three years elapsed from the time of the attack at northfield until the james boys were heard of[pg 97] again in connection with criminal escapades. their names existed in tradition, and the horror which was once manifested at the mention of their savage natures had become dwarfed into mere expressions of surprise. it was reported that frank james had died of consumption in the indian nation and that jesse was living peaceably in one of the remote territories, following the profitable occupation of cattle-raising.
on the evening of october 7th, 1879, the people of western missouri were suddenly shocked by the intelligence of another great train robbery, committed in the old guerrilla haunts, where crime had held such high carnival during the dark period of the great rebellion. on the day in question jesse james, jim cummings, ed. miller, a brother of clell, daniel (better known as tucker) bassham and seven others whose names are not known, appeared suddenly at the little station of glendale, which is on the line of the chicago, alton & st. louis railroad, twenty-two miles from kansas city. the town consists of a post-office and store combined and a station house, and is a flag station only. about six o'clock in the evening the party of bandits rode into the place and proceeded at once to put every one present under arrest, which they readily accomplished, as there were but three men at the station, and these were locked in the station house. the train going east was due at 6:45 p. m., at a time when darkness clothed the scene, and the masked robbers compelled[pg 98] the station operator to display his signal to stop the train. previous to this preliminary the masked bandits had piled a large number of condemned ties on the track only a few hundred yards east of glendale, and had everything fully prepared to execute their purpose expeditiously. the train was on time, and seeing the stop signal displayed, the engineer obeyed its import, and in a moment the conductor, john greenman, was facing an ominous pistol, while others of the robbers covered the engineer and demanded submission. meeting with no resistance the bandits broke in the door of the express car, but in their efforts to break in the door, william grimes, the messenger, hastily unlocked the safe and took out thirty-five thousand dollars in money and valuables, which he attempted to conceal. he was too late, however, for at the moment he was placing the money bag behind some boxes in the car, the door yielded and three robbers rushed on him. refusing to deliver the safe-key, grimes was knocked down and badly punished. the key was taken from him and the few remaining contents of value in the safe were appropriated, as was also the bag containing the money.
the haul was a very rich one and the attempt having been successful the passengers were not molested, and the train was permitted to depart after a detention of no more than ten minutes.
the commission of this crime again aroused the officers, and as glendale is in jackson county, major[pg 99] james leggitt, the county marshal, took immediate steps to discover and arrest the perpetrators. being a shrewd and fearless man, he went to work intelligently and unceasingly. he soon discovered who composed the party that committed the robbery, notwithstanding the fact that they were heavily masked.
tucker bassham, one of the robbers, who was raised in jackson county, was suspected directly after the deed was accomplished. he left the county for a time, but returned and buried his share of the booty, which was one thousand one hundred dollars. soon he began to exhibit an unusual amount of money, and a spy was placed upon him until enough information was obtained to conclusively establish his connection with the robbery. but marshal leggitt deferred the arrest with the hope that he might learn of some communication between bassham and other members of the gang, and accomplish their arrest. in june last (1880) deputy marshals w. g. keshler and m. m. langhorn, arrested bassham and lodged him in the jail at kansas city. shortly afterward major leggitt obtained a full confession from his prisoner, which was reduced to writing and made in the form of an affidavit.
