The Crime Book

24

F

rom February 1866 to

September 1876, the James-

Younger Gang robbed 12

banks, five trains, five

stagecoaches, and an exposition

ticket booth. Their crime spree

began in the wake of the American

Civil War (1861–65) when the James

brothers – Jesse and Frank – joined

forces with the Younger brothers

• Cole, Jim, John, and Bob. They
  all fought as Confederate
  bushwhackers attacking civilian
  Unionists during the Civil War.
  After the hostilities ended, Jesse
  James turned the group into a
  bank-robbing posse.
  Some historians credit the gang
  with the first daylight armed
  robbery in the US when they
  targeted the Clay County Savings
  Association in Liberty, Missouri, in

1866. In all their train robberies, the
      gang only robbed passengers
      twice, when their takings were
      especially low. They committed
      robberies every couple of months,
      hiding out in between jobs to avoid
      the law. They were aided by
      sympathizers who offered their
      homes as hideouts. The gang used
      maps and compasses, and avoided
      well-travelled roads, making it
      difficult to pursue them.

The gang grew, and they drifted

between Midwest states, pulling

off robberies of banks, trains, and

stagecoaches, in Missouri, Kansas,

Kentucky, Arkansas, Iowa, Texas,

and West Virginia. On 3 June 1871,

they robbed a bank in Corydon,

Iowa, but were identified as

suspects. From then on, they

became known as the James-

Younger Gang.

THEY WERE BRAVE

FELLOWS. THEY WERE

TRUE MEN

THE JAMES-YOUNGER GANG, 1866–82

IN CONTEXT

LOCATION

Missouri, Kansas, Kentucky,

Arkansas, Iowa, Texas,

and West Virginia, US

THEME

Armed robbery

BEFORE

1790 –1802 Samuel “Wolfman”

Mason and his band of

followers prey on riverboat

travellers on the Ohio and

Mississippi rivers, US.

1863–64 William “Bloody Bill”

Anderson, a pro-Confederate

guerrilla leader during the

American Civil War, leads

a band of outlaws against

Federal soldiers in Missouri

and Kansas, US.

AFTER

1897 Al Jennings, a

prosecuting attorney-turned-

outlaw, forms the Jennings

Gang, and robs trains in

Oklahoma, US.

Jesse James (left) posing with two

of the Younger brothers. Despite Jesse’s

romanticized image and comparisons

to Robin Hood, there is no evidence

that he gave their loot to the poor.

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BANDITS, ROBBERS, AND ARSONISTS 25

Tracking them down

In 1874, following a train robbery

in Missouri, the Adams Express

Company, which suffered the

biggest loss during the robbery,

enlisted the services of the

Pinkerton National Detective

Agency to catch the gang.

In March 1874, Allan Pinkerton,

the agency’s founder, sent detective

Joseph Whicher to pursue James,

but Whicher was found dead the

day after he arrived. An outraged

Pinkerton sent a group of detectives

to track the gang down in January

1875, but they succeeded only in

killing Jesse’s eight-year-old half

brother and wounding Jesse’s

mother with an incendiary device

during a botched raid. Condemned

for this act, Pinkerton withdrew

and the gang continued unabated.

The James-Younger Gang

dissolved in 1876 when the Younger

brothers were arrested during an

See also: Bonnie and Clyde 26–29 ■ The Wild Bunch 150–51

ambush while attempting to rob

the Northfield First National Bank

in Minnesota. The James brothers

were both wounded in the legs, but

escaped on horseback and kept low

profiles until three years later, when

Jesse formed another gang. The

The posse rides into town and divides

into three groups

Two wait outside the bank

as guards

The group reunite, shoot their

way out, and gallop out of town

Three go into the

bank

The three grab the loot

Two remain on the road

as lookouts

James Gang’s reign ended in 1882

when fellow gang member Robert

Ford betrayed and shot Jesse in the

back inside James’s home in St

Joseph, Missouri, in order to collect

the $10,000 bounty (about £189,000

today) on his head. ■

The romanticization of outlaws

The exploits of Old West outlaws

have been exaggerated and

romanticized, despite the fact

that many were killers. The

captivating allure of criminals

seems to be based on conflicted

feelings of both attraction and

repulsion, of love and hatred.

Outlaws embody freedom in

their refusal to obey laws,

representing the boundary-

crossing children that we used

to be. They are also eulogized

for unexpected benevolence: the

courteous highwayman and

figures, including Robin Hood,

were popularized for their

supposed altruistic motives and

for “serving” the people.

The public reaction to

Robert Ford’s murder of Jesse

James in 1882 is a case in point,

as it caused a national

sensation. Newspaper articles

were published across the US,

including in The New York

Times. Such was James’s allure

that people travelled from far

and wide to see the body of the

legendary robber.

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