The Northfield Tragedy; or, the Robber's Raid / A Thrilling Narrative; A history of the remarkable attempt to rob the bank at Northfield, Minnesota; the Cold-Blooded Murder of the Brave Cashier and an Inoffensive Citizen. The Slaying of Two of the Brigands. The Wonderful Robber Hunt and Capture Graphically Described. Biographies of the Victims, the Captors & the Notorious Younger and James Gang of Desperadoes

by J. H. Hanson

THE JAMES BROTHERS.

It is supposed that the two robbers that succeeded in escaping, leaving six of the gang in Minnesota, three captives and three dead, were the notorious James boys, Frank and Jesse. These bandits claim, as do the Younger brothers, that they were forced to a course of crime by the aggressions of their enemies.

From the close of the war down to the present time these men have been outlaws, and a long list of crimes are laid at their door. Among others may be named the robbing of the bank at Russellville, Ky., in March, 1868. The attack on the bank of Gallaten, Mo., and the kilting of the cashier, J. W. Sheets, in December of the same year. Another bank robbery at Corydon, Iowa, in June, 1871. Another in Columbia, Ky., when the cashier was killed, and still another robbery of the bank of St. Genevieve, Mo., May, 1873. The attack on the railroad train at Gad's Hill in 1873, the more recent robbery, in December, 1875, of the express company's safe on a train on the Kansas Pacific Railroad at Muncie, where $30,000 was secured, and the Otterville robbery on the Missouri Pacific Railroad last July. All are laid to this wonderful gang of bandits which includes the James and Younger boys and a working gang of perhaps fifteen others.

In January, 1875, a desperate attempt was made to capture the James brothers by Pinkerton's detective police, by surrounding and firing the house in which their mother, now the wife of Dr. Samuels of Clay county, Mo., lived. It was a sad failure, one person being killed and several wounded. There are no good likenessess of these robbers extant, the only ones the police have being eight years old, and Cole Younger says they look nothing like them.

HEYWOOD'S BURIAL.

[pg 83]