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Crime Stories
Jesse James and his associates gave journalists plenty of opportunities to write dramatic stories. Read a few accounts of the bandits' murderous deeds.
The Kansas City Daily Journal of Commerce, December 9, 1869
Bank Robbery at Galletin, Mo.
The Cashier Shot and Killed.
We learned yesterday that John W. Streets, the cashier of the Davis county Savings Bank, at Galletin, was shot and killed last Monday. The following are the particulars as told to us:
Two men rode up to the banking house and getting off their horses, one of them went in and asked Mr. Sheets to change a one hundred dollar bill. While doing so the other man went in and said:
"If you will write out a receipt, I will pay you that bill."
Mr. Sheets sat down to do so, and while he was writing, the man drew a revolver and shot him twice -- once in the breast, and once through the head. The unfortunate banker fell from his chair dead.
The ruffians then turned upon Mr. McDonald, the clerk, and fired upon him twice, one of the shots taking effect in the fleshy part of one of his arms. At time of the shooting, one of them said with an oath, that
"Sheets and Cox had been the cause of the death of his brother, Bill Anderson, and that he was bound to have revenge."
The two then robbed the bank of all the money in the outside drawer, and mounting their horses deliberately rode away.
As soon as they had left the bank the alarm was given, and a number of the citizens started in pursuit. The men were overtaken a short distance from town, shots were exchanged, and in the running fight, one of the rascals was hit. He fell from his horse, and the animal galloped off free. The man's companion came to his rescue, and assisting him to mount behind himself, the two made their escape.
There is a boldness and recklessness about this robbery and murder that is almost beyond belief...
The Kansas City Times, August 18, 1876
The Train Robbers
Jesse W. James Makes a Statement, and Promises Proofs of His Innocence.
Meanwhile the Council Bluffs Train is Stopped Short, But the Robbers Find Themselves Foiled.
Whenever a train robbery or a bank cracking operation transpires in any portion of the United States, the James and Younger boys receive all the censure. They are the first names mentioned, and all the blame, all the criminality is centered upon them...
The Kansas City Daily Journal of Commerce, September 27, 1876
The James-Youngers
At last all doubt is cleared up -- the bank robbers at Northfield, Minnesota were the James-Younger "boys." There is no longer a question as to their being the perpetrators of all the bold, open daylight bank, and day and night train robberies of the past ten years, not only in Missouri, but in Illinois, Kentucky, West Virginia, Iowa, and Kansas.
Not only have we direct testimony.. but the internal evidence, the common features of all the robberies, point to their commission by the same men. They were all planned upon the same model; they were all executed in the same way, and with a cool and desperate courage which but few men are capable of.
Their exploits all partook of a semi-military character and could only have resulted from experience. And these men were among the most noted of those half-robber, half-soldier organizations, led by Quantrell, Todd, Bill Anderson and others, on the Missouri and Kansas border. They were no common thieves or vulgar robbers, but had an ambition to make themselves famous in, as they termed it, "a fair, square and honorable" way of doing such things...
The St. Louis Globe Democrat, October 16, 1876
Missouri Outlawry.
(From the Chicago Tribune.)
In Missouri [the Younger-James outlaws] rode into the towns and robbed banks in broad daylight; stopped passenger trains and, after emptying the express safe, "went through" everybody on board the cars. In the presence of more than 10,000 people, and in broad daylight, they presented their pistols at the ticket office of the Kansas City Fair Association and forced the Treasurer to hand over $10,000. They murdered officers sent to arrest them, and, despite their plunderings and murders, so enlisted popular sympathy in their behalf that the reward of $25,000 for their capture remained unclaimed, though their whereabouts were well known, and, in fact, instead of hiding, they paraded themselves publicly for the admiration of their fellow-Missourians. And had they remained in Missouri to the end of their lives doubtless they might with impunity have gone on with their raiding of railroad trains, and have been regarded with admiring pride by their fellow citizens of that Commonwealth. But they extended their field of operations to Minnesota, made their attack on the Northfield Bank, committed their dastardly murder of Heywood, and, to their wonderment, doubtless, they were not thereon hailed as heroic fellows who had gallantly gathered fresh laurels...
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