Shot in the Back Read Free

walk up ’n down the street without anyone ever paying any attention to us.”
    â€œWe’ve also got friends here, Jesse,” Frank said. “We’ve got places to go to hide out. We know where those places are, and we know who to trust. Neither of us have ever even been to Minnesota. We wouldn’t even know our way around up there.”
    â€œBill Chadwell is from Minnesota. He knows his way around, and he swears he can get us in and out real easy.”
    â€œWho do you have lined up to go?”
    â€œBill Chadwell; then there’s Bob, Jim, and Cole Younger. Also Charlie Pitts, Clell Miller, and of course you and me.”
    Frank shook his head. “You can’t count me. I haven’t decided yet that I’ll go.”
    â€œFrank, you’ve been saying you want to quit, haven’t you?”
    â€œYes, you know I have. Annie doesn’t like this. She doesn’t like it at all.”
    â€œNeither does Zee. Don’t you see, Frank? We can rob that bank up in Minnesota, maybe come away with a hundred thousand dollars or more. Even splitting it up among all of us, we’d have twelve thousand, five hundred dollars apiece. Can you imagine what we could do with that much money? We’d have enough to start over anywhere we wanted. We could go to some place like Tennessee, or Kentucky, or maybe Virginia and buy a farm. I mean a good farm, with good dirt.” Jesse smiled. “We’ll buy two farms, right next to each other, and we’ll be gentleman farmers. Our kids will grow up together, and some day, we’ll just sit on the front porch and rock. What do you say, Frank?”
    â€œI know I’m crazy for saying this,” Frank said. “But I have to admit that the idea of having enough money to buy a farm and settle down does sound good to me.”
    â€œThen you’re in?”
    â€œAll right, Jesse, yeah, I’m in. I’ll go along with you this one last time.”
    â€œGood!” Jesse responded enthusiastically.
    â€œWhat’s the plan?”
    â€œFirst, we have to raise some money, enough money to finance the operation.”
    â€œSo, what do you have in mind? Are we going to rob a bank so that we have enough money to rob a bank?”
    Jesse smiled. “No. We’re going to rob a train.”
    Otterville, Missouri—July 7, 1876
    It was ten o’clock at night when Jesse and Frank James; Bob, Jim, and Cole Younger; Bill Chadwell; Charlie “Chuck” Pitts; Clell Miller; and Hobbs Kerry rode into town. Most of the townspeople were home in bed, though the saloon was still open and the splashes of light spilling through the windows were the only source of illumination in the entire town. An off-key piano was rendering some tune in discordant notes, and a man’s loud laughter could be heard.
    â€œThe rest of you, go on up to Rocky Cut and wait,” Jesse said. “Frank and I will take care of the night guard.”
    Rocky Cut referred to the gash just beyond the edge of the town that had been blasted through the hill when the tracks for the Missouri Pacific Railroad had been laid.
    Jesse and Frank dismounted, then went inside the depot. The night guard was sitting in one chair with his legs propped up on one another. He was reading a newspaper by lamplight, and he looked up as the two men came in. His eyes grew large when he saw they were both pointing their pistols at him.
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    Fifteen minutes later, with the guard tied to the chair he had been sitting on, and with one of his socks stuffed into his mouth held in place by his kerchief, Jesse and Frank joined the others at Rocky Cut. Jesse had the guard’s lantern, with a red lens, and when they heard the train coming, he lit it and stood alongside the train, swinging the red lantern back and forth as a signal to the engineer to stop.
    Hearing the vented steam, then the squeak of the brakes as they were applied, Jesse knew that the engineer