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Pinkerton Against Youngers' Pardon, Prefers "they would be dead years ago" - Fantastic Old West Content
Pinkerton Against Youngers' Pardon, Prefers "they would be dead years ago" - Fantastic Old West Content
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William Pinkerton
Chicago, IL, December 20, 1898
Pinkerton Against Youngers' Pardon, Prefers "they would be dead years ago" - Fantastic Old West Content
TLS

A fine content typed letter signed by William A. Pinkerton in which he condemns the Younger Brothers and any of the many seeking to obtain their pardon! Written on his official Pinkerton's Detective Agency letterhead, Chicago, December 20, 1898. To Cora McNeil Deming, Jim Younger's former sweetheart and the author of the novel Mizzoura, which romantically chronicled the Younger Brothers' lives. 2pp. 8.5" x 11".

Cora McNeil spent years attempting to obtain a pardon for the Youngers, and harnessed help from numerous sympathetic private citizens as well as public officials along the way. Clearly she was barking up the wrong tree with Pinkerton, who held no bars in expressing his utter contempt for the outlaws -- and any sympathizers such as his correspondent herself!

In part: "…Concerning the conviction of the Younger brothers I have nothing to add since the last letter that I wrote you. In view of the numerous infamous crimes that these men have committed, certainly no one connected with my family could ever ask for their pardon. I had previously heard of the book entitled 'Mizzouree' [sic, Mizzoura] which you speak of. A friend of mine sent me a copy a few days ago and I have read a few chapters of it but have not had the book read thoroughly. The book in itself is simply a romance, and absurd as it appears, so far as I have gotten into it, to cover up the misdeeds of this band of out-laws, every one of whom, if they had lived in the deserts, would have been hanged years ago. I have not yet reached the chapter which you refer to concerning the taking away of Captain Lull from Roscoe, but the brief items that you send me concerning it leads me to regard that this too is a romance. The woman who appeared and aided in the removal of Capt. Louis J. Lull was his wife; the gentlemen who accompanied her was Robert J. Linden, the present Supt. of Police of Philadelphia. It seems ridiculous for rumor or anybody else to place poor Lull's wife in any other position than that which she was justly entitled to, that of the wife of a murdered man. Mrs. Lull's address at the last I heard from her was Mrs. Marian B. Lull, 100 Pineapple Street, Brooklyn, N.Y.

Concerning the people who shot Deputy Sheriff Daniels, a worthy, upright officer, and afterwards Capt. Lull, there is no doubt in my mind or anybody connected with us, that the one who shot Daniels was John Younger and the one who fired the fatal shot into Capt. Lull was Jim Younger. Both of these men had virtually surrendered at the time of their assassination, and any attempt to cover these facts up, whether it be in a romance or otherwise, would be contradicted by my brother and myself. There is no false sympathy in either one of us for the men who are now in prison; if they had what is their due they would be dead long ago.

As I said before I have not read the book which you so kindly sent me, but what little I have had a chance to read of it is simply a romance without regard to the truth as it actually existed. The idea of Capt. Lull being brought away from Roscoe alive and holes being bored in the box for the purpose of giving him air is simply too ridiculous to pay any attention to. If your dear father were alive he would tell you how ridiculous a story of this kind would seem. Capt. Lull's dead body was brought from Roscoe to Chicago and is buried in the Knight Templars burial grounds in this city. The widow, as stated above, resides in Brooklyn. The romance, whoever may be the author of it, and the attempt to make out that Capt. Lull was alive when he left Roscoe, is too ridiculous for comment. It may read well in a story, but in the face of facts it is scarcely worthy of passing thought. So far as the book is concerned the true facts in the case are so far distorted that anybody who had any knowledge of them would not recognize what it was about…".

Pinkerton had certainly had his fill of the Youngers by the time he wrote this letter. The brothers had been wreaking havoc around Missouri for a number of years when Pinkerton was called in to stop them. In March, 1874, two men from the Pinkerton Detective Agency were put on their trail and arrived in St. Clair, MO. They were Detective Louis J. Lull and Sheriff Edwin B. Daniels, who was to act as guide, and their assignment was to capture the James-Younger gang whose members had a week earlier shot and killed another Pinkerton detective. In the melee that followed, both Lull and Daniels were killed, along with John Younger.

Two years later, in 1876 the James-Younger Gang made their disastrous raid in Northfield, Minnesota. The original target was Mankato, but the presence of armed citizens changed the gang's focus to the First National Bank of Northfield. Due to the actions of cashier Joseph Lee Heywood, and citizens A. R. Manning, a hardware merchant, and Henry M. Wheeler, a medical student home on leave, the gang was unsuccessful in the heist.

Unfortunately, Heywood was killed for not opening the safe. A Swedish immigrant, Nicklaus Gustafson, was also killed in the street because he did not understand the gang's orders to get out of the way. The raid only lasted seven minutes; two of the gang members died, and the rest escaped, riding south out of town. A posse at Madelia captured the Younger brothers and killed another gang member.

The subsequent conviction and imprisonment of the Younger brothers was a touchstone for a number of popular obsessions at the time. Still smarting from its defeat in the Civil War, Southerners tended to believe that the sentencing of the "boys" was a way for the North to continue to antagonize its fallen foe and remind it of its political reach. It is understandable, then, that a not-insignificant group agitated for a pardon for the brothers and through it, wrest back just a little control over the fate of two of its crusaders.

The Youngers pardon cause supported by Cora McNeil had its desired effect -- likely to the dismay of Pinkerton. Chief Justice of Minnesota Charles M. Start (1839-1919) signed it on July 10, 1901, along with the Governor of Minnesota, Samual Rinnah van Sant, and Attorney General Walter Douglass. The notice announced: "Upon principle and judicial authority, we are satisfied that chapter 234 of the Laws of 1901 became law, although not approved by the Governor. We also recognize that it is the exclusive province of the legislature to extend the parole system to life convicts, and it has done so subject to certain conditions and limitations. We are satisfied that the petitioners in this case have, by exceptionally good conduct in prison for a quarter of a century, and the evidence they have given of sincere reformation, earned the right to a parole if any life prisoner can do so."

William A. Pinkerton (1846-1923) was a legendary detective and the son of Allan Pinkerton (1819-1884), founder of the first private detective agency in the country and whose innovative methods in gathering information and hunting down criminals are still in use today. William Pinkerton served in the secret service with the Army of the Potomac during the Civil War. He became head of the Pinkerton Detective Agency upon his father's death in 1884. Pinkerton was also an author, noted for his novel Forgery (1905).

Cora McNeil Deming (1857-1942) was a novelist and ardent admirer of Cole and Jim Younger. She was believed to have been Jim's sweetheart before he went to prison. McNeil had firsthand knowledge of the Youngers: her childhood home was close to the Osage River in Monegaw Springs, MO, on whose bank the brothers had a hideout cave. According to McNeil, many residents of that area assisted the Youngers in avoiding capture for years. She continued her correspondence with both Jim and Cole while they were incarcerated in Minnesota following the botched Northfield bank robbery. Later, McNeil married Minneapolis judge George M. Bennett who attempted to secure a pardon for the Younger brothers.

Cora was the author of the novel "Mizzoura," which painted a romantic and sympathetic picture of the outlaws. She stated that she wrote the novel "to bring fruitful returns to two penitents who, for their crimes, have paid a heavy penalty" (quoted in Kansas City Star, October 20, 1902). She also noted that the Youngers were "…kindly disposed towards the weak or helpless, but sterner men never lived…".

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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  • Dimensions: 8.5" x 11"
  • Medium: TLS

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