William Stiles or Whoever?

[Margaret-Anne Moore]

During the  1930s  a rather young writer named Ed Earl Repp interviewed an elderly man who called himself William Stiles.  The elderly man claimed that he was also known as Bill Chadwell and that he was the last surviving member of Jesse James' gang.  I believe Repp conducted a large number of interviews with him and gather volumnes of information.  I remember reading many magazine articles featuring this William Siles during the  1970s--and every last one of them was written by Ed Earl Repp!  Bill Chadwell was killed at Norfthfield in  1876.  He had reportedly told Jesse that he was from Minnesota and used an alias to keep from embarrassing his family who still lived there.  He claimed his relatives were prominent and that a county in Minnesota bore the family name!  He also reportedly suggested the raid at Nothfield.  If Bill Chadwell died in Minnesota in  1876  he could not be the man who was interviewed by Repp in the  1930s.  At least one writer has given the impression that this William Stiles was a complete fraud and that every known member of Jesse's gang had been accounted for and this name was no where to be seen.  It is interesting to note that there was an outlaw named William Stiles, but he was active in Arizona and not the Middle West and was certainly a lot younger than any member of Jesse's gang!  I believe he died around  1910  or earlier.  He is remembered chiefly because he and his partner in crime--Burt Alvord--had both been law officers  It is very convenient to steal the identity of a dead outlaw.  I recently learned that Repp was a scriptwriter and author of what were called pulp Westerns.  in his Frontier Biography, Dan Thrapp mentions William Stiles only as a possible alias for Bill Chadwell--not as a separate person.

[Margaret-Anne Moore]

Carl Sifakis appears to be of the opinion that William Stiles was telling the absolute truth when he claim that he was the last surviving member of Jesse James" gang.  Almost all other historians are of the opposite opinion.  One, in particular, informed me that he has always suspected that other gang members were present in Northfield at the time of the raid, but managed to escape.  He also noted that when Frank and Jesse were forced to flee on foot from a posse on their trail, that at least one other man was with them--this man has apparently never been identified.  He also stated that William Stiles appeared to be nothing but an old fool.  Stiles also reportedly claimed that he never said some of the things that Ed Earl Repp quoted him as saying. 

[Bob 'Buckshot' Bradley]

The Jesse James Northfield Raid, Confession of The Ninth Man.