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| Birth Name(s) : Jesse James |
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Full Jesse James Biography
Jesse Woodson James (September 5, 1847 – April 3, 1882) was an American outlaw and the most famous member of the James-Younger gang. He became a figure of folklore after his death. He was most famous as a notorious train robber and desperado.
The James farm was supposedly visited in 1863 by Federal troops looking for information regarding Confederate guerrilla groups. James claimed the soldiers beat him and hanged his stepfather (who survived). Shortly after that, in 1864, Jesse joined a guerrilla unit led by Bloody Bill Anderson, who led the Centralia Massacre. Jesse joined at about the same time Anderson's group split from Quantrill's Raiders, so there is some uncertainty regarding whether Jesse James ever served under Quantrill.
The end of the Civil War left Missouri in shambles. The pro-Union Republicans took control of the state government, keeping the Democrats from voting or holding public office. Jesse James was shot by Union militia when he attempted to surrender in Lexington, Missouri a few months after the war's end, leaving him badly wounded. His first cousin, Zerelda "Zee" Mimms (named after his mother), nursed him back to health, and he started a nine-year courtship with her. She eventually became his wife. Meanwhile, some of Jesse's old war comrades, led by Archie Clement, another of the bushwhacker leaders once allied with Quantrill, refused to return to a peaceful life.
However, a 1994 book written by Robert Dyer entitled Jesse James and the Civil War in Missouri (ISBN-13: 978-0826209597) contains the following:
This letter illustrates just how far Pinkerton was willing to go in his vendetta against the James brothers, but the move backfired. 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, allowed to vote and hold office again, voted a limit on reward offers the governor could make for fugitives.
Jesse and his first cousin, Zerelda "Zee" Mimms married on April 24, 1874, and had four children: Jesse James, Jr. (b. 1875), Gould James (b. 1878), Montgomery James (b. 1878), and Mary Susan James (b. 1879). Twins Gould and Montgomery died in infancy. His surviving son was raised by his mother to become a lawyer, and he spent his career as a respected member of the Kansas City, Missouri, bar (above).
On April 3, 1882, after eating breakfast, the Fords and James went into the living room. Before sitting down, James noticed a crooked picture on the wall and stood on a chair to straighten it. James was not wearing his guns and Bob Ford took advantage of the opportunity and shot James in the back of the head.
Robert Ford wired the governor to claim his reward. He then turned himself in to the law, but was dismayed to find he was charged with first degree murder. The Ford brothers were tried and convicted. They were sentenced to death by hanging, but within two hours were granted a full pardon by the Governor of Missouri. Ford then received a portion of the reward money.
The 1866 Fulkerson Mansion at Hazel Dell estate, Jerseyville, Illinois: A Documented Jesse James Gang Stopping Point and on the National Register of Historic Places.
Jesse James is mentioned in the song "It's Pretty Hard To Beat The King" by the hardcore band Drop Dead, Gorgeous. "They call me Jesse James and I own the night life. I drift from town to town across the nation. Praise the lord, lock and load boys. We go down, we go down, we go down together." A reference to the circumstance in which Jesse James died was made in the second stanza of Bob Dylan's "Outlaw Blues," released in 1965 on the LP "Bringing It All Back Home."
These are various biographies, articles and books that address Jesse James:
- Hobsbawm, Eric J.: Bandits, Pantheon, 1981
- Jacobsen, Joel. Such Men as Billy the Kid: The Lincoln County War Reconsidered. 1997
ISBN 0803276060
- Koblas, John J., Faithful Unto Death, Northfield Historical Society Press, 2001
- Ries, Judith, Ed O'Kelley: The Man Who Murdered Jesse James' Murderer, Stewart Printing & Publishing Co., 1994.
- Settle, William A., Jr.: Jesse James Was His Name
- Settle, William A., Jr.: Fact and Fiction Concerning the Careers of the Notorious James Brothers of Missouri 1977
- Slotkin, Richard: Gunfighter Nation: The Myth of the Frontier in Twentieth-Century America, Atheneum, 1985
- Stiles, T.J.: Jesse James: Last Rebel of the Civil War, Alfred A. Knopf, 2002
- Stone, A.C., Starrs, J.E., Stoneking, M.: Mitochondrial DNA analysis of the presumptive remains of Jesse James, Journal of Forensic Sciences 46, (2001)
- 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)
- Dyer, Robert, "Jesse James and the Civil War in Missouri", University of Missouri Press, 1994
- Yeatman, Ted P.: Frank and Jesse James: The Story Behind the Legend, Cumberland House, 2001 |
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