The stories of the wild west bad guys is back by popular demand. Well, actually just by demand by one good guy, my buddy Glenn for his wild west blog.

This young man was James Hardin Younger of the infamous Younger gang. He was the 9th of 14 children from a hard scrabble family. They had enough kids to form their own gang, 4 brothers to be exact.
Jim joined the Confederate Army at 15 and fought with Quantrill's Raiders, which was like a prep school for outlaws back in the day. He was captured at the ambush that killed Quantrill and spent the rest of the war in a Union prison.
Jim was a part of the Great Northfield Raid in 1876 when the Youngers teamed up with the James Gang. The Pinkerton Agency tipped off the town that they were probably going to be robbed and the town folks came loaded and rolling. They shot up the gang pretty good and captured all the Youngers. Jim got hit in the jaw and was never able to eat solid food again.
He spent 25 years in prison and worked as the prison librarian and got interested in socialist politics before he was freed. He even got engaged to Alix Muller, a freelance writer, but they could not ever get married due to the terms of his parole when he was released.
A tired and worn-out outlaw, Jim committed suicide on October 19th, 1902. He left this note:
"I am a mere nothing in the world's affairs from now on. The fact is there is nothing left of me but the soul I started out with."
I have included a clip from a highly dramatized scene of the Northfield shoot-out from the movie "The Long Riders". It does show James getting shot in the cheek for a little historical accuracy....https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NsMwPIy4Ax4

 

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