Warren sheaf., 1897-07-15

ourselves wished to retaliate upon those
who did the shooting. Statements 81
that nature were not true. We never
had, nor have we nov, any i'll will
towards those who, shot us Had been
in the position Of those citizens, 1 should
have acted as they did, that is, if / could.
will not give a description of our
long, weary flight to Mankato, during
which we suffered death almost. wading
through mud and water under contin.
uous downpour Of rain. In the vicinity
of Mankato, between daylight and sun
rise, we met man, whose name I have
forgotten, in woodland pasture. We
compelled him to go with us for about 4
mile, and then, realizing the risk we
took, but not knowing what else to do
with him, we turned him loose. We
learned from this man, for the first time.
that there had been one man killed and
two wounded at Mortified, and we were
at loss to make out who the third one
could be, but we learned after our cap
ture that a man had been shot some.
where in the south part of the city: the
mans name have forgotten. DR..
Wood, of Faribault, examined the
wound, and said it was caused by bull
let which had struck and glanced from
a brick house near by. OF this l knew
nothing only on hearsay, but know that
neither Jim nor myself fired a shot in
that part of the city. We were in front
of the bank, and our stray bullets went
north over Bridge square, I believe
that the bullet that wounded him was
fired by citizen at us, the ball passing
up the street southwark. ,....s.. 49,.
Now as to the man we took prisoner
near Mankato. The story he told in the
presence of Captain A. Barton, of Fari-
barlt, was true. He said that my broth
ers and myself had saved his life. The
question Of how to dispose of this man
was discussed, and in view of our des-
perate situation, it was proposed by one
Of our party that Ye shoot him, to which
I said: ss @#
mo, we will not kill him. 1t will be
easier to run away from all the men he
can put on Our track than it would be
to get rid of the memory of having kill
ed an innocent man who has never
wronged us, and who says he has a wife
and children depending on him for their
support. " s#.E t5
The man who made the proposition
compromised by leaving the mans fate
to Bob Younger. He walked I'D to.
where Bob and Jim Younger were sit
ting with the man., and the following
statement of the situation was made to
Bob: &.I
'sIf we turn this man loose, he will
have the whole country after us ii.
twelve hours, and with your broken arm
we cannot possibly get away"
To this Bob replied: 81 would rather
be shot dead than to have that man killed
for fear his telling might put few hum
dred men after us. There will be time
enough for shooting if he should join in
the pursuit.
In the meantime the man was swear
ing by all the gods that he would never
speak of having seen anyone. I cut the
cords from his wrists and told him that !
knew no oath that we might administer
to him would have the least weight, so
that to swear him would be waste of
time, but of course we would beglad and
thankful if he would say nothing of hav-
ing seen us. However, whether he
would or not, he was free to return to his
home, and we saw no more of the man
until he came as witness before the
grand jury at Faribault That night we
all together crossed the Blue Earth river
on the railroad bridge, and the next
night we separated, Pitts remaining with
myself and brothers.
In regard to our capture at Madelia,
Sept. FL, 1876, I only wish to say that the
account of it which appeared recently in
the newspapers to the effect that Sheriff
Mcdonald with $50 men of Sioux City,
Iowa, took us prisoners, is incorrect.
We were captured by about fifty citizens
of Watonwan county, led by Sheriff Gil
lespie and Captain W. W.. Murphy, of
the same county. Captain B. G.. Yates,
now of St. Paul, was also one of the
party. At the time of our capture Pitts
was killed and my brothers and myself
were badly wounded. Bob has since
died, and Jim and myself, for more than
twenty years, have been prisoners. I
will leave it to Sheriff Barton and the
wardens of this institution to speak Of
us during the past twenty years. have
often met Captain Yates, and also most
of the men several times that were d.
rectly concerned in our capture They
have been most kind in word and feeling
toward us. and since our capture we
have never felt toward them any othe,
feeling but that of friendship.
The above is true statement in so far
as I can speak from personal knowledge
What occurred in the bank I can speak
of only as it was told to me-
@ COLE YOUNGER.
Saltwater, MINI, 1897. 49,
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