Jesse James
"All the world likes an outlaw. For some damn reason they remember 'em." - Jesse James
Indeed the world likes outlaws just as Jesse himself proclaimed. A southern gentleman, a cool collected outlaw, a desperate man...all of these make up the character of Jesse Woodson James. Born on September 5, 1847, Jesse made his entrance into the world as the third son of Robert and Zerelda Cole James. Fourteen when the War Between the States broke out, Jesse nonetheless stuck to his southern roots, feeding off stories from Frank who had gone off to fight with William Clarke Quantrill. Finally in 1863, 'Bloody' Bill Anderson took a shine to Jesse, encouraging the young lad to join them. Jesse's baby-faced good looks were an advantage to Anderson as he sent Jesse into the enemy's territory spying, dressed as a girl. Anderson later said about Jesse, "He is the keenest and cleanest fighter in the command."
When the war ended and things had been sewn up in Appomattox, Jesse went to accept his amnesty from the Northern Federals. However, he was very nearly killed by their ambush. Through the nursing care given by his first cousin, Zerelda Mimms, Jesse was able to get his strength back. For months afterwards Jesse continued to cough up pieces of his flannel shirt he had been wearing that day. However the addiction to the laudanum it took to ease his pain would haunt him the rest of his life.
During the recovery time, the young Jesse, brother Frank and friend Cole Younger began talking over the idea of getting a gang together, robbing the trains and banks of the Yankee money that was stolen from the South during the War. Vengeance, you understand. Credited with the first daylight bank robbery in February, 1866, in Liberty, Missouri, Jesse was still feeling poorly. No one in Missouri really expected the James boys to come up with an idea of this proportion. To them, Jesse was still healing up and Frank was hard at work with the books, becoming an expert in quoting Shakespeare and the Bible.
Yet even when the James boys decided on a life of dishonesty, the Missourians embraced them still. Hurting from the War and Reconstruction, life was hard for the people there. Jesse and Frank taking back from the Yankees made the people proud these two were taking a stand against the enemy. They hid the boys, lied about their whereabouts...they were family after all, and you take care of your kin. They were heroes to the people, Robin Hoods of the 19th century.
In 1872 with the help of Cole and Bob Younger, Jesse and Frank rode to the Kansas City fairgrounds taking the cashbox and riding off with the day's ticket money. For their day's work they received $10,000, yet trampled or shot a ten year old girl in the aftermath. When the crime was announced, Jesse wrote a retraction to the Kansas newspaper. Since the beginning of their exploits, Jesse had always written to the editors of the papers claiming he and his brother were innocent of all charges. It couldn't have been them, he proclaimed, they were honest, upright citizens who would never dream of doing that!
Jesse's proclamations of innocence through the newspaper only added to his charm and protection by the Missourians. But it also sent in the Pinkertons. The farmers didn't trust the detectives; in their way of thinking the Pinkertons had spied on the Cause during the War, now they were spying on the people in Missouri especially the James boys. These hard-worked folk didn't take kindly to city folk invading their territory.
When the pressure became too tight, Jesse and Frank accompanied by one or more of the Younger boys, slipped into Texas for awhile. While in Scyene, TX, which is today part of Dallas and Mesquite, the boys would find solace in the home of store owner John Shirley and his daughter Belle. Actually Cole Younger kept the fair Miss Shirley occupied while Jesse and the boys kept the peace as deputies.
In 1874, Jesse married Zerelda (Zee) Mimms, the cousin who nursed him back to health nine years earlier. A bit later Frank married Annie Ralston. Though the brothers tried the domestic life for a very short while, the two couldn't stay away from trouble. Their outlaw blood could not be quelled.
In late January 1875, the Pinkertons did something that caused the James' boys to receive more support from their rallying kin and neighbors. Having spotted the brothers at their mother's house, the Pinkertons went all out to smoke the gunmen out of the house. Throwing in what amounted to a 1870's version of a Molotov cocktail, someone in the house then threw it in the fireplace causing an explosion to light up the night sky. When the fire subsided, Jesse's mother had lost her forearm, his little nine year old brother Archie Samuel laid dead.
Jesse and Frank had risen to martyr status in the eyes of Missouri. They were the heroes and Pinkerton was the enemy waiting to snap their evil teeth at the boys. But the continual search for the elusive brothers and their gang was increasing by Pinkerton. The boys held up the Missouri Pacific Railroad at Rocky Cut, Missouri, in July, 1876. Pinkerton went full steam ahead making raids on houses they knew would hide Jesse and his fellow outlaws. Pinkerton went so far as to cause the death of an innocent lady after the Rocky Cut incident. Missourians were not happy with the detectives. The Pinkerton pursuit only forced the boys to pull out of Missouri and strike out for further ports of interest...namely Minnesota.
Minnesota boy Bill Chadwell talked of rich, fat banks there...the kind overflowing with Yankee money. He talked a good game, it convinced the others to go. In August 1876, the James-Younger gang, now with Bill Chadwell, Charlie Pitts and Clell Miller, made their journey to Northfield, Minnesota...the inevitable downfall of the gang.
With the Northfield disaster still simmering, Jesse and Frank made it to Sioux Falls where their trail disappeared for awhile. Stealing a couple of horses of which one was totally blind, the other blind in one eye, the James boys did make it home. In Fulton, Jesse visited a Dr. Yates. With a gunshot wound to the thigh, he decided to let the professional handle it. As Jesse and the doctor ate supper together that night, the outlaw couldn't help but be amused for he was sitting with a few Pinkerton men still searching for the elusive Jesse James. How he hid the smirk on his face will never be known!
Jesse also met D.G. Bligh, a detective, in Kentucky about this time. Bligh was the first detective to ever go after Jesse and the boys. The two chatted awhile, Bligh never realizing who he was with. Afterwards Jesse sent him a postcard telling him that Bligh had finally met his quarry! One wonders about Bligh's expression as he read the card.
By the late 1870's, Jesse and Zee had two children, Jesse Edwards and Mary. Living under the name of Howard, Jesse still desired to make a comeback on the outlaw trail. But nothing was ever the same again. 'Missions' never went right again. In 1879 Jesse, together with a hastily gathered gang, robbed the Glendale train making off with $6000. One of the members who took part in the raid acknowledged Jesse as leader to the law officials. From there on the robberies became more and more unorganized.
The governor of Missouri, Thomas Crittenden, finally decided enough was enough. He went to the railroads and asked them to put up a $5000 reward on any of the members of the James gang with another $5000 placed on Jesse or Frank's arrest. A couple of brothers who at one time sought admission into the James gang but were refused heard the Governor's offer. Immediately Bob and Charlie Ford offered their services. Go volunteer to be in the gang again, the sheriff who was now in on the plan said. Get back in Jesse's good graces. Bob was more than happy to fulfill the plan.
November 1881 found the Jesse James family living in St. Joseph, Missouri, still under the name of Howard. The ties of the outlaw trail were too strong for Jesse; he was beginning to feel restless as if he had left too many things undone. In March of 1882, just as Jesse was beginning to get the creative juices flowing again, Bob and Charlie Ford entered the picture. Though Charlie would not take part in what Bob was set out to do, he nonetheless saw it all...saw everything that took place on April 3, 1882.
April 3, 1882
"Jesse, breakfast's ready." Zee stopped just inside the door from the dining room to the parlor. She looked from her husband to the man who sat on her settee. Instantly her expression changed from one of love for her husband to one of loathing at the man who lowered the newspaper he was reading.
Bob Ford tried to smile as he hastily hid the newspaper he held underneath a shawl on the chair next to him. Nervously he watched as Jesse stood and walked over to the chair, reached under the shawl and took the newspaper. Bob's eyes ran from the paper to Jesse's face, but the outlaw leader gave no hint of expression as he strode into the dining room. Bob followed, sitting across from Jesse at the table.
Zee came in silently, coffee pot in hand, filling the men's cups then sat at the end of the table. Bob watched as Jesse unfolded the paper and laid it before him, scanning the headlines. "Hello here...'The Surrender of Dick Liddil.'" Slowly his eyes lifted from the paper to Bob, narrowing. "Young man, I thought you told me you didn't know that Dick Liddil had surrendered."
"I...I didn't know that, Jesse."
"Strange," he muttered. "He surrendered three weeks ago and you was here in this neighborhood. Looks fishy."
Bob finished his coffee then pushed his chair away from the table and walked back into the parlor. Pacing a minute or two, he then heard Jesse's chair scrape across the floor. Turning, Bob saw Jesse standing there, a smile on his face. "It's all right though, Bob."
The two men exchanged long, hard stares then it dawned on Bob...Jesse knew why he was there. He knew Jesse had a sharp mind, nothing ever slipped past him.
Jesse walked to the bed and slipped off his holster, four guns attached. Bob's heart raced, knowing full well the deed he was about to do. He watched as the bigger man inspected the walls in the room, looking at them as if he were seeing them for the first time. "Awful dusty," his voice broke the silence. Bob watched as Jesse walked to the picture, his back to him, unarmed. As Jesse stood on a chair to dust off the picture, Bob reached for his pearl-handled .44. Now or never, he told himself.
The hammer cocked, Jesse turning at the sound, but the trigger had already been pulled. The Missouri outlaw fell to the floor dead, a bullet hitting him behind the ear. The coward had shot Mr. Howard.
Aftermath
Recently Jesse James' remains were exhumed and DNA testing was done. For years there were men proclaiming to be the real Jesse, telling stories only Jesse knew. However the DNA tests proved, Bob Ford had killed Jesse James; it was the outlaw leader's body there in the cold ground. Still...one can't help but wish...
SOURCED:
Kennerly, Paul. The Legend of Jesse James, LP. A&M Records, 1980.
McLaughlin, Denis. Wild and Woolly: An Encyclopedia of the Old West. Doubleday and Company, Inc., Garden City, NY, 1975.
Time-Life Old West series. The Gunfighters. pp. 52-82. Time-Life Books, New York. 1974.
Joni K. Buckner,
Dallas,
TX,
July 1998