2005-2-12
VOICE ONE:
People in America, a program in Special English by the Voice of
America.
(THEME)
Two of the most famous outlaws of the old American west were
brothers. I'm Tony Riggs. Today, Maurice Joyce and I tell about
Frank and Jesse James. We begin their story on a cold day in
February, eighteensixty-six.
(MUSIC)
VOICE TWO:
Liberty, Missouri. Two o'clock in the afternoon.
((SFX))
Twelve men on horses ride slowly into town. Their hats are low on
their faces. They stop in front of the Clay County Savings Bank. Two
of the men get off their horses and enter the bank. The bank manager
asks if he can help them. The two men pull out guns from under their
heavy coats. They demand money.
In less than two minutes, they return to the street. Now the gang
is in a great hurry. All twelve men begin shooting.
((SFX))
Several people are wounded. A young college student is killed.
((SFX))
(MUSIC)
VOICE ONE:
What happened on that day was the first bank robbery, during
business hours, in peacetime, in the United States.
History books say the two men who went into the bank were Frank
James and his younger brother Jesse. But this was never proved.
Frank and Jesse James told lawmen they were home that day. Several
of their friends confirmed the story.
True or not, during the next sixteen years, the James brothers
did become two of the most famous outlaws in America.
VOICE TWO:
History experts say they robbed at least twelve banks, perhaps
many more. They stopped seven trains, taking money from passengers
and the United States Postal Service. They robbed as many as seven
stagecoaches, the horse-pulled vehicles used back then as public
transportation.
They traveled from their home in Clay County, Missouri, to
Minnesota in the North and to Texas in the West. Hundreds of lawmen
hunted them. But the James Brothers were never caught. Much later,
their story was told in songs.
(MUSIC)
Who were Frank and Jesse James? Why were they so famous?
VOICE ONE:
Frank and Jesse were the sons of Robert James, a religious
minister who owned a farm in Clay County,Missouri. People who knew
the family said the James boys were polite and friendly. At least
until the time of America's Civil War.
Many people in Missouri believed in the cause of the southern, or
Confederate, states during the Civil War. However, Missouri was on
the border between the North and the South. Almost as many people
there supported the Union as the Confederacy. Terrible fighting took
place in Missouri and in other border states.
Guerrilla groups from both sides were responsible for the
fighting.
VOICE TWO:
History experts say much of the violence in the American West was
a result of the situation after the Civil War. Many former
Confederate soldiers returned home, but did not put down their guns.
They continued to fight what they saw as symbols of northern
oppression. These included banks and railroads.
Many local people agreed with the former soldiers and supported
them.
A lack of government control in the West also led to increased
violence after the war. Records show that violent crime increased at
that time by as much as fifty percent.
VOICE ONE:
Frank and Jesse James are perhaps the most famous examples of the
soldier-turned-outlaw.
During the Civil War, the James family suffered attacks by Union
guerrillas. As a way of fighting back, Frank and Jesse became
Confederate guerrillas. They rode with two of the most violent
guerrilla groups. After the war, they continued their violent ways.
The James brothers were extremely successful. Their gang rode for
sixteen years. Hundreds of government lawmen tried to catch them.
Agents of the private Pinkerton National Detective Agency tried,
too. But no one did. Most lawmen did not even know what the two
brothers looked like.
VOICE TWO:
Jesse James enjoyed being famous. He often wrote letters to
newspapers denying that he was guilty of any crime.
Once, he ate dinner with a well-known Pinkerton detective who was
searching for him. The detective got a big surprise later when he
opened a letter from Jesse James. Jesse said how much he enjoyed
their dinner together. He also wished him 'good luck'!
Stories like this were printed in
newspapers all over the country. They helped Make the James brothers
famous. People liked the stories. Those who had been robbed did not.
Soon, large amounts of money were offered for the capture of Frank
and Jesse James. The state of Missouri offered as much as ten
housand dollars or the brothers. . . dead or alive.
VOICE ONE:
It was easy for the James brothers to hide in their home area.
Yet most often they hid in large cities. Many years later, Frank
James told reporters that it was easy to hide in a city, because
everyone there looked like everybody else.
When one place became too dangerous, the James brothers moved to
another. That was one reason they decided to go to Minnesota. There
they planned to rob the bank in the town of Northfield.
Frank and Jesse rode to Northfield with six friends. Three of the
friends were brothers: Cole, Jim and Bob Younger. Like the James
brothers, the Youngers were former Confederate guerrillas, now
outlaws.
VOICE TWO:
From the beginning, their attempted robbery of the bank in
Northfield was a failure. First, when Jesse demanded money from bank
workers, they said the safe could not be opened.
Next, the gang decided to get out of town fast. But the people of
Northfield knew something was wrong. Many had gone to their homes or
offices for their guns. Then the shooting began.
Two members of the gang were killed in town. Another was killed
later. And Cole, Jim and Bob Younger were captured. Only two men
escaped -- Frank and Jesse James. Frank was wounded, but he stayed
on his horse. Lawmen chased him and his brother for more than a week
before they lost their trail.
In the years that followed, the James brothers tried again to
form another gang. They were never very successful.
(MUSIC)
VOICE ONE:
In eighteen eighty-two, Jesse James was living in Saint Joseph,
Missouri, with his wife and children. People knew him as Mister
Howard. One day, another outlaw, Bob Ford, shot him in the back of
the head. He killed Jesse James for the money that had been offered
for his capture. Bob Ford never collected the money. He was tried
for murder, instead.
Several months later, Frank James surrendered to the governor of
Missouri. He was charged with several crimes and tried two times.
Both juries refused to find him guilty.
VOICE TWO:
Cole, Jim and Bob Younger spent many years in prison for their
part in the Northfield, Minnesota, raid. After Cole was released
from prison, he and Frank James earned money by speaking to groups.
They told about their days as outlaws. . . and the evils of crime.
Frank James lived to be seventy-two years old. He died in the
same room in which he was born, on the James family farm in Clay
County, Missouri. Today, that farmhouse is a museum that tells the
story of the two most famous outlaws of the American West.
(MUSIC)
VOICE ONE:
This Special English program was written and produced by Paul
Thompson. Your narrators were Maurice Joyce and Tony Riggs. Listen
again next week to another People in America program on the Voice of
America.