Jesse James is the hero of song and story and an outlaw in history. He is best known for his robberies of banks and trains. This article will include some of the legend, some history, and some ideas for soloing a train robbery. Many of the ideas are based on actual events, but not all involving the James gang.
The following story is part of the legend. Jesse and his gang stopped a train. While the rest of the gang went to the express car Jesse and Frank James went into the passenger car. Jesse held two revolvers leveled and shouted, “We are going to rob all the men and kiss all the women.” “You can’t do that," protested a well dressed man. A woman in the back of the car shouted, “Shut up, sir, and let Jesse rob the train.”
In fact, many people admired Jesse James. Ex-Confederates saw him as a Southern boy resisting the Yankee law. Many poor farmers hated banks and railroads and saw him as striking back at them. Stories painted Jesse as a Robin Hood who robbed the rich and helped the poor. But law enforcement officers saw him as a professional thief and a cold-blooded killer. He was both charming and deadly.
The James gang did not invent train robbery, but theirs was the most famous, and it was the first West of the Mississippi. The Chicago Rock Island & Pacific Railroad was the first to cross the Mississippi River, crossing into Iowa from Rock Island Illinois. The tracks extended to Des Moines and on to Council Bluffs, Iowa where it crossed the Missouri River into Omaha, Nebraska. About midway between Des Moines and Council Bluffs the track passed through two small towns, Adair, and about seven miles west, Anita. The route ran through farm country with farm homes scattered along mud roads. The track was laid a few yards from a small creek called “Turkey Crick” by local residents.
The James gang consisted of seven men. There were the James boys, Jesse and his older brother Frank. The three Youngers, Cole, Jim and Tom were cousins to the James. Clell Miller and Bill Chadwell completed the gang. They all came from Missouri. They drifted into the area in small groups, well dressed and charming. Many local families have traditions that members of the James gang slept at their farm or ate a meal in their home. An informant in Omaha passed word to the gang the $75,000.00 in gold was coming through on the Rock Island.
The Robbery
On the evening of July 21, 1873, the gang stole some tools from the railroad maintenance building in Adair and moved to a spot about a mile and a half West of Adair. There they pried out spikes and loosened a rail on a curve in the track. They either removed the rail or waited until the train was rounding the curve and pulled the rail away. Either way the train could not stop. The locomotive was derailed and there was a pile-up of train cars. The engineer (train driver) was killed and the fireman was injured and died later. Several passengers were injured. It was about 8:00 p.m., and it was getting dark. Among the confused passengers were 30 Chinese who had come to America for an education.
Jesse and Frank James boarded the express car and forced the guard to open the safe. The loot totaled only two or three thousand dollars. The gang then headed south for Missouri. Once there they split up. Meanwhile the train crew and others were helping the injured and looking after passengers. The Chinese were taken to the depot in Anita. News stories quote them as saying, “This is hell country.”
Within a few hours, word of the robbery was telegraphed to Council Bluffs and Des Moines. For some reason the telegraph in Adair was not available and the railroad official had to walk to a station at Casey, about seven miles east of Adair. Soon a trainload of armed men set out from Council Bluffs. Men were let off along the way and pursued the gang on horses. A clear trail led to Missouri, but when the gang scattered, the trail faded out. While the loot had been less than expected, the James gang made a clean getaway. They left behind them a dead engineer with a wife and children to mourn his loss.
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