Born near Lee's Summit Missouri Thomas Coleman ("Cole") Younger (1844-1916) rode with William Clarke Quantrill's Confederate raiders during the Civil War participating in many daring and bloody exploits including the infamous Lawrence Kansas massacre of 1863. Following the war Younger continued his celebrated career as a desperado robbing banks and trains with Jesse James and other members of the James-Younger gang. A fateful attempt in 1876 on the Northfield Minnesota bank sent Cole to the state prison in Stillwater Minnesota for decades. There he became a model resident helping both to protect women convicts during a fire and found the Prison Mirror a newspaper intended to shed "a ray of light upon the lives of those behind the bars." Paroled in 1901 Younger successfully sought a pardon operated a Wild West show with his old comrade Frank James and lectured on "What My Life Has Taught Me."
