r surely their exploits were unrivaled, and perhaps cannot again be
equaled. And they did all of these unbelievable things in the heart of
the Mississippi valley, in a country thickly settled, in the face of a
long reputation for criminal deeds, and in a country fully warned
against them! Surely, it seems sometimes that American law is weak.

It was much the same story in all the long list of robberies of small
country banks. A member of the gang would locate the bank and get an
idea of the interior arrangements. Two or three of the gang would step
in and ask to have a bill changed; then they would cover the cashier
with revolvers and force him to open the safe. If he resisted, he was
killed; sometimes killed no matter what he did, as was cashier Sheets in
the Gallatin bank robbery. The guard outside kept the citizens terrified
until the booty was secured; then flight on good horses followed. After
that ensued the frantic and unorganized pursuit by citizens and
officers, possibly another killing or two _en route_, and a return to
their lurking place in Clay county, Missouri, where they never had any
difficulty in proving all the _alibis_ they needed. None of these men
ever confessed to a full list of these robberies, and, even years later,
they all denied complicity; but the facts are too well known to warrant
any attention to their denials, founded upon a very natural reticence.
Of course, their safety lay in the sympathy of a large number of
neighbors of something the same kidney; and fear of retaliation supplied
the only remaining motive needed to enforce secrecy.

Some of the most noted bank robberies in which the above mentioned men,
or some of them, were known to have been engaged were as follows: The
Clay County Savings Association, of Liberty, Missouri, February 14,
1866, in which a little boy by name of Wymore was shot to pieces because
he obeyed the orders of the bank cashier and gave the alarm; the bank of
Alexander Mitchell & Co., Lexington, Missouri, October 30, 1860; the
McLain Bank, of Savannah, Missouri, March 2, 1867, in which Judge McLain
was shot and nearly killed; the Hughes & Mason Bank, of Richmond,
Missouri, May 23, 1867, and the later attack on the jail, in which Mayor
Shaw, Sheriff J. B. Griffin, and his brave fifteen-year-old boy were all
killed; the bank of Russellville, Kentucky, March 20, 1868, in which
cashier Long was badly beaten; the Daviess County Savings Bank, of
Gallatin, Missouri, De