BACKGROUND INFO ON THE HISTORICAL EVENT: Guns blazed and panic reigned for a bloody seven minutes on the streets of Northfield, Minnesota on Sept. 7, 1876. An attempted bank robbery by one of America's most notorious band of outlaws--the James/Younger Gang--was being foiled by a determined group of Midwestern townspeople and a clerk who died withholding the funds Jesse James was after. When the smoke cleared, three robbers and two citizens were dead. The remaining robbers fled empty-handed on their horses. The funds in the First National Bank were safe. A posse pursued the battered gang across southern Minnesota. The Younger brothers were captured and another was killed in a shoot-out near Medelia, Minn. Only two of the gang escaped--Jesse and his brother, Frank. It may have only lasted seven minutes, but the news electrified the region. The raid marked the beginning of the end of a career of the legendary Jesse James. He was never able to recover from his Northfield defeat and was later murdered in St. Joseph, Mo. Frank was exonerated of his crimes by a sympathetic legislature and died an old man. The story has been recounted more often and at greater length in newspapers, magazines and books than any other single event in the history of Minnesota. Every year during the Defeat of Jesse James Celebration in Northfield, those seven minutes are relived through dramatic reenactments. Thousands of people flock to the town to share in the retelling of the saga every September, and to honor the brave pioneers who brought Jesse's gang down.