Coop and Tall Jackson:

The boys started out like all boys; running, playing and generally getting into everything possible.   The difference for these boys was in their parents.  They had a Ma and Pa that were unusually tough and had expectation only a criminal could admire.

At an early age the boys were instructed in the fine art of stealing whatever they could.  It is a certainty the boys had Christian names cause their Ma insisted on it, or so it is said.  No one knows what their names are however as nothing was written down and the boys themselves don’t remember.  Coop got the name he is known by in an unusual way for a young boy.  He was pretty good at stealing chicken eggs by the age of two.  He continued to practice and improve this skill until at the age of eight years old he was caught stealing chickens from the neighbor.  His Pa was so angry he locked him in the chicken coop for a week.  Now his Pa was not mad at him for stealing the chickens, but for getting caught doing it.  He was Coop ever since.

Tall’s name was a little more simply established.  He was taller than Coop and became Tall for that reason alone.  Tall was just like his brother, he would take what he could from whoever he could and not lose any sleep over the act. 

They eventually left home being restless and adventurous.  After a time as buffalo hunters, cowboys, guides, scouts for the army and thieves they drifted apart one night in a Kansas cow town after a gunfight.  They did not see each other for several years until they ran into each other one sunny afternoon as Coop got off a west bound train and saw the town marshal Tall Jackson.    

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