Early on the morning after the train robbery east of Sedalia, I saw the Hon. D. Gregg, of Jackson county, and talked with him for thirty or forty minutes. I also saw and talked to Thomas Pitcher, of Jackson county, the morning after the robbery. Those two men's oaths cannot be impeached, so I refer the grand jury of Cooper county, Mo., and Gov. Hardin to those men before they act so rashly on the oath of a liar, thief and robber.
Kerry knows that the Jameses and Youngers can't be taken alive, and that is why he has put it on us. I have referred to Messrs. Pitcher and Gregg because they are prominent men, and they know I am innocent, and their word can't be disputed. I will write a long article to you for the Times, and send it to you in a few days, showing fully how Hobbs Kerry has lied. Hoping the Times will give me a chance for a fair hearing and to vindicate myself through its columns, I will close,
Respectfully,
J. James.
SECOND LETTER.
Safe Retreat, Aug. 18, 1876.
I have written a great many articles vindicating myself of the false charges that have been brought against me. Detectives have been trying for years to get positive proof against me for some criminal offense, so that they could get a large reward offered for me, dead or alive; and the same by Frank James and the Younger boys, but they have been foiled on every turn, and they are fully convinced that we will never be taken alive, and now they have fell on the deep-laid scheme to get Hobbs Kerry to tell a pack of base lies. But, thank God, I am yet a free man, and have got the power to defend myself against the charge brought against me by Kerry, a notorious liar and poltroon. I will give a full statement and prove his confession false.
Lie No. 1. He said a plot was laid by the Jameses and Youngers to rob the Granby bank. I am reliably informed that there never was a bank in Granby.
Lie No. 2. He said he met with Cole Younger and me at Mr. Tyler's. If there is a man in Jackson county by that name, I am sure that I am not acquainted with him.
Lie No. 3. He said Frank James was at Mr. Butler's, in Cass county. I and Frank don't know any man in Cass county by that name. I can prove my innocence by eight good citizens of Jackson county, Mo., but I do not propose to give all their names at present. If I did, those cut-throat detectives would find out where I am.
My opinion is that Bacon Montgomery, the scoundrel who murdered Capt. A. J. Clements, December 13, 1866, is the instigator of all this Missouri Pacific affair. I believe he planned the robbery and got his share of the money, and when he went out to look for the robbers he led the pursuers off the robbers' trail. If the truth was half told about Montgomery, it would make the world believe that Montgomery has no equal, only the Bender family and the midnight assassins who murdered my poor, helpless and innocent eight-year old brother, and shot my mother's arm off; and I am of opinion he had a hand in that dirty, cowardly work. The detectives are a brave lot of boys—charge houses, break down doors and make the gray hairs stand up on the heads of unarmed victims. Why don't President Grant have the soldiers called in and send the detectives out on special trains after the hostile Indians? A. M. Pinkerton's force, with hand-grenades, and they will kill all the women and children, and as soon as the women and children are killed it will stop the breed, and the warriors will die out in a few years. I believe the railroad robbers will yet be sifted down on some one at St. Louis or Sedalia putting up the job and then trying to have it put on innocent men, as Kerry has done.