A Brief History
On September 7, 1876, the infamous James-Younger gang attempted to pull off a bank robbery in Northfield, Minnesota, but an alert and irate group of citizens quickly armed themselves and foiled the robbery, killing three of the robbers and wounding others.
Digging Deeper
Frank and Jesse James eluded capture, but two Younger brothers were caught and sent to prison. The gang had previously served the Confederate States during the American Civil War as “bushwhackers,” basically land based pirates attacking and robbing Union forces and anyone believed to be Union sympathizers.
Infamous bank robber Willie Sutton explained why he robbed banks, “Because that’s where the money is,” but he ended up in prison. Bank robberies may seem like a good way to snatch money, but 86% of those crimes are solved, one of the most solved type of crimes.
Other infamous foiled bank robberies include the 1980 Norco job and the 1997 North Hollywood bank robbery.
Question for students (and subscribers) to ponder: Have you ever been in a bank during a robbery?
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Fanebust, Wayne. Chasing Frank and Jesse James: The Bungled Northfield Bank Robbery and the Long Manhunt. McFarland & Company, 2018.
Sutton, Willie and Edward Linn. Where the Money Was: The Memoirs of a Bank Robber. Viking; First Edition, 1976.
The featured image in this article, a photograph by McGhiever of The Scriver Building in Northfield, Minnesota, is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.
You can also watch video versions of this article on YouTube.
