Robber and Hero: The Story of the Raid on the First National Bank of Northfield, Minnesota, by the James-Younger Band of Robbers, in 1876.

The morning of September 7, 1876, began like any other in the prosperous river town of Northfield, Minnesota. By noon, it would become a legend. This is the story of the day the James-Younger gang came to town expecting easy money and found something entirely different: a community that refused to break. George Huntington, writing in the aftermath, recreates the raid in devastating detail: the gang's meticulous planning, their cold-blooded murder of three men including the heroic bank clerk Joseph Lee Heywood, and the townspeople who fought back with everything they had. The aftermath brings a two-week manhunt through southern Minnesota, the pursuit relentless and unforgiving. What emerged from the wreckage reshaped American mythology. Every member of the gang was either killed or captured, except for two who escaped wounded. The failed robbery at Northfield marked the beginning of the end for the most famous outlaws in American history. Huntington captures that singular moment when frontier violence met its match in ordinary people willing to die for what they believed.