Cole Younger
Cole Younger was a prominent figure in the American Old West, best known as a member of the notorious James-Younger Gang. Born in Missouri in 1844, he grew up in a family of Southern sympathizers during a tumultuous period marked by the Civil War and the Border Wars. Following the death of his father and the destruction of family property, Younger joined the Confederate guerrilla group led by William Clarke Quantrill, where he became involved in violent raids. After the war, he partnered with infamous outlaws Jesse and Frank James, participating in a series of high-profile robberies across several states, including the first non-wartime bank robbery in Liberty, Missouri.
Younger’s criminal career came to a dramatic end during a failed bank heist in Northfield, Minnesota, in 1876, which resulted in casualties and his capture. He was sentenced to life in prison, serving 25 years before being paroled. After his release, Younger attempted to rehabilitate his image, publishing his memoirs and working as a lecturer, cautioning youth against a life of crime. Despite his efforts, he remains primarily known as a member of the James-Younger Gang. Cole Younger died in 1916, leaving behind a legacy intertwined with the legends of the American outlaw era.
Cole Younger
- Born: January 15, 1844
- Birthplace: Lee's Summit, Missouri
- Died: March 21, 1916
- Place of death: Lee's Summit, Missouri
American outlaw
Major offenses: Accessory to murder, attack with the intent to do bodily harm, and bank robbery
Active: 1866-1876
Locale: Missouri, Kansas, Minnesota, and other states
Sentence: Life in prison; paroled after twenty-five years; pardoned two years later
Early Life
Cole Younger (YUNG-gur) was the seventh of fourteen children born to Henry Washington and Bursheba Younger. Southern sympathizers and slave owners, the affluent Youngers owned several businesses and homes and were prosperous farmers in western Missouri.
The bloody Border Wars, in which Kansas and Missouri fought over Kansas’s right to be a slave state, marked Cole Younger’s boyhood. In 1862, members of the Missouri Militia killed his father. In 1863, one of his family’s homes was burned during the implementation of Union Brigadier General Thomas Ewing, Jr.’s General Order 11, which mandated the destruction of Missouri and Kansas homes in the border areas of the two states. Union officers believed the area’s residents were harboring William Clarke Quantrill’s guerrillas, who were responsible for killing more than 150 civilians in Lawrence, Kansas.
In 1862, Younger joined Quantrill’s Raiders and rode under the Black Flag. He participated at the Centralia Massacre, robbed mail coaches, and helped terrorize areas deemed pro-Union. He left Quantrill in 1864 and became a captain in the Confederate Army. After the war, he returned to his mother’s farm.
Younger, who could not forget the danger and excitement of his guerrilla days, agreed to join Jesse and Frank James to form the James-Younger Gang.
Criminal Career
Younger earned success and notoriety as an outlaw and member of the James-Younger Gang. During his tenure with the gang from 1866 until 1876, he helped rob nine banks, three trains, two stagecoaches, two omnibuses, and a state fair. The first robbery took place in Liberty, Missouri, and became known as the first non-wartime bank robbery. After the success of that robbery, Younger followed the gang through eight states and shared in more than $100,000 in stolen assets. He later convinced three of his brothers, James (or Jim), Robert (Bob), and John Younger, to join the gang.
Defeat at Northfield
On September 7, 1876, Younger, his brothers Bob and Jim, and five other members of the James-Younger Gang rode into Northfield, Minnesota, to rob the First National Bank. During the robbery, assistant bank cashier Joseph Lee Haywood and passerby Nicholas Gustavson were killed. Outraged townsmen wounded Younger and his brothers and killed two of the gang. A posse chased the gang and surrounded the Youngers at Madelia, Minnesota. Jim was shot five times, Cole was shot eleven times, and Bob bore two bullet wounds. Only Frank and Jesse James, who separated from the Youngers, escaped to Missouri.
Legal Action and Outcome
The captured Younger brothers pleaded guilty to robbery and murder and were sentenced to life at the Minnesota State Penitentiary at Stillwater. Cole Younger served twenty-five years before he was paroled in 1901, but the requirements of his parole prevented him from leaving Minnesota. Fully pardoned in 1903, he returned to Missouri and in that year published his memoirs as The Story of Cole Younger by Himself. He also renewed his acquaintance with Frank James, and the two of them started the Cole Younger and Frank James Historical Wild West Show, which closed seven months later. Younger obtained other short-term jobs, including president of the Hydro-Carbon Oil Burner Company, president of an electric railroad construction company, and featured consultant for the Lew Nichols Carnival Company. He finally succeeded as a self-styled lecturer delivering cautionary advice to young people around the United States. He died at home in Lee’s Summit in 1916.
Impact
Cole Younger will always be known as a member of the James-Younger Gang, never as its leader. In the annals of outlaw history, he did not gain the infamy accorded Jesse James. Although one film bears his name, Cole Younger, Gunfighter (1958), his character is featured in many films about James. Younger also is the focus of numerous books, magazine and newspaper articles, ballads, and poems.
During his long incarceration in Minnesota, Younger worked to become a model prisoner. He and Jim Younger initiated a funding drive to start a prison newsletter, The Prison Mirror, which continues today as the oldest continuously published prison newsletter in the United States.
His rehabilitation gained the admiration of influential Missourians and Minnesotans who worked to secure his parole. Several bills, including the Bennett Bill and the Deming Bill, were introduced and passed to obtain the release of the Youngers and set aside their life sentences. The passage of the Deming Bill by the Minnesota legislature in 1901, and its acceptance by the Board of Prison and the Board of Pardons, secured the parole of Cole and Jim Younger.
Bibliography
Brant, Marley. The Illustrated History of the James-Younger Gang. Montgomery, Ala.: Black Belt Press, 1997. More than two hundred photographs of the James-Younger Gang illustrate this historical treatment, which aims to separate fact from the fiction and reveal unexplored reasons for the gang’s outlawry.
‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. The Outlaw Youngers: A Confederate Brotherhood. Lanham, Md.: Madison Books, 1995. The Civil War is the catalyst for the descent of four young men from an all-American family into a maelstrom of violence and crime; greed and thrill seeking become their reasons for pursuing the lifestyle after the war.
Bronaugh, Warren C. The Youngers’ Fight for Freedom. Columbia, Mo.: E. W. Stephens, 1906. This is a historical and personal account of how Bronaugh, a Missourian and former Confederate soldier, fought to secure parole, then a full pardon for the Younger brothers.
Younger, Cole. The Story of Cole Younger by Himself. 1903. Reprint. St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society, 2000. Younger attempts to defuse the negative aspects of his life story but manages to include just as many myths and lies as any other written account of his criminal exploits.