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Cole Younger
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Cole Younger
AKA Thomas Coleman Younger
Born: 15-Jan-1844
Birthplace: Jackson County, MO
Died: 21-Mar-1916
Location of death: Jackson County, MO
Cause of death: Heart Failure
Remains: Buried, Lee's Summit Historical Cemetery, Lee's Summit, MO
Gender: Male
Religion: Baptist
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Criminal
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Nationality: United States
Executive summary: The brains of the James-Younger Gang
Cole Younger's father was murdered by Jayhawkers --Kansas-based bandits, horse thieves, and killers
who operated with unofficial sanction from the federal government to suppress anti-Union, pro-slavery
sentiment, and to defend Kansas against the guerrilla-vigilantes who fought for the opposite political
arguments. After his father's death, Younger took part in the infamous "Bleeding Kansas" border raids.
Riding with Cn_11_1_l:; and Jesse .l<im~~ and William OuantriU's raiders, he engaged in wholesale warfare on
behalf of the Confederates, including the infamous August 1863 siege of Lawrence, Kansas, where they
killed about 180 of the town's residents. The next year Younger participated in the attack on Centralia,
Missouri, helping to kill 150-200 locals and Union soldiers.
After the Civil War, Younger worked for a few years on his mother's farm but eventually became a freelance gangster. Riding with his brothers James, John, and Robert, he headed the Younger Gang, holding
up banks, robbing trains, and murdering policemen, bank tellers, and ordinary people who crossed his
path with offense. When the Youngers rode with the James brothers, Younger was tacitly acknowledged
as "the brains" of the gang. He sometimes showed kindness, giving stolen foodstuff to the poor, and
among Confederate sympathizers Younger and his cohorts were perceived almost as folk heroes. Their
occasional hide-out in the hills of Oklahoma is now known as Robbers' Cave State Park.
Riding with the James brothers, Younger was captured after a failed bank robbery in Northfield,
Minnesota, in 1876 -- not by lawmen but by armed and angry civilians. He was shot eleven times that
day, but recovered and was sentenced to life in prison. Behind bars, he occupied himself with theological
studies, published a prison newsletter, and reportedly distinguished himself with heroism in a fire at the
prison. He was paroled in 190 I, pardoned in 1903, and returned to his family's Missouri home, where he
became a regular churchgoer, and was never again in trouble with the law. He also toured America in
speaking engagements and made celebrity appearances in "Wild West" shows. His autobiography, The
Story of Cole Younger, by Himself, was a best-seller.
Among the better known (but fully sanitized) Hollywood adaptations of portions of Younger's life, he
was played by James Best in Kansas Raiders, Alan Hale. Jr. in The True Story ofJesse James, frank
l.mcjov in Cole Younger, Gunfighter, Cliff Robertson in The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid, DaviJ
Carradinc in The Long Riders, Randv Travis in Frank & Jesse, and Scott Caan in American Outlaws.
Father: Henry Washington Younger (farmer-shopkeeper, b. 1810, d. 1862)
Mother: Bursheba Leighton Fristoe Younger ("Beersheba", b. 1816, m. 1830, d. 1870)
Sister: Laura Helen Younger Kelly (b. 1832, d. 1924)
Sister: Frances Isabelle Younger Hall (b. 1833, d. 1902)
Sister: Martha Ann Younger Jones ("Annie", b. 1835, d. 1918)
Brother: Charles Richard Younger ("Dick", b. 1838, d. 1860)
Sister: Mary Josephine Younger Jarette (b. 1840, d. 1869)
Sister: Caroline Younger Clayton ("Duck", b. 1842, d. 1865)
Sister: Sarah Ann Younger Duncan ("Sally", b. 1846, d. 1925)
Brother: John Harrison Younger (gangster, b. 1846, d. 1874 in gunfight with Pinkerton agents)
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Cole Younger
Brother: James Henry Younger ("Jim", gangster, b. 1848, d. 1902 suicide)
Brother: Alphae Younger (b. 1850, d. 1852)
Sister: Emily Younger Rose (b. 1852, d. 1907 train wreck)
Brother: Robert Ewing Younger (gangster, "Bob", b. 1853, d. 1889 in prison, tuberculosis)
Sister: Henrietta Younger Rawlins ("Retta", b. 1857, d. 1915)
Girlfriend: Belle Starr (criminal, b. 1848, d. 1889 murder, possibly one daughter)
Daughter: Pearl Younger (with Starr, paternity presumed, a.k.a. Pearl Starr or Rosie Reed, prostitute, b.
1868, d. 1925)
Shot!! times, Northfield, MN (7-Sep-1876)
Author of books:
The Story of Cole Younger, by Himself(1903)
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Page 1 of6
Cole Younger - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Cole Younger
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Thomas Coleman "Cole" Younger (January 15,
1844 - March 21 , 1916) was an American
Confederate guerrilla during the American Civil War
and later a leader with the James-Younger gang. He
was the eldest brother of Jim, John and Bob Younger.
Thomas Cole Younger
Contents
• 1 Early life
• 2 Civil War
• 3 Bandit career
'
• 4 Downfall of the gang :
• 5 Films
I
• 6 In television
• 7 In literature
• 8 References
Portrait of Cole Younger taken when he was a
prisoner at the Minnesota State Prison ca. 1889
• 9 Further reading
; Born
• 10 External links
Thomas Coleman Younger
January 15, 1844
Jackson County, Missouri, USA
Early life
Thomas Coleman "Cole" Younger, was born on
January 15, 1844 on the Younger family farm. He
was a son of Henry Washington Younger, a
prosperous farmer from Greenwood, Missouri and
Bersheba Leighton Fristoe, daughter of a prominent
Jackson County farmer. Cole was the seventh of
fourteen children.
Died
Lee's Summit, Missouri, USA
· Resting place
i Nationality
I Occupation
American
C.S.A. Captain
C.S.A. Army Recruiter
Bank & Train Robbery
Civil War
Banditry
James-Younger Gang
Parents
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cole_Younger
Lee's Summit Cemetery
38°55'2"N 94°21'45"W
• Known for
During the American Civil War, savage guerrilla
warfare wracked Missouri. Younger fought as a
guerrilla under William Clarke Quantrill. The fighting
in Missouri during the Civil War was largely between
March 21, 1916 (aged 72)
Henry Washington
Younger
Bersheba Leighton Fristoe
Signature
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Cole Younger - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
pro-Union and pro-Confederate Missourians, though
the bushwhackers held special hatred for the Union troops from
Kansas who frequently crossed the border and earned a
reputation for ruthlessness. Younger joined the Confederate
guerrilla leader Quantrill in a raid on August 21, 1863, taking
part in the killing of some 200 men and boys at Lawrence,
Kansas, which the guerrillas looted and burned. [IJ
Younger later claimed he left the bushwhacker ranks to enlist in
the Confederate Army, and was sent to California on a recruiting
mission. He returned after the Southern defeat to find Missouri
under the rule of a militant faction of Unionists, the Radicals,
who soon took over the regular Republican Party in the state. In
the closing days of the war, the Radicals pushed through a new
state constitution that barred Confederate sympathizers from
voting, serving on juries, holding public office, preaching the
gospel, or carrying out any number of public roles. The
constitution also freed the slaves ahead of the ratification of the
13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. It enacted a number of
reforms, but the restrictions on former Confederates created
Cole Younger circa 1915
disunity. [21
Bandit career
Most ofthe former bushwhackers returned to peaceful lives. Many left
Missouri for friendlier places, particularly Kentucky, where many had
relatives. Most oftheir leaders, including Quantrill and "Bloody Bill"
Anderson, had been killed in the war. But a small core of Anderson's
men, led by the ruthless Archie Clement, remained together. State
authorities believed that Clement planned and led the first daylight
peacetime armed bank robbery in U.S. history, holding up the Clay
County Savings Association on February 13, 1866. The bank was run by
Cole Younger as a young
the leading Radicals of Clay County, who had just held a public meeting
man
for their party. The Radical Republican governor posted a reward for
Clement, but he and his men conducted further robberies that year. On
election day of 1866, Clement led his men into Lexington, Missouri, where they intimidated Radical
voters and secured the election of a conservative slate of candidates. A state militia unit entered the town
shortly thereafter and killed Clement when he resisted arrest.
It is uncertain when Cole Younger and his brothers joined this gang. The first mention of his
involvement came in 1868, when authorities identified him as a member of a gang who robbed Nimrod
Long & Co., a bank in Russellville, Kentucky. Former guerrillas, John Jarrett (brother in law of Cole
Younger), Arthur McCoy, and George and Oliver Shepard were also implicated. Oliver Shepard was
killed resisting arrest and George was imprisoned. Once the more senior members of the gang had been
killed, captured, or quit, its core thereafter consisted of the James and Younger brothers. [31
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'B
Cole Younger - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Witnesses repeatedly gave identifications that matched Cole Younger in robberies carried out over the
next few years, as the outlaws robbed banks and stagecoaches in Missouri and Kentucky. On July 21,
1873, they turned to train robbery, derailing a locomotive and looting the express car on the Rock Island
Railroad in Adair, Iowa. Younger and his brothers were also suspects in hold-ups of stage coaches,
banks, and trains in Missouri, Kentucky, Kansas, and West Virginia.
Following the robbery ofthe Iron Mountain Railroad at Gad's Hill, Missouri, in 1874, the Pinkerton
National Detective Agency began to pursue the James and Younger brothers. Two agents (Louis J. Lull
and John Boyle) engaged John and Jim Younger in a gunfight on a Missouri road on March 17, 1874;
Boyle fled the scene, and both John Younger and Lull were killed. Simultaneously, another Pinkerton
agent W.J. Whicher [4] who pursued the James brothers was abducted and later found dead alongside a
rural road in Jackson County, Missouri.
Some Younger families changed their last names to Jungers to avoid a family association with the
gangsters.
The James and Younger brothers survived capture longer than most Western outlaws because oftheir
strong support among former Confederates. Jesse James became the public face of the gang, appealing
to the public in letters to the press (even press releases left behind at robberies), claiming to be the
victim of vindictive Radical Republicans. The gang, and Jesse James in particular, became a major
electoral campaign issue, as pro-Southern Democrats defended the outlaws and Republicans attacked
them.
Downfall of the gang
On September 7, 1876 the James-Younger Gang attempted to rob a bank in Northfield, Minnesota. Cole
Younger and his brother Bob both later said that they selected the bank because of its connection to two
former Union generals and Radical Republican politicians, Benjamin Butler and Adelbert Ames. Three
of the outlaws entered the bank, as the remaining five, led by Cole Younger, remained on the street to
provide cover. The crime soon went awry, however, when the townspeople sent up the alarm and ran for
their guns. Younger and his brothers began to fire in the air to clear the streets, but the townspeople
(shooting from under cover, through windows and around the corners of buildings) opened a deadly
fusillade, killing gang members Clell Miller and William Chadwell and badly wounding Bob Younger
through the elbow. Herb Potter rode off in a hail of bullets. The outlaws killed two townspeople,
including the acting cashier ofthe bank, and fled empty-handed. As hundreds of Minnesotans formed
posses to pursue the fleeing gang, the outlaws separated. The James brothers made it back to Missouri,
but the three Youngers (Cole, Bob, and Jim) did not. They and another gang member, Charlie Pitts,
waged a gun battle with a local posse in a wooded ravine along the Watonwan River west of Madelia,
Minnesota. Pitts was killed, and Cole, Jim, and Bob Younger were badly wounded and captured. Cole,
asked about the robbery, responded, "We tried a desperate game and lost. But we are rough men used to
rough ways, and we will abide by the consequences."
Cole, Jim and Bob pleaded guilty to their crimes to avoid being hanged. They were sentenced to life in
prison at the Stillwater Prison at Stillwater on November 18, 1876. Frank and Jesse James fled to
Nashville, Tennessee, where they lived peacefully for the next three years. In 1879, Jesse returned to a
life of crime, ending in his murder on April 3, 1882, in Saint Joseph, Missouri. Frank James surrendered
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to Missouri Governor Thomas T. Crittenden on October 4, 1882.
Eventually Frank James was acquitted, and lived quietly and
peacefully thereafter. Herb Potter was shot and killed while
taking up with another man's wife in December 1883.
Bob Younger died in Stillwater prison on September 16, 1889, of
tuberculosis. Cole and Jim were paroled on July 10, 1901, with
the help of the prison warden. Jim committed suicide in a hotel
room in St Paul, Minnesota, on October 19, 1902. Cole wrote a
memoir that portrayed himself as a Confederate avenger more
Cole Younger gravesite in Lee's
than an outlaw, admitting to only one crime, that at Northfield.
He lectured and toured the south with Frank James in a wild west
Summit, Missouri.
show, The Cole Younger and Frank James Wild West Company
in 1903. On August 21, 1912, Cole declared that he had become a Christian and repented ofhis criminal
past.
Frank James died February 18, 1915. A year later, Cole Younger died March 21, 1916, in his home town
of Lee's Summit, Missouri, and is buried in the Lee's Summit Historical CemeteryY 1
Films
• The 1941 movie Bad Men of Missouri featured Younger (played by Dennis Morgan) and his two
outlaw brothers fighting the bank.
• The 1949 movie The Younger Brothers had Wayne Morris play Cole in a fictional story ofthe
Youngers receiving their pardon.
• The 1957 movie The True Story ofJesse James, directed by Nicholas Ray, featured Alan Hale, Jr.
as Younger.
• The 1958 movie Cole Younger, Gunfighter featured Cole played by Frank Lovejoy.
• In 1960, Robert J. Wilke (1914-1989) played Younger in the episode "Perilous Passage", the
series premiere of the NBC western Overland Trail, starring William Bendix and Doug McClure.
• In 1960, Bronco TV Western episode "Shadow of Jesse James" told the story of the Northfield
Bank Robbery
• In "One Way Ticket", a 1962 episode of Cheyenne, Clint Walker, in the title role of Cheyenne
Bodie, is a federal marshal escorting Younger, played by Philip Carey, to prison to begin his
sentence.
• The 1972 movie The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid depicts this failed bank robbery, with Cliff
Robertson as Cole Younger.
• The 1980 movie The Long Riders depicts this era ofthe James-Younger gang exploits (with David
Carradine playing Cole).
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Cole Younger - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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• The 1994 movie Frank and Jesse depicts the James-Younger gangs outlaw days (with Randy
Travis playing Cole).
• The TV series Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman featured Cole portrayed by Ian Bohen in the episode
"Baby Outlaws S3E21"
• The 2001 movie American Outlaws depicts the early years of the James-Younger Gang (with
Scott Caan playing Cole)
• The 2010 version of True Grit depicts Younger operating his Wild West show (with Don Pirl
playing Cole)
In television
Cole Younger is the main antagonist in the Hulu Original Series Quick Draw. In the show he is
characterized by a large leather mask that he wears in perpetuity, and the only reference to a brother is
his follower: Ephram Younger. The character resides just outside the town of Great Bend, Kansas and is
played by Brian O'Connor. [61
In literature
Cole Younger is a major character in Wildwood Boys (William Morrow, 2000; New York), a
biographical novel of "Bloody Bill" Anderson by James Carlos Blake.
References
1. "John Simkin (September 1997). "Cole Younger" (http://www.spartacuseducational.com/WWyoungerC.htm). Spartacus Educational. Retrieved 18 November 2014.
2. ""Cole Younger AKA Thomas Coleman Younger" (http://www.nndb.com/people/486/000160006/). NNDB.
Retrieved 18 November 2014.
3. "Carlyn Trout. "Thomas Coleman "Cole"
Younger" (http://shs.umsystem.edu/historicmissourians/name/y/younger/). The State Historical History of
Missouri. Retrieved 18 November 2014.
4. "The story of Cole Younger by himself: being an autobiography ofthe Missouri ... By Cole Younger
(http://books.google.com/books?
id=IgFoB3sjQ2cC&pg=PT86&dq=John+younger+killed+man+in+1866&hl=en&ei=Jp3NTurtGnvOgH2trgO&sa=X&oi=book_resu1t&ct=resu1t&resnum=3&ved=OCDgQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=John%
20younger%20killed%20man%20in%20 1866&f=fa1se)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cole_Younger
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Cole Younger - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
5.
A
Page 6 of6
Carlyn Trout. "Thomas Coleman "Cole"
Younger" (http://shs.umsystem.edu/historicmissourians/name/y/younger/). The State Historical History of
Missouri. Retrieved 18 November 2014.
6.
A
"Quick Draw TV Series, Outlaw: Cole Younger" (http:/lblog.sfgate.com/dwiegand/2013/07/31/new-
shows-animation-from-seth-meyers-western-sitcom-on-hulu/). SFGate. Hearst Communications, Inc.
Retrieved 15 August 2014.
Further reading
• Brant, Marley (April1995). "The Outlaw Youngers: A Confederate Brotherhood". Madison
Books. p. 408. ISBN 978-1568330457.
• Wellman Jr., Paul I; Brown, Richard Maxwell (April1986). A Dynasty ofWestern Outlaws.
University of Nebraska Press. p. 384. ISBN 978-0803297098.
• Younger, Cole (December 2012). The Story ofCole Younger, by Himself CreateSpace
Independent Publishing Platform. p. 158. ISBN 978-1481256131.
External links
• "Thomas Coleman "Cole" Younger" (http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?
page=gr&GRid=1138). Post Civil War Outlaw. Find a Grave. January 1, 2001. Retrieved
January 1, 2013.
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Cole_Younger&oldid=639075787"
Categories: 1844 births
1916 deaths I People convicted of murder by Minnesota
Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by Minnesota People from Jackson County, Missouri
! 1868 crimes I James-Younger Gang Outlaws ofthe American Old West: Bushwhackers
; American bank robbers I Train robbers People from Lee's Summit, Missouri ' American outlaws
Missouri Democrats
• This page was last modified on 21 December 2014 at 19:04.
• Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms
may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a
registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
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From W1kipedia. the free encyclopedia
"James- Younger Gang" redirects here. For the SDS splinter group that
became the Weatherman, see Bill Ayers § Early activism.
The James-Younger Gang was a notable 19th-century gang of American
outlaws that included Jesse James.
The gang was centered in the state of Missouri. Membership nuctuated from
robbery to robbery, as the outlaws' raids were usually separated by many
months. At various times, it included the Younger brothers {Cole, Jim. John,
and Bob). the James brothers {the notorious Jesse James and his brother
Frank), Clell t..·1iller, Arthur McCoy, Charlie Pit1s (born Samuel A. Wells),Pl John
Jarrette (who was married to Cole's sister Josie), Bill Chadwell (alias Bill
Stiles), and Matthew "Ace" Nelson. Contrary to frequent reports, the James
brothers and Younger brothers were not related, [c.taoon neede-d] at least not by
blood. Starting in 1879, after the demise of the James-Younger Gang, the
James brothers committed further crimes with Clell Miller's brother Ed and the
Ford brothers.
The James-Younger Gang had its origins in a group of Confederate
Jesse and Frank James, 1872
bushwhackers who fought in the bitter partisan conf1ict that wracked the
divided state of Missouri during the American Civil War. This group's postwar
crimes began in 1866, though it did not truly become the "James-Younger Gang" until1868 at the earliest, when the
authorities first named Cole Younger and both the James brothers as suspects in the robbery of the Nimrod Long bani<
in Russellville, Kentucky. It dissolved in 1876, after the capture ofthe Younger brothers in Minnesota after the ill-fated
attempt to rob the Northfield First National Bank. Three years later. Jesse James organized a new gang and renewed
his criminal career, which came to an end with his death by getting shot in the back while hanging a picture in 1882.
During the gang's period of activity, it robbed banks, trains, and stagecoaches in Missouri, Kentucky, Iowa, Texas,
Arkansas, Kansas, and West Virginia.
Contents [hide]
1 History
1.1 The Broad Sword
1.2 The early years: 1866 to 1870
1.31871 to 1875
1.4 1876
2 Aftermath
3legacy
4 James-Younger gang in movies
5 In literature
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