Previous Missouri governors had tried to capture the James brothers, employing everything from reward offers to a squad of state-funded secret police. But Thomas Crittenden knew that to catch a thief, you needed a thief, and he finally brought Jesse down with the help of the outlaw's own gang.
Return to Crime
In the aftermath of the failed Northfield bank robbery of 1876, Frank and Jesse James were forced to hide under assumed names in Tennessee. Jesse chafed at the lack of attention, and in 1879 he decided to return to crime. His old comrades were almost all gone, so Jesse recruited a new gang, men who craved the spoils of banditry but had never served as Confederate guerillas with Jesse and therefore had no deep loyalty to him. Jesse also faced another problem.
