In the mid-to-late 1800s, Missouri was known as the Outlaw State, with considerable justification. Missouri contributed far more than its share of bushwhackers, stock thieves, band and train robbers, and killers. Here’s a roll call of some of the most infamous outlaws.
In the stories told about them during their careers the Youngers were often cast in the classic Robin Hood mold. It was an image they worked hard to cultivate, but it was only half true. They did steal from the rich but, as biographer T.J. Stiles wrote, “There is no evidence that they did anything with their loot except spend it on themselves.”
“Bloody” Bill Anderson, Jesse and Frank James, Cole Younger, and other Bushwhackers took 20 Union soldiers off a train and executed them in what became known as the Centralia Massacre. Anderson’s gang was later attacked by an inexperienced Union force and more than 120 Union troops were killed in a battle outside Centralia. Missouri Life …
Cole Younger was being interviewed on this day when he said, “The people of western Missouri are, in some respects, very peculiar. We will take Jackson county where I was born for instance. In that section the people seemed to be born fighters, the instinct being inherited from a long line of ancestors.”
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