Robberies & The Formation of the James-Younger Gang
On February 13, 1866, a group of gunman stole up to $60,000 from the Clay County Savings Association. It was a fortune at the time (almost $1 million today), and although police did not know who committed the crime, the list of suspects includes the James brothers, Clement, and Cole Younger. A reward was issued for the capture of Clement who was suspected of masterminding the raid.
After two members of Quantrill’s Raiders (Confederate bushwhackers) had been freed in a daring raid in the town of Independence, Missouri on June 13, Jesse and other gang members began a crime spree. The jailer died in the breakout, and he was just one of numerous people to die at the hands of Jesse James and his men. Clement died in a shootout after arriving in the town of Lexington to drive Republican voters away from the polls.
The mayor of Richmond and two lawmen died in another raid in 1867, and the bushwhackers robbed the Nimrod Long bank in Russellville, Kentucky on March 20, 1868. However, it was the beginning of the end of the original group of gang members as several senior bushwhackers were killed, captured or simply fled the group.
The Outlaw
Although Jesse was very much on the radar of the police, it was his actions on December 7, 1869, that thrust him into the spotlight. Along with Frank and several other men, Jesse traveled to Gallatin, Missouri and robbed the Davies County Savings Association. Jesse murdered John Sheets, the bank’s cashier, in the mistaken belief that he was Samuel Cox and involved in the death of William Anderson during the Civil War. The murder, along with the fact that Jesse and his men escaped through the middle of a posse, garnered newspaper coverage of the gang’s deeds for the first time.
Thomas Crittenden, the Governor of Missouri, offered a reward for the capture of Jesse and he was publicly declared an outlaw. Jesse was seemingly clever enough to understand the influence of the media at the time and teamed up with a pro-Confederate newspaper editor, John Newman Edwards. Together, the duo managed to paint Jesse as a kind of folk hero and a Southern patriot during the Reconstruction era.
Jesse used the platform provided by Newman and the Kansas City Times to write letters and editorials defending his actions. Jesse started to become more political in his writing and claimed he was proud of the Confederacy; he also showed his disdain for the Republicans. It was through these letters that Newman was able to portray Jesse as a Robin Hood character who was a noble outlaw and a man of the people. In reality, Jesse was nothing of the sort.
By now, the group of outlaws had become the James-Younger gang and consisted of the James brothers and the four Younger brothers; Cole, Jim, John, and Bob along with several former Confederates. The gang took their criminal activities to several states including Iowa, Kansas, Texas, and West Virginia. They robbed stagecoaches, banks and even a fair in Kansas City and performed many of their deeds during the day in front of a crowd.
The gang turned to train robbery and committed several crimes of this nature in 1873 and 1874. For one such theft on July 21, 1873, they wore Ku Klux Klan masks. The James-Younger Gang appeared invincible, but finally, a group of professional crime stoppers was hired to put an end to Jesse James and his crew once and for all.