Summary: In the first two chapters of this series we reviewed the rise of the James brothers to the top of the Kansas City underworld during the early years of Prohibition; their war with Al Capone at the height of their power in the late ‘20s; and the gradual decline of the James- Younger syndicate in the early ‘30s as the Great Depression disrupted the American economy. In this installment we’ll remember the notorious 1932 Northfield, Minnesota shootout that left many of Frank and Jesse James’ top associates dead and turned Frank and Jesse themselves into fugitives.

By 1931, when the Depression was approaching its peak, the glory days of the James-Younger bootlegging syndicate seemed to have become a distant memory. The once-highly powerful underworld organization had been steadily pushed out of much of the rest of the United States, and even its traditional strongholds in Kansas City and St. Louis were now under siege by rival syndicates and law enforcement agents as news of the James gang’s decline continued to get around. And it wasn’t simply the federal authorities who were cracking down on the James syndicate: a new class of Kansas City police officers, one much less susceptible to bribery than their predecessors had been, were vigorously enforcing local anti-liquor ordinances while Missouri state police pursued and with increasing frequency caught the trucks the syndicate was using to smuggle their bootleg booze across state lines.

The inexorable laws of economics were also taking a toll on the James-Younger syndicate. Many people simply couldn’t afford the cost of the brothers’ bootleg liquor anymore, and that took a massive toll on their business interests. Even those who did have the money to pay for it were being much more cautious about venturing into speakeasies run by the James gang, not simply out of fear of getting arrested but also out of a desire to hang onto as much of their cash as they could in the uncertain financial climate of the times. There were days when some James syndicate nightclubs didn’t see a single customer from the time their doors were opened until the time those same doors were shut and the employees went home.

The arrest of their longtime mole within the ranks of the Kansas City police department left the James brothers deprived of a critical intelligence source in their efforts to keep the law from learning too much about the true nature of their business. With every passing week the likelihood of Frank or Jesse-- if not both --getting arrested by the local police or by federal agents was growing, and it was clear to the James brothers they would sooner or later have to find a new base of operations if they wanted to stay in business.

With that in mind, Frank and Jesse accompanied Cole Younger and one of Younger’s associates, Bill Chadwell, to the town of Northfield, Minnesota on April 7th, 1932 to meet with a business contact Cole had made there who he said could aid the brothers in establishing a brand new headquarters away from the prying eyes of federal agents. But one thing would derail this plan: Younger’s contact was himself a federal agent, an undercover Treasury officer who’d set up the meeting as part of a joint ruse by the Treasury and the FBI to lure the James brothers into the open so they could be arrested. Backing up the federal agents were a contingent of Minnesota state police and a squad of Northfield sheriff’s deputies.

Accompanying the James brothers, Younger, and Chadwell on their fateful visit to Northfield was a squad of James syndicate bodyguards led by Hobbs Kerry, a crack shot who Cole Younger was grooming to take over as the syndicate’s chief enforcer when Younger finally retired. Normally Kerry was the coolest of cool customers, but during the ride to Northfield he seemed “jittery as the devil”, as a surviving James organization member would recall in a newsreel interview fifteen years later. That nervousness would turn out to have fatal consequences for the James syndicate.

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It was just after 1:00 PM local time on the afternoon of April 7th when the James brothers and their entourage arrived in Northfield to meet with Cole Younger’s contact. Everything seemed to be going well until Hobbs Kerry saw something-- nobody knows for sure what it was --that made him think the James brothers were about to be double- crossed. In a fit of panic he drew a .45 caliber automatic pistol and opened fire on one of the undercover federal agents in attendance at the meeting; the agent immediately returned fire, killing Kerry right where he stood. Seconds later Bill Chadwell fell victim to a shotgun blast from a Northfield sheriff’s deputy, and from that point all bets were off.

Accounts of the Northfield shootout strongly differ on some of the details of that fight, but they agree on many others. One of them is that contrary to popular belief as influenced by Hollywood and by overeager tourist board members, the Northfield sheriff’s department didn’t single-handedly capture Hobbs Kerry’s associate Charlie Pitts; indeed the sheriff himself was quick to point out to anyone who would listen that Treasury agents had assisted the Northfield deputies with Pitts’ arrest. Another common detail in the accounts of the shootout is the simultaneous deaths of brothers Wood and Clarence Hite, two of the lesser-known James syndicate enforcers.

Before the carnage had ended seven James syndicate gunmen, four Northfield sheriff’s deputies, two Minnesota state troopers and an FBI agent lay dead; three other state troopers were seriously wounded and a civilian was grazed by a stray bullet from a James gang member’s .38 revolver. Frank and Jesse James themselves, realizing their plans had gone disastrously awry, signaled Cole Younger to hurry with them back to Frank’s car so they could make their getaway. The three men drove off toward Minneapolis with a platoon of Minnesota state police cars chasing them at breakneck speeds. When they reached Minneapolis, the trio split up in hopes of keeping federal authorities off balance as they went underground to pick up the pieces of the now disintegrating James-Younger empire.

The day the James brothers and Cole Younger parted company would be the last time Frank and Jesse saw each other alive...

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