ALS, one page both sides, 8 x 12.5, September 18, 1898. Addressed from the Minnesota State Prison in Stillwater, a handwritten letter to Minneapolis Judge George M. Bennett, in part (spelling and grammar retained): “Your note received many thanks for the note and a shake for the little Rebels success. We looked for a letter from his yesterday as to day but none came. But I suppose she was buisy and knew you would let us know, I suppose she will spend to day with Sister Bells family. I hope all the news in regard to Mizzouri has been good I have read it over several times and it bears acquaintance gets better each time. Have you send any to Stillwater yet. Capt. W. H. H. Taylor is the only book worm connected with the prison when he rreads it I will get his opinion and he is capable of judgeing for when I was librarian & he was store keeper I furnished him a novel every two days I think he read several hundred during the time. Send circulars to W. O. Selkirk 1904 Ave. L. Galveston, Texas, Miss Lida Harvey N. Kansas St. El Paso, Texas, W. W. Cain Tylar Texas, Miss Addie Fisher, Albany, Texas.” Younger continues in this manner, adding the names of several of his supporters before continuing: I have merely given you the above names to use if you think best. How is Mrs. Grew and Horace not forgetting Capt. and miss Grace Gates. Have not heard a word from Horace I fear she is sick she was to have been here during the fair week write he if you have not done so already and tell her there is an old bald headed fellow very anxious about his little fellow we haven’t any news so will stop this scrall. Love and good wishes to all friends not forgetting the little twins.” Younger adds the initial of his first name, “C,” to a postscript. In fine condition.
Cole and Jim Younger began their life of crime during the Civil War as members of the notorious Quantrill's Raiders. The brothers avoided arrest longer than many other outlaws due to the sympathy and support of many of their fellow Confederate veterans. However, in 1876, the Younger luck ran dry when their attempted bank robbery in Northfield, Minnesota, went famously awry. Armed townsfolk disrupted the robbery, chased off the gang, and in the ensuing melee, two townspeople were killed. When the Youngers were finally captured, they were tried and sentenced to life imprisonment at the Minnesota State Prison in Stillwater—a guilty plea saved them from the hangman's noose. After two years of legislative wrangling, a parole bill was passed in Minnesota's legislature and Cole Younger was freed from his lifetime sentence on July 10, 1901. After his release, Cole wrote a popular memoir, lectured and toured with Frank James as part of a Wild West show, and eventually declared that he had become a Christian and repented for his criminal past.
The “Horace” mentioned by Younger is assuredly Horace Greeley Perry, a young girl Cole Younger had first met when he and his gang rode their beautiful horses through the town of St. Peter, Minnesota years prior. When the six-year-old Perry expressed her amazement at Younger’s horse, the outlaw picked her up, sat her on the saddle, and let her ride with him down the street. When she alighted, Younger reportedly smiled and said ‘I hope you will always remember me,’ to which the small girl replied: ‘I will always be your friend.’ Perry, who was the daughter of a local newspaperman, kept her promise and visited Younger in prison some 15 years later. She later joined the James-Younger Wild West Show as a publicity agent in 1903.
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