Shot All to Hell

by Mark Lee Gardner

  Mollie’s story of her encounter with Jesse James was published in the St. Paul and Minneapolis Pioneer Press and Tribune, Sept. 20, 1876.

  Chinn & Morgan’s, “one of the most elegant gambling houses in the Northwest,” is described in the St. Paul Daily Globe, Apr. 4, 1883. The casino closed its doors in 1887 when there was a crackdown on gambling in St. Paul. Chinn and Morgan opened a gambling hall in New York City in 1890, but it was short-lived. Chinn became quite famous as a breeder and racer of American thoroughbreds. His horse, Leonatus, won the Kentucky Derby in 1883, and a horse foaled on Chinn’s stock farm, George Smith, won the 1916 Kentucky Derby. Although Chinn is not well known today, there is considerable information on him (and his various knife fights) in contemporary newspapers and magazine articles. See the St. Paul Daily News, Nov. 16, 1892; the St. Paul Daily Globe, Oct. 15, 1888; and Seen and Heard 2 (Aug. 13, 1902): 1025–1039. An obituary for Chinn is in the Central Record, Lancaster, KY, Feb. 5, 1920.

  The James brothers’ cousin, George Hite Jr., said that Frank and Jesse made trips to Kentucky almost yearly beginning in about 1865. See the Weekly Missouri Republican, Apr. 13, 1882.

  The story of the outlaws removing their dusters in the gambling house is from the Saint Paul Dispatch, Sept. 9, 1876; and the Pioneer Press and Tribune, Sept. 9, 1876. Cole Younger describes his and Chadwell’s visit to Chinn & Morgan’s in The Story of Cole Younger by Himself, 77–78.

  The street address of the Hardwicke & Barnum St. Paul law office is given in John J. Koblas, Jesse James Ate Here: An Outlaw Tour and History of Minnesota at the Time of the Northfield Raid (St. Cloud, MN: North Star Press of St. Cloud, 2001), 43.

  George Hite Jr.’s recollection about Jesse going to Chicago to kill Allan Pinkerton is from the Weekly Missouri Republican, Apr. 13, 1882. This episode is yet another example of the degree to which revenge was a part of Jesse’s makeup.

  Eyewitness testimony of the gang’s presence in Red Wing was recounted later in the Red Wing Argus, Sept. 14, 1876; the Pioneer Press and Tribune, Sept. 9, 1876; and the Saint Paul Dispatch, Sept. 16, 1876. The four gang members checked in to Red Wing’s National Hotel, giving their names as J. C. Horton, Nashville; H. L. Nest, Nashville; Charles Wetherby, Maryland; and Ed Everhard, Maryland.

  Bob Younger and Bill Chadwell’s St. Paul shopping spree is described in the Pioneer Press and Tribune, Sept. 9, 1876; and the Saint Paul Dispatch, Sept. 9, 1876.

  The activities of Cole Younger and Charlie Pitts in St. Peter were later reported in the Saint Peter Tribune, Sept. 13, 1876; and the Pioneer Press and Tribune, Sept. 9, 1876. The pair first lodged at St. Peter’s Nicollet House, where Cole registered as J. C. King and Pitts as J. Ward, both of Virginia. The identity of the outlaw who quizzed the American House clerk about St. Peter having a bank is not given in the newspaper account, but Cole seems more likely than Pitts.

  The story of Cole and Pitts tossing coins to the local boys is from Homer Croy, Last of the Great Outlaws: The Story of Cole Younger (New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1956), 110.

  Cole apparently paid for Pitts’s horse, as well as his own. See “Cole Younger’s Career as Reviewed by Himself.”

  Cole’s account of his experiences in St. Peter, including his acquaintance with Horace Greeley Perry, is in The Story of Cole Younger by Himself, 78–79.

  Cole tells of his concerns for the whereabouts of Bob and Chadwell and the possibility that they had been arrested in The Story of Cole Younger by Himself, 78.

  Bob Younger and Bill Chadwell’s activities in St. Peter are found in the Saint Peter Tribune, Sept. 13, 1876.

  My information on the town of Mankato comes primarily from the Minnesota State Gazetteer and Business Directory, 1878–9 (Detroit, MI: R. L. Polk & Co., 1878); and Koblas, Jesse James Ate Here, 190–198.

  For the gang’s activities in Mankato, including the planned bank robbery of Sept. 4, 1876, I have relied upon John Jay Lemon, The Northfield Tragedy (1876; reprint, London: Westerners Publications Ltd., 2001), 3–5; The Mankato Review, Sept. 12 and 26, 1876; Saint Peter Tribune, Sept. 13, 1876; Saint Paul Dispatch, Sept. 11, 1876; and George Huntington, Robber and Hero: The Story of the Northfield Raid on the First National Bank of Northfield, Minnesota, by the James-Younger Band of Robbers, in 1876 (1895; reprint, Minneapolis: Ross & Haines, 1962), 5–7.

  The assistant cashier of Mankato’s First National Bank, George T. Barr, left an important account of his encounter with Cole Younger in the bank, and also of a conversation with Cole in the Stillwater Prison in 1895. Cole told Barr in 1895 that “the original plan of the raiders had fixed on Mankato as the point they would strike.” The reason for aborting the Mankato plan, he explained, was “because of so many men being at work near each of the two banks there, making the chances of a safe get away very uncertain.” George T. Barr, “Account of Northfield Bank Robbery in 1876,” typescript, box 2, folder 25, John J. Koblas Collection, Northfield Historical Society, Northfield, MN.

  I have been unable to find any biographical information on Charles Robinson, the man who said he recognized Jesse, that would confirm his story of having once lived in Missouri. Some contemporary newspaper accounts reported that after Robinson encountered Jesse, he told his boss, an Ed O’Leary, and it was O’Leary who “notified the several banks and police.” See the Mankato Review, Sept. 12, 1876.

  Cole mentions his visit to Madelia with Charlie Pitts in The Story of Cole Younger by Himself, 79. The owner of the Madelia hotel where the pair lodged, T. L. Vought, discusses their visit in “Capture of the Younger Brothers,” Northfield News, Sept. 18, 1897.

  I believe that Jesse and Clell were the two robbers who visited Northfield a week to ten days before the robbery because (1) the article describing the First National Bank’s new safe and chronometer lock, from Northfield’s Rice County Journal, was found on Clell’s dead body in the aftermath of the Raid, (2) Clell’s companion was described as “one of the leaders of the gang,” (3) Clell and Jesse’s movements during this period allow for a visit to Northfield, whereas Cole, Pitts, Bob, and Chadwell are known to have been in St. Peter and St. Paul, and (4) Jesse and Clell, good friends, often traveled together. See the Saint Paul Dispatch, Sept. 8, 1876; the Winona Daily Republican, Sept. 8, 1876; the Minneapolis Tribune, Sept. 11, 1876; and the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, Sept. 11, 1876.

  Jesse and Clell’s conversation regarding the peace-loving tendencies of the Northfield people was conducted with John Mulligan, who lived near Brush Prairie, two and a half miles west of Northfield. They also asked Mulligan about the local roads and had him go over a map one of the outlaws carried. This episode was reported in the Rice County Journal, Sept. 14, 1876.

  When interviewed shortly after his capture, Bob Younger told a Minneapolis Tribune reporter that “the raid in Minnesota was not intentional. They came for pleasure, but learned ex-Governor Ames, of Mississippi, had money in the Northfield bank; one of the boys had a spite against him, and so the robbery was planned, and to pay expenses.” See the Minneapolis Tribune, Sept. 25, 1876. T. J. Stiles, in his 2002 biography of Jesse James, excerpts a fragment of the above quote and uses it out of context to assert that Adelbert Ames was the “bandits’ purpose in coming to Minnesota.” As the full quote makes clear, Younger is saying that the Northfield bank did not become a target until after the gang’s arrival in Minnesota. Cole Younger made a nearly identical statement to a Faribault Republican reporter: “[H]e said they came up here on a pleasure excursion, and got short of money. He stated that they selected the Northfield bank for their operations in preference to others for the reason that the Ames were interested in it, especially Gov. Ames of Mississippi, against whom one of the band had a grudge.” Faribault Republican, Oct. 4, 1876. A Saint Peter Tribune reporter also asked Bob Younger why the Northfield bank was selected, and he replied that “they thought there was more money to be had there—that in Mankato there were three banks, and the money was too much divided.” See the Saint Peter Tribune, Sept. 27, 1876. I agree with Sti
les that the gang member described as having a “spite” against Adelbert Ames was undoubtedly Jesse James. See Stiles, Jesse James: Last Rebel of the Civil War (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2002), 324–325.

  For Ames’s political troubles and resignation as governor of Mississippi see the Daily Inter-Ocean, Chicago, Feb. 26, 1876; St. Louis Globe-Democrat, Mar. 30, 1876; and Richard Nelson Current, Those Terrible Carpetbaggers: A Reinterpretation (New York: Oxford University Press, 1988), 324–325.

  The Faribault Democrat, Sept. 15, 1876, reported that the gang had spent the night of Sept. 6 at Millersburg and Cannon City, which is confirmed by Cole Younger in The Story of Cole Younger by Himself, 80. The names of the outlaws at Millersburg and Cannon City were determined by Elias Hobbs, former Northfield chief of police, after interviews with several individuals who saw the gang members on Sept. 5 and 6. “Witnesses will describe men & horses at every point,” Hobbs wrote. His statement is found in File No. 5665: State vs. Cole, Jim, and Bob Younger, 1876, Rice County case files and miscellaneous court papers, State Archives, Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul.

  Jim Younger’s thoughts of abandoning the gang was reported in the Minneapolis Tribune, Nov. 15, 1876.

  Four: The Hottest Day Northfield Ever Saw

  Northfield’s Rice County Journal of Sept. 7, 1876, carried the announcement of Professor Lingard’s scheduled performance that evening. Additional details for Lingard’s show are in an advertisement for “The Great Lingard” in the Dubuque Herald, Sept. 19, 1876.

  Heywood’s biography is given in the Rice County Journal, Sept. 14, 1876; and George Huntington, Robber and Hero: The Story of the Northfield Raid on the First National Bank of Northfield, Minnesota, by the James-Younger Band of Robbers, in 1876 (1895; reprint, Minneapolis: Ross & Haines, 1962), 79–83. Heywood’s Civil War career is treated in detail in Gerald D. Otis, Joseph Lee Heywood: The Humble Hero (Northfield, MN: Northfield Historical Society, 2006).

  The Detroit Safe Company was identified in the Rice County Journal, Aug. 9, 1876, as the manufacturer of the safe and the vault doors at the First National Bank. The original Detroit Safe Company vault doors are in place in the restored bank museum in Northfield today.

  The calendar clock in the bank was the No. 4 Hanging Office model, manufactured by the Ithaca Calendar Clock Co. of Ithaca, New York.

  Biographies for Frank Wilcox, assistant bookkeeper, and Alonzo Bunker, teller, are found in Robber and Hero, 84–88.

  Heywood’s conversation with President Strong about the St. Albans Raid was reported in the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, Sept. 29, 1876, and other newspapers.

  72Cole Younger claimed to have gone into the First National Bank on Sept. 7 prior to the robbery and gotten a twenty-dollar bill changed. See the Faribault Democrat, Dec. 1, 1876.

  For my reconstruction of the Northfield Raid, I have relied almost entirely on the accounts left by eyewitnesses. These include the depositions of Elias Hobbs and J. S. Allen, Sept. 8, 1876, in File No. 5665: State vs. Cole, Jim, and Bob Younger, 1876, Rice County case files and miscellaneous court papers, State Archives, Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul; Henry Wheeler’s account in the Northfield News, Sept. 10, 1926; Anselm Manning’s account in the Saint Paul Globe, July 11, 1897; Adelbert Ames’s letters in Blanche Butler Ames, ed., Chronicles from the Nineteenth Century: Family Letters of Blanche Butler and Adelbert Ames, 2 vols. (Clinton, MA: Privately Printed, 1957), 2: 403–406; Adelbert Ames’s account in the Northfield News, Aug. 2, 1929; Theodore Miller’s account in Early Northfield history scrapbook, Northfield Public Library; the several accounts contained in The Northfield Bank Raid: Fiftieth Anniversary Finds Interest Undimmed in Oft-told Tale of Repulse of James-Younger Gang, 10th edition (Northfield: Northfield News, 2008); and Cole Younger’s accounts in the Saint Paul Globe, July 4, 1897, The Story of Cole Younger by Himself (Chicago: The Henneberry Co., 1903), 79–85, and W. C. Heilbron, Convict Life at the Minnesota State Prison, Stillwater, Minnesota (1909; reprint, Stillwater, MN: Valley History Press, 1996), 137–143. Equally important is the July 10, 1897, issue of the Northfield News, which prints interviews with sixteen Northfield residents who witnessed or participated in some aspect of the raid. Additionally, George Huntington’s Robber and Hero, a seminal narrative published in Northfield in 1895, is based on his interviews and correspondence with eyewitnesses. I have also drawn heavily from those Minnesota newspaper reports that are derived from eyewitness testimony. These include the Rice County Journal, Sept. 14, 1876; the Minneapolis Tribune, Sept. 8, 1876; the St. Paul and Minneapolis Pioneer Press and Tribune, Sept. 9, 1876; the Saint Paul Dispatch, Sept. 8 and 9, 1876; and the Saint Peter Tribune, Sept. 13, 1876. A reporter for the Pioneer Press and Tribune, Joseph Have Hanson, wrote the first book on the raid and the subsequent manhunt. Published in St. Paul, Hanson’s The Northfield Tragedy appeared before the year was out. For whatever reason, Hanson did not give his name as author, using instead the pseudonym John Jay Lemon.

  While there is no lack of primary source material for the raid, it is important to note that no two eyewitness accounts completely agree with each other. There are more than a few conflicting details that simply cannot be reconciled, a subject I will come to again in these notes. The Northfield Raid was seven minutes of high excitement, heart-pounding action, and—confusion. Dramatic episodes played themselves out simultaneously, both inside and outside the bank. It is understandable that people would not only have trouble making sense of what they were seeing, but that they would commit errors in relating what transpired—it all happened so fast. It is also understandable that the Younger brothers would lie to protect themselves and their comrades.

  Identifying the robbers inside the bank and those guarding on the street has been a source of considerable debate for the last 136 years. It seems like it should be fairly straightforward. As for those in the bank, bank employees Bunker and Wilcox were in agreement in identifying Charlie Pitts and Bob Younger as two of the three inside men. Bunker named these two in his accounts published in the Saint Paul Dispatch, Sept. 27, 1876; the Madelia Times, Nov. 20, 1896; and the Buckeye Informer, Milo, OH, Nov. 15, 1896. Wilcox identified Pitts as one of the inside men in the Minneapolis Tribune, Sept. 26, 1876. Author T. J. Stiles, in his Jesse James: Last Rebel of the Civil War (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2002), 461 n. 68, claims that “Wilcox never said that Bob was in the bank.” This is incorrect, for Wilcox stated in 1897 that the “three who came in were Bob Younger, Pitts and as I believe, Frank James.” See the Northfield News, July 10, 1897. Furthermore, Bob Younger later admitted to a reporter, “I was one of the number who went into the bank.” Younger’s statement appears in the Minneapolis Tribune, Sept. 23, 1876. But it is the identification of the third inside man, the robber who shot and killed Joseph Lee Heywood, that has been the source of so much speculation and argument. The Youngers refused to provide the authorities with the name of this man, at the same time denying that the James brothers were ever part of the raid. Modern authors and historians love to name Jesse James as the third man. The impulse killing of Heywood fits with what many believe to be Jesse’s volatile personality, his supposed hotheadedness, and, of course, his revengefulness. But, Wilcox, an eyewitness to the shooting, believed Heywood’s killer to be Frank James. In fact, Wilcox came to this conclusion after making a personal visit to the Jackson County, Missouri, jail to see Frank James after the outlaw’s surrender in 1882. So, if Frank, Bob, and Charlie were in the bank, that leaves Jesse, Cole, Jim, Clell Miller, and Bill Chadwell outside. Cole wrote that he and Miller were the two who followed the inside men to Division Street, which leaves Jesse, Jim, and Chadwell as the robbers who were guarding the escape route at the bridge in Mill Square.

  For what transpired in the bank, we have only the accounts of Frank Wilcox and Alonzo Bunker, and a brief statement by Bob Younger regarding Joseph Heywood. Because Bunker fled the bank before the robbers exited, we must rely upon Wilcox’s accounts for the events immediately preceding the murder of Heywood
. Wilcox was interviewed by more than one reporter shortly after the raid. See his statements in the Saint Paul Dispatch, Sept. 8, 1876, and the St. Paul and Minneapolis Pioneer Press and Tribune, Sept. 9, 1876. Wilcox also testified before the coroner’s inquest on Sept. 8. His deposition is in File No. 5665: State vs. Cole, Jim, and Bob Younger, 1876, Rice County case files and miscellaneous court papers, State Archives, Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul. Last, Wilcox gave a detailed account twenty-one years later to a reporter for the Northfield News, published in the July 10, 1897, edition.

  Some accounts place the value of the cash in the bank’s till—the one Bob Younger missed—at $3,000. But Bunker, in his first interview after the raid, stated that it amounted to $2,000. See the Saint Paul Dispatch, Sept. 27, 1876.

  Alonzo Bunker would later claim that his purpose in fleeing the bank was to raise the alarm “so that the citizens could come to the rescue.” It seems more likely, however, that he fled out of absolute fear for his life. Wilcox said more than once that Bunker bolted immediately after Frank James fired the shot to intimidate Heywood. More significantly, Bunker seems to have made no attempt to warn anyone after escaping the bank. When Nellie Ames encountered him on Fifth Street and asked him what was the matter, Bunker replied only that he had been shot and hurried on to the residence of a doctor.

  Bunker tells of running over undertaker Theodore Miller in “Northfield Raid,” Ironwood News Record, Ironwood, MI, Sept. 21, 1895. His description of the pain he felt when Pitts’s bullet struck him is from the Madelia Times, Nov. 20, 1896.

  Ellen M. “Nellie” Ames’s recollections of her experiences during the raid are found in a July 10, 1897, affidavit in files 85 and 86, Minnesota Board of Pardons, Pardon Applications, State Archives, Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul; and in an expanded version of her July 10 testimony published in the Saint Paul Globe, July 11, 1897.