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ALS, one page both sides, 7.75 x 12.5, embossed 'Hygeia Springs' letterhead, "May Day" 1899. Addressed from the Minnesota State Prison, a handwritten letter to Cora “Corona” McNeill, in full (spelling and grammar retained): “There is none like you, and I know this world quite well. And loveing wishes from one so true, makes me happy’er than words can tell. And I want you to take all the care you can of your self and get well. God knows you have suffered enough, but you are brave and must fight a good fight, and I will help you all I can. I saw you very plain last night and you were laughing at an other Lady’s remarks of your self. Now I thought perhaps the doctor might object to my letters, so I won’t write very long ones untill you get stout, and then you, that is if you want long letters can tell mister doctor to get out with his pills. You see dear friend the length of my letters is all I can boast of in letter writing. I had a surprise when the law makers, and breakers, came over. You rember I wrote you a bout Gem, and twenty school girls, well the clown of that bevy of happy Lasses, was a long–with her baby girl, thirteen years old. She gave me a note which told me that her husband was a railroader and a Minnesotian, and that while she had never been able to perswade him to do any thing to help us, she had succeeded in getting him to promise to do nothing against us. I never told Cole any thing of this, for it could do him no good, and might result in harm. For ten chances to one, Cole would have written to her, or had some one to see him, and if you will pardon me this once, that would have raised the devil him, so to protect her, I have said nothing to any one else. She is the one who gave me the name of Gem. Some time I may be able to tell you more, but for the sake of her and her children, she said not to tell for the present who she was. But all the rest may come and go but there no others like you—Ko no sir there is not and I don’t care who knows it. Love hope and eternal good wishes from your grateful friend.” 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 and Jim Younger were freed on July 10, 1901. After his release, Jim became engaged to Alix Mueller, but due to the terms of his parole, Jim was not legally allowed to marry. In 1900 he was listed as a farmer in the census and killed himself on October 19, 1902, in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Cora McNeill was born in St. Clair, Missouri, in 1862. She was an admirer of Cole and Jim Younger, and it is believed that she was a sweetheart of Jim's before he went to prison. She continued her correspondence to both Jim and Cole while they were incarcerated in Minnesota following the botched Northfield bank robbery. She was married to Minneapolis judge George M. Bennett who attempted to secure a pardon for the Younger brothers.
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