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Dietmar Kuegler
Der Northfield Raid 1876 Der letzte große Bankraub der Jesse James Bande (The Northfield Raid 1876 – The last great bank raid of the Jesse James Gang)
On September 7, 1876 at 2 pm, 8 men, uniformly dressed in white linen dusters – the typical clothing of southern cattlemen at that time – rode into the calm, peaceful, cultivated, and wealthy town of Northfield, Minnesota. Within about seven minutes, Northfield was burned into American criminal history for ever.
The riders were the infamous James Younger Gang of Missouri, former Civil War guerrillas under Quantrill and then the most feared bank and train robbers of the American Midwest. Nobody, neither the Pinkerton detectives nor the regional police forces were able to get them, but in Northfield, these dangerous desperados met their fate through the hands of courageous citizens.
As soon as the people of Northfield noticed that the suspiciously looking strangers wanted to rob the First National Bank, they made an extraordinary stand to defend their property, their law and order, and their mutual freedom against a terrorist of his time, Jesse James.
Since 1948, the citizens of Northfield re-enact this most remarkable event in their town’s history. This locally initiated historic performance developed to the biggest annual event in Minnesota which draws up to 150,000 onlookers into the still small town every September. The magazine “True West” ranked this event as “the best frontier times re-enactment in the United States”. |
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In 2004, Dietmar Kuegler was named the only non-American life member of the local James Younger Gang by its leader, Chip DeMann. Since then, he takes part in the annual re-enactment in the original street and in front of the original bank building where Jesse James and his companions so dramatically failed. He portrays Clell Miller, one of the bandits who was gunned down by the Northfield citizens.
His book is the only extensive documentation on that event. It describes the historic bank raid and its background, and contains a detailed report about the re-enactment – for the first time.
Although written in German, the picture documentation attracted many customers from all over America to get this unique book. |
Large format, 84 pages, 80 photos, several in color. Hardbound. (Text in German!)
ISBN 3-89510-098-6
23.00 US-$
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