After the Northfield, Minnesota, bank robbery, a photo of Cole Younger shows his right eye swollen shut. What caused that injury?

After the Northfield, Minnesota, bank robbery, a photo of Cole Younger shows his right eye swollen shut. What caused that injury?

Steven Ebey

Macomb, Illinois

A posse finally ran the Younger brothers and Charlie Pitts to the ground at Hanska Slough on September 21, 1876 (see Classic Gunfights, January 2002).

During the gunfight, Cole took four bullet wounds in the back. He also had buckshot in his left shoulder blade, along with wounds in his arm. That puffy right eye is the result of a ball entering just behind the angle of his right jaw, passing over the palate arch and lodging in the left side of his upper jaw.