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InterpNEWS
5 Legendary Wild West Outlaws LESLEY KENNEDY
5 Le Wild West Outlaws Train robberies. Horse thievery. Cattle rustling. Shootouts. Cold Cold-blooded blooded murder. The most notorious outlaws of the Wild West have long been romanticized as daring robbers and swashbuckling killers since their stories first hit early American tabloids. In many ways, their narratives have been shaped—in in dime dime-store store novels, TV shows and Hollywood films—to films fit the frontier ideals of rugged individualism and pioneering spirit. "Americans love an underdog, a person who stands up against perceived tyranny,” wrote Bill Markley in Billy the Kid and Jesse James: Outlaws of the Legendary West West.. “Jesse James and Billy the Kid personify that rebellious spirit. Americans overlook the crimes and see the romance of the rebel.” We rounded up five of the 19th century's most infamous outlaws outlaws,, whose popular legends endure, despite their history of violent crime.
Jesse James
Born in Clay County, Missouri in 1847, Jesse James grew up as part of a Confederacy-supporting, supporting, slave-owning slave family. As a teen in 1864, James and his brother Frank joined a guerrilla unit responsible for murdering dozens of Union soldiers. For some historians, James never stopped fighting the Civil War,, translating his fury over the defeat of the secessionist cause into a career sticking up banks, trains and stagecoaches. At times, he saw himself as a modern Robin Hood, robbing ing from the politically progressive Reconstruction supporters and giving to the poor.
16-year-old old Jesse James posing with three pistols, Platte City, Missouri, July 10, 1864.
According to the State Historical Society of Missouri, Missouri the James-Younger Younger gang operated widely, from Iowa to Texas to West Virginia. Overall, between 1860 and 1882, they are believed to have committed more than 20 bank and train robberies, with a combined haul estimated at around $200,000.
