Frank James

Frank James lived a life split between myth and a desperate search for normalcy. Older and more introspective than his fiery brother Jesse, Frank fought with Confederate guerrilla William Quantrill's brutal band during the Civil War, an experience that schooled him in violence and hardened him for a life outside the law. After the war, he and Jesse led the James-Younger Gang in a series of daring bank and train robberies that made them folk heroes to some and terrifying criminals to others. Frank was often seen as the strategic planner, cooler-headed than his sibling. The gang's downfall came in 1876 with the disastrous Northfield, Minnesota raid, after which Frank went into hiding. Jesse's murder in 1882 left Frank alone, and he eventually surrendered to Missouri authorities. In a series of highly publicized trials, he was acquitted by sympathetic juries. He spent his later years in startlingly ordinary pursuits: working as a shoe salesman, a theater ticket-taker, and even giving guided tours at a Missouri farm, a quiet epilogue for a man who had once been one of the most wanted in America.