Cole's Life After Prison

Howdy folks and greetings from the Great Plains of North Texas!

I'm finishing my series on one of our most successful but least known(in modern times) outlaws. No one thought Cole Younger or his brothers would ever see the outside of a prison but he was paroled after 25 years and even made it back to his birthplace, Lee's Summit, Missouri. This was a freaking miracle and he knew it.

When he got to Lee's Summit and checked into the hotel he didn't know how he would be received but when people found out he was there they started visiting him. Old friends and friends of old friends, family members of old friends, curious people who just wanted to talk to him about his life..the number of people was long and the variety was great.

Cole joins a Wild West show

He was visited by Frank James, Jesse Jame's brother. The two had been good friends since way back before the Civil War when they both rode with Quantrill. Frank had done some time in prison as well. They were approached by a showman who put on Wild West shows and offered them work.

I'm not sure what Frank did but Cole was like a master of ceremony who walked around with his big hat on and talked to the crowd about the show and the performances. I think the show was billed at the Cole Younger show and people came mostly to see him. They made good money but after some years of that Frank retired, mostly for health reasons.

It wasn't long before Cole decide it was time to relax and enjoy himself for what time he had left, so he retired too. He was the main attraction at that hotel he stayed at though. People would come to see him everyday and he would sit there with his long-stemmed German pipe and talk all day.

A new mission in life

He also talked to young people and kids about the dangers of living a life of crime. He began going on speaking tours telling the youth how to live a good life and preaching against getting into trouble. He wanted to "make up" for what he had done.

He would tell about his experiences in war and his time in prison. He would lead up to what he called the "moral" of his story which was that crime doesn't pay. When he would reach this point his voice would tremble and he put a fervor into his talk that would take hold of people.

If he saw a boy in the audience he would direct his message at him. If a kid came up to him after the talk he would give him total attention. Cole would say often.." If I could just make the boys understand."

If he could only make them understand that a life of crime, which looked so exciting, was, in reality, a life of tragedy. He dedicated his remaining years to preaching this message.

Here's a notice about one of his speaking engagements:

source

The price of admission was 25 cents! lol.

The biggest change of his life came when he was invited to a revival that was going on. The first night he wasn't sure about it. But he went back the next night. Not sure which night it was but one of the nights when the alter call was given he walked down front and gave his heart the the Lord. The entire ccongregation rose to their feet and gave him a long applause.

Afterwards he said " I don't know why I didn't do this long ago. I was with God in my youth, then I deserted Him. Now I am back." His spirit was at peace at last. But his body was fading.

Do you know that he still had 14 bullet slugs in him from all the times he'd been shot? lol. That's amazing, I'm surprised he didn't die from lead poisoning years earlier.

He finally got sick and was bed ridden for a couple weeks before he passed on at the age of 72. He was the last of the great outlaws and had killed 16 men but that's not counting those who might had died in the war during battles that he was in. As errant as he was for a good portion of his life, he spent all his effort the last ten years of it trying to help others.

Thanks for reading folks, God bless you all!
-jonboy Texas

The next post we're going to see what happened to Belle Starr because I think she goes off the rails and starts stealing cattle or something!