Minnesota lay many saddle hours away, so Frank and Jesse James, with the Younger boys and three others, traveled from Missouri by rail. They bought horses for the final leg – fine animals, new to Northfield on September 7, 1876. The men’s dusters may also have caught the eye of hardware owner Sam Allen. He followed a trio walking toward the bank. Then one shoved a revolver into his ribs. Allen dashed off. “Get your guns, boys! They’re robbing the bank!” Suddenly: hoof-beats and gunfire! Firing on the gallop, the other five strangers thundered through the street, their bullets clearing it.
In the bank, cashier J.L. Heywood refused to open the vault. The frustrated robbers shot him dead and left. Outside, townspeople laid down withering fire. A shotgun blast upended Clel Miller; a rifle finished him. Another rifle claimed Bill Chadwell. A bullet shattered Bob’s elbow, another crippled Cole Younger in the thigh. The remnants of the James-Younger gang left a bloody trail out of town with $26.
Northfield’s citizenry reloaded.
Colt Revolvers & Frontier Justice
A year later, far to the south, Dirty Dave Rudabaugh became a wanted man. Dodge City’s Wyatt Earp took his trail into Texas, then west, informed by a consumptive gambler and sometime-dentist. Earp returned empty, learning Doc Holliday was now also on the run – ahead of a lynch mob after he’d stabbed a low-level thug. A botched train robbery in 1878 led to Rudabaugh’s capture by Sheriff Bat Masterson. Ratting on his comrades, Dave promised to go straight. He did not. Implicated in the New Mexico murder of Deputy Lino Valdez, he fled. Nabbed again at Stinking Springs, he dug his way from jail and vanished.
One day in February, 1886, Rudabaugh turned up for a card game at a cantina in Parral, Mexico. Losing didn’t suit him. Screaming he’d been cheated, he jumped up, shot two players dead and wounded a third. Indignant onlookers promptly perforated Dirty Dave with a variety of firearms.
2 thoughts on “When the Law Failed, Citizens Turned to Colts for Frontier Justice”
Comments are closed.