Cole Younger

From Freepedia

Image:ColeMugshot.jpg Image:ColeYounger.jpg Thomas Coleman Younger (January 15 1844 – March 21 1916) a famous Confederate outlaw during and after the American Civil War.

With his brothers Jim, John and Bob Younger, he joined with Jesse and Frank James to form and lead the feared and ruthless James-Younger outlaw Missouri desperado gang.

Cole Younger and Frank James began their "outlaw" career with William Clarke Quantrill's Missouri militia as guerilla warriors,Bushwhackers, during the Missouri-Kansas border wars caused after the 1857 Dred Scott decision. Cole joined to avenge the death of his father Henry Washington Younger by Kansas Union soldiers. They took part in the infamous devastation of the Kansas town of Lawrence on August 21 1863, in which Quantrill and his men killed over 150 townspeople, including women and children. This was in direct retaliation for the September 23 1861 raid and sacking of Osceola, Missouri, and nearby family farms by Kansas militia, Jayhawkers, and RedLegs, under General James Lane. The Clint Eastwood movie The Outlaw Josey Wales is based on these events.

After years of debilitating discontent, devastating raids, horrific battles, being driven from their homes and land the Youngers and the James refused to surrender and take the "Oath of Loyalty" to the Union after the Civil war. They feared that trial by carpetbaggers would result in their hanging. Jesse James was shot attempting to surrender in 1865. He plotted revenge against all Union interest and discussed the idea of a gang with his brother Frank. Effectively, they agreed upon a set of rationalizations to go rob banks and trains.

In the winter of 1865–66 Frank, James, and Cole Younger, along with a tight-knit group of former confederate guerillas, formed the James-Younger gang to get back at those who had won the war. This included Cole's brothers Jim,John and Bob. On Tuesday February 13 1866 the first daylight, peacetime bank robbery in the history of the United States occurred in Liberty, Missouri was carried out by the James-Younger gang.

The James-Younger gang robbed their way across the Western frontier,using hit and run guerillas tactics learned in the Civil war, targeting banks, trains, stagecoaches, and stores from Iowa to Texas. Eluding even the Pinkerton National Detective Agency, the gang escaped with thousands of dollars.They were hidden and protected by relatives and supporters in Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee and Texas through out their 20 year crime spree.

Then on July 21, 1873, the James-Younger gang pulled off the first successful train robbery in the American West by taking US $3,000 from the Rock Island Express in Adair, Iowa.

Despite their criminal and often violent acts, the James and Youngers were much adored. Journalists, eager to entertain Easterners with tales of a wild west, exaggerated and romanticized the gang's heists, often casting Jesse James as a contemporary Robin Hood. While the James-Younger gang did harass railroad executives who unjustly seized private land for the railways, modern biographers note that they did so for personal gain -- the gangs humanitarian acts were more fiction than fact.Later Cole Younger would down play the actual events and stated it was a hard and unglorious life style( being hunted and living uncover for years not able to return home for fear of capture and death).

On September 7, 1876, the James-Younger gang attempted to rob a bank in Northfield, Minnesota, killing two townspeople. The townspeople returned fire and thwarted the robbery. The gang separated and the James brothers made it back to Missouri. The Younger brothers waged a gun battle with a local posse led by Madelia Sheriff Glispin in a wooded ravine along the Watonwan River west of Madelia, Minnesota. Cole, Jim and Bob Younger were captured and taken back to Northfield. Cole had eleven bullet wounds and Jim had five. Bob had an elbow and chest wounds. Two other gang members, Clell Miller and Bill Chadwell, were killed during the failed robbery attempt and one other (Charlie Pitts) during the capture near Madelia. Cole, asked why they had robbed the bank at Northfield, responded, "We tried a desperate game and lost. But we are rough men used to rough ways, and we will abide by the consequences."

The 1972 movie The Great Northfield, Minnesota Raid depicts this failed bank robbery (with Cliff Robertson playing Cole, while the 1980 movie The Long Riders depicts this era of the James-Younger gang exploits (with Cole played by David Carradine).

Cole, Jim and Bob pleaded guilty to their crimes to avoid being hanged. They were sentenced to life in prison at the Minnesota State Prison at Stillwater on November 18, 1876. This would be the end of the James-Younger gang.

Frank and Jesse James fled to Nashville, Tennessee. Jesse was murdered on April 3, 1882, after returning to Missouri. Frank James surrendered on October 4, 1882, fearing his own murder. After four years of legal battles, Frank James would be acquitted of all charges.

Bob Younger died in Stillwater prison on September 16, 1889, of tuberculosis. Cole and Jim were paroled on July 10, 1901, with the help of the prison warden.

Jim Younger, unable to cope with parole requirements denying him the right to marry a long-time sweetheart, took his own life on October 19, 1902.

Cole wrote a book portraying himself as a guerilla more than an outlaw, lectured and toured the south with Frank James in a wild west show, The Cole Younger and Frank James Wild West Company in 1903.

On August 21, 1912, Cole became a Christian and repented of his violent and criminal past.

Frank James died February 18, 1915. A year later, the last of the great outlaws Cole Younger died March 21, 1916, in his home town of Lee's Summit, Missouri.

Sources

• Brant, Marley. The Outlaw Youngers - "A Confederate Brotherhood", 1992