What was jesse james gang called

The James Gang was an outlaw band led by Jesse James , who robbed stagecoaches, stores, and trains throughout the Midwest from to Two died on the scene, while the rest of them escaped. However, on September 21st, a search party caught up with the Younger brothers and Charlie Pitts. Pitts was killed in the ensuing gunfight, and the Younger brothers were captured and sent to prison. The James brothers successfully evaded the search party.

For the next three years, Frank and Jesse James lived peacefully in Nashville, Tennessee , where Frank seems to have thrived. However, Jesse was restless. In , Jesse began to gather up new recruits, formed the James Gang, and returned to a life of crime. When the opportunity was ripe, he said, he would capture the outlaws. Both of the local men cautioned Whicher against such a bold plan. The cocky year-old detective would hear no more. Unfortunately for Whicher, the James boys had already been alerted, most likely by banker Adkins.

He had been shot through the head and heart, and a rope dangled from his neck. Meanwhile, two other Pinkertons were hot on the trail of the Youngers in St. Clair County. On March 15, , agents Louis Lull using the name W. Daniels—set out from Osceola for Roscoe. After staying at the Roscoe House hotel that evening, the three left the next afternoon for the farm of Theodrick Snuffer, a family friend of the Youngers, some three miles out of town.

Wright fell back out of sight as Lull and Daniels approached the farmhouse. Snuffer came out to talk to the two men, who posed as cattle buyers. The two strangers in the yard were well armed and suspicious looking. When they departed to rejoin Wright, the two Younger brothers followed them.

Wright panicked and put spurs to his horse. Jim Younger fired at him, shooting his hat off, but Wright kept on going. Lull and Daniels turned around slowly in the road. The Youngers told the two cattle buyers to throw down their guns and then questioned them about what they were doing in this part of the country.

Rambling around, Lull replied. An argument ensued, and John Younger leveled his shotgun at Daniels. Lull saw his chance. He pulled a No. Recoiling, the wounded Younger fired both barrels of his shotgun at Lull, striking him in the left arm. Meanwhile, John turned back toward his brother, rode a few yards, and tumbled into the road dead. By that time, Jim Younger had killed Daniels and had received a flesh wound in his hip. The seriously wounded Lull was taken to Roscoe later that evening, but he died within six weeks.

Newspapers debated the issue. Missouri Governor Woodson hired secret agents J. Ragsdale and George W. By December , the James boys and two of the surviving Youngers, Cole and Bob, were ready to rob their third train. After learning of a huge gold shipment from the west, five gang members forced section hands to pile ties on the tracks of the Kansas Pacific Railroad near Muncie, Kan.

During the holdup, shots were fired at the conductor as he ran from the train, apparently to flag a freight train that was following the express. He was not hit. In response to this latest outrage, the Kansas Pacific Railroad Co. The suspects included Jesse and Frank James, of course, but only one man, Bud McDaniel, was ever captured and charged with the crime. McDaniel never confessed or squealed on anyone; he escaped jail before he could be tried and was soon after shot and killed while being pursued.

On January 26, , the Pinkertons pursued their most desperate solution to capturing the James brothers. That night, a special train eased out of Kansas City, Mo. Conductor William Westfall let them off near Kearney and then returned with the train to Kansas City.

The detectives left as abruptly as they had come, without even summoning a doctor. A neighbor of the Samuels family, James A. Hill, rushed to Kearney and brought back Dr. James V. Scruggs, but there was nothing the doctor could do for young Archie.

Exactly what happened during the raid is unclear, and it has been debated whether the object thrown was intended as a bomb or a flare.

Likely, at least one of the outlaw James boys had been in the house, for later someone borrowed Dr. There was also talk that some of the detectives had been killed, but that was never verified. What is clear is that a revolver left behind by the detectives bore the inscription P. Pinkerton Government Guard. That organization, however, refused to accept responsibility for the attack. King; Allan K. But no one was ever arrested. Many at the time believed that high-placed officials in the Missouri government prevented the arrests to protect themselves, the Pinkertons and the railroads.

Ultimately, so much public sympathy was aroused for the Jameses because of the debacle that a move was made in the Missouri Legislature to provide amnesty to the James Gang. While the vote was 58 to 38 in favor of amnesty, the measure still failed because a two-thirds majority was needed.

In the meantime, the James brothers dispensed their own justice. That September, a bank was robbed in Huntington, W. Riding out of heavy woods, the gang seized Henry Chateau, a watchman guarding a railroad bridge under construction, and his red lantern was used to signal the incoming train to halt. As the train squealed to a stop, discharging pistols and terrific yells rang out, accord-ing to the Kansas City Evening Star.

John B. Bushnell, the chief messenger, fled to the other end of the train with the U. Express safe key. Once inside the baggage car, the outlaws held a gun to the head of baggage master Louis Pete Conklin sometimes referred to as Conkling and forced him to lead them in search of Bushnell.

As the masked bandits proceeded through the train, women shrieked and men scrambled beneath their seats. After finding Bushnell and threatening him with death, the outlaws retrieved the key and opened the safe. A small posse soon formed but had no luck—the hard-riding gang was long gone. Louis to send his agents into southwest Missouri to chase down the criminals. This effort led to the arrest of inexperienced gang member Hobbs Kerry, who had been flashing money in Granby, Mo.

A case was now building against the gang—if it could be captured. The Kansas City Journal described the letters as suspiciously—almost nauseatingly—monotonous. The next month, the gang was changed for all time when the Jameses and Youngers not only went back to robbing a bank but also chose a bank far from their usual stamping grounds. Cole, Jim and Bob Younger were all captured and sent to prison in the aftermath of that fiasco, which had also cost the lives of Pitts, Chadwell and Miller.

Jesse and Frank James escaped, but now they had to recruit new men. After Northfield, the notion that the James boys were being accused of robberies that they had not committed played poorly in Missouri.

The gang of ex-Civil War guerrillas having problems with postwar adjustment had become a gang of common thugs in the eyes of many disenchanted Missourians. The James brothers were not heard from for months after escaping from Minnesota, but they had not gone to South America or Australia.

In the summer of , the James farm was brutally attacked by Union soldiers. Some historians accuse Jesse and Frank of being cruel to Union soldiers, while others argue that it was the brutal treatment the brothers received that turned them to a life of crime. Either way, they rebelled against harsh postwar civil legislation and took the law into their own hands. They began robbing trains, stagecoaches and banks that were owned or operated by a Northern institution. There has been speculation that the boys and their gangs were like Robin Hood, robbing the rich and giving to the poor, but there is no evidence for that.

Most likely, they kept the money for themselves. From to , the James Gang was the most feared band of outlaws in American history, responsible for more than 20 bank and train robberies and the murders of countless individuals who stood in their way. They were legends in their own time, popular in Missouri for actively trying to further the Confederate cause. On December 7, , the gang robbed the Gallatin, Missouri, bank. From that robbery to the end of their careers, members of the James Gang had a price on their heads, dead or alive.

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