“From the mass of rubbish that has been written about the guerrilla there is little surprise that the popular conception of him should be a fiendish, blood-thirsty wretch.”
Cole Younger. In Prison Garb in Minnesota State Prison, Jan. 10, 1877 (left). As he looked “going out”,July 14, 1901 (right).
“Yet he was in many cases, if not in most, a man who had been born to better things and who was made what he was by such outrages as Osceola, Palmyra and by a hundred raids in less famous but not less infamous, that were made by Kansans into Missouri during the war.”
“When the war ceased those of the guerrillas who were not hung or shot or pursued by posses till they found the hand of man turned against them at every [pg 126] step, settled down to become good citizens in the peaceful walks of life, and the survivors of Quantrell's band may be pardoned, in view of the black paint that has been devoted to them, in calling attention to the fact that of the members of Quantrell's band who have since been intrusted with public place, not one has ever betrayed his trust.”
“As for myself and brothers I wish to emphasize that we made an honest attempt to return to normal life at the close of the war, and had we been permitted to do so the name of Younger would never have been connected with the crimes that were committed in the period immediately following the war.”
“That my life was good or clean I do not assert. But such as it was, it was forced upon me by conditions over which I had no control. Before final judgment is passed upon the men of my kind who were with me in those days I ask that the fact be considered that we were born in days when hatred was the rule and reared among scenes of violence.”
“But I have been accused of many crimes of which I have not been guilty, and I am willing to take my oath that the crimes that were charged against me in Missouri were not mine. Never in all my life had I anything to do with any of the bank robberies in the state of Missouri which had been charged against myself and brothers.”
“In the fall of 1868 my brothers, Jim and Bob, went with me to Texas. The next two or three years we spent in an honest life, my sister joining us and keeping house for us at Syene, Dallas county. In 1870 and 1871 Jim was deputy sheriff in Dallas county. He and Bob sang in the church choir. At that time Bob, who [pg 127] was only 17, fell in love with one of the young ladies in the village.”
“I went down to Louisiana, and the story was that I killed five men and shot five others because I had been robbed by a lot of crooked cattlemen. There is just this much truth about this incident: There was a crooked race, with me as the victim. After the race I fought a duel, but not over the race.”