Cole Younger's Tale

Frank James, Cole Younger, and Cole's brothers -- John, Jim, and Bob -- formed the core of Jesse James' Gang. But after the disastrous Northfield, Minnesota, raid in 1876 - - when the Youngers were cornered and captured -- the gang was never again the taut organization it had once been.

Here are some facts and dates, regarding Cole, that tell how an intelligent, well-to-do young man descended into a life of crime then rose from the ashes.

Thomas Coleman Younger was born on January 15, 1844 in Jackson County, Missouri. His family was of good, pioneer stock. His father was a successful farmer, landowner and merchant. His mother was the daughter of a judge and war hero.

By 1855 the Kansas/Missouri border was aflame with violence as opposing factions clashed over Abolition and slavery. Cole and his family lived in Harrisonville, Missouri, when the Civil War broke out and, though Southern in sympathy, his father tried to remain neutral in the conflict.

But in the summer of 1861, and several times afterwards, the Younger's livery stable was looted by Kansas raiders. That fall, at a dance in Harrisonville, one of Cole's sisters was approached by a Federal militia captain named Irvin Walley. When she refused his invitation to dance, Walley responded with an insult, and Cole came to his sister's defense -- a pistol was drawn, a scuffle ensued. Though violence, for the time being, was averted, Walley tried to arrest Cole as a spy the very next day.

Cole armed himself and took to the brush. William Clarke Quantrill, the guerrilla commander, was operating in the area, and Cole joined his band.

On July 20, 1862, Cole's father was murdered as he traveled the road from Kansas City to Harrisonville, and many believed that Cole's old enemy, Irvin Walley, was responsible. In February, 1863, Federal militia burned the Younger family's home in Jackson County and, that summer, over one hundred women sympathetic to the Southern cause -- including three of Cole's sisters -- were arrested and jailed in Kansas City.

Tragedy followed when the building in which they were confined collapsed, and five of the women were killed -- one being the sister of Jesse James' guerrilla commander, Bloody Bill Anderson. Vengeance was vowed and on August 19, three hundred guerrillas under Quantrill -- Cole Younger and Frank James among them -- looted and burned the town of Lawrence, Kansas, a long-time Abolitionist stronghold.

This repeating cycle of atrocities caused Cole to question Quantrill's bloody methods and, in the Spring of 1864, he left Quantrill's command.

After the Civil War ended, a loyalty oath was demanded of those who had supported the Confederacy. Cole Younger refused to swear it and, as an ex-guerrilla, he again became a target of the Federal militia.

No one knows exactly who robbed the bank in Liberty, Missouri in February, 1866, but over the next ten years that, and many other robberies, were laid at the feet of the James/ Younger Gang.

In March, 1874, a detective was murdered by Frank and Jesse James and, on March 17, the Youngers clashed with Pinkertons on a public road. The continuing lawlessness and political uproar eventually resulted in a proposal of amnesty for the boys, but when the amnesty failed, the gang went robbing again, as of old.

On September 7, 1876, the gang struck a bank in Northfield, Minnesota, were fired upon as they tried to escape and tracked by posses for two weeks. Eventually, the Younger Boys -- Cole, Jim and Bob -- wounded and desperate, were captured in Hanska Slough. They confessed to the Northfield robbery -- perhaps because men who confessed could not be hung in Minnesota -- and were given life terms in the State Prison.

Cole rapidly became a model prisoner, working in the prison hospital and on the prison newspaper. Jim Younger -- who had been badly wounded in the mouth during the Northfield raid and could only partake of gruel and liquids. His brother Bob contracted tuberculosis and, in September, 1889, died in prison.

In 1901, after years of petitions and letter writing, Cole and Jim, both in their fifties, were given conditional paroles that did not allow them to leave Minnesota or return to their home state. Both obtained employment selling tombstones, but Jim had difficulty adjust- ing to life outside prison walls. He grew reclusive, despondent and, a year later, when financial and personal difficulties overwhelmed him, Jim took his own life.

At last, in February, 1903, Cole gained a full pardoned and, so, returned to his hometown in Missouri. For the next few years, Cole wrote his memoirs and engaged in various business activities, including -- with Frank James -- a touring, wild west show.

In 1909, Cole went on the lecture circuit, speaking about the wrong turn he had taken in his life and urging young people to be moral and hard-working. In 1913, Cole became a Christian and was baptized and saved.

In 1915, shortly after Frank James died, Cole's health began to fail and, on March 21, 1916, aged seventy-two years, Thomas Coleman Younger died peacefully and in bed.

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