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ALS signed “Your Friend, Jim Younger,” eight pages, 12 x 9, no date. Lengthy handwritten letter to his friend Cora McNeill, whom he calls "Corona." Cora, who may have been a sweetheart of Jim's before he went to prison, was the wife of Minneapolis judge George M. Bennett who had taken an interest in Jim and Cole and worked for years to have them released and pardoned. In this fascinating letter, Jim offers a statement of the several crimes he and Cole were accused of committing, one of which occurred while they were incarcerated.
In full: "Mr. Bennett, thinks, and suggested to Cole to make further statements a bout the different crimes that have been charged to us. Now I have not talked with Cole upon this subject lately enough, to say what he intends doing, but I have not my self, and have most earnestly objected in my views of his making such statement for publication. For it not only does no good, but it gives our enemies a chance to come back with new charges and abuse. Further more, there is not the evidence of a single soul to substanciate a single charge that stands aganst us to day—except northfiend [Northfield], and the fight with detectives. While hundreds of good men, and woman have said we were not guilty; but a few others have sworn we were not.
Take Stones Bank for instance. We are accused of robbing that when Stone and all his family have been our friends, from our birth. Stage and gads hill train robbery [Missouri]. Bill Dicenson, and the masonic lodge at Floyd La. know that we were there, and made oath to that effect. Iowa train robbery. Five hundred people knows we were at Monagaw. and some good people have made oath to that fact, but the accusation goes on.
We are now accused of the blue cut robbery. One man went so far as to say I took fifteen hundred dollars from him alone. Now we came to prison in—76—and the railroad that forms the blue cut, was not built untill 80-84 and we haven't lost a single day at the prison. So there must be a mistake some where. And Cole charged with shooting sixteen men with one gun. Why don't they locate this. They know why.
And here comes an other that Cole first shot, then hit him with a rock, and Cole at the same time 3-thousand miles a way. Now if this little spree of Coles were true, then I should pronounce Cole to be as sillie as Thompsons Colt. For why should he carry a gun, or why should he waist his time casting stones at some one he never knew, why not have straddled a rock pile and killed his enemies. Such nonsense.
And last tho not least. There comes an easy lier, and states in a speach made in the state's capital of Minnesota, that we had gone in to a town of three hundred inhabitants, and killed them all. Now where did this town belong. Or what earthly use is it to try to head off such absurd liers. Are the men who are to sit on the case to listen to such tales as this. For if they are, then the whole thing had just as well stop now as ever. For any man with enough sense to go in when it rains, knows such as the a bove is false, as nothing like this has ever occurred, and could not take place without—one. Just one. Soul. Man. or woman. having seen and know something a bout it. But they haven't been found. Just think of it.
And beging your pardon for this comparison, I will say what cannot be denied. That if news paper accounts a lone were true, or if one half of what is said in the papers are true, there has never been an honest President, Govenor—Senator—or politition since the world began, but we know there has, but if the papers or reporters will write as they do of public men then why donot these same public men understand how easy it is for them to write falsehood after falsehood of men helpless in prison." In fine condition.
Cole and Jim Younger began their life of crime during the Civil War as members of the notorious Quantrill's Raiders. The brothers avoided arrest longer than many other outlaws due to the sympathy and support of many of their fellow Confederate veterans. However, in 1876, the Younger luck ran dry when their attempted bank robbery in Northfield, Minnesota, went famously awry. Armed townsfolk disrupted the robbery, chased off the gang, and in the ensuing melee, two townspeople were killed. When the Youngers were finally captured, they were tried and sentenced to life imprisonment at the Minnesota State Prison in Stillwater—a guilty plea saved them from the hangman's noose. After two years of legislative wrangling, a parole bill was passed in Minnesota's legislature and Cole and Jim Younger were freed on July 10, 1901. After his release, Jim became engaged to Alix Mueller, but due to the terms of his parole, Jim was not legally allowed to marry. In 1900 he was listed as a farmer in the census and killed himself on October 19, 1902, in St. Paul, Minnesota.
This remarkable letter is especially notable for Jim Younger’s blend of logic, sarcasm, and evident frustration as he attempts to dismantle the many accusations against him and his brother. He repeatedly points to clear inconsistencies—most strikingly noting that they were blamed for a robbery involving a railroad not even built until years after their imprisonment—while also mocking the more outlandish claims, such as Cole allegedly killing multiple men or even wiping out an entire town. His tone shifts between reasoned argument and dry humor, revealing both intelligence and exasperation. Particularly compelling is his broader critique of the press, observing how easily “falsehood after falsehood” can be written about “men helpless in prison,” offering a rare and personal glimpse into how notorious outlaws perceived the power of public opinion in shaping their legacy.
The Western Americana auction of Jochen Zeitz.
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