Fifty years ago, when the report spread in any one of the hundreds of small towns in the Middle West, and especially in that section of Missouri which borders on Kansas, that the James boys were coming, a reign of terror invariably resulted. Stores were closed, the townspeople armed themselves with the long rifles in vogue in that day, and a guard surrounded the local bank. Women and children were usually placed in cellars and under strong guard for safety. The word “James” was one with which to conjure terror, for the reputation of Jesse and Frank was known to every one, from the oldest inhabitant to the smallest barefooted boy.
Frank and his brother, Jesse James, joined Quantrell’s Guerillas in the Civil War and took part in the sacking of Lawrence, Kan. Scores of persons were shot and killed at that time, and their relatives swore vengeance on every one who had a part in the raid. Jesse and Frank were singled out, and, as the latter often said in excuse for his action, were persecuted until they turned outlaws in order to gain a living.
Their first big robbery took place one year after the war, when, accompanied by a band of desperadoes, Frank and Jesse rode into Liberty, Mo., and surrounded the Commercial Bank. One bank defender was killed and $70,000 in cash was taken. The audacity of the crime caused widespread indignation, and a price was set upon the heads of the desperadoes.
After minor raids in southern Missouri, the James boys, as they became known, rode into Russellville, Ky., one morning in 1868. Their band did not wear masks; instead, they darkened their faces with berry stain. They shot up the town and took $17,000 from the local bank. A month or two later word was received in Gallatin, Mo., that Jesse and Frank were in the neighborhood. They were and soon were in Gallatin. Captain John W. Sheets, cashier of the bank, fired a fusillade at the band and instantly was shot down and killed.
Then followed a series of raids and train holdups which netted the band thousands of dollars and made their name a household word throughout the West.
Word was received by the State authorities in 1875 that Jesse and Frank were in the James homestead near Kearney, Mo. On the night of the twenty-fifth of that month a lighted bomb was thrown into the house, killing Archie James, the bandits’ brother, and tearing off the arm of their mother.
“We weren’t at home,” Frank afterward said, “but we were in the neighborhood. We found out that the men throwing the bomb were making toward Kansas City, and we overtook them. ‘What would you do if you saw the James boys?’ I said to the leader. ‘We’d shoot them,’ he told me. ‘Well, here we are; so shoot!’ Jesse shouted. Not a one of them was left alive.”
In 1882, after Jesse James had been shot and killed in his home in St. Joseph, Mo., by Bob Ford, also a bandit, for a reward of $30,000, Frank James surrendered in Jefferson City, Mo. He spent a year in jail awaiting trial. He finally was acquitted. He never was in the penitentiary and never was convicted of any of the charges against him.
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