If Americans were asked to select the best known and most celebrated outlaws, from among the many bad men produced by the Wild West, chances are Frank and Jesse James would be the choice of most people. The brothers and their gang robbed stage coaches, banks and trains in Missouri and surrounding states.

Frank and Jesse James, the infamous brothers from Missouri, rode with marauding Confederate guerrillas during the Civil War. Having learned to kill and raid without compunction, they easily transitioned from rebels to outlaws after the war, robbing stagecoaches, banks and trains in Missouri and surrounding states. It was a botched bank robbery in Northfield, Minnesota, followed by an improbable escape through the Dakota Territory and Iowa, that elevated the James brothers from notorious criminals to legendary figures of American history and folklore.