Cole's Story: Taken Into Custody

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

I'm in a series about the outlaw Cole Younger who was a partner of Jesse James and whose gang has been decimated by a botched robbery attempt at the bank in Northfield, Minnesota in 1876. Cole and his brothers Bob and Jim are all that's left of the gang, and captured. Frank and Jesse James have escaped.

Cole and his brothers are greeted with a large crowd of gawkers when they arrive in Medelia in the back of a wagon. People are in shock at what they're seeing. Instead of the fierce, evil, mean, nasty, dangerous outlaws that they've heard about for years that strike fear in the hearts of men, they are looking at a pitiful sight.

As a reminder, here's what Cole and Bob looked like in their prime, Cole is standing on the left, Bob is on the right. Jesse is sitted left with his brother Frank.

source

The men are wounded, exhausted, bloody, muddy, half starved from being on the run day and night with almost no food... and they look as meek as church mice! They're taken to a hotel room where a doctor cleans them up and one of the slugs from Cole is removed, the one in his hip.

A strange procession

Jim, who had been shot in the jaw, is checked out, the doctor pulling a piece of loose jaw out with 2 teeth attached to it! ouch. They are on the same bed recovering and looking pitiful when the Sheriff allows a large group to start filing in. It's okay, they're just there to gawk.

The people filed in past the bed, the men staring at them and the people staring at the men. Lol. they did things a little differently back then! Arrangements are made to take them by train to Faribault because they have an escape-proof jail there. Reporters are arriving of course, gotta love the Press.

They're also on the crowded train with the Boys. A guard sits with each one. The vice-president of the bank in Mankato, who the Boys originally planned to rob, sat down next to Cole to give him a piece of his mind. He said "You and all the others are a despicable gang and a disgrace to our country."

Cole says back to him.."Would you like to know the difference between what you do and what I do?"
"Yes."
"It's very simple. You rob the poor and I rob the rich."
Indignant, the banker got up and left.. sputtering something about madness. lol.

Anything to make a buck

In those days they did what would be unthinkable today but whenever famous killers or criminals were killed they would put the bodies on public display for all to see and the pictures would be run in all the newspapers, usually with the bodies laid in a coffin and stood up at an angle.

Well, I don't think they had the same public display for the gang members who didn't make it. Those were the young kid, Clelland Miller and long time members Charles Pitts and Bill Chadwell. But they DID take photos of those three, and those are strange in themselves because it looks like they were propped up on a bench or a chair after rigor mortis had set in, and with their eyes open!

I know it's a little bit gruesome but here is what they had made, a printed-up card which they sold for 25 cents, and these things sold like hot cakes, they couldn't print enough of these things! The top photos are of the young Clelland on the left and Bill Chadwell on the right. The second row is Charles Pitts and Cole, the third row is Jim on the left an Bob on the right:

source

Notice they had no shirts on so people could see the bullet wounds. I bet these would be highly sought after collectors items today. I wonder what people did with them? Parents could keep them on the fridge and say to their kids.."be good or you'll end up like these guys!"

That's all for today folks, tomorrow we'll see how the trial goes and catch back up with Belle.
-jonboy Texas