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Jesse James

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This article is about the outlaw. For other uses, see Jesse James (disambiguation).
Jesse James

Jesse Woodson James (September 5, 1847–April 3, 1882) was an American outlaw, the most famous member of the James-Younger gang. Since his death, Jesse James has become a figure of folklore. He has at times, and mostly inaccurately, been labelled a gunfighter.

Biography

Pre-Civil War

Pinkertons engaged

The express companies turned to the Pinkerton National Detective Agency in 1874 to stop the James-Younger gang. The Chicago-based agency worked primarily against urban professional criminals such as counterfeiters, safe crackers, con men, and sneak-thieves. The former guerrillas, supported by many old Confederates in Missouri, proved to be too much for them. One agent (Joseph Whicher) was dispatched to infiltrate Zerelda Samuel's farm and turned up dead shortly afterward. Two others (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 (though he killed John Younger before he died). Allan Pinkerton, the Agency's founder and leader, took on the case now as a personal vendetta. Working with old Unionists around Jesse James's family's farm, he staged a raid on the homestead on the night of January 25, 1875. An incendiary device thrown inside by the detectives exploded, killing Jesse's half-brother Archie and wounding his mother Zerelda, forcing the amputation of her lower arm.

The bloody fiasco did more than all of Edwards's columns to turn Jesse James into a sympathetic figure for much of the public. A bill that lavishly praised the James and Younger brothers and offered them amnesty was only narrowly defeated in the state legislature. Former Confederates, now allowed to vote and hold office again, voted a limit on reward offers the governor could make for fugitives (when the only reward offers higher than the new limit previously made had been for the James brothers). But Frank and Jesse, both now married (Jesse to his cousin Zee Mimms), moved to the Nashville area—probably to save their mother from further assaults.

Downfall of the gang

On September 7, 1876, the James-Younger gang attempted their most daring raid to date, on the First National Bank in Northfield, Minnesota. Cole and Bob Younger later stated that they selected the bank because of its connection to two Union generals and Radical Republican politicians: Adelbert Ames, the governor of Mississippi during Reconstruction, and Benjamin Butler, Ames's father-in-law and the stern Union commander in occupied New Orleans.

However, the robbery was thwarted when 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. By this time, the citizens of Northfield had taken notice and were arriving with guns. Before they left the bank, either Frank or Jesse murdered the unarmed Heywood. The bandits who had entered the bank exited empty-handed, only to find the men standing guard outside, including Cole, Bob, and Jim Younger, all dead or wounded amid a hail of gunfire. Suspicious townsmen had confronted the bandits, ran to get their arms, and opened up from under the cover of windows and the corners of buildings. The gang barely escaped, leaving two of their number and two unarmed townspeople (including Heywood) dead in Northfield. A massive manhunt ensued. The James brothers eventually split from the others, and escaped to Missouri after a long and daring ride. The Youngers and one other bandit, Charlie Pitts, were soon discovered; a brisk gunfight left Pitts dead and the Youngers all prisoners. Except for Frank and Jesse James, the James-Younger Gang was destroyed.

Jesse and Frank returned to the Nashville area, where they went under the names of Thomas Howard and B.J. Woodson, respectively. They tried to live peacefully, as Zee had four children: Jesse Edwards, Mary, and twins who died soon after birth. 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, on October 8, 1879. The robbery began a spree of crimes, including the hold-up of the federal paymaster of a canal project in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, and two more train robberies. But the new gang did not consist of the old, battle-hardened guerrillas; they soon turned against each other or were captured, while Jesse grew paranoid, killing one gang member and frightening away another. The authorities grew suspicious, and by 1881 the brothers were forced to return to Missouri. In December, Jesse rented a house in Saint Joseph, Missouri, not far from where he had been born and raised. Frank, however, decided to move to safer territory, heading east to Virginia.

Murder

Jesse James home in St. Joseph where he was shot

With his gang depleted by arrests, deaths, and defections, Jesse thought he had only two men left whom he could trust: brothers Bob and Charley Ford. Charley had been out on raids with Jesse before, but Bob was an eager new recruit. To better protect himself, Jesse asked the Ford brothers to move in with him and his family. Little did he know that Bob Ford had been conducting secret negotiations with Thomas T. Crittenden, the Missouri governor, to bring in Jesse James. Crittenden had made the capture of the James brothers his top priority; in his inaugural address, he had spoken directly to the support they received from his fellow Democrats, declaring that no political motives could be allowed to keep them from justice. Barred by law from offering a sufficiently large reward, he had turned to the railroad and express corporations to put up a $10,000 bounty for each of them.

On April 3, 1882, as Jesse prepared for yet another robbery, he climbed a chair to dust a picture. It was a rare moment: He had his guns off, having removed them earlier when the unusual heat forced him to remove his coat; as he moved in and out of the house, he feared the pistols would attract attention from the several passers-by. Seizing the opportunity, the Fords drew their revolvers. Bob was the fastest, firing a shot into Jesse's back.

The assassination proved a national sensation. The Fords made no attempt to hide their role; as crowds pressed into the little house in St. Joseph to see the dead bandit, they surrendered to the authorities, pleaded guilty, were sentenced to hang, and were promptly pardoned by the governor. Indeed, the governor's quick pardon suggested that he was well aware that the brothers intended to kill, rather than capture, Jesse James. (The Ford brothers, like many who knew James, never believed it was practical to try to capture such a dangerous man.) The implication that the chief executive of Missouri conspired to kill a private citizen startled the public, and helped create a new legend that would surround him in death.

The Fords received a portion of the reward (some of it also went to law enforcement officials active in the plan) and fled Missouri, which now fully embraced the outlaw who had long divided public opinion in the state. Zerelda, Jesse’s mother, appeared at the coroner’s inquest, deeply anguished, and loudly denounced Dick Liddil, a former gang member who was cooperating with state authorities. Charley Ford committed suicide in May 1884. Bob Ford was killed, by shotgun blast, in his saloon in Creede, Colorado, on June 8, 1892. (His killer, Edward Capehart O'Kelley, was sentenced to eight years in prison for avenging the man whom even Theodore Roosevelt called "America's Robin Hood.")

Rumors of survival

Rumors of Jesse James's survival proliferated. Some said that Ford did not kill James, but someone else, in an elaborate plot to allow him to escape justice. Some stories say he lived in Guthrie, Oklahoma, as late as 1948, and a man named J. Frank Dalton, who claimed to be Jesse James, died in Granbury, Texas, in 1951 at the age of 103. Some stories claim the real recipient of Ford's bullet was a man named Charles Bigelow, reported to have been living with James's wife at the time. Generally speaking, however, these tales received little credence, then or now; Jesse's beloved wife, Zee, died alone and in poverty. The body buried in Missouri as Jesse James was exhumed in 1995 and, according to a report by Anne C. Stone, Ph.D.; James E. Starrs, L.L.M.; and Mark Stoneking, Ph.D. titled Mitochondrial DNA Analysis of the Presumptive Remains of Jesse James, does in fact appear to be the remains of Jesse James. The report is available online in pdf format at http://www.eva.mpg.de/genetics/pdf/Stone.JFS.2001.pdf. A court order was granted in 2000 to exhume and test Dalton's body, but the wrong body was exhumed.

Legacy

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Jesse James's legacy is a curious one. During his lifetime, he was largely celebrated by former Confederates, to whom he appealed directly in his letters to the press. Indeed, some historians credit him with contributing to the rise of Confederates to dominance in Missouri politics (by the 1880s, for example, both U.S. senators from the state had been identified with the Confederate cause). His return to crime after the fall of Reconstruction, however, was devoid of political overtones, or allusions to Civil War divisions in Missouri's population, and helped cement his place in American memory as a simple but remarkably effective bandit. During the Populist and Progressive eras, he emerged as America's Robin Hood, standing up against corporations in defense of the small farmer (a role he never played during his lifetime). This image is still seen in films, as well as songs and folklore. Yet he remains a controversial symbol in the cultural battles over the place of the Civil War in American memory, for he is cherished as a hero by the neo-Confederate movement. James's life clearly shows how the war divided the United States down to the grass roots over great issues that had personal repercussions, with consequences that last to this day.

Irish-American Lucchese family associate Jimmy Conway a.k.a. James Burke named his two sons, Frank James Burke and Jesse James Burke, after the James brothers.

A dime novel featuring Jesse James.

In Literature

Jesse James is a character found in many Western novels, starting with some of the original dime novels, including some that were published while he was still alive.

In Movies

The life and times of Jesse James has been depicted—with little regard for historical accuracy—in dozens of movies, ranging from the 1921 silent film Jesse James Under the Black Flag (starring James's own son, Jesse James, Jr., in the title role) to 1939's Jesse James (with Tyrone Power as James) to 1972's The Great Northfield, Minnesota Raid (Robert Duvall) to 1980's The Long Riders (James Keach) to 2001's American Outlaws (Colin Farrell). In 1966, there was even a low-budget horror movie featuring James entitled Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter (John Lupton).

Actors who have portrayed James include Roy Rogers, George Reeves,Tyrone Power, Lawrence Tierney, Clayton Moore, Audie Murphy, Macdonald Carey, Robert Wagner, Christopher Lloyd, Kris Kristofferson, James Keach, Colin Farrell, and Rob Lowe. Brad Pitt will star in a movie, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, filmed mostly in Edmonton and Calgary, Alberta, and briefly in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Its scheduled release date is sometime in 2007.

In 2006, PBS released a documentary in the American Experience series, dedicated to James.

In Music

Main article: Jesse James in music

Jesse James is mentioned in the following songs, among others:

  • 'Jesse James' by Scarface
  • 'Ends' by Everlast
  • 'Just like Jesse James' by Cher

Bruce Springsteen recorded "Jesse James" with The Seeger Sessions Band on 02 Nov 1997. The song is included on Bruce's 2006 cover album, "We Shall Overcome - The Seeger Sessions". Lyrics: http://www.springsteenlyrics.com/lyrics/j/jessejames.php


In the song "Outlaw Blues" on Bob Dylan's album "Bringing It All Back Home", he sings-

"Ain't gonna hang no picture, Ain't gonna hang no picture frame. Ain't gonna hang no picture, Ain't gonna hang no picture frame. Well, I might look like Robert Ford- But I feel just like a Jesse James."

Television

  • In a memorable episode of The Twilight Zone (Showdown with Rance McGrew), an inept actor portraying a legendary Western marshal suddenly finds himself propelled back in time to the actual Old West era--and in confrontation with Jesse James, who introduces himself as "the real Jesse James, not that two-bit punk who's been play-acting me."
  • In an episode of The Brady Bunch, Bobby upsets his parents and teachers when he decides to idolize Jesse James as a hero. His father teaches him "the truth" about Jesse to put an end to it. [1]
  • In an episode of Lois and Clark, Superman (Clark Kent) goes back in time and meets Jesse James.
  • In the episode of Little House on the Prairie titled "The Aftermath," Jesse and Frank James take refuge in Walnut Grove after a failed robbery attempt. The arrival of pursuing bounty hunters precipitates a civic crisis in the town, whose leaders are reluctant to turn the James brothers over to a group bent on summarily executing them. The crisis escalates radically when the James brothers take Mary Ingalls hostage. (This episode also suggests, contrary to history, that Bob Ford was a law-abiding citizen who harbored a desire for revenge for Jesse and Frank's murder of his brother during Quantrill's raid on Lawrence, Kansas.)
  • In the US version of the Pokémon anime series, the characters Jessie and James are named after him.


  • In The Young Riders (1989-1992), Jesse James appears in the last season (91-92) as one of the Pony Express riders. In the show, it was before he turned into an outlaw.

Elsewhere

Jesse G. James of the TV Series Monster Garage is a distant cousin of the outlaw.

Professional wrestler B.G. James, a member of the Armstrong family of wrestlers, assumed the ring name of "Jesse James" during his run in the WWE.

A title in the Lucky Luke series of comic books.

Rollerderby star, Jezze James, is the Captain of Tucson Rollerderby's traveling team, The Saddletramps and she plays as a Blocker.

Museums

Museums devoted to Jesse James are scattered throughout the Midwest at many of the places where he robbed.

  • James Farm in Kearney, Missouri: The James farm in Kearney, Missouri, remained in private hands until 1974 when Clay County bought it and turned it into a museum.[2]
  • 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. At its current location the house is two blocks from the home's original location and is owned and operated by the Pony Express Historical Association.[3]
  • 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 disastrous 1876 raid.[4]

See also

References

There have been countless books about Jesse James and his brother Frank, but few are well-researched and seriously dedicated to sorting evidence from myth. A mere handful stand out in that regard.

  • Settle, William A., Jr.: Jesse James Was His Name, or, Fact and Fiction Concerning the Careers of the Notorious James Brothers of Missouri, University of Nebraska Press, 1977
  • Yeatman, Ted P.: Frank and Jesse James: The Story Behind the Legend, Cumberland House, 2001
  • Stiles, T.J.: Jesse James: Last Rebel of the Civil War, Alfred A. Knopf, 2002

In addition to biographies, various articles and books by historians, cultural scholars, and scientists address Jesse James. A few of the most important:

  • Hobsbawm, Eric J.: Bandits, Pantheon, 1981
  • Slotkin, Richard: Gunfighter Nation: The Myth of the Frontier in Twentieth-Century America, Atheneum, 1985
  • Stone, A.C., Starrs, J.E., Stoneking, M.: "Mitochondrial DNA analysis of the presumptive remains of Jesse James," Journal of Forensic Sciences 46, (2001): 173-176
  • Thelen, David, Paths of Resistance: Tradition and Dignity in Industrializing Missouri, Oxford University Press, 1986
  • White, Richard, "Outlaw Gangs of the Middle Border: American Social Bandits," Western Historical Quarterly 12, no. 4 (October 1981): 387-408
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