The James brothers then joined the bushwhacker group led by William "Bloody Bill" Anderson. Jesse was born in Clay County, Missouri, on September 5, 1847, to Zerelda and Robert James, hemp farmers who owned six slaves. Narrator: The day before he died was Palm Sunday. [73] 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. 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. In the biography, "Jessie James: Last Rebel of the Civil War," written by T.J. Stiles was about a man named Jesse James who spent most of his life participating in criminal activity. In early January 1882, Bolton met with Crittenden, who agreed to spare Liddil from prosecution for his testimony against the James boys. 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. January 31, 1874. Robert's aim was true, bringing an end to James' high-wire life at the age of 34. In the 1880s, after James's death, the James Gang became the subject of dime novels that represented the bandits as pre-industrial models of resistance. [14] Others have argued that Jesse was at the time still bedridden with his wound and could not have participated. Charles heard that Frank James was seeking revenge on them for his brothers murder. [2] James continues to be one of the most (in)famous figures from the era, and his life has been dramatized and memorialized numerous times. [68], J. Frank Dalton claimed to be Jesse James. Edwards, a former Confederate cavalryman, was campaigning to return former secessionists to power in Missouri. Instead of confronting them, James walked across the living room and laid his revolvers on a sofa. 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. [56][57][58] Jesse James : [Bob walks in on Jesse in the bath] Go away. They robbed banks and trains, and shot people who got in their way. STANDS4 LLC, 2023. The wounds were superficial, but Ford retaliated and shot Hite in the head. They were brought into a meeting with Crittenden, as they had been around James's cousin Wood Hite the day Hite was murdered. Though ordered to move South beyond Union lines, they moved north across the nearby state border into Nebraska Territory. The Cold-blooded Assassination of Outlaw Jesse James By: Oisin Curran Jesse James lies dead in his coffin, cut down in the prime of life by his close friend, Robert Ford. When silver was found in Creede, Ford closed his saloon and opened one there. But unlike Ford, Kelly preferred to confront his enemies. Over time, the letters gradually became more political in tone and James denounced the Republicans and expressed his pride in his Confederate loyalties. 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. In June 1892, a man named Edward O'Kelley walked into his saloon, offered him a quick greeting ("Hello, Bob") and then shot him dead with a sawed-off shotgun. Afterward, Pinkerton denied that the raid's intent was arson. Ford was buried in Creede. Pitts died in a gunfight and the Youngers were taken prisoner. Minutes later the Ford brothers were running down the street, and Bob was yelling: I killed him! Jesse James Facts According to his brother, Frank, teenaged guerrilla Jesse James killed Major Johnston. Some of Sam Bass' last words. Suffering from tuberculosis (then incurable) and a morphine addiction, Charley Ford committed suicide on May 6, 1884, in Richmond, Missouri. [50], By 1881, with local Tennessee authorities growing suspicious, the brothers returned to Missouri, where they felt safer. 1879). Crowds pressed into the little house in St. Joseph to see the dead bandit. Ford had his back to Kelly. The James and Ford brothers were popular subjects of Western films in the 1940s and 1950s: The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, I Feel Like a Bullet (In the Gun of Robert Ford), "New Facts on the "Blue Cut" and Glendale", "One more shot at the legend of Jesse James", "Jesse James Wanted Poster Goes Up for Auction", "Death of the man who killed, the man who killed Jesse James", "Jesse James's Murderers. The audience would have nothing of it and they jeered and threatened Ford. [69] Oran Baker, Hood County sheriff, conducted a visual postmortem exam and found he had thirty-two bullet wounds and a rope burn around his neck. This page was last edited on 3 April 2023, at 15:20. His remains were later moved and reinterred at Richmond Cemetery in his native Richmond in Ray County, Missouri; "The man who shot Jesse James" was inscribed on his grave marker.[22]. In January 1882, Robert Ford and gang member Dick Liddil had surrendered to Sheriff James Timberlake at their sister Martha Bolton's residence in Ray County. Except for Frank and Jesse James, the JamesYounger Gang was destroyed.[47][48]. [73] Some historians credit James's myth as contributing to the rise of former Confederates to dominance in Missouri politics. [5] Charles had been out on raids with James before, but Robert was an eager new recruit. [14], The death of Jesse James became a national sensation. But for James, at least, it also marked the start of a slow countdown to when the way of the gun would finally catch up with him. And Mr. and Mrs. Howard, their two children and their cousin Charles Johnson strolled to the second Presbyterian Church to attend the 10:00 service. In May 1865, a month after Confederate General Robert E. Lees surrender at Appomattox Court House, Jesse was shot in the chest during a skirmish with Union troops near Lexington, Missouri. Both were sentenced to hang. Displaced by Reconstruction, the antebellum political leadership mythologized the James Gang's exploits. Robert Ford was born in 1862 in Ray County, Missouri, to James Thomas and Mary Bruin Ford as the youngest of seven siblings. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford: Directed by Andrew Dominik. [18] Six days later, the entire business district, including Ford's Exchange, burned to the ground in a major fire. On April 3, 1882, the Ford brothers met James at his home in St. Joseph, Mo. Jesse James was the Robin Hood of the West not Wikipedia James' experiences during the Civil War would result in some post-traumatic stress disorder of the worst kind. After the train robbery, Jamess brother Frank James had also decided to retire from crime and moved East, settling in Lynchburg, Virginia.[4]. And while he soon had the second elusive James in custody, Frank managed to avoid conviction at three separate trials and lived out his life as a free man and a celebrity. With Brad Pitt, Mary-Louise Parker, Brooklynn Proulx, Dustin Bollinger. Raised in the "Little Dixie" area of Western Missouri, James and his family maintained strong Southern sympathies. Frank and Jesse failed to appear in court, and Smoote won his case against them. James had often stayed with their sister Martha Bolton and, according to rumor, he was "smitten" with her. Sheets."[31]. [2] He held six slaves and more than 100 acres (0.40km2) of farmland. Through his articles and editorials, Edwards was responsible for helping to create the mythology of Jesse James as a Robin Hood figure who robbed the rich to give to the poora myth historians have debunked. Robert Ford : I ain't never seen you without your guns, neither. James wrote about this death with bitterness a decade later.[21][22]. "[40][41], Many residents were outraged by the raid on the family home. Ames was a stockholder in the bank, but Butler had no direct connection to it.[45]. He was born on September 5th, 1847 and was a criminal of the Old West along with his brother, Frank James. But their luck was short lived. After Frank and Jesse grew up to become outlaws, the iron-willed Zerelda remained their staunch supporter. Jesse suffered a serious wound to the chest that summer. They had two children who survived to adulthood: Jesse Edward James (b. After they arrived in Clay County, 16-year-old Jesse James joined his brother in Taylor's group. After he married, he migrated to Bradford, Missouri and helped found William Jewell College in Liberty, Missouri. 1. [19][20][21] O'Kelley was subsequently killed on January 13, 1904, while trying to shoot a policeman. Following Jamess passing, speculation lingered that hed faked his own death and that someone else was buried in his grave. He was tended to by his first cousin, Zerelda "Zee" Mimms, named after Jesse's mother. The year 1876 was busy in the American West. [1] By that time, Bob Ford had conducted secret negotiations with Missouri Governor Thomas T. Crittenden, planning to bring in the famous outlaw. Essay On Jesse James. 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. Catching the James brothers became a personal mission for Allan Pinkerton, an abolitionist who had aided slaves on the Underground Railroad, uncovered a plot to assassinate President-elect Abraham Lincoln and gathered military intelligence for the federal government during the Civil War. All Rights Reserved. . [15], After "Bloody Bill" Anderson was killed in an ambush in October, the James brothers separated. Ford wasted no time in establishing a tent saloon in its place. Pelican Publishing, 1987, p. 27. massacre of some two hundred men and boys, "Jailer Henry Bugler, Jackson County Sheriff's Office, Missouri", "Deputy Sheriff Frank S. Griffin, Ray County Sheriff's Department", "Civil lawsuit against Frank & Jesse James", "Frank and Jesse James Court Documents from Daviess County", "Original reference: Los Angeles Times, Orange County Edition, August 25, 2001, Page F2", "An Inventory of the Northfield (Minnesota) Bank Robbery of 1876: Selected Manuscripts Collection", "Skillful Detective Work; Another of the James Gang Captured in Missouri", "One more shot at the legend of Jesse James", "Jesse James Wanted Poster Goes Up for Auction", "10 of History's Most Notorious Traitors", "Jesse James Shot Down. 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