J.S. Allen sensed problem in the air . It was September 7 , 1876 , and the Northfield , Minnesota hardware store possessor had noticed three mysterious men loitering in front of Lee & Hitchcock Dry Goods Store , aright next door to the First National Bank — a foreign mid - afternoon scene for the small town ’s main street .
Once the wary trio climb up and entered the bank , Allendecidedto inquire the shot for himself . Little did he cognize he ’d presently be staring down the barrel of a gun manage by a member of the notorious James - Younger Gang .
Clell Miller , along with Cole Younger , had been stand guard for the surprise rip-off . As Allen approached the bank , Miller grabbed his collar . " You son of a b * * * * , do n’t you crab , " Millergrowled , guide his revolver at Allen .
Allen superintend to squirm loose from the bandit ’s appreciation . He raced around the corner , yelling , " Get your guns , boys ; they ’re plume the bank ! " The people of Northfield mind Allen ’s call to arm and grab their weapons . Amid a ado of bullets , the James - Younger Gang was suddenly outnumbered . The incident would go down in history as the Wild West ’s most famous break down bank robbery , and would indirectly will a much farseeing bequest : the institution of the longest - running punishable paper run solely by inmates .
The James - Younger Gang was a hardscrabble bandof Confederate guerrilla - turned outlaws , led by brothers Jesse and Alexander Franklin " Frank " James and siblings Cole , Bob , and Jim Younger . During the latter half of the 19th century , the piece became household names as they held up train , robbed banks , and generally terrorized the West , from Texas to Kentucky to their aboriginal Missouri .
Of the eight bunch members who take part in the Northfield robbery , three had tease into town ahead of the others . Before their arrival , Cole Younger later recounted , these men had separate a bottle of whiskey . The faction had been severalize to hold off for backup before entering the depository financial institution , but they reportedly push aside this program line . As the 3 saw the other five crowd members come near , they barge into the bank too early . " When these three get wind us coming , instead of waiting for us to get up with them they slammed the right way on into the bank no matter , leave behind the threshold open in their excitement , " Colewrotein his memoir .
Inside the bank , the trinity clumsily fumbled through the motion as they rate play teller and townspeople treasurer Joseph Heywood to start the dependable . ( Later , a bank building cashier would recall that he smelled liquor on the men . ) Heywood told the robbers that the safety ’s doorway had a time lock , and could only be opened at a specific time .
But after Allen disrupt the looting , the James - Younger Gang ’s Day were number . As a shootout erupted on the street , Cole ride to the bank and hollo for the three to hurry and get out . One member shot Heywood in the head , vote out him , and both Miller ( the one who ’d round Allen ) and bandit Bill Chadwell die in the standoff outdoors . The sleep of the pack were wound , with the elision of the James brother . Against the odds , the exist bandits managed to flee town — but their freedom would n’t last long .
A search political party apprehended the three Younger brothers , along with a gang member named Charlie Pitts , close to the Iowa border . Pitts was bolt down in the ensuing standoff . Only Jesse and Frank James made it out .
Jesse James would go on to enrol new outlaws and continue his life of criminal offence . He ’d go six years later in 1882 , at the hand of fellow crowd appendage Robert Ford , andFrank Jameswould turn himself in briefly after his crony ’s end , eventually endure out the rest period of his days performing odd jobs run from burlesque tag taker to a berry picker before take back to his family farm in Missouri ( though Frank spent some time in jail , he was deport on all bang and never served time in prison house ) . But for all intents and purposes , the cabal of ruthless robbers was no more .
In November 1876,the Youngers plead hangdog in court to escape a near - certain death penalty . They were sentence to a lifetime of hard parturiency at the Minnesota State Prison . ( The facility no longer exists ; in 1914 , it was replaced by the Minnesota Correctional Facility – Stillwater in neighboring Bayport [ PDF ] . )
At the Minnesota State Prison , inmate were lease as laborers for secret businesses . They worked nine to 11 hours each day and were paid a casual wage of 30 to 45 cents . Prison seemed to have a sobering consequence on both Cole and the other two Youngers , and they eventually invite more prestigious jobs : Cole was made the prison ’s bibliothec ; Jim became the " postmaster , " who give up and sent convict ' approved letters ; and Bob worked as a clerk .
Then , almost a decade into their prison term , the three became newsprint father , thanks to another prisoner name Lew P. Shoonmaker ( or Schoonmaker ) .
Many key facts about Shoonmaker have been drop off over the year , although the Minnesota State Archives did recently re - discoverhis prison record . They take down that Shoonmaker was a onetime bookkeeper from Wisconsin who was sentenced to a two - year terminus in 1886 for forgery . He was released in August of the keep an eye on class for " good conduct , " and a remark in an 1887 newspaper point that he go on to redact a newspaper in Waupun , Wisconsin . But to begin with in 1887 , while still incarcerated , the enterprising inmate draw near Cole Younger and told him that he wanted to launch a prison publication .
The paper was to be the first in the nation to be funded , write , cut , and published entirely by inmates . And after several months of trying to convince the prison ’s skeptical warden , Halvur Stordock , to approve the publication , Shoonmaker had finally pick up the go - ahead . Now , all he needed were willing investor — and he want Cole to be one of them .
The deal would profit both men . Shoonmaker would trade more papers if a notorious name like Cole Younger ’s was attached to the labor . And Younger was belike connive by the program ’s business model , which would at long last funnel money directly into the prison house ’s depository library once the investor were paid back . The paper ’s investor would become shareholders and be reimbursed with 3 percent involvement per calendar month ; once their investment were recoup , the library would own the paper and its profits would pay for new books and periodical .
Shoonmaker and a handful of other inmates chip in to the cause , but the biggest investor ended up being the Younger brothers : Together , the three vanquish out $ 50 , one - quarter of the ask pop out - up capital . Shoonmaker , who assumed the position of editor , also charter Cole , making him the associate editor and " printer ’s devil"—an old - fashioned terminus for a printer ’s supporter .
Historians do n’t knowhow Shoonmaker became inspired to originate the first prison house paper Mae West of the Mississippi , and the Carry Nation ’s only paper to be give rise by inmate . But as James McGrath Morris , generator ofJailhouse Journalism : The Fourth Estate Behind Bars , tell Mental Floss , the paper ’s creation fit with the idea of prison reform , a burgeoning interior vogue , while also pioneer a new form of penal journalism .
The first - known prison newspaper was technically founded in 1800 , when a New York attorney named William Keteltas fall upon backbreaking fiscal clock time and was imprison in debtors ' prison house . The attorney made a case for his release by publishingForlorn Hope , an advocacy newspaper that lambasted the criminalization of impoverishment and called for legal change . However , modern prison news media ’s true roots can be traced back to the later 19th century , an era in which corrections officials " believe in earnest that prison were intended to make respectable hoi polloi of their inmates and release them into society , " Morris tells Mental Floss .
Morris explains inJailhouse Journalismthat as immurement gradually replaced corporal and capital punishment , groups like the Quakers of Pennsylvania called for new jails that would shield yard bird from corrupting influences , thus restoring their morality . These calls for change led to the first - ever American Prison Congress in 1870 , in Cincinnati , Ohio . In attending were officers and reformist from around the state , including a man diagnose Joseph Chandler . He was a former representative , and a member of the Philadelphia Society for facilitate the Miseries of Public Prisons . More significantly , Chandler had once been a newspaper publishing house .
Chandler noted that inmates clamored for newspapers , viewing them as a substance of social communication and a windowpane to the remote cosmos . But these publications were fulfil with salacious details of crime , which could moderate a prisoner ’s recovering conscience astray . Chandler proposed the theme of a sanitized paper written specifically for those in prison house . That style , inmates could bide au courant with the changing times , let them to re - enter society as informed military personnel .
The American Prison Congress head to the formation of the National Prison Association , which would afterward become the American Correctional Association . Two yr by and by , in 1872 , a like outside convention was held in London . In the meantime , officials around the world begin putting these Modern , educated ideals into exercise , creating young character of prison house called " reformatories . " One such instauration was the Elmira Reformatory in New York , run by influential meliorist Zebulon Reed Brockway .
Brockway had been at the 1870 American Prison Congress . Influenced by Chandler , Brockway hired an Oxford - educated inmate — whose name today is only remember as Macauley — to move a newsprint called theSummary . First published in November 1883 , theSummarywas a news digest filled with carefully culled news items , coverage of prison house happenings , and submissions from inpatient and reformers . It was uplifting , praising , and above all , free from controversy . Across America , advocate clamored for more .
before long , other reform school began producing their own imitations of theSummary . These paper printed captive ' edited articles , but officials — not inmate — technically ran the show . This would exchange in 1887 withThe Prison Mirror .
The Prison Mirror ’s inaugural outlet was four page long , 14 by 17 column inch . It bear introductions , a reprint of the shareholders ' business sector plan , and flamboyant declarations of intent . Written collaboratively by the paper ’s founders , the first step clause began :
TheMirror , they continued , would contain both humourous and literary submissions , and " a general budget of prison news , and possibilities , and world , never before offer to the public . " The authors promised to " promote prison literary talent , " " instruct , assist , encourage , and entertain , " and " scatter word of honor of discourage to the outside cosmos , whose reckless footsteps may be leading them hitherward . "
Above all , the composition concluded , theMirrorwould furnish the prisoners with an independent voice , liberal from official disturbance : " This , we believe is the only printed plane now in cosmos organized , published , edited , and sent forth to the earth by prisoners confine within the walls of a pen . "
Also include in this first issue of theMirrorwas a alphabetic character from the new warden , Halvur Stordock , who had been constitute by Governor Andrew R. McGill sooner that year . Stordock reassured outside proofreader that taxes did n’t fund theMirrorand that the undertaking had his full permission . " If it shall prove a failure , then the blame must all lie on me , " he write . " If it shall be a succeeder then all recognition must be given to the boys who have done all the work . "
It ’s ill-defined why , on the nose , Stordock give the prisoners such unprecedented barren rein . Some critics later claimed that the warden used theMirroras a packaging stunt ; others said that he actually secretly edit the newspaper publisher . The most likely account , however , is that unlike the meliorist who establish theSummary , Stordock — aonetime farmerwho had been appoint to his new side as a political favour after running for Minnesota Secretary of State — likely know nothing about poenology , or the complication or risk of running a prison house .
TheMirror ’s first issue contain mo of prison house news show ( " The stone footprint leading into the new main cell building is a great improvement " ) , accounts of visitant , summaries of public lecture give at the prison house , and letters from readers . Also included were vignettes from prison house life . Some humourous one featured printer ’s devil Cole Younger , whom the paper referred to as the stave ’s " Satanic member . " In the inaugural issue , theMirrorpublished the below anecdote :
Soon after , however , both the paper ’s " hellish appendage " and founding editor Shoonmaker would jump ship . In theMirror ’s 2nd issue , Shoonmaker resigned ( presumably because he was due to be released on August 30 ) and handed over his responsibility to a reluctant inpatient name W.F. Mirick . ( " I am afraid … that my fellow unfortunate person , and the public outside have been led to await at my hands more than they will receive , " Mirick admitted in the newspaper ’s third edition , published on August 24 , 1887 . ) Younger also resigned from the theme , perhaps because the job took his time and attention by from the prison house subroutine library .
Stripped of its famous staffer , the paper now had to make its own name . This turned out to be a rather easy physical exertion , as its writers film on the unprecedented undertaking of knock prison living , politicians , and even other paper .
Articles elicited wish and curse from the outside world , and theMirrorprinted them with tang . Newsmen debated among themselves whether inmates should be entrusted with the privilege of producing their own paper .
" The editor of theTaylors Falls Journalis hold a contention withTHE PRISON MIRROR , a Modern paper print inside the state pen , " theRush City Postwrote in 1887 . " We have n’t seenTHE MIRROR , but from the way theJournalsquirms , we should judge it to be a lively report . "
And holding to theMirror ’s promise to " speak the accuracy , whatever we conceive it to be , " reform - minded diary keeper viewed the issue as a rarified windowpane into the depravities of prison life story . In 1887 , theChicago Heraldwrote :
In the fall of 1887,The Prison Mirrorbecame entangle in a highly political feud . The permissive Warden Stordock had supervene upon a warden name John A. Reed , who ’d held the position for nearly 13 years . He was well respected but oust on charges of allegedly mismanaging prison fund . When Stordock take over , " two of the three prison house inspector resigned because of Stordock ’s appointment , which they correctly reckon was [ Governor ] McGill adjudicate to make place for some of his political friend , " according toa historical accountprovided by Brent Peterson , executive director of the Washington County Historical Society .
Several month after Warden Reed was dismissed , Stordock and new prison inspectors open an probe into his administrations . No one quite knows what sparked the scrutiny , but rumors swirled as the governor assembled an supervising commission .
" There were rumors about [ Reed ] using stuff from the prison for his personal use , " Peterson tells Mental Floss . " Then , there was even more of a bombshell : He was doing inappropriate things with female convicts and the matron . All of this was played out in the paper , and it turned out to be just haywire . put on . " ( During this menstruum in history , a fistful of womanhood were domiciliate in the Stillwater Prison , in their own disjoined quarters . )
The hearsay allegedly labour Reed to attempt felo-de-se , according to Peterson . Meanwhile , theMirrorsided with their friend Stordock , and reissue the accusations . This evoke the anger of one of the State Department ’s most influential newspaper : The Minneapolis Tribune .
" Men in the penitentiary are not as gentleman at impropriety , " theTribuneconcluded . " Among the other things denied them should sure as shooting be the privilege of running a newspaper without restriction or responsible for control . "
Warden Stordock and other officials conceive this advice . But before they could make moves to shut down theMirror , another local paper — theSt . Paul Daily Globe — chimed with an editorial style " Do n’t Do It " :
Somehow , The Prison Mirrorweathered the tempest and stayed afloat . Later , the inmate admitted ( but did n’t apologize for the fact ) that the Reed gossip had been inappropriate for their pages . After reaffirming their allegiance to innocent actor’s line , they resolve to form on as normal . All this happen within the first four or so months of the composition ’s existence — a time brace that would ultimately demonstrate to be the most vibrant in their history .
TheMirrorcontinued printing monthly , but by 1890 , it had suffer the majority of its lifeblood : the original founders who first brought it to life . Just five members out of the original 15 remained in prison . Mirick , a convict murderer , had been pardoned and released , and in 1901 , Cole and Jim Younger were paroled after 25 years in prison . ( Bob Younger had died in prison from tuberculosis . )
TheMirror — which lately celebrated its 130th anniversary — is still a vital cornerstone of prison house spirit . In improver to the occasional heavily - hitting probe , each 16 - page issue of the monthly publishing offer a mixture of feature and recurring columns , like " necessitate a Lawyer . " presently , 2225 copies are printed per month , with most going to inmate . Around 200 copy are regularly sent to prison house protagonism group , practice of law schools , and other governing body and mental institution .
" Since we publish outcome that meet or have offenders that are incarcerated here , " Hawthorne says , " they palpate that it is their paper . It is almost like a small neighborhood paper . There is never an issue where someone does n’t know someone featured in the paper . "
But unlike the nineteenth centuryMirror , today ’s product is heavy censored — both by authority and the inmates themselves . To avoid retribution from source or reprimand from authorities , contributor are forced to walka ticklish linebetween intrepid newsman and circumspect captive . They ’re unlikely to print anything that could place themselves in danger ’s elbow room , or ensue in an issue being pulled . Then , the last ware is reviewed by a host of critical middle , include Hawthorne , the prison house ’s education director , the associate wardens , the Office of Special Investigation , and finally , by the warden himself .
" In a correctional surround , we are always sensitive to any insurgent illegal activity or gang references , so if any of these are detect they are ask to remove them , " Hawthorne explains . " We are also tender to victims ’ rightfield . So if there is anything mentioned that may have an impact or cite on that , they are asked to remove it . Outside of those considerations , they are free to publish about whatever they feel want to be cover at the time . "
While circumscribe by these constraint , theMirrorstill manages to perform authoritative news media : In 2012 , for example , an probe conducted by composition editor Matt Gretz discover that Minnesota lawmakers had have $ 1.2 million in gain from the Stillwater prison house canteen to balance out budget cuts in 2011 . Typically , this money is used for convict programs and recreational material [ PDF ] .
While not the freewheeling innovator of costless press it once was , theMirrorcontinues to serve as a fomite for prisoners to let their voices be heard , just as it did in 1887 . " Ours is n’t a pretty account , " reflect editor program Gretz in 2012 , in a commemorative issue celebrating the paper ’s hundred-and-twenty-fifth day of remembrance . " But we sure do have stories to tell . "
This piece was updated on January 4 , 2018 with new information from theMinnesota State Archives .
