The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid

On September 7, 1876, the notorious Jesse James–Cole Younger gang rode into Northfield, Minnesota, with a bold plan to rob the First National Bank. The gang numbered eight men total, including the James brothers — Jesse and Frank — and four Younger brothers: Cole, Jim, Bob, and John. They had successfully robbed banks and trains across the Midwest for years, and Northfield appeared to offer no unusual resistance. They were wrong. As several gang members entered the bank, the townspeople of Northfield quickly grew suspicious. Armed citizens rallied in the streets, and a fierce gun battle erupted. Inside the bank, cashier Joseph Lee Heywood refused to open the vault even as gang members threatened and ultimately killed him. Outside, the townspeople's resistance was ferocious. Two gang members were killed on the streets of Northfield. The surviving outlaws fled in disarray, without a dollar from the bank. The aftermath was equally disastrous for the gang. A massive manhunt swept across southern Minnesota. Two weeks after the robbery, the Younger brothers — Cole, Jim, and Bob — were cornered near Madelia and captured after a bloody shootout in which Charlie Pitts, another gang member, was killed. All three Youngers were seriously wounded. Jesse and Frank James managed to escape into obscurity. The Younger brothers pleaded guilty to murder and robbery and were sentenced to life in prison. Cole and Jim Younger were eventually paroled in the early 20th century; Bob died in prison. The Northfield raid effectively destroyed the James–Younger gang and marked the beginning of the end for Jesse James himself, who was shot dead by the cowardly Robert Ford six years later in 1882. The raid is one of the most famous failed bank robberies in American history, celebrated annually in Northfield with a reenactment festival called "The Defeat of Jesse James Days." It cemented the mythology of Jesse James as simultaneously romanticized outlaw and violent criminal.