Gads Hill Train Robbery

On January 31, 1874, five men, believed to have been Jesse and Frank James, Cole Younger, Jim Younger and John Younger, entered the small town of Gads Hill, Missouri, and robbed the general store. Afterwards, they proceeded to hold the townspeople hostage inside the store.^{[4][self-published source]} A train was expected to arrive there at 4:00 pm that day, but it ended up being forty-five minutes late. When it did arrive, the James-Younger gang created a bonfire on the train tracks and waved a red flag in front of it to make the train conductor stop immediately.^{[5][self-published source]}

After entering the train, the gang proceeded with the robbery. However, they avoided robbing women and working men. It is said they did this by looking at every passenger's hands to see how much callus they had. While some of the gang members were handling the passengers, the rest broke open the safe and stole more money.^[6] All five robbers managed to escape unharmed, with a total of $12,000 (equivalent to $290,000 in 2023).^[1]

Following one of the James-Younger gang's most successful robberies, the Pinkerton National Detective Agency began attempting to hunt down the members of the gang, particularly the ones responsible for the train robbery. In March 1874, John Younger was killed during a shootout with Jim Younger and three lawmen in Saint Clair, Missouri.^[7]