Blood & Bullets: The Story of the James-Younger Gang

We know they're the bad guys, but we can't stop rooting for them.

Jesse and Frank James are perhaps the best-known bandits of the old west. During the Civil War, they fought with Confederate raiders William Quantrill and "Bloody Bill" Anderson. Toward the war's end in October 1864, Frank traveled to Kentucky with Quantrill, and Jesse made his way to Texas with Archie Clement.

After the war, they returned to what remained of their home in Clay County, Missouri, and turned outlaws shortly after that, although some would argue they were outlaws all along.

The James-Younger Gang committed their first bank robbery at Liberty, Missouri, on February 13, 1866.

"A dozen desperadoes armed to the teeth and superbly mounted swooped down on the city," said one paper. They overpowered the Clay County Savings Bank cashiers and forced them to stash over $72,000 into their saddle bags. While it's unlikely Jesse was involved in this robbery (he was still recovering from a severe chest wound he received at the war's end), Frank James, Cole Younger, and Archie Clement are said to have participated.