, Minnesota raid or their earlier robberies.
Jesse crawling across the car tops to the engine
Jesse James was shot and killed in his home on April 5, 1882. Not long after that, Frank James began negotiations with Missouri Governor Crittenden to surrender. Frank asked for clemency, but Crittenden made no promises other than ensuring Frank would receive a fair trial. Frank surrendered his gun belt and gun to the governor at the Capitol in Jefferson City.
After
several weeks in prison, Frank was
acquitted of all charges against him and released. Unlike Cole Younger and his
brothers, Frank James served no time in the penitentiary.
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