The James Brothers: Jesse (left) and Frank
September 7, 1876, 150 years ago: Jesse James, his brother, and his friends decide to rob a bank. It doesn't go so well.
Jesse James and his brother Frank were from Kearney, Missouri, outside Kansas City. During the American Civil War, when Missouri remained in the Union but had Southern sympathies, the James Brothers joined William Quantrill and his group, Quantrill's Raiders. They called themselves "bushwhackers," but, in modern terms, they were terrorists. Shortly after the war ended, Union troops shot Quantrill, who took nearly a month to die as a result of his wound.
The James brothers made it back to Missouri, and brought Cole Younger into their operations. He brought in his brothers, Bob and John. They robbed banks and trains all over what would now be called the Midwest. In modern terms, they were an organized crime family. Not Italian, but a Missouri Mafia, a Confederate Cosa Nostra.
John Younger had already been killed in an ambush in 1874. In 1876, Bob Younger wanted to go well outside the James-Younger Gang's usual territory, to the First National Bank in Northfield, Minnesota, about 40 miles south of Minneapolis.
His explanation was its connection to 2 Union Generals who had become Republican politicians: Benjamin Franklin Butler, a Congressman from Massachusetts (and later its Governor), who had famously insulted the women of New Orleans during the war; and Governor Adelbert Ames of Mississippi, who supported civil rights for black people, including freed slaves.
Ames had married Butler's daughter, and his father owned the Ames Mill in Northfield. There was a rumor that the elder Mills had deposited $50,000 in cash in that bank. (About $1.56 million in 2026 dollars, a very tempting sum.)
Cole tried to talk his brother out of the plan, thinking it too risky. But Bob refused to back down. Reluctantly, Cole agreed to go, writing to their brother Jim, then in California, to come home. Jim had never wanted anything to do with Cole's outlaw activities, but he agreed to go, out of family loyalty.
Hardware store merchant J.S. Allen saw the outlaws, figured out what was happening, and yelled, "Get your guns boys, they're robbing the bank!" That spurred Northfield men into action, arming themselves with long guns in a street shootout that lasted around 7 minutes, leaving 2 gang members dead in the street: Clell Miller and Bill Caldwell. Bob Younger's horse was killed, and Frank James murdered First National Bank acting cashier Joseph Lee Heywood. Swedish immigrant Nicolaus Gustafson was shot in the head by Cole Younger, and died of his injuries four days later. Bank teller Alonzo Bunker was shot in the shoulder as he tried to escape, but survived.
The James brothers escaped west into the Dakota Territory, while the remaining gang members were killed or taken into custody. The Younger brothers pleaded guilty on November 20, 1876, and were sentenced to life terms in prison.
Jesse James was killed by a supposed ally in 1882. Bob Younger died in prison, of tuberculosis, in 1889. Cole and Jim Younger were paroled in 1901. Jim committed suicide in 1902. Cole traveled to Missouri, where he joined a "Wild West" show with Frank James. Frank died in 1915, and Cole the following year.
The raid has been portrayed, with varying levels of accuracy, in 3 films: The True Story of Jesse James in 1957, The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid in 1972, and The Long Riders in 1980.
