The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1874-04-03
The Missouri Train Robbers.
The Career Of the James and Younger
observation-disclosures Terrified into
Submissf0n- Incidents of their Law
less Life-Dyfng with their Boots On.

submi ssf0n- Incl dents of their Law
less Life-DyIng with their Boots On.
There are-or were-fOur of the Young
ers, who came of good Kentucky stock.
Coleman and James Younger We're educated
in Kentucky before the war broke out, the
Others in Missouri. All are good looking,
manly, and to a certain degree, accom-
lished gentlemen. They wonld pass muster
at any hotel or any Mississippi steamer and
hardly be taken for what they are-desper-
ADDE'S without pity or fear. Their father
was killed by a gang of bushwhackers in
| the war at Harrisonville; their uncle is
Judge Younger, of St. Clair county, and
they have brother who, am informed, is
wealthy and respectable farmer living
| only a few miles from here.
John Younger who was killed last week,
was about twenty-four years old, and as the
coolest and most intellectual of the four,
| had of late come to be their real if not their
nominal leader. He was handsome, dash
| ing fellow, affected the beau, and was quite
| a ladies' man. At fifteen he killed his man,
| but was acquitted. In 1869, or thereabouts,
band of half dozen citizens, aggrleved
| at the absence of a horse, went out to hunt
| the Youngers, and called at d house where
| they were accustomed to resort. Johc and
two of his brothers happened along few
moments after, and with q fine s. nse OF chiy-
airy resolved to avcnge the insult upon his
friends thus practically accused of harbor-
| ing h rse-thieves. They pursued the pur-
suers, and halted and disarmed them, and
John remarked on receiving a small pistol
from one of his prisoners:
"You id fool, If you'd shot me with
| that and I'd known of it, I'd have had you
kicked out of the country"
| Such was John Younger, who at present
occupies plot of earth in a struggling and
J neglected graveyard at Monegaw Springs,
| over which is heaped mass of rain-beaten
clay.
Fell as he was in heart and mind,
He left no Drawer heart behind
man about thirty years of age, the nominal
chief of the band. There is not wholesale
murder, nor an outrageous assault on some
outlying settlement, nor train-robbery,
that has been perpetrated since 1865 along
the line from the Trinity River in Texas
away up to the Niobrara, in which he has
not had full knowledge. He has plundered
stages in Texas, stolen horses in Arkansas
and the Indian Territory, robbed trains in
Missouri and Iowa, plundered stores in Kan
sas and murdered men everywhere. He
was one of QuantrelPs aides when Lawrence
was sacked, and is said to have shot down
fight
| Local history tells that amid his spoils
was an Enfield rifle-a weapon Of which he
had heard good account and whose de-
structive qualities he was DESTROYS of test
ing. Accordingly he placed six prisoners in
| file, convict fashion, each with his hand on
his file-leader's shoulder, and putting the
muzzle of his rifle to the back of the last
man, killed four at one discharge. The
other two brothers are Robert, aged twenty,
and James, about twenty-eight. They have
the courage and ferocity of their more dis
| tinguished relatives, and have participated
in all their exploits.
! About 100 miles north OF here are the
James brothers, their allies and rivals in
desperate deeds, on whose heads q price has
been placed, but who treat the law and its
! ficers much as leviathans the shaking of a
spear.
| THE JAMES BOYS
have made land worthless in Clay county,
business is at standstill, and immigration
has been checked. They have cost the coun-
/ try thereaway several millions of dollars
direct loss and several lives, Though they
have not been as deeply stained with blood
as their confederates to the southwark.
When they make a haul they retire to ST.
Louis, New Orleans, Memphis or even Kan
sas City for debauch and gambling carni-
| val, and their money spent, return home to
! plan another raid. 1t was the Jameses and
| Younsers who last year threw a passenger
| train from the track at Alton, Ia, shot the
engineer, and robbed the mails and safe i'll
the presence of six or seven car loads of
passengers. The country rose to pursue
| them, but they made their way safely home.
| And now for the party which tracked the
| Youngers. About the 18th they ran their
game to earth in the vicinity of MOnegaw
! Springs, and cautiously awaited an opportu-
| nifty to make a capture. A brakeman of the
| Iron Mountain Road was sent out as a spy,
and captured by the Yunngers in a ravine
where they were in hiding, but he played
his part SO well that he was set at liberty,
with a warning to leave the country. He
reported at once at Osceola to the detectives,
Allen of Chicago aud Wright, of St. Louis,
whose real name is DuckwOrth. They were
| az conlpanied by Deputy Sheriff Edward B.
Daniels. On Tueeday morning they set out
and called at the house of man named
Snuffer, an ex-surveyor, of whom they
asked the way to Sims farm. John and
| James Younger were in the house at the
| time taking dinner.
| As soon as Snuffer had given them their
directions they rode away, turning to the
left instead Of to the right. This seemed
strange to him, and he mentioned the fact
| to the YOungerS. know them, SAID
John, starting up from the table let's go
after Them" James said, "Never mind
they've gone. Let them CO." But John in
sisted on following and fighting them, say
ing, as he buckled on his belt, I'd as soon
be killed now as next day, if it's got to be- y
They both mounted and spurred along the
road after the detectives, whom they over
took on stony hill side and called to sur
render. Accounts of the fight are conflict
ing. Duckworth says that he drew aside to
make room for his companions to fire; but,
seeing them throw down their revolvers as
if to surrender put spurs to bis horse and
galloped off, pursued by James Younger,
whom he escaped.
1t would seem as if Allen and Daniels
threw down their belts, finding themselves
covered as feint, but when the Youngers
came up Allen drew a small revolver and
| shot John in the breast. Da iels cried out.
g For Gods sake, don't fire Pm Ed. Daniels
of Osceola;" but John replied, Il know
| you" and fired two charges of buckshOt