I don't understand what was in Frank's favor, when Younger spent 25 years in prison.
There is this quote from the book The Day Jesse James Was Killed by Carl W. Breihan.
Why would a (former) president be so close to an outlaw?
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2You should detail the research you've already done so that answers don't just cover the same ground.– Steve BirdMar 23 at 9:23
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First, sorry for my bad English, thank you for correcting me. Actually I didn't do any research. I don't have any knowledge on american history and it's just based on Wikipedia Frank James page. So it was just curiosity.– StanKirbMar 23 at 9:34
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1It was not in the english Wikipedia page but I found a quote from a book. I added it to the question.– StanKirbMar 23 at 9:43
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Was Breihan actually a reputable historian? There are many modern biographies of TR, did you check any of these?– Moishe KohanMar 24 at 0:46
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1ok. Thanks. I'll hit post on what I had, after I clean it up a little.– justCalMar 25 at 13:39
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1 Answer
The connection between James and Roosevelt may have been more fleeting then the book you looked at has lead you to believe, and a bit more one-sided.
As usual, context is important when trying to understand a historical reference. The connection here concerning when Roosevelt was running under the Bull Moose party banner in 1912, and after an assassination attempt had taken place. A newspaper article makes the connection to the outlaw:
You can see it is one of over 100 letters sent to Roosevelt offering protection if needed. There is actually record of the polite reply which was sent out by a secretary from Roosevelt's office:
This would make it appear the connection between the two was more of James being a supporter of Roosevelt, but not directly connected by other than an offer of support.
The curious thing is that the letter from Roosevelts office actually predates the assassination attempt, so actually must be in response to some earlier communication...
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Wow, thank you so much! I didn't expect such a detailed response. The french Wikipedia page is very misleading and based on only one book as source fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_James. That's a lesson to read carefully Wikipedia! @justCal How did you do to find the news paper article and the Roosevelt's office reply? I'm very impressed :-)– StanKirbMar 27 at 7:38
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Historical research is often aided by a knowledge of what sources might be useful. The Library of Congress, and their newspaper archive are good for many US based, 19th century queries, especially concerning popular figures. Presidential libraries can often provide useful information related to that time frame in history. Narrowing the web search to 1912 by knowing the original 'event' was during the time of Roosevelt's Bull Moose party run helped get more useful results.– justCalMar 27 at 11:06