Robber and hero: the story of the raid on the First National Bank of Northfield, Minnesota, by the James-Younger band of robbers, in 1876.

JOSEPH LEE HEYWOOD.
Robber and Hero The story of the raid on the First National Bank of Northfield, Minnesota, By the James-Younger Band of Robbers in 1876 The Tragedy in the Bank The Battle in the Street The Two-Weeks Pursuit The Final Capture
By George Huntington

Accounts of bank-robberies and other exploits of outlaws and desperadoes are usually supposed to belong to the criminal-news columns of the daily paper and to the writer of sensational literature. When the robber is the only or the principal actor in the scene, and his prowess or brutality the only feature worth mentioning, the less said of it the better. But when a great crime is the occasion of great heroism, courage, fidelity, intrepid resistance, and the triumph of virtue over violence, then there is a story worth telling, and a lesson worth learning.
The aim of the author has been to give a correct account of the facts involved, and leave them to convey their own lesson and inspiration. Revolting details have been omitted. All important statements are made upon the authority of eye-witnesses, where such testimony was accessible, and in most cases by the collation of a number of independent accounts.
It only remains to say that the book herewith presented to the public is intended both as a memorial of Mr. Heywood and as a tribute to the valor and heroic endeavor of all those who helped or tried to help in resisting, pursuing or capturing his assailants and their confederates. Whatever pecuniary profits may accrue from it sale will be sacredly devoted to the erection of a monument to the memory of Mr. Heywood.

Of course they passed under assumed names, introducing themselves as J. C. King, Jack Ward, etc. It is now known that the band consisted of the following men: Jesse James and his brother Frank, Thomas C. Younger (commonly known as Cole Younger) and his brothers James and Robert, Clel Miller, William Stiles, alias Chadwell, and Charles Pitts, alias Geo. Wells. Some persons maintain that there was a ninth man, but he has never been identified, and is commonly believed to be mythical. The eight whose names are given were all men of criminal antecedents, and some of them with a record for deeds of the most revolting atrocity; though several of them were connected with highly respectable families.