Lot #8046

[Jesse James] H. H. Craig Autograph Note Signed on Tracking Frank James: "If I can't go on same train I want us to beat them into Chicago"

Description

Kansas City's police commissioner tracks Frank James: "If I can't go on same train I want us to beat them into Chicago"

Police commissioner of Kansas City (1848–1914) who assisted in the capture of James-Younger Gang outlaws Dick Liddil and Bob Ford in Clay County, Missouri, precipitating a series of events that ended in the murder of Jesse James. ALS in pencil, signed “Craig,” one page both sides, 6 x 9.5, personal letterhead, May 23, 1882. Handwritten letter to Sheriff James Timberlake, outlining his plans to catch the same train to Chicago as outlaw Frank James. In part: "H(aise) informs me he will not leave before tomorrow evening & that it has been intimated that he may meet some one on the way. This being the case I am going on the same train if I can arrange it. I do not know what route he is going. Mr. Low when I asked him for passes said he had business in C— & would like to be along. He is in Trenton. Suppose you go up there in the morning & I will telegraph you as soon as I learn what road they will take. If I can't go on same train I want us to beat them into Chicago. I can't advise further until I learn more." He adds a postscript: "If Frank takes the train between here & C— it will probably be at Cameron." In very good to fine condition, with light creasing and toning, and a short fold split.

Rather than continuing to live a life on the run, Frank James negotiated a surrender with Governor Thomas T. Crittenden through an intermediary, newspaper editor John Newman Edwards. On October 4, 1882, he walked into the governor's office, placed his holstered gun in his hands, and proclaimed: 'I have been hunted for twenty-one years, have literally lived in the saddle, have never known a day of perfect peace. It was one long, anxious, inexorable, eternal vigil.' He then ended his statement by saying, 'Governor, I haven't let another man touch my gun since 1861.'

Auction Info

• Auction Title: Old West, Outlaws, Lawmen, and Gangsters
• Dates: #720 - Ended 05/22/2025