Friday, August 23, 2013

"Their pistol shots in the street were answered almost immediately."

The State Journal

FRIDAY. OCTOBER 6. 1876.

NORTHFIELD BANDITTS.

SOME INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT THE
ROBBERY. THEIR ARREST AND
TREATMENT IN PRISON, ETC.

(St. Louis Times, Sept. 30.)

   The return of the St. Louis policemen with Chief McDonough, yesterday, and their reports of the Northfield affair leave no longer any room to doubt the identification of the captured and the dead. The Times gave, yesterday, some facts by which the Youngers might be identified, and McDonough says they coincide exactly with the wounded men at Faribault, Who have admitted that they are Cole and Bob Younger. Before McDonough left Minuesota, the third of the band who is yet alive and in jail at Faribault, admitted his identity as Calvin Carter. The Younger's attempted first to pass him off as Jim Younger. McDonough had information to the effect that Jim Younger had received a wound in the thigh at the fight near Osceola with captain Lull, of Pinkerton's detectives and a young deputy sheriff named Daniels. Daniels was killed and so was John Younger being shot through the jugular vein by Lull, who was in turn mortally wounded. There were only five in the fight. One of Lull's party ran, and Jim Younger received a wound in the thigh, from which it was believed he had never recovered. McDonough had Carter stripped and there was no scar or wound on the thigh. Russell, one of the St. Louis police officers, who formerly lived in Western Missouri, and who accompanied McDonough, insisted that the man was not Jim Younger, and that Cal Carter was his name. The wounded robbers finally admitted the deceit practiced. It is the opinion of the Saint Louisians that it was the intention to pass Carter off for Jim Younger and secure their brother freedom from further trouble by the false impression.

   The best information now is that Jim Younger is now on a ranch belonging to Captain Joe Lee, near Clifton, Colfax county, New Mexico. John Jarrette. the brother-in-law of the Youngers, is supposed to be there also.

   The captured bandits talked almost incessantly about their mothers and sisters, the Chief says. They are more likely to see some of their relatives than they imagine. Two sisters of the Youngers, living in Western Missouri, left Thursday night for Minnesota, going by the way of St. Joseph, to see there brothers. It is supposed the boys have a good sized "plant" somewhere, and it is probable they may tell their relatives a good deal deal about their lives.

   The Chief says the prisoners all vehemently deny any connection with the Otterville robbery. He found a curious state of affairs when he reached Faribault. The jail is a little square structure with one room, and in it an iron cage, in which the prisoners were put. The sheriff was holding a regular levee. All the people in the surrounding country were flockin, and the jailer would unlock the door and let them in as many as could enter. Cole would talk to the visitors, especially the women, until the whole crowd would be crying and boohooing. With tears streaming down his cheeks, Cole told of his early connection with the Sabbath School, and even claimed to have been a Baptist class leader at no very distant day. He besought them to pray for him, and they promised they would, and then passed their "wipes" through the bars for him to dry his tears on.

   They were getting up a good deal of sympathy when McDonough arrived and told the sheriff the character of the men he had to deal with and the danger of a rescue. After that the citizens held a meeting and a detail of ten men was made twice every twenty-four hours to guard the jail. The captured men are all desperately wounded. A buckshot entered Cole Younger's face under the right eye and came out under the chin on the same side. He has seven or eight buckshot holes in his back and one in his hip. Bob Younger's elbow is shattered, and he is also shot in the back. Carter can only mumble a few words. His lower jaw is shuttered, and he is shot in the lower part of the body.

   When Russell, the St. Louis', officer, entered, one of the prisoners ground his teeth. All responded to the greeting. Cole Younger asked if he came as a friend or for identification. After that he was silent on all except casual matters.
  
   The Chief says that the robbers still living disappoint him. He expected to find men full of nerve and grit. On the contrary, he says, they appear utterly dispirited and in constant fear. He adds, however, that every man in the party received wounds in the streets of Northfield and that the life in the brush was a terrible ordeal. The robbers met on a ranche near Sherman. Texas, the 23rd of August, and went by rail to Minnesota. They visited a number of places, including St. Paul and Minneapolis before deciding on the place to strike, Then they bought horses and were occupied three or four days in training them, giving out that they were drovers. When they rode up to the Northfield bank, Jesse James. Pitts and Bob Younger went in. Pitts did the talking, and finally shot the cashier. Jesse James looked after the teller, a youth named Bunker. Their pistol shots in the street were answered almost immediately. A man named Manning fired from the second story of a building opposite the bank and killed Clell Miller, knocking him from his horse. A minute or two later a man named Mitchell fired from a second story window on the same side of the street as the bank and killed Chadwell. The three men in the bank ran out, and Bob Younger, going to Clell Miller, took off his belt and weapons. Pitts horse was killed before ho could reach him, and he ran to Bob Younger and with considerable difficulty climbed on behind him.

   As the robbers galloped up and down the street, three men, attracted by the firing, came out of a saloon near the bank. Cole Younger shouted to them to go back. Two did so. The third, a Swede, named Gustavson, didn't understand, and raised his hand to his ear. Younger replied with a bullet which went square into the Swede's forehead, and be dropped dead.

   The moment the robber rode away, Bunker, the teller, ran to the telegraph office and tried to send a message to Dundas, three miles below, through which the robbers had to pass, but the operator at Dundas was not at his post.

   McDonough is certain that the two men who escaped were the James boys, although it is pretty certain that only one of them could have been there, On the way up from Texas to Minnesota Jesse James had Bill Hinds with him and they are probably the two now at large. A Sheriff with a posse is alter them, but they are making their way toward Dakota, and their capture is a matter of uncertainty. The reward for the captured and foots up $6,000, $1,000 for each, but there is a good deal of dispute as to who shall receive it.

[The State Journal, Jefferson City, MO., Friday, October 06, 1876. Vol. 4. No. 41 Pg. 6]
   Ordinary ARMED citizens put an end to the Cole-Younger gang. We need to put an end to the other 'gangs' controlling many of our streets. Since it's quite obvious that most our corrupt governments definitely aren't up to the task. And instead, many of our perverse governments want us disarmed. So that we are left at the mercy of their criminal compatriots.

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