Brave Fellows, True Men

• From February 1866 to September 1876, twelve banks, five railroads, five stagecoaches, and an exposition ticket office were all robbed by the James Younger Gang.

  • After the American Civil War (1861–65), the James brothers, Jesse and Frank, teamed up with the Younger brothers, Bob, Jim, Cole, and John, and they went on a crime spree.

  • They all participated in the Civil War as Confederate bushwhackers who attacked Unionist civilians.

  • Jesse James transformed the group into a bank-robbing posse after the fighting was over.

• In 1866, when they preyed upon the Clay County Savings Association in Liberty, Missouri, the gang is credited by some historians with committing the nation's first daylight armed robbery.

  • The gang only targeted passengers twice during all of their train robberies, both times when their profits were particularly slim. Every few months, they carried out robberies while avoiding capture by hiding out in between jobs.

  • They received assistance from sympathizers who provided their homes as safe hideouts. It was challenging to track down the gang because they used maps and compasses and steered clear of heavily trafficked roads.

• The gang expanded and moved between Midwest states, committing robberies in Kansas, Arkansas, Kentucky, West Virginia, Iowa, Texas, and Missouri. They also committed robberies of trains, stagecoaches, and banks in those states.

• On June 3, 1871, they committed a bank robbery in Corydon, Iowa, but were discovered. They were then referred to as the James-Younger Gang.

Tracking them Down

• In 1874, after their train robbery in Missouri, the Pinkerton National Detective Agency was hired by the Adams Express Company, which lost the most money during the theft, to find the gang.

• In March 1874, Lan Pinkerton (PNDA’s Founder) ordered detective Joseph Whicher to find James, but Whicher was discovered dead the next day.

  • In January 1875, a furious Pinkerton dispatched a team of detectives to find the gang, but they were only able to kill Jesse's half-brother, who was eight years old, and seriously hurt Jesse's mother during a botched raid.

  • Pinkerton withdrew after being condemned for this deed, and the gang carried on as usual.

• In 1876, they disbanded when the Younger brothers were caught while trying to break into the Northfield First National Bank in Minnesota.

  • The James brothers were both shot in the legs but managed to escape on horseback and maintain a low profile until Jesse started another gang three years later.

  • The James Gang was in power until 1882, when Robert Ford, a fellow gang member, betrayed them and shot Jesse in the back inside James's home in St. Joseph, Missouri, in order to collect the $10,000 bounty on his head.

Romanticization of Outlaws

• Even though many of the outlaws of the Old West were murderers, their exploits have been romanticized and exaggerated.

  • The seductive allure of criminals appears to be based on conflicting emotions of love and hatred as well as attraction and repulsion.

• In their refusal to follow the law, outlaws exemplify freedom and are a reminder of the law-breaking children we once were.

  • Additionally, they are praised for acting charitably out of the blue.

  • Characters like Robin Hood and the polite highwayman were made famous for purportedly serving the interests of the populace.

• A prime example of this was the outrage that Jesse James' murder by Robert Ford in 1882 sparked in the nation.

  • The New York Times was one of many newspapers in the US that published articles.

  • People traveled from far and wide to see James's body because of his legendary charm.

Related Crimes

• In 1790–1802, Samuel "Wolfman" Mason and his gang prey on riverboat passengers on the Mississippi and Ohio rivers in the United States.

• In 1863–64, During the American Civil War, William "Bloody Bill" Anderson, a pro-Confederate guerrilla leader, leads a band of outlaws against Federal soldiers in Kansas and Missouri.

• In 1897, Al Jennings, a former prosecutor became an outlaw and forms the Jennings Gang, robbing trains in Oklahoma, United States.