Irondale Bank Robbery

On the morning of October 26, 1928, the Bank of Irondale (MO) was held up just as the cashier opened for business. Two unmasked young men entered the bank, closed and locked the front door, and drew revolvers. They ordered the cashier, who had just opened the vault and safe, to hand over all the currency, saying they didn't want the silver because it was "too heavy to carry." 

The two bandits fled with about $1,700 to a green vehicle (later identified as an Essex) that they'd parked across the street and took off out of town. The automobile was later found abandoned a couple of miles outside Irondale, and a change of clothes was found nearby. A path through some woods led to another road, where it was assumed the robbers got into a second vehicle to complete their escape. 

About a week later a "rustic-looking" youth who was loitering on a St. Louis Street late at night with some other young men was arrested on suspicion and taken to a police station for questioning. Identifying himself as 19-year-old Homer Babb of Esther, Missouri, the suspect admitted he'd been involved in the Irondale bank robbery. He said he had two partners, one who accompanied him inside the bank and another who waited in the getaway car. His take in the robbery was about $300, he said, but he had already spent all but eight dollars on "whiskey and women."

Babb was arrested and charged with first degree robbery. He was convicted in late November 1928 and sentenced to thirty years in prison. 

In June of the following year, a second man, William Forbes, was arrested and identified as a suspect in the Irondale bank job, but I have found no record that he was convicted of the crime. I also have found no mention of a third suspect being arrested. 

Babb served about eleven years of his thirty-year term before being paroled by the Missouri governor. 

Girl Guerrillas

I mentioned in the preface or introduction of my 2016 book Bushwhacker Belles https://amzn.to/3YH9aq1 that the book's title was taken from a phrase in an 1891 newspaper article, Originally published on September 13, 1891, in the St. Louis Globe Democrat, the article was widely reprinted in cities across the country. 

Although the term "bushwhacker belles" has stuck as a sobriquet for the young women who aided guerrillas during the Civil War, the original newspaper article was, ironically enough, entitled "Girl Guerrillas." This week, I thought I might examine that newspaper article in more detail than I did when I cited it in my book.

The article was authored by a correspondent to the Globe-Democrat who called himself Burr Joyce. It's not clear whether that was his real name or a pseudonym, but he wrote fairly often for the Globe-Democrat during the late 1880s and early 1890s. The article's dateline was Chillicothe (MO), August 25 (1891). 

Joyce had something of a reputation for exaggeration, and the stories he told in "Girl Guerrillas" did nothing to counter that reputation.  He claimed, for instance, "There were twenty or more girls and women with Quantrill and Bill Anderson's slaughter of Gen. Blunt's escort...at Baxter Springs.... I have it from an ex-guerrilla who was present that half a dozen of these bushwhacker belles took part in the chase and massacre of Blunt's men--fired their pistols and as rapidly and deadly, rode as swiftly, and cheered as wildly as their masculine comrades." 

In truth, there is no evidence other than this hear-say testimony of one guerrilla who was supposedly present at Baxter Springs that even one woman accompanied Quantrill on his trip south to Texas in the fall of 1863. There were one or two women with Blunt, but none that I know of with Quantrill. 

One thing that I did discuss in Bushwhacker Belles was the exploits that Joyce's newspaper article credited to Sally Mayfield of Vernon County when Sally's sister Ella was, in fact, the one who performed these deeds of derring-do. One example was the feat that Sally, "a splendid horsewoman" supposedly undertook to save a man's life in Fort Scott, riding 120 miles back and forth between Fort Scott and her home near Montevallo "in twelve hours, across country, leaping ravines, scurrying through woodlands and half swimming creeks, without an hour's rest or a wink of sleep." 

According to the 1887 Vernon County History, it was Ella Mayfield who made the ride to Fort Scott to try to save the life of a southern-sympathizing doctor, although it took Ella 24 hours to cover 125 miles, twice as long as it supposedly took sister Sallie to cover 120. Both versions of the story are obvious exaggerations, but at least the county history identified the correct sister. 

There are other examples of exaggeration, if not outright fabrication, in the Joyce story, but these will suffice to show the type of yellow journalism that dominated the press in the late 1800s, especially if the topic was women involved in some sort of gender-defying role or activity.   

Frank James Trial for Bank Robbery Recalled

In 1882, a few months after Jesse James was killed in St. Joseph, his brother Frank went to Jefferson City and turned himself in to the Missouri governor. In August and September of the next year,1883, Frank went on trial at Gallatin, Missouri, seat of Daviess County, for his part in the 1881 train robbery and murder near Winston in the southwestern part of the county. It was one of the most sensational trials in Missouri history, with former gang member Dick Liddell testifying against Frank while Frank's friends, such as former Confederate general Jo Shelby, rallied around the accused.

There was an undercurrent of sympathy for the former outlaw from the outset of the trial. His younger brother had recently been killed, ignominiously assassinated by a member of his own gang, and Frank had gallantly turned himself in to the governor rather than having to be hunted down. So, the not guilty verdict was not entirely unexpected, but still, many observers at the time felt justice had not been done. Indeed, history still records that Frank James was one of the participants in the Winston train robbery.

Forty years after the Frank James trial, it was still a subject of much interest, and in 1923, several newspapers across the state of Missouri ran reminiscent accounts of the proceeding. A writer for the Kansas City Star, after examining old newspapers, noted that the sentiment in favor of James in 1883 even permeated the editorial coverage of the trial. Frank's wife, who sat beside her husband with their young son throughout the trial, was described as "a picture of melancholy" but with "a beauty begotten of real refinement." Frank himself was said to have "eyes of unusual intelligence." 

The trial was marked by splendid oratory on both sides, but in the end, the eloquence of the prosecution could not sway a jury which apparently had already made up its mind.

Murder of E. W. Nelson

On Saturday, February 10, 1900, about 5:30 in the afternoon, thirty-five-year-old E. W. Nelson, accompanied by his wife and two children, went out onto his property near Lenapah, Oklahoma, and started building a fence. Presently, his brother-in-law, Russ Henderson, accompanied by a couple of other men, came up carrying a shotgun. According to at least one initial report, Nelson's wife warned her husband to go to the house to avoid a confrontation, but Nelson assured her Henderson and the other men would not hurt him if he didn't show fight. So, although Nelson was armed, he placed his arms across his chest to show he did not intend to use his gun. Despite the show of non-resistance, Henderson raised his gun and shot Nelson from four feet away. The heavy charge of buckshot killed Nelson instantly, nearly tearing his head off. 

Later reports, as is often the case, added more details. It seems Nelson and Henderson had married sisters, and the father-in-law, Leonard Bowles, according to one source, had laid off a tract of land from his own land for each of the sons-in-law. However, a dispute arose between Nelson and Henderson as to where the line separating the two tracts was. 

Another report gave a more detailed and probably more accurate account of the circumstances leading up to the murder. Bowles had sold Nelson an 80-acre tract of land in the 1898, but when Nelson did not follow through on payments for the land, Bowles sold the 80-acre tract to a man named Polone. Polone and some hired men went to occupy the land and removed some of the fence Nelson had put up. Nelson responded by swearing out warrants against Bowles, Polone, and the hired helpers.

Nelson then went to work putting back the fence that had been torn down. Henderson and two other men, who were working for Bowles, went to the scene and confronted Nelson. Nelson and Henderson exchanged a few words before Henderson raised his shotgun and fired. Henderson claimed he acted in self-defense, but, the report noted, there was "nothing definite about the shooting." 

Henderson and his two companions were arrested on murder charges, while Bowles, Polone, and Polone's hired hands were arrested for removing the fence. All were taken to Claremore and later to Muskogee. The latter men bonded out, while the three charged with murder were held for trial. 

Charges against Henderson's companions were later dropped or reduced, because Henderson seems to be the only one who ultimately faced a murder charge. His trial, which took place in Muskogee in September of 1901, ended in a hung jury. Apparently he was never re-tried, as I can find no mention of a second trial.