Life and adventures of Frank and Jesse James, the noted western outlawsDacus, J. A. (Joseph A.)
History
Life and adventures of Frank and Jesse James, the noted western outlaws
Dacus, J. A. (Joseph A.)
Brigands and robbers; James, Frank, 1844-1915; James, Jesse, 1847-1882
Poor child! Perhaps it was too young to fully comprehend the tragic
meaning of those tokens.
To Mrs. Berry the whole story of the tragedy in the thicket that
Sunday morning was repeated. In response, she said,
"I never thought he would be taken alive. He has said a great many
times that he would never be taken alive."
Then ensued a scene deeply affecting. The robber had those at
home who loved him. The wife and mother began to weep bitterly,
and the wailings of her little boy and five little girls, made a
scene calculated to touch the deep chords of emotion in the breasts
of the stern men, who in the performance of lawful duty had been
compelled to inflict all this misery on the family of the robber.
They searched the house, but they found no hoards of money. Then
Glascock and Carter returned to Kazy's, a conveyance was procured,
and the officer and his posse with their wounded prisoner set out
for Mexico, where they arrived late in the evening. Berry was
placed in a room in the Ringo House, and received the attention of
Dr. Russell, of Mexico. Berry's wounds were painful, and he did
not rally from their effects. On Monday, gangrene supervened, and
a little before 1 o'clock Tuesday, October 16th, 1877, Jim Berry,
one of the robbers of the train at Big Springs, quietly passed over
the dark river, and the records of his stormy career were closed
forever.
Sam Bass escaped from Buffalo station, and finally, after many
thrilling adventures, reached his haunts in Texas. A little more
than one year afterward he met his fate in a manner equally as
tragic as the event which closed the career of Jim Berry.
Of the seven men who plundered the train and its passengers at Big
Springs, Billy Heffridge, Jim Collins, Jim Berry, Sam Bass, and one
other, have met violent deaths. The robber who went by the name of
Jack Davis has disappeared. The seventh man--the only one whose
name was never ascertained by the detectives--succeeded in getting
away. Who he was, from whence he came, and whither he went, are,
until this day, unanswered questions.
Much speculation in regard to the identity of the seventh man,
whom we shall call the Unknown, has been indulged in, and the
question has been asked, Was it Jesse James? or was it Jack Bishop,
Dave Pool, John Jarrette or Jim Cummings? We have no means of
answering such interrogatories. Whoever the Unknown is or was, he
has probably not a single comrade of the occasion alive, and is
therefore in little danger of being betrayed.
There are people who believe that Jesse James was with the Big
Springs bandits. Upon what particular grounds such belief is
based, we have been unable to ascertain. He may or may not have
been present. Our readers may well be left free to draw their own
inferences. But certain it is, a mystery, which perhaps may forever
remain such, surrounds the personality of one of the daring raiders
who accomplished one of the greatest robberies which has yet taken
place on any American railroad.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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