MAURICE JOYCE: 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.
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Who were Frank and Jesse James? Why were they so famous?
TONY RIGGS: 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.
MAURICE JOYCE: 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.
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2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25