Jesse James PDF

Jesse James
Jesse Woodson James (September 5, 1847 – April 3, 1882) was an American

Jesse James
outlaw, bank and train robber, guerrilla, and leader of the James–Younger Gang.
Raised in the "Little Dixie" area of western Missouri, James and his family
maintained strong Southern sympathies. He and his brother Frank James joined
pro-Confederate guerrillas known as "bushwhackers" operating in Missouri and
Kansas during the American Civil War. As followers of William Quantrill and
"Bloody Bill" Anderson, they were accused of participating in atrocities against
Union soldiers and civilian abolitionists, including the Centralia Massacre in
1864.
After the war, as members of various gangs of outlaws, Jesse and Frank robbed
banks, stagecoaches, and trains across the Midwest, gaining national fame and
often popular sympathy despite the brutality of their crimes. The James brothers
were most active as members of their own gang from about 1866 until 1876,
when as a result of their attempted robbery of a bank in Northfield, Minnesota,
several members of the gang were captured or killed. They continued in crime
for several years afterward, recruiting new members, but came under increasing
James c. 1882
pressure from law enforcement seeking to bring them to justice. On April 3,
1882, Jesse James was shot and killed by Robert Ford, a new recruit to the gang Born September 5, 1847
who hoped to collect a reward on James' head and a promised amnesty for his Near Kearney,
previous crimes. Already a celebrity in life, James became a legendary figure of Missouri, U.S.
the Wild West after his death. Died April 3, 1882
(aged 34)
Despite popular portrayals of James as an embodiment of Robin Hood, robbing
St. Joseph, Missouri,
from the rich and giving to the poor, there is no evidence that he and his gang
U.S.
shared any loot from their robberies with anyone outside their close kinship
39.757813°N
network.[1] Scholars and historians have characterized James as one of many
94.844087°W
criminals inspired by the regional insurgencies of ex-Confederates following the
Years active 1866–1882
Civil War, rather than as a manifestation of alleged economic justice or of
frontier lawlessness.[2] James continues to be one of the most iconic figures from Spouse(s) Zerelda Mimms
(m. 1874; his
the era, and his life has been dramatized and memorialized numerous times.
death 1882)
Children 2, including Jesse
Relatives Robert S. James
Contents (father)
Early life Zerelda Cole James
Historical context (mother)
American Civil War Frank James
Quantrill's Raiders (brother)
After the Civil War Zerelda Mimms
(cousin)
James–Younger Gang
Pinkertons
Downfall of the gang
Death
Rumors of survival
Legacy
Museums
Festivals
Cultural depictions
References
Bibliography
Further reading
External links
Early life
Jesse Woodson James was born on September 5, 1847, in Clay County,
Missouri, near the site of present-day Kearney. This area of Missouri was largely
settled by people from the Upper South, especially Kentucky and Tennessee, and
became known as Little Dixie for this reason. James had two full siblings: his
elder brother, Alexander Franklin "Frank" James, and a younger sister, Susan
Lavenia James. His father, Robert S. James, farmed commercial hemp in
Kentucky and was a Baptist minister before coming to Missouri. After he
married, he migrated to Bradford, Missouri and helped found William Jewell James' farm in Kearney, Missouri,
College in Liberty, Missouri.[2] He held six slaves and more than 100 acres pictured in March 2010
(0.40 km2) of farmland.
Robert traveled to California during the Gold Rush to minister to those searching for gold;[3] he died there when James was three
years old.[4] After Robert's death, his widow Zerelda remarried twice, first to Benjamin Simms in 1852 and then in 1855 to Dr.
Reuben Samuel, who moved into the James family home. Jesse's mother and Samuel had four children together: Sarah Louisa,
John Thomas, Fannie Quantrell, and Archie Peyton Samuel.[3][5] Zerelda and Samuel acquired a total of seven slaves, who served
mainly as farmhands in tobacco cultivation.[5][6]
Historical context
The approach of the American Civil War loomed large in the James–Samuel household. Missouri was a border state, sharing
characteristics of both North and South, but 75% of the population was from the South or other border states.[3] Clay County in
particular was strongly influenced by the Southern culture of its rural pioneer families. Farmers raised the same crops and
livestock as in the areas from which they had migrated. They brought slaves with them and purchased more according to their
needs. The county counted more slaveholders and more slaves than most other regions of the state; in Missouri as a whole, slaves
accounted for only 10 percent of the population, but in Clay County they constituted 25 percent.[7] Aside from slavery, the
culture of Little Dixie was Southern in other ways as well. This influenced how the population acted during and for a period of
time after the war.
After the passage of the Kansas–Nebraska Act in 1854, Clay County became the scene of great turmoil, as the question of
whether slavery would be expanded into the neighboring Kansas Territory bred tension and hostility. Many people from Missouri
migrated to Kansas to try to influence its future. Much of the dramatic build-up to the Civil War centered on the violence that
erupted on the Kansas–Missouri border between pro- and anti-slavery militias.[6][8]
American Civil War

After a series of campaigns and battles between conventional armies in 1861, guerrilla
warfare gripped Missouri, waged between secessionist "bushwhackers" and Union forces
which largely consisted of local militias known as "jayhawkers". A bitter conflict ensued,
resulting in an escalating cycle of atrocities committed by both sides. Confederate
guerrillas murdered civilian Unionists, executed prisoners, and scalped the dead. The
Union presence enforced martial law with raids on homes, arrests of civilians, summary
executions, and banishment of Confederate sympathizers from the state.[9]
The James–Samuel family sided with the Confederates at the outbreak of war.[10] Frank
James joined a local company recruited for the secessionist Drew Lobbs Army, and fought
at the Battle of Wilson's Creek in August 1861. He fell ill and returned home soon
afterward. In 1863, he was identified as a member of a guerrilla squad that operated in
Clay County. In May of that year, a Union militia company raided the James–Samuel farm
James as a young man
looking for Frank's group. They tortured Reuben Samuel by briefly hanging him from a
tree. According to legend, they lashed young Jesse.[3]
Quantrill's Raiders
Frank James eluded capture and was believed to have joined the guerrilla organization led by William C. Quantrill known as
Quantrill's Raiders. It is thought that he took part in the notorious massacre of some two hundred men and boys in Lawrence,
Kansas, a center of abolitionists.[11][12] Frank followed Quantrill to Sherman, Texas over the winter of 1863–1864. In the spring
he returned in a squad commanded by Fletch Taylor. After they arrived in Clay County, 16-year-old Jesse James joined his
brother in Taylor's group.[3]
Taylor was severely wounded in the summer of 1864, losing his right arm to a shotgun blast. The James brothers then joined the
bushwhacker group led by William "Bloody Bill" Anderson. Jesse suffered a serious wound to the chest that summer. The Clay
County provost marshal reported that both Frank and Jesse James took part in the Centralia Massacre in September, in which
guerrillas stopped a train carrying unarmed Union soldiers returning home from duty and killed or wounded some 22 of them; the
guerrillas scalped and dismembered some of the dead. The guerrillas also ambushed and defeated a pursuing regiment of Major
A.V.E. Johnson's Union troops, killing all who tried to surrender, who numbered more than 100. Frank later identified Jesse as a
member of the band who had fatally shot Major Johnson.[13]
As a result of the James brothers' activities, Union military authorities forced their family to leave Clay County. Though ordered
to move South beyond Union lines, they moved north across the nearby state border into Nebraska Territory.[14]
After "Bloody Bill" Anderson was killed in an ambush in October, the James brothers separated. Frank followed Quantrill into
Kentucky, while Jesse went to Texas under the command of Archie Clement, one of Anderson's lieutenants. He is known to have
returned to Missouri in the spring.[13] At the age of 17, Jesse suffered the second of two life-threatening chest wounds when he
was shot while trying to surrender after they ran into a Union cavalry patrol near Lexington, Missouri.[15][16]
After the Civil War

At the end of the Civil War, Missouri remained deeply divided. The conflict split the population into three bitterly opposed
factions: anti-slavery Unionists, identified with the Republican Party; segregationist conservative Unionists, identified with the
Democratic Party; and pro-slavery, ex-Confederate secessionists, many of whom were also allied with the Democrats, especially
in the southern part of the state.
The Republican-dominated Reconstruction legislature passed a new state constitution that
freed Missouri's slaves. It temporarily excluded former Confederates from voting, serving
on juries, becoming corporate officers, or preaching from church pulpits. The atmosphere
was volatile, with widespread clashes between individuals and between armed gangs of
veterans from both sides of the war.[17][18]
Jesse recovered from his chest wound at his uncle's boardinghouse in Harlem, Missouri
(north across the Missouri River from the City of Kansas' River Quay [changed to Kansas
City in 1889]). He was tended to by his first cousin, Zerelda "Zee" Mimms, named after
Jesse's mother.[13] Jesse and his cousin began a nine-year courtship that culminated in
their marriage. Meanwhile, his former commander Archie Clement kept his bushwhacker
gang together and began to harass Republican authorities.[10]
These men were the likely culprits in the first daylight armed bank robbery in the United
States during peacetime,[19] the robbery of the Clay County Savings Association in the Jesse and Frank James in
town of Liberty, Missouri, on February 13, 1866. The bank was owned by Republican 1872
former militia officers. They had recently conducted the first Republican Party rally in
Clay County's history. During the gang's escape from the town, an innocent
bystander, a student at William Jewell College, was shot dead on the street.[20]
It remains unclear whether Jesse and Frank took part in the Clay County robbery.
After the James brothers successfully conducted other robberies and became
legendary, some observers retroactively credited them with being the leaders of
the robbery.[13] Others have argued that Jesse was at the time still bedridden
with his wound, and therefore could not have participated. No evidence has been
found that connects either brother to the crime, nor conclusively rules them Clay County Savings in Liberty,
Missouri
out.[21] On June 13, 1866, in Jackson County, Missouri, the gang freed two
jailed members of Quantrill's gang, killing the jailer in the effort.[22] Historians
believe that the James brothers were indeed involved in this crime.
Local violence continued to increase in the state; Governor Thomas Clement Fletcher had recently ordered a company of militia
into Johnson County to suppress guerrilla activity.[23] Archie Clement continued his career of crime and harassment of the
Republican government, to the extent of occupying the town of Lexington, Missouri on election day in 1866. Shortly afterward,
the state militia shot Clement dead. James wrote about this death with bitterness a decade later.[20][21]
The survivors of Clement's gang continued to conduct bank robberies during the next two years, though their numbers dwindled
through arrests, gunfights and lynchings. While they later tried to justify robbing the banks, most of their targets were small, local
banks based on local capital, and the robberies only penalized the locals they claimed to support.[24] On May 23, 1867, for
example, they robbed a bank in Richmond, Missouri, in which they killed the mayor and two others.[13][25] It remains uncertain
whether either of the James brothers took part, although an eyewitness who knew the brothers told a newspaper seven years later
"positively and emphatically that he recognized Jesse and Frank James ... among the robbers."[26] In 1868, Frank and Jesse James
allegedly joined Cole Younger in robbing a bank in Russellville, Kentucky.
Jesse James did not become well known until December 7, 1869, when he and (most likely) Frank robbed the Daviess County
Savings Association in Gallatin, Missouri. The robbery netted little money. Jesse is believed to have shot and killed the cashier,
Captain John Sheets, mistakenly believing him to be Samuel P. Cox, the militia officer who had killed "Bloody Bill" Anderson
during the Civil War.[27]
James claimed he was taking revenge, and the daring escape he and Frank made through the middle of a posse shortly afterward
attracted newspaper coverage for the first time.[28][29] An 1882 history of Daviess County said, "The history of Daviess County
has no blacker crime in its pages than the murder of John W. Sheets."[30]
The only known civil case involving Frank and Jesse James was filed in the
Common Pleas Court of Daviess County in 1870. In the case, Daniel Smoote
asked for $223.50 from Frank and Jesse James to replace a horse, saddle, and
bridle stolen as they fled the robbery of the Daviess County Savings Bank. The
brothers denied the charges, saying they were not in Daviess County on
December 7, the day the robbery occurred. As Frank and Jesse failed to appear
in court, Smoote won his case against them.[31] It is unlikely that he ever
collected the money due.
The 1869 robbery marked the emergence of Jesse James as the most famous State of Missouri vs. Frank & Jesse
survivor of the former Confederate bushwhackers. It was the first time he was James including indictment; capias to
publicly labeled an "outlaw"; Missouri Governor Thomas T. Crittenden set a Clay & Jackson Counties; sheriff's
returns; warrant to any sheriff or
reward for his capture.[30] This was the beginning of an alliance between James
marshall of the Criminal Court in
and John Newman Edwards, editor and founder of the Kansas City Times.
Missouri. Courtesy of the Missouri
Edwards, a former Confederate cavalryman, was campaigning to return former State Archives.
secessionists to power in Missouri. Six months after the Gallatin robbery,
Edwards published the first of many letters from Jesse James to the public,
asserting his innocence. Over time, the letters gradually became more political in tone, as James denounced the Republicans and
expressed his pride in his Confederate loyalties. Together with Edwards's admiring editorials, the letters helped James become a
symbol of Confederate defiance of federal Reconstruction policy. Jesse's initiative in creating his rising public profile is debated
by historians and biographers. The high tensions in politics accompanied his outlaw career and enhanced his notoriety.[29][32]
James–Younger Gang
Meanwhile, the James brothers joined with Cole Younger and his brothers John, Jim, and Bob, as well as Clell Miller and other
former Confederates, to form what came to be known as the James–Younger Gang. With Jesse James as the most public face of
the gang (though with operational leadership likely shared among the group), the gang carried out a string of robberies from Iowa
to Texas, and from Kansas to West Virginia.[33] They robbed banks, stagecoaches and a fair in Kansas City, often carrying out
their crimes in front of crowds, and even hamming it up for the bystanders.
On July 21, 1873, they turned to train robbery, derailing a Rock Island Line train west of Adair, Iowa and stealing approximately
$3,000 (equivalent to $63,000 in 2018). For this, they wore Ku Klux Klan masks. By this time, the Klan had been suppressed in
the South by President Grant's use of the Enforcement Acts. Former rebels attacked the railroads as symbols of threatening
centralization.[34]
The gang's later train robberies had a lighter touch. The gang held up passengers only twice, choosing in all other incidents to
take only the contents of the express safe in the baggage car. John Newman Edwards made sure to highlight such techniques
when creating an image of James as a kind of Robin Hood. Despite public sentiment toward the gang's crimes, there is no
evidence that the James gang ever shared any of the robbery money outside their personal circle.[32]
Jesse and his cousin Zee married on April 24, 1874. They had two children who survived to adulthood: Jesse Edward James (b.
1875) and Mary Susan James (later Barr, b. 1879).[35] Twins Gould and Montgomery James (b. 1878) died in infancy. Jesse Jr.
became a lawyer who practiced in Kansas City, Missouri and Los Angeles, California.[36]
Pinkertons
In 1874, the Adams Express Company turned to the Pinkerton National Detective Agency to stop the James–Younger Gang. The
Chicago-based agency worked primarily against urban professional criminals, as well as providing industrial security, such as
strike breaking. Because the gang received support by many former Confederate soldiers in Missouri, they eluded the Pinkertons.
Joseph Whicher, an agent dispatched to infiltrate Zerelda Samuel's farm, was soon found killed. Two other agents, Captain Louis
J. Lull and John Boyle, were sent after the Youngers; Lull was killed by two of the Youngers in a roadside gunfight on March 17,
1874. Before he died, Lull fatally shot John Younger. A deputy sheriff named Edwin Daniels also died in the skirmish.[37][38]
Allan Pinkerton, the agency's founder and leader, took on the case as a personal External video
vendetta. He began to work with former Unionists who lived near the James
Booknotes interview with Ted
family farm. On the night of January 25, 1875, he staged a raid on the
Yeatman on Frank and Jesse
homestead. Detectives threw an incendiary device into the house; it exploded,
James: The Story Behind the
killing James's young half-brother Archie (named for Archie Clement) and
Legend, October 28, 2001 (https://w
blowing off one of Zerelda Samuel's arms. Afterward, Pinkerton denied that the
ww.c-span.org/video/?165238-1/fran
raid's intent was arson. But biographer Ted Yeatman located a letter by
k-jesse-james), C-SPAN
Pinkerton in the Library of Congress in which Pinkerton declared his intention
to "burn the house down."[39][40]
Many residents were outraged by the raid on the family home. The Missouri state legislature narrowly defeated a bill that praised
the James and Younger brothers and offered them amnesty.[10] Allowed to vote and hold office again, former Confederates in the
legislature voted to limit the size of rewards which the governor could make for fugitives. This extended a measure of protection
over the James–Younger gang by minimizing the incentive for attempting to capture them. The governor had offered rewards
higher than the new limit only on Frank and Jesse James.[41][42]
Across a creek and up a hill from the James house was the home of Daniel Askew, who is thought to have been killed by James or
his gang on April 12, 1875. They may have suspected Askew of cooperating with the Pinkertons in the January 1875 arson of the
James house.
Downfall of the gang

On September 7, 1876, the opening day of hunting season in Minnesota, the James–Younger gang attempted a raid on the First
National Bank of Northfield, Minnesota. The robbery quickly went wrong, however, and after the robbery, only Frank and Jesse
James remained alive and free.[43]
Cole and Bob Younger later stated that they selected the bank because they believed it was associated with the Republican
politician Adelbert Ames, the governor of Mississippi during Reconstruction, and Union general Benjamin Butler, Ames's father-
in-law and the Union commander of occupied New Orleans. Ames was a stockholder in the bank, but Butler had no direct
connection to it.[44]
The gang attempted to rob the bank in Northfield at about 2 pm. To carry out the robbery, the gang divided into two groups. Three
men entered the bank, two guarded the door outside, and three remained near a bridge across an adjacent square. The robbers
inside the bank were thwarted when acting cashier Joseph Lee Heywood refused to open the safe, falsely claiming that it was
secured by a time lock even as they held a Bowie knife to his throat and cracked his skull with a pistol butt. Assistant cashier
Alonzo Enos Bunker was wounded in the shoulder as he fled through the back door of the bank. Meanwhile, the citizens of
Northfield grew suspicious of the men guarding the door and raised the alarm. The five bandits outside fired into the air to clear
the streets, driving the townspeople to take cover and fire back from protected positions. They shot two bandits dead and
wounded the rest in the barrage. Inside, the outlaws turned to flee. As they left, one shot the unarmed cashier Heywood in the
head. Historians have speculated about the identity of the shooter but have not reached consensus.
The gang barely escaped Northfield, leaving two dead companions behind. They killed Heywood and Nicholas Gustafson, a
Swedish immigrant from the Millersburg community west of Northfield. A massive manhunt ensued. It is believed that the gang
burned 14 Rice County mills shortly after the robbery.[45] The James brothers eventually split from the others and escaped to
Missouri. The militia soon discovered the Youngers and one other bandit, Charlie Pitts. In a gunfight, Pitts died and the Youngers
were taken prisoner. Except for Frank and Jesse James, the James–Younger Gang was destroyed.[46][47]
Later in 1876, Jesse and Frank James surfaced in the Nashville, Tennessee, area, where they went by the names of Thomas
Howard and B. J. Woodson, respectively. Frank seemed to settle down, but Jesse remained restless. He recruited a new gang in
1879 and returned to crime, holding up a train at Glendale, Missouri (now part of Independence),[48] on October 8, 1879. The
robbery was the first in a spree of crimes, including the hold-up of the federal paymaster of a canal project in Killen, Alabama,
and two more train robberies. But the new gang was not made up of battle-hardened guerrillas; they soon turned against each
other or were captured. James grew suspicious of other members; he scared away one man and some believe that he killed
another gang member.
In 1879, the James gang robbed two stores in far western Mississippi, at Washington in Adams County and Fayette in Jefferson
County. The gang absconded with $2,000 cash in the second robbery and took shelter in abandoned cabins on the Kemp
Plantation south of St. Joseph, Louisiana. A law enforcement posse attacked and killed two of the outlaws but failed to capture
the entire gang. Among the deputies was Jefferson B. Snyder, later a long-serving district attorney in northeastern Louisiana.[49]
By 1881, with local Tennessee authorities growing suspicious, the brothers returned to Missouri, where they felt safer. James
moved his family to St. Joseph, Missouri in November 1881, not far from where he had been born and reared. Frank, however,
decided to move to safer territory and headed east to settle in Virginia. They intended to give up crime. The James gang had been
reduced to the two of them.[50][51]
Death
With his gang nearly annihilated, James trusted only the Ford brothers, Charley
and Robert.[52] Although Charley had been out on raids with James, Bob Ford
was an eager new recruit. For protection, James asked the Ford brothers to move
in with him and his family. James had often stayed with their sister Martha
Bolton and, according to rumor, he was "smitten" with her.[1] By that time, Bob
Ford had conducted secret negotiations with Missouri Governor Thomas T.
Crittenden, planning to bring in the famous outlaw.[52] Crittenden had made Site at 1318 Lafayette Street, where
capture of the James brothers his top priority; in his inaugural address he James was killed. To the right is the
declared that no political motives could be allowed to keep them from justice. top of Patee House, where his widow
Barred by law from offering a large reward, he had turned to the railroad and Zerelda stayed after his death. His
house was subsequently moved to
express corporations to put up a $5,000 bounty for the delivery of each of them
the Belt Highway and later to its
and an additional $5,000 for the conviction of either of them.[53]
current location on the Patee House
grounds.
On April 3, 1882, after eating breakfast, the Fords and Jameses went into the
living room before traveling to Platte City for a robbery. From the newspaper,
James had just learned that gang member Dick Liddil had confessed to participating in Wood Hite's murder. He was suspicious
that the Fords had not told him about it. Robert Ford later said he believed that James had realized they were there to betray him.
Instead of confronting them, James walked across the living room and laid his revolvers on a sofa. He turned around and noticed
a dusty picture above the mantle, and stood on a chair to clean it. Robert Ford drew his weapon, and shot the unarmed Jesse
James in the back of the head.[55][56][57] James's two previous bullet wounds and partially missing middle finger served to
positively identify the body.[13]
The death of Jesse James became a national sensation. The Fords made no
attempt to hide their role. Robert Ford wired the governor to claim his reward.
Crowds pressed into the little house in St. Joseph to see the dead bandit. The
Ford brothers surrendered to the authorities and were dismayed to be charged
with first-degree murder. In the course of a single day, the Ford brothers were
indicted, pleaded guilty, were sentenced to death by hanging, and were granted a
full pardon by Governor Crittenden.[58] The governor's quick pardon suggested Jesse James's home in St. Joseph,
he knew the brothers intended to kill James rather than capture him. The where he was shot (currently at the
implication that the chief executive of Missouri conspired to kill a private citizen grounds of the Patee House)
startled the public and added to James's notoriety.[59][60][61]
After receiving a small portion of the reward, the Fords fled Missouri. Sheriff
James Timberlake and Marshal Henry H. Craig, who were law enforcement
officials active in the plan, were awarded the majority of the bounty.[62] Later
the Ford brothers starred in a touring stage show in which they re-enacted the
shooting.[63][64] Public opinion was divided between those against the Fords for
murdering Jesse, and those of the opinion that it had been time for the outlaw to
be stopped. Suffering from tuberculosis (then incurable) and a morphine
addiction, Charley Ford committed suicide on May 6, 1884, in Richmond, A woodcut shows Robert Ford
Missouri. Bob Ford operated a tent saloon in Creede, Colorado. On June 8, 1892, famously shooting Jesse James in
Edward O'Kelley went to Creede, loaded a double-barrel shotgun, entered Ford's the back while he hangs a picture in
saloon and said "Hello, Bob," before shooting Ford in the throat, killing him his house. Ford's brother Charles
instantly. O'Kelley was sentenced to life in prison, but his sentence was looks on.[54]
subsequently commuted because of a 7,000-signature petition in favor of his

release and a medical condition. The Governor of Colorado pardoned him on
October 3, 1902.[65]
James's original grave was on his family property, but he was later moved to a
cemetery in Kearney. The original footstone is still there, although the family has
replaced the headstone. James's mother Zerelda Samuel wrote the following
epitaph for him: "In Loving Memory of my Beloved Son, Murdered by a Traitor
and Coward Whose Name is not Worthy to Appear Here."[52] James' widow
Zerelda Mimms James died alone and in poverty.
Rumors of survival Jesse James Gravestone in Kearney,

Rumors of Jesse James's survival proliferated almost as soon as the newspapers Missouri.
announced his death. Some said that Robert Ford killed someone other than
James, in an elaborate plot to allow him to escape justice.[10] These tales have
received little credence, then or since. None of James's biographers accepted them as plausible. The body buried in Kearney,
Missouri as Jesse James was exhumed in 1995 and subjected to mitochondrial DNA typing. The report, prepared by Anne C.
Stone, Ph.D., James E. Starrs, L.L.M., and Mark Stoneking, Ph.D., stated the mtDNA recovered from the remains was consistent
with the mtDNA of one of James's relatives in the female line.[66]
The theme of survival was featured in a 2009 documentary, Jesse James' Hidden Treasure, which aired on the History Channel.
The documentary was dismissed as pseudo-history and pseudoscience by historian Nancy Samuelson in a review she wrote for
the Winter 2009–2010 edition of The James-Younger Gang Journal.[67]
J. Frank Dalton claimed to be Jesse James; he died August 15, 1951, in Granbury, Texas. Dalton was allegedly 101 years old at
the time of his first public appearance, in May 1948. His story did not hold up to questioning from James's surviving relatives.[68]
Legacy
James's turn to crime after the end of the Reconstruction era helped cement his place in American life and memory as a simple
but remarkably effective bandit. After 1873 he was covered by the national media as part of social banditry.[69] During his
lifetime, James was celebrated chiefly by former Confederates, to whom he appealed directly in his letters to the press. Displaced
by Reconstruction, the antebellum political leadership mythologized the James Gang exploits. Frank Triplett wrote about James
as a "progressive neo-aristocrat" with "purity of race".[70] Some historians credit James' myth as contributing to the rise of former
Confederates to dominance in Missouri politics. In the 1880s, both U.S. Senators from the state, former Confederate military
commander Francis Cockrell and former Confederate Congressman George Graham Vest, were identified with the Confederate
cause.
In the 1880s, after James' death, the James Gang became the subject of dime novels that represented the bandits as pre-industrial
models of resistance.[70] During the Populist and Progressive eras, James became an icon as America's Robin Hood, standing up
against corporations in defense of the small farmer, robbing from the rich and giving to the poor. But there is no evidence that he
shared the loot of his robberies with anyone other than his gang members; they enjoyed the riches with him.[1]
In the 1950s, James was pictured as a psychologically troubled individual rather than a social rebel. Some filmmakers portrayed
the former outlaw as a revenger, replacing "social with exclusively personal motives."[71] While his "heroic outlaw" image is
commonly portrayed in films, as well as in songs and folklore, since the late 20th century, historians such as Stiles have classified
him as a self-aware vigilante and terrorist who used local tensions to create his own myth among the widespread insurgent
guerrillas and vigilantes following the American Civil War.[2]
Jesse James remains a controversial symbol, one who can always be reinterpreted in various ways according to cultural tensions
and needs. Some of the neo-Confederate movement regard him as a hero.[59][72][73] But renewed cultural battles over the place of
the Civil War in American history have replaced the long-standing interpretation of James as a Western frontier hero.
Museums
Museums and sites devoted to Jesse James:
James Farm in Kearney, Missouri: In 1974, Clay County, Missouri, bought the property. The county operates the
site as a house museum and historic site.[74] It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972,
with a boundary increase in 1978.[75]
Jesse James Home Museum: The house where Jesse James was killed in south St. Joseph was moved in 1939
to the Belt Highway on St. Joseph's east side to attract tourists. In 1977, it was moved to its current location, near
Patee House, which was the headquarters of the Pony Express. The house is owned and operated by the Pony
Express Historical Association.[76]
The Jesse James Bank Museum, on the square in Liberty, Missouri, is the site of the first daylight bank robbery in
the United States in peacetime. The museum is managed by Clay County along with the James Farm Home and
Museum outside of Kearney.[77]
First National Bank of Northfield: The Northfield Historical Society in Northfield, Minnesota, has restored the
building that housed the First National Bank, the scene of the 1876 raid.[78]
Heaton Bowman Funeral Home, 36th Street and Frederick Avenue, St. Joseph, Missouri: The funeral home's
predecessor conducted the original autopsy and funeral for Jesse James. A room in the back holds the log book
and other documentation.
The Jesse James Tavern is located in Asdee, County Kerry, Ireland. It has been claimed that James' ancestors
were from that area of Ireland.[79] But documented evidence suggests that on his father's side, Jesse was a third-
generation American of English descent.[80][81]
Festivals
The Defeat of Jesse James Days in Northfield, Minnesota, is among the largest outdoor celebrations in the state. It is held
annually in September during the weekend after Labor Day. Thousands of visitors watch reenactments of the robbery, a
championship rodeo, a carnival, performances of a 19th-century style melodrama musical, and a parade during the five-day
event.[82]
Jesse James' boyhood home in Kearney, Missouri, is operated as a museum dedicated to the town's most famous resident. Each
year a recreational fair, the Jesse James Festival, is held during the third weekend in September.[83]
The annual Victorian Festival in Jersey County, Illinois is held on Labor Day weekend[84] at the 1866 Col. William H. Fulkerson
estate Hazel Dell. Festivities include telling Jesse James' history in stories and by reenactments of stagecoach holdups. Over the
three-day event, thousands of spectators learn of the documented James Gang's stopover at Hazel Dell and of their connection
with ex-Confederate Fulkerson.
Russellville, Kentucky, the site of the robbery of the Southern Bank in 1868, holds a reenactment of the robbery every year as of
the Logan County Tobacco and Heritage Festival.[85]
The small town of Oak Grove, Louisiana, also hosts a town-wide annual Jesse James Outlaw Roundup Festival, usually in the
early to mid-autumn. This is a reference to a short time James supposedly spent near this area.[86]
Cultural depictions
References
1. Hayworth, Wil (September 17, 2007). "A story of myth, fame, Jesse James" (https://web.archive.org/web/200812
29061215/http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/living/2003885037_jessejames17.html). Seattle Times.
Archived from the original (http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/living/2003885037_jessejames17.html) on
December 29, 2008. Retrieved December 7, 2008.
2. Stiles, T.J. (2002). Jesse James: Last Rebel of the Civil War (https://books.google.com/?id=uAINAAAACAAJ).
Knopf Publishing. ISBN 0-375-40583-6.
3. Settle, William A. (1977). Jesse James Was His Name, or, Fact and Fiction Concerning the Careers of the
Notorious James Brothers of Missouri (https://books.google.com/?id=3cHhY4qAvdcC). University of Nebraska
Press. pp. 7, 12, 16, 26. ISBN 0-8032-5860-7. Retrieved December 7, 2008.
Knopf Publishing. pp. 23–6. ISBN 0-375-40583-6.
5. Yeatman, Ted P. (2000). Frank and Jesse James: The Story Behind the Legend (https://books.google.com/?id=u4
WlW39O8-UC). Cumberland House Publishing. pp. 26–8. ISBN 1-58182-325-8.
8. Hurt, R. Douglas (1992). Agriculture and Slavery in Missouri's Little Dixie (https://books.google.com/?id=pVSdAQ
AACAAJ). University of Missouri Press. ISBN 0-8262-0854-1.
9. Fellman, Michael (1990). Inside War: The Guerrilla Conflict in Missouri onto the American Civil War (https://book
s.google.com/?id=LldHnF7CB3kC). Oxford University Press. pp. 61–143. ISBN 0-19-506471-2.
10. Andrews, Dale C (June 18, 2013). "Jesse James and Meramec Caverns" (http://www.sleuthsayers.org/2013/06/je
sse-james-and-meramec-caverns-another_18.html). Route 66. Washington: SleuthSayers.
Knopf Publishing. pp. 61–2, 84–91. ISBN 0-375-40583-6.
13. Settle, William A. (1977). Jesse James Was His Name (https://books.google.com/?id=3cHhY4qAvdcC).
University of Nebraska Press. pp. 28–35. ISBN 978-0-8032-5860-0. Retrieved December 7, 2008.
WlW39O8-UC). Cumberland House Publishing. pp. 48–58, 62–3, 72–5. ISBN 1-58182-325-8.
Knopf Publishing. pp. 100–11, 121–3, 136–7, 140–1, 150–4. ISBN 0-375-40583-6.
17. Parrish, William E. (1965). Missouri Under Radical Rule, 1865–1870 (https://archive.org/details/missouriunderrad
0000parr). University of Missouri Press. ASIN B0014QRLJC (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0014QRLJC).
19. "PBS.org Jesse James Bank Robberies" (https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/james/peopleevents/e_banks.html).
Retrieved February 12, 2009.
Knopf Publishing. pp. 168–75, 179–87. ISBN 0-375-40583-6.
22. "Jailer Henry Bugler, Jackson County Sheriff's Office, Missouri" (http://www.odmp.org/officer/2462-jailer-henry-bu
gler). Retrieved February 5, 2014.
Knopf Publishing. p. 173. ISBN 0-375-40583-6.
Knopf Publishing. p. 238. ISBN 0-375-40583-6.
25. "Deputy Sheriff Frank S. Griffin, Ray County Sheriff's Department" (http://www.odmp.org/officer/5742-deputy-sher
iff-frank-s.-griffin). Officer Down Memorial Page. Retrieved October 3, 2008.
29. Settle, William A. (1977). Jesse James Was His Name, or, Fact and Fiction Concerning the Careers of the
Notorious James Brothers of Missouri (https://books.google.com/?id=3cHhY4qAvdcC). University of Nebraska
Press. ISBN 0-8032-5860-7. Retrieved December 7, 2008.
30. "Civil lawsuit against Frank & Jesse James" (https://web.archive.org/web/20090201012052/http://www.daviessco
untyhistoricalsociety.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=347). Daviess County
Historical Society. August 30, 2007. Archived from the original (http://www.daviesscountyhistoricalsociety.com/mo
dules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=347) on February 1, 2009. Retrieved December 7, 2008.
31. Missouri State Archives. "Frank and Jesse James Court Documents from Daviess County" (http://cdm16795.cont
entdm.oclc.org/cdm/landingpage/collection/jessejames). Missouri Digital Heritage. Missouri Office of the
Secretary of State. Retrieved August 4, 2016.
33. Old Campsite of Jesse and Frank James: US 380, approximately 5 miles east of Decatur: Texas marker #3700 –
Texas Historical Commission (http://atlas.thc.state.tx.us)
35. "Monaco, Ralph A., II (2012). Son Of A Bandit, Jesse James & The Leeds Gang, Monaco Publishing, L.L.C." (htt
p://www.sonofabandit.com) Sonofabandit.com. ISBN 978-0578104263. Retrieved September 6, 2012.
36. "Original reference: Los Angeles Times, Orange County Edition, August 25, 2001, Page F2" (http://www.ericjame
s.org/AmericanOutlaws/page2.html). Ericjames.org. Retrieved September 6, 2012.
43. "St. Joseph History — Jesse James" (https://web.archive.org/web/20090124034733/http://ci.st-joseph.mo.us/hist
ory/jessejames.cfm). St. Joseph, Missouri. Archived from the original (http://www.ci.st-joseph.mo.us/history/jessej
ames.cfm) on January 24, 2009. Retrieved December 7, 2008.
44. Stiles, T. J. (2002). Jesse James: Last Rebel of the Civil War (https://books.google.com/?id=uAINAAAACAAJ).
45. "An Inventory of the Northfield (Minnesota) Bank Robbery of 1876: Selected Manuscripts Collection" (http://www.
mnhs.org/library/findaids/00861.xml). Mnhs.org. Retrieved September 6, 2012.
48. "Skillful Detective Work; Another of the James Gang Captured in Missouri" (https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstrac
t.html?res=9802EEDE113EE433A2575AC1A9659C94639FD7CF). The New York Times. March 19, 1889.
49. "Jefferson B. Snyder" (http://files.usgwarchives.net/la/madison/bios/snyderjb.txt). New Orleans Times-Picayune,
April 15, 1938. Retrieved July 22, 2013.
52. King, Susan (September 17, 2007). "One more shot at the legend of Jesse James" (http://articles.latimes.com/20
07/sep/17/entertainment/et-weekmovie17). Los Angeles Times. Retrieved December 7, 2008.
53. Hanes, Elizabeth. "Jesse James Wanted Poster Goes Up for Auction" (https://www.history.com/news/jesse-james
-wanted-poster-goes-up-for-auction). History.com. A&E Television Networks. Retrieved September 17, 2018.
54. Dove, Laurie L. "10 of History's Most Notorious Traitors" (https://history.howstuffworks.com/historical-figures/10-hi
story-notorious-traitors4.htm). HowStuffWorks. InfoSpace Holdings LLC. System1 Company. Retrieved
September 5, 2018.
55. "Jesse James Shot Down. Killed By One Of His Confederates Who Claims To Be A Detective" (https://query.nyti
mes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9B01E1DE173DE533A25757C0A9629C94639FD7CF). New York Times. April 4,
1882. Retrieved December 9, 2008. "A great sensation was erected in this city this morning by the
announcement that Jesse James, the notorious bandit and train-robber, had been shot and killed here. The news
spread with great rapidity, but most persons received it with doubts until investigation established the fact beyond
question."
58. "Jesse James's Murderers. The Ford Brothers Indicted, Plead Guilty, Sentenced To Be Hanged, And Pardoned
All In One Day" (https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9D04E3DB113EE433A2575BC1A9629C94639
FD7CF). New York Times. April 18, 1882. Retrieved December 7, 2008.
62. "Feared by Jesse James" (https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1338&dat=18910310&id=BKJXAAAAIBAJ
&sjid=wfMDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6758,2512179). Spokane Daily Chronicle. Spokane, Washington. March 10, 1891.
p. 1. Retrieved August 6, 2012.
Knopf Publishing. pp. 378, 395–95. ISBN 0-375-40583-6.
64. Stiles
65. Ries, Judith (1994). Ed O'Kelley: The Man Who Murdered Jesse James' Murderer (https://books.google.com/?id=
B5B9AAAACAAJ). Stewart Printing and Publishing Co. ISBN 0-934426-61-9.
66. Stone, A. C.; Starrs, J. E.; Stoneking, M. (2001). "Mitochondrial DNA analysis of the presumptive remains of
Jesse James". Journal of Forensic Sciences. 46 (1): 173–6. doi:10.1520/JFS14932J (https://doi.org/10.1520%2F
JFS14932J). PMID 11210907 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11210907).
67. Leaf Blower (April 2, 2010). "James-Younger Gang Journal pans Jesse James' Hidden Treasure" (http://ericjame
s.org/wordpress/2010/04/02/james-younger-gang-journal-pans-jesse-james-hidden-treasure/). Ericjames.org.
Retrieved September 6, 2012.
68. Walker, Dale L. Legends and Lies: Great Mysteries of the American West. Forge Books. pp. 87–110. ISBN 0-
312-86848-0.
69. Slotkin, Richard (1998). Gunfighter Nation: The Myth of the Frontier in Twentieth-Century America (https://books.
google.com/?id=-9XOsW7YwJ4C). University of Oklahoma Press. p. 128. ISBN 0-8061-3031-8.
google.com/?id=-9XOsW7YwJ4C). University of Oklahoma Press. pp. 134–136. ISBN 0-8061-3031-8.
74. "Friends of the James Farm" (http://www.jessejames.org/). Jessejames.org. Retrieved September 6, 2012.
75. "National Register Information System" (http://nrhp.focus.nps.gov/natreg/docs/All_Data.html). National Register
of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
76. "St. Joseph History – Jesse James Home" (http://www.ci.st-joseph.mo.us/history/jameshome.cfm) Archived (http
s://web.archive.org/web/20060426092645/http://www.ci.st-joseph.mo.us/history/jameshome.cfm) April 26, 2006,
at the Wayback Machine, City of St. Joseph, Missouri
77. "Jesse James Bank Museum" (http://www.claycountymo.gov/Historic_Sites/Jesse_James_Bank_Museum).
Retrieved March 11, 2012.
78. "Bank Site." (http://www.northfieldhistory.org/bank-site) Northfield Historical Society.
79. "Asdee- where Jesse James' ancestors originated-County Kerry, Ireland" (http://www.1st-stop-county-kerry.com/A
sdee.html), 1st Stop County Kerry, accessed June 20, 2008
80. Steele, Philip W. "Jesse and Frank James: The Family History". Pelican Publishing, 1987, p. 27.
81. Ireland and the Americas: Culture, Politics, and History: a Multidisciplinary Encyclopedia, Volume 2 (https://book
s.google.com/books?id=agfvVQnBu9MC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Ireland+and+the+Americas:+Culture,+Politics,
+and+History+:+a+Multidisciplinary+Encyclopedia,+Volume+2), edited by: James Patrick Byrne, Philip Coleman,
Jason Francis King, pp. 475–476.
82. "Defeat of Jesse James Days" (http://www.djjd.org/). Djjd.org. Retrieved September 6, 2012.
83. "Jesse James Festival." (http://www.jessejamesfestival.com) JesseJamesFestival.com.
84. "Jersey County Victorian Festival." (http://www.greatriverroad.com/vicfest.htm) GreatRiverRoad.com.
85. "Logan County Tobacco & Heritage Festival 2017" (http://loganchamber.com/tobacco-heritage-festival). Logan
County Chamber of Commerce. Retrieved December 5, 2017.
86. Jesse James Outlaw Roundup Festival (https://www.facebook.com/186831888047782) on Facebook
Bibliography
Fellman, Michael. Inside War: The Guerrilla Conflict in Missouri onto the American Civil War. Oxford University
Press, 1990. ISBN 0-19-506471-2.
Settle, William A. Jesse James Was His Name, or, Fact and Fiction Concerning the Careers of the Notorious
James Brothers of Missouri'. University of Nebraska Press, 1977. ISBN 0-8032-5860-7.
Stiles, T. J. Jesse James: Last Rebel of the Civil War. Knopf Publishing, 2002. ISBN 0-375-40583-6.
Yeatman, Ted P. Frank and Jesse James: The Story Behind the Legend. Cumberland House Publishing, 2000.
ISBN 1-58182-325-8.
Quist, B. Wayne, The History of the Christdala Evangelical Swedish Lutheran Church of Millersburg, Minnesota,
Dundas, Minnesota, Third Edition, July 2009, page 19-23, The Murder of Nicholaus Gustafson.
Further reading
Dyer, Robert. "Jesse James and the Civil War in Missouri,"University of Missouri Press, 1994
Hobsbawm, Eric J. Bandits, Pantheon, 1981
Koblas, John J. Faithful Unto Death, Northfield Historical Society Press, 2001
Smith, Carter F. Gangs and the Military: Gangsters, Bikers, and Terrorists with Military Training (https://books.goo
gle.com/books?id=z0IyDwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=Gangs+and+the+Military:+Gangsters,+Bikers,+and
+Terrorists+with+Military+Training&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjJ1pW_reTYAhWFTN8KHW6VB6oQ6AEIJzAA#
v=onepage&q=Gangs%20and%20the%20Military%3A%20Gangsters%2C%20Bikers%2C%20and%20Terrorist
s%20with%20Military%20Training&f=false). Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2017.
Thelen, David. Paths of Resistance: Tradition and Dignity in Industrializing Missouri, Oxford University Press,
1986
Wellman, Paul I. A Dynasty of Western Outlaws. Doubleday, 1961; 1986.
White, Richard. "Outlaw Gangs of the Middle Border: American Social Bandits," Western Historical Quarterly 12,
no. 4 (October 1981)
External links
Primary sources and essays by Jesse James biographer T. J. Stiles (http://www.tjstiles.com/bio.htm)
Official website for the Family of Jesse James (http://www.ericjames.org/)
Death pics Jesse James (https://web.archive.org/web/20140913141816/http://celebritymorgue.com/jesse-james/)
Jesse James (https://curlie.org/Society/History/By_Region/North_America/United_States/West/Personalities/Jam
es,_Jesse) at Curlie
FBI Records: The Vault - Jesse James (https://vault.fbi.gov/Jesse%20James) at fbi.gov
A 1901 newspaper interview with the Younger brothers (https://archive.today/20110222091300/http://www.startrib
une.com/blogs/oldnews/archives/103)
Death of Jesse James with pictures from the National Archives and Library of Congress (http://www.awesomesto
ries.com/flicks/jesse-james/robert-ford-kills-jesse-james)
Jesse James (https://web.archive.org/web/20170511044853/http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0000001/) on
IMDb
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Jesse James

Jesse Woodson James (September 5, 1847 – April 3, 1882) was an American

American Civil War

After the Civil War

Downfall of the gang

subsequently commuted because of a 7,000-signature petition in favor of his

Rumors of survival Jesse James Gravestone in Kearney,

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jesse_James&oldid=929258990"

This page was last edited on 4 December 2019, at 17:20 (UTC).

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