The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1876-10-19
WESTERN BANDITTI.

Remarkable Career OF the James and
Younger BrOthers-The Band Broken Up
After Fourteen Years of Crime.
The names of the James boys and the
Younger brothers are familiar to the
whole country. The band which they
represent has enjoyed a success paral-
leled by no other criminal or outlaw or
ganization on this continent. For eight
years these men baffied the best detect
i've talent in the country. The authori-
ties In every State, from West Virginia
TO Texas, and from Minnesota to the
the Gulf, and the detectives of Chicago,
Cincinnati and Louisville, have all by
turns taken a hand In the pursuit of the
robbers and In hunting them down.
Their tactics were very simple, but they
never failed till the Northield job. The
secret of their success lay in their knowl-
edge of the Southwestern country and
their complete isolation from all but
known friends and old war companions.
They were continually moving, but al
ways by unfrequented roads and over
by-patbs. There were nearly a score
in the band at first, and period
icaiIY from four to eight of them
would fall on bank In some country
town, or upon railroad train at some
way station. Half of them, riding uD
and down the streets discharging revolv-
ers and uttering curses long and loud,
would throw the towns-people into q
panic, while the others, dismounting,
dashed into the bank, overpowered the
cashier and swept the contents Of his
safe into sack, and then the band would
be off like the wind. scattering after the
first few hours ride, and leaving trail
SO blind that pursUers were thrown too
far In the rear to ever make capture pos
sible. The attacks on therailroad trains
were similar, the objective point being
always the express safes. individuals
were rarely or ever mOlested save when
1t became necessary on one Of thes rapid
retreats to enforce horse trade. In the
brief conversations which these men held
with their captives they protested rude
sort of chivalry. saying rich corporations
were their only prey, and they never
killed III cold blood.
THE ERRORS OF DETECTIVES.
(IAat these men succeeded 80 long In
their nefariOus profession, for prOfes-
sion it came to be, seemed almost like a
mockery on the capacity of American
officers. One mistake, and perhaps the
worst made, was that these officials COM
5nenced by attributing to the James and
Younger families all the crimes, disre-
garding the likelihood that there were
Others associated with them, which has
since proven to be the fact. By this &C
ton of the authorities these outlawed
men were able to establish perfect alibis
nm some of these cases, which tended to
excite sympathy for them and to confuse
the officers. Then, again, the descrip
tions became 80 mixe1 that nothing
could be made out of them. When the
various members of the Northtield band
were captured it was utterly impossible
to identity them until men who had
known the outlaws personally ID Mis-
souri, we're taken there to identify them.
THE RECORD OF THEIR GRIMES.
The career of these men as robbers
opened at RusoeliviIle, KY, In the spring
of 1868. where O bank was robbed by six
OF them IN precisely the manner before
described In December, 1869, they
rode INTO Gallatin, Devriess county,
Mo-, killed he cashier, John w. Sheets,
and Carried off She contents OF the bank
safe. On tAis occasion the robbers were
traced TO Clay county, the home of the
James boys, mother. and yet the outlaws
established their innocence of the crime
10y Che affidavits of the merchants of
Liberty, where they had been the day OF
the robbery. The next exploit was ten
months later, when seven OF the bandits
rode up to the gate of the Kansas City
Exposltion grounds, and in the presence
of 10000 people robbed the ticket agent
of the days receipts. Oorydon, Iowa,
was visited on the Sd day of June, 1871,
and the bank relieved of all its treas
ure. In the flight the robbers turned
en- pursuing party and worsted them.
The banks Of Columbus, KY, and of
Ste. Genevieve, Mo-, were next raided,
and then In 1873 train was wrecked on
the Book Island and Pacific road just
east Of Council Bluffs, and the express
car pluadeped. There an engineer was