Jesse James

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For other persons named Jesse James, see Jesse James (disambiguation).
Jesse James

Born Jesse Woodson James
September 5, 1847 (1847-09-05)
Clay County, Missouri, USA
Died April 3, 1882 (aged 34)
St. Joseph, Missouri, USA
Nationality Flag of the United States United States
Known for Banditry
Spouse Zerelda Mimms
Children Jesse E. James
Mary James Barr

Jesse Woodson James (September 5, 1847 – April 3, 1882) was an American outlaw and the most famous member of the James-Younger Gang. After his death, he became a legendary figure of the Wild West. Recent historical studies demonstrate he should be considered part of the Confederate veterans' guerrilla insurgency after the Civil War.[1] He is at times described as having been a gunfighter, but he was little more than an outlaw. [2]

Contents

[edit] Early life

Jesse Woodson James was born in Clay County, Missouri, at the site of present day Kearney on September 5, 1847. His father Robert James was a commercial hemp farmer and Baptist minister in Kentucky who migrated to Missouri after marriage and helped found Liberty College in Liberty, Missouri. (Hemp was the raw material for rope, and a major crop in the Missouri River valley)[3] Robert James traveled to California during the Gold Rush and died there when Jesse was three years old.

After Robert's death, Jesse's mother Zerelda remarried, first to Benjamin Simms, and then to a doctor named Reuben Samuel. After their marriage in 1855, Samuel moved into the James home. Jesse had two full siblings: his older brother, Alexander Franklin "Frank" James, and a younger sister, Susan Lavenia James. In addition, Reuben Samuel and Zerelda eventually had four children: Sarah Louisa Samuel (aka Sarah Ellen), John Thomas Samuel, Fannie Quantrell Samuel, and Archie Peyton Samuel.[4]

The approach of the American Civil War overshadowed the James-Samuel household. Missouri was a border state between the North and South, but Clay County lay in a region of Missouri later dubbed "Little Dixie", where slaveholding and Southern identity were stronger than in other areas. It had been settled chiefly by migrants from the Upper South who brought their cultural practices, including slaveholding, with them. Robert James owned six slaves; after his death, Zerelda and Reuben Samuel acquired a total of seven slaves who raised tobacco on the farm. Clay County became the scene of great turmoil after the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854, when the question of whether slavery would be expanded into the neighboring Kansas Territory dominated public life. Much of the tension that led up to the American Civil War centered on the violence that erupted in nearby Kansas between pro- and anti-slavery militias.[5]

[edit] Civil War

The Civil War ripped Missouri apart, and shaped the life of Jesse James. Guerrilla warfare gripped the state after a series of campaigns and battles between conventional armies in 1861, waged between secessionist "bushwhackers" and Union forces, which largely consisted of local militia organizations. A bitter conflict ensued, bringing an escalating cycle of atrocities by both sides. Guerrillas murdered civilian Unionists, executed prisoners, and scalped the dead. Union forces enforced martial law with raids on homes, arrests of civilians, summary executions, and banishment of Confederate sympathizers.[6]

The James-Samuel family took the Confederate side at the outset of the war. Frank James joined a local company recruited for the secessionist Missouri State Guard, and fought at the battle of Wilson's Creek, though 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, looking for Frank's group. They tortured Reuben Samuel by briefly hanging him from a tree, and according to legend beat the young Jesse. Frank escaped. He is believed to have joined the guerrilla organization led by William C. Quantrill, and to have taken part in the notorious massacre of some 200 men and boys in Lawrence, Kansas. Contrary to legend, there is no evidence that Jesse ever rode with Quantrill's Raiders, as they would later be known.[7]

Frank followed Quantrill to Texas over the winter of 1863–4, and returned in the spring in a squad commanded by Fletch Taylor. When they arrived in Clay County, 16-year-old Jesse joined them. In the summer of 1864, Taylor was severely wounded, losing his right arm to a shotgun blast. Frank and Jesse joined the bushwhacker group led by Bloody Bill Anderson. Jesse suffered a serious wound to the chest that summer, but the Clay County provost marshal reported that both Frank and Jesse took part in the Centralia Massacre in September, in which they shot and killed some 22 unarmed Union troops, scalping and dismembering some of the dead. The guerrillas ambushed and defeated a pursuing regiment of federal troops, killing all who tried to surrender. As a result of the James brothers' activities, their family was exiled from the state of Missouri by the Union military authorities. Anderson was killed in an ambush in October. Frank followed Quantrill into Kentucky; Jesse went to Texas under the command of one of Anderson's lieutenants, Archie Clement, and returned to Missouri in the spring. Contrary to legend, Jesse James was not shot while trying to surrender; rather, as biographer Ted P. Yeatman shows, he and Clement were still trying to decide on what course to follow after the Confederate surrender when they ran into a Union cavalry patrol near Lexington, Missouri, and Jesse suffered a life-threatening chest wound.[8]

[edit] After the Civil War

Jesse and Frank James, 1872
Jesse and Frank James, 1872
Clay County Savings in Liberty
Clay County Savings in Liberty

The end of the Civil War left Missouri in shambles. The conflict split the population into three bitterly opposed factions: antislavery radical Unionists, who became the Republican Party; the proslavery conservative Unionists, who became the Democratic Party; and the secessionists. The radicals had pushed through a new state constitution that freed Missouri's slaves but temporarily excluded the former Confederates from voting, serving on juries, becoming corporate officers, or preaching from church pulpits. The atmosphere was volatile, with widespread violence between individuals, armed gangs of radicals, and those bushwhackers who remained under arms.[9]

Jesse, bedridden with his chest wound, was tended to by his first cousin, Zerelda "Zee" Mimms, named after his own mother, who remained in exile in Nebraska until August 1865. Jesse and Zee began a prolonged courtship, leading to their marriage nine years later. Meanwhile, Jesse's commander, Archie Clement, kept his bushwhacker gang together, and began to harass radical authorities. These men were the likely culprits in the first armed bank robbery in the United States in peacetime, holding up the Clay County Savings Association in the town of Liberty, Missouri, on February 13, 1866. As biographer T. J. Stiles shows, this bank was owned by Republican former militia officers, who had recently conducted the first Republican Party rally in Clay County's history. One innocent bystander, a student of William Jewell College, was shot dead on the street during the gang's escape. It remains unclear whether Jesse and Frank James took part; it has been argued that Jesse remained bedridden with his wound, and no concrete evidence has surfaced to connect either brother to the crime. Archie Clement, however, 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. The state militia shot Clement dead shortly afterward, an event that Jesse wrote about with bitterness a decade later.[10]

The survivors of Clement's gang continued to conduct bank robberies over the next two years, though their numbers dwindled through arrests, gunfights, and lynchings. On May 23, 1867, for example, they robbed a bank in Richmond, Missouri in which they killed the town's mayor and two others. [11]. It remains uncertain whether either of the James brothers took part. In 1868, Frank and Jesse James allegedly joined Cole Younger in robbing a bank at Russellville, Kentucky. Jesse did not become famous, however, until December 1869, when he and (most likely) Frank robbed the Daviess County Savings Association in Gallatin, Missouri. The robbery netted little, but Jesse (it appears) shot and killed the cashier, mistakenly believing the man to be Samuel P. Cox, the militia officer who killed "Bloody Bill" Anderson during the Civil War. James's self-proclaimed attempt at revenge, and the daring escape he and Frank made through the middle of a posse shortly afterward, put his name in the newspapers for the first time.[12]

The robbery marked Jesse James's emergence as the most famous of the former guerrillas turned outlaw. It started an alliance with John Newman Edwards, a Kansas City Times editor who was campaigning to return former Confederates to power in Missouri. Edwards published Jesse's letters and made him into a symbol of Confederate defiance of Reconstruction through his elaborate editorials and favorable reporting. He also reported false information to throw law enforcement off the bandits' trail. Jesse James's own role in creating his rising public profile is debated by historians and biographers, though politics certainly surrounded his outlaw career and enhanced his notoriety.[13]

Meanwhile, the James brothers, along with Cole Younger and his brothers John, Jim, and Bob; Clell Miller, and other former Confederates—now constituting the James-Younger Gang—continued a remarkable string of robberies from Iowa to Texas, and from Kansas to West Virginia. They robbed banks, stagecoaches, and a fair in Kansas City, often in front of large crowds, even hamming it up for the bystanders. In 1873, they turned to train robbery, derailing the Rock Island train in Adair, Iowa. Their later train robberies had a lighter touch—in fact only twice in all of Jesse James's train hold-ups did he rob passengers, because he typically limited himself to the express safe in the baggage car. Such techniques fostered the Robin Hood image that Edwards was creating in his newspapers.

[edit] Pinkertons

The Adams Express Company 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, and provided industrial security and broke strikes. The former guerrillas were supported by many former Confederates in Missouri and 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. A deputy sheriff named Edwin Daniels was also killed in the skirmish.[14]

Allan Pinkerton, the agency's founder and leader, took on the case as a personal vendetta, working with former Unionists who lived near the James' family farm. He staged a raid on the homestead on the night of January 25, 1875. An incendiary device was thrown inside by the detectives; it exploded, killing James's young half-brother Archie (named for Archie Clement) and blowing off one of the arms of James's mother. Afterward, Pinkerton denied that the raid's intent was arson, though biographer Ted Yeatman located a letter by Pinkerton in the Library of Congress, in which Pinkerton declared his intention to "burn the house down."[15]

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 that the governor could make for fugitives, extending a measure of protection over the James-Younger gang. (Only Frank and Jesse James previously had been singled out for rewards larger than the new limit.)[16]

[edit] Downfall of the Gang

Jesse and his cousin Zee married on April 24, 1874, and had two children who survived to adulthood: Jesse James, Jr. (b. 1875) and Mary Susan James (b. 1879). Twins Gould and Montgomery James (b. 1878) died in infancy. His surviving son, Jesse, Jr., became a lawyer and spent his career as a respected member of the bar in Kansas City, Missouri.

On September 7, 1876, the James-Younger gang attempted their most daring raid to date, on the First National Bank of Northfield, Minnesota. Cole and Bob Younger later stated that they selected the bank because of its connection to two Union generals and Republican politicians: Adelbert Ames, the governor of Mississippi during Reconstruction, and Benjamin Butler, Ames's father-in-law and the Union commander of occupied New Orleans. As it turns out, Ames was a stockholder in the bank, but Butler had no direct connection to it.[17]

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 out 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 in the air to clear the streets, which merely drove the townspeople to take cover and fire back from protected positions. Two bandits were shot dead and the rest were wounded in the barrage. Inside, the outlaws turned to flee. As they left, one shot the unarmed Heywood in the head. The identity of the shooter has been the subject of extensive speculation and debate, but remains uncertain.

The gang barely escaped Northfield, leaving their two dead companions behind, along with two innocent victims (Heywood and a Swedish immigrant from the Millersburg community west of Northfield named Nicholas Gustafson). A massive manhunt ensued. The James brothers eventually split from the others and escaped to Missouri. The Youngers and one other bandit, Charlie Pitts, were soon discovered. A brisk gunfight left Pitts dead and the Youngers all prisoners. The James-Younger Gang was destroyed, except for Frank and Jesse James.[18]

In 1876, Jesse and Frank 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, 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 old, battle-hardened guerrillas; they soon turned against each other or were captured, while James 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.[19]

[edit] Death

Jesse James's home in St. Joseph where he was shot
Jesse James's home in St. Joseph where he was shot

With his gang depleted by arrests, deaths, and defections, Jesse James thought that he had only two men left whom he could trust: brothers Robert 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 the famous outlaw. Crittenden had made capture of the James brothers his top priority; in his inaugural address he declared 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, after eating breakfast, the Fords and James prepared for departure for another robbery, going in and out of the house to prepare the horses. It was an unusually hot day. James removed his coat, then declared that he should remove his fire arms as well, lest he look suspicious. James noticed a dusty picture on the wall and stood on a chair to clean it. Robert Ford took advantage of the opportunity, and shot James in the back of the head.[20]

The murder of Jesse James was a national sensation. The Fords made no attempt to hide their role. Indeed, Robert Ford wired the governor to claim his reward. Crowds pressed into the little house in St. Joseph to see the dead bandit, even while the Ford brothers surrendered to the authorities—but they were dismayed to find that they were charged with first degree murder. The Ford brothers were tried and convicted. They were sentenced to death by hanging, but within two hours, each was granted a full pardon by the Governor of Missouri.

The governor's quick pardon suggested that he may have been aware that the brothers intended to kill, rather than capture, Jesse James. (The Ford brothers, like many who knew James, never believed that 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 to create a new legend around James.[21]

The Fords received a portion of the reward and fled Missouri. (Some of the bounty went to law enforcement officials who were active in the plan.) James' mother Zerelda Samuel appeared deeply anguished at the coroner’s inquest and loudly denounced Dick Liddil, a former gang member, for cooperating with state authorities.

Charley Ford committed suicide in May 1884. Bob Ford was killed by a shotgun blast to the throat in his tent saloon in Creede, Colorado, on June 8, 1892. His killer, Edward Capehart O'Kelley, was sentenced to life in prison. O'Kelley's sentence was commuted because of a medical condition, and he was released on October 3, 1902.[22]

Zerelda Samuel selected an epitaph for Jesse James that stated: In Loving Memory of my Beloved Son, Murdered by a Traitor and Coward Whose Name is not Worthy to Appear Here.

[edit] Rumors of survival

Rumors of Jesse James's survival proliferated almost as soon as the newspapers announced his death. Some said that Robert Ford killed someone other than James, in an elaborate plot to allow him to escape justice. These tales received little credence, then or now. None of James's biographers has accepted them as plausible. James's widow Zee died alone and in poverty. The body buried in Missouri as Jesse James was exhumed in 1995 and tested for DNA. The report, prepared by Anne C. Stone, Ph.D., James E. Starrs, L.L.M., and Mark Stoneking, Ph.D., stated the remains were consistent with the DNA of Jesse James's relatives.[23]

[edit] Legacy

During his lifetime, Jesse James was celebrated chiefly 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 end of Reconstruction 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. This outlaw image is still seen in films, as well as songs and folklore. He remains a controversial symbol in the cultural battles over the place of the Civil War in American history. Not surprisingly, the neo-Confederate movement regards him as a hero.[24]

[edit] Popular culture

A dime novel featuring Jesse James.
A dime novel featuring Jesse James.

[edit] Festivals

The Defeat of the Jesse James Gang. The festival is among the largest outdoor celebrations in Minnesota. Thousands of visitors witness reenactments of the robbery, watch championship rodeo, enjoy a carnival, watch the parade, explore arts and crafts expositions, and attend musical performances.

During the Jersey County (Illinois) Victorian Festival [2] that centers around the 1866 Col. William H. Fulkerson estate "Hazel Dell", Jesse James history is brought to life by storytelling and through reenactments of stagecoach holdups. Over the three-day event, thousands of spectators learn of the documented James Gang's stopping point at Hazel Dell, and of the connection between ex-Confederates Fulkerson and Jesse James. Historical Civil War reenactments, arts and crafts, and music all compose this family-oriented event, one of the largest historical festivals in the Midwest, held every Labor Day Weekend in Jerseyville, Illinois.

Jesse's birthplace, boyhood home, and final resting place of Kearney, Missouri, also celebrates the life of its most famous resident. Each year, during the 3rd weekend in September, the Jesse James Festival is in full swing at the Jesse James Festival Grounds. A carnival, parade, rodeo, historic re-enactments, a Teen Dance, and a Barbecue Cook-off are all part of the festival. [3]

In Russellville, Ky., - the site of the robbery of the Southern Bank in 1868 - is home to the Jesse James International Arts and Film Festival, the Logan Arts Council's answer to bring additional arts and culture to the southern Kentucky hamlet, one of the most historic towns in the commonwealth. The JJIAFF completed its second annual event in April 2008 and the third annual is planned for April 25, 2009. The festival has featured surreal bluegrass from San Francisco, experimental bands from southern Kentucky, as well as painters, sculptors, photographers and comic artists. Children's activities are a large part of the festival, but one of the highlights is the film festival held at the Logan County Public Library in Russellville. Past entrants have included horror films from Norway, a haunting film from northwestern Kentucky, modern silent film projects, nature studies and fan films dedicated to Power Girl and other superheroes.

Additional, the annual Tobacco and Heritage Festival in Russellville - which serves as a massive homecoming for Logan Countians around the world each October - features a reenactment of the James-Younger Gang's robbery of the Southern Bank, which today is used a residence. Great efforts have been put into preserving the historic structure on South Main Street and James remains a popular and interesting pasttime for locals. Logan County has been somewhat remiss in its embrace of the Jesse James connection to the community, but efforts are underway to further educate the community and help it appreciate its connection to America's most-famous outlaw.

[edit] In comics

The popular Belgian comics series Lucky Luke is set in the American Old West, though the emphasis is on humor. In 1969, artist Morris and writer René Goscinny (co-creator of Asterix) had the titular hero and crimefighter confronting Jesse James, his brother Frank and Cole Younger. The adventure poked fun at the image of Jesse as a new Robin Hood. Although he passes himself off as such and does indeed steal from the rich (who are, logically, the only ones worth stealing from), he and his gang take turns being "poor", thus keeping the loot for themselves. Frank is always quoting from Shakespeare, and Younger is portrayed as a fun-loving joker, full of good humour. One critic has likened this version of the James brothers as "intellectuals bandits, who won't stop theorising their outlaw activities and hear themselves talk". [25] In the end, the people of a town actually fight back against the James gang and send them packing in tar and feathers.

Another Belgian comic series, Les Tuniques Bleues ("The Blue Coats"), is set during the American Civil War. Again the emphasis is on humour, though there is also a good deal of drama. An adventure published in 1994 had the main protagonists, Sergeant Cornelius Chesterfield and Corporal Blutch of the Union Army, confronting the infamous William Quantrill and his henchmen Jesse and Frank James.

[edit] Music and literature

Main article: Jesse James in music

Jesse James has been the subject of many songs, books, articles and movies throughout the years. Jesse is often used as a fictional character in many Western novels, including some that were published while he was alive. For instance, in Willa Cather's My Antonia, the narrator reads a book entitled 'Life of Jesse James' - probably a dime novel.

In 1974 the Off-Broadway musical "Diamond Studs", based on the life and times of Jesse James, was produced in New York City. The musical was created by Jim Wann and Bland Simpson.

Bluesman John Lee Hooker recorded a song called "I'm Bad Like Jesse James".

In his worshipful adaptation of the traditional song "Jesse James", Woody Guthrie magnified James's hero status. Guthrie borrowed the tune for his outlaw hero ballad "Jesus Christ". "Jesse James" was later covered by the Irish band The Pogues on their 1985 album Rum, Sodomy, and the Lash, and by Bruce Springsteen on his 2006 tribute to Pete Seeger, We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions.

A somewhat different song titled "Jesse James," referring to Jesse's "wife to mourn for his life; three children, they were brave," and calling Robert Ford "the dirty little coward who shot Mr. Howard," was also the first track recorded by the "Stewart Years" version of the Kingston Trio at their initial recording session in 1961 (and included on that year's release "Close-Up").

Guitarist/frontman Joe Walsh is the ultimate classic rock regular suspect, briefly leading Cleveland's funk-rock power trio James Gang to album-oriented radio success, constantly turning up on a guest star, slipping into the Eagles as a new member when that band was already at its mid-70s peak, and managing a handful of solo hit singles that have become CHR standards

Echoing the Confederate hero aspect, Hank Williams, Jr.'s 1983 Southern anthem "Whole Lot Of Hank" has the lyrics "Frank and Jesse James knowed how to rob them trains, they always took it from the rich and gave it to the poor, they might have had a bad name but they sure had a heart of gold."

In the song "Apache" by The Sugarhill Gang, Big Bank Hank mentions Jesse James in the first verse with the lines: "My Tribe went down in the hall of fame // Cause I'm the one who shot Jesse James " "I Feel Like a Bullet (In the Gun of Robert Ford)" from Elton John's 1975 album, "Rock of the Westies," refers to Bob Ford, the killer of Jesse James.

In his 1976 song "Poor Poor Pitiful Me", Warren Zevon wrote "she really worked me over good, just like Jesse James". The next year, when Linda Ronstadt covered the song, she changed the gender to "he really worked me over good, just like Jesse James". The 1976 self-titled album Warren Zevon also included the song "Frank and Jesse James", a romantic tribute to the James Gang's exploits, expressing much sympathy with their "cause". Its wry lyrics encapsulate the many legends that grew up around the life and death of Jesse James.

In The Magnetic Fields song "Two Characters In Search of a Country Song," Stephin Merritt sings, "You were Jesse James, I was William Tell."

Jesse James is mentioned in the song "It's Pretty Hard To Beat The King" by the 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.

Jesse James is also mentioned in the lyrics of the worldwide hit "The Power", released by the rap-band Snap in 1990. "Radical mind day and night all the time, Seven to fourteen wise divine, Maniac brainiac winning the game, I'm the lyrical Jesse James".

In Johnny "Guitar" Watson's "Gangster Of Love" the lyrics begin, "Jesse James and Frank James, Billy [the] Kid, 'n' all the rest, supposed to be some bad cats, out there in the west. But when they dug me, and my gangster ways, they hung up their guns and made it to the grave, cuz I'm a Gangster of Love."

In the Circle of Tyrants self titled album, the song "The Four Horsemen," Ill Bill's lyrics run "I'm like Jesse James, ride up on a pony and dump 6 in they face."

In her album Heart of Stone (1989), the singer Cher included a song titled "Just Like Jesse James", written by Diane Warren. This single, which was released in 1990, achieved high positions in the charts and 1,500,000 copies worldwide.

Jesse James was also mentioned in the popular Toby Keith song "Should`ve Been a Cowboy."

In the CD All the Roadrunning by Mark Knopfler and Emmylou Harris, the song "Belle Starr" includes lines about Jesse James.

The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's album Uncle Charlie and His Dog Teddy features the song "Jesse James," ostensibly recorded on a wire recorder.

Jon Chandler has also written a song about Jesse and Frank James entitled "He Was No Hero," written from the perspective of Joe Hayward's widow cursing Bob Ford for cheating her out of killing Jesse James.

Jesse James also figures as a main character in an album of the same name of the Franco-Belgian comics series Lucky Luke, created by Morris.

The Van Morrison song "Crazy Face" includes the lyric: "He polished up on his .38 and said,/"I got it from Jesse James."

The New Riders of the Purple Sage song, "Somebody Robbed the Glendale Train" does not mention Jesse James by name but depicts the Glendale, Missouri train robbery in 1879 by the Jesse, Frank and the Gang pretty closely.

Around 1980 a concept album titled The Legend of Jesse James was released. It was written by Paul Kennerley and starred Levon Helm (The Band) as Jesse James, Johnny Cash as Frank James, Emmylou Harris as Zeralda James, Charlie Daniels as Cole Younger and Albert Lee as Jim Younger. There are also appearances by Rodney Crowell, Jody Payne, and Roseanne Cash. The album highlights Jesse's life from 1863 to his death in 1882. In 1999 a double CD was released containing The Legend Of Jesse James and White Mansions, another concept album by Kennerley about life in the Confederate States of America between 1861-1865. Interestingly, Kennerley was an Englishman.

Jesse James Bolero is also a track from Prefab Sprouts 90's album 'Jordan the comeback'

[edit] Films

There have been numerous portrayals of Jesse James in film and television.[26]

[edit] Television

  • In an episode of The Twilight Zone, "Showdown with Rance McGrew" (aired February 2, 1962). Jesse James is played by Arch Johnson and Bob Kline plays an actor playing Jesse James for TV.
  • The first season of the animated series Rocket Robin Hood (1966-1969), by Krantz Films Inc., contains the episode "Jesse James Rides Again."
  • In an episode of The Brady Bunch titled "Bobby's Hero" (aired February 2, 1973), Bobby upsets his parents and teachers when he decides to idolize Jesse James as a hero. His father locates an old man (played by Burt Mustin) whose father was murdered by Jesse James to talk to Bobby, who subsequently has nightmares of his own family being murdered by the criminal on a train in the Old West. In the episode, Bobby views the apparently fictional film Jesse James on the Vengeance Trail.
  • In the episode of Little House on the Prairie titled "The Aftermath" (aired November 7, 1977), Jesse (Dennis Rucker) and Frank James (John Bennett Perry) 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 a flashback episode of The Dukes of Hazzard titled "Go West, Young Dukes" (aired November 16, 1984), Bo's great-grandfather Joe, Luke's great-grandfather Hank, and Daisy's great-grandmother Dixie rescue Boss Hogg's great-grandfather Thaddeus and Rosco Coltrane's great-grandfather Rufus from Frank and Jesse James, whom Thaddeus had made the mistake of associating with in the first place to scheme against the Duke family.
  • In the Dukes of Hazzard episode titled "Repo Men" from 1979 (one of the opening episodes of the series), the episode ends with Jesse Duke making a wise crack to Bo and Luke. He said "well, justice has once again been served ... and it's like old Ed James said -- sometimes folks has got to fight for what they believe in." The boys look back at Jesse puzzled and ask "who's Ed James?" Jesse replies, "well, he had two nephews too -- FRANK AND JESSE!" The three of them chuckle and the show closes.
  • In the American Western series The Young Riders (1989-1992), Jesse James is portrayed by the late actor Christopher Pettiet. He appears in 17 episodes of the last season (91-92) as one of the Pony Express riders. In the show, this occurs before he becomes an outlaw.
  • In an episode of Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman titled "Tempus Fugitive" (aired 26 March 1995), Superman (Clark Kent) goes back in time and meets Jesse James (played by Don Swayze).
  • In the fifth segment (titled "Mysterious Strangers") of episode 33 of Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction? (aired June 27, 2002), Frank and Jesse James are out in a storm one night when they are taken in by a kind old woman who gives them soup and a bed for the night. She explains that she is getting evicted the next day as she can't afford to pay her rent. The next morning, Frank and Jesse leave the old woman $900 to cover her house, and a note telling her to make sure she gets a cash receipt. They are then seen robbing the bank manager of the money. The bank manager threatens to put a price on their heads and they respond: "We already got a price on our heads, you tell your friends, you just got robbed by Frank and Jesse James."
  • Jesse James appeared in Springfield's graveyard in the "Treehouse of Horror XIII" episode (aired November 3, 2002) of The Simpsons.
  • Jesse G. James of the TV Series Monster Garage (2002–2006) is a distant cousin of the outlaw.
  • PBS released a documentary on 6 February 2006 in its American Experience series dedicated to James (played by Mitchell McCann).
  • 2006: Jesse James: Outlaw Hero (documentary)
  • 2007: Jesse James: American Outlaw (History Channel documentary)
  • In the U.S. version of the Pokémon anime series, the characters Jessie and James are named after him.
  • In an episode of cartoon Beetlejuice a western outlaw is called "Jesse Germs".
  • According to creator Joss Whedon, the Firefly character Malcolm Reynolds is partially based on Jesse James.

[edit] 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. [4]
  • 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. [5]
  • 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. [6]
  • Heaton Bowman Funeral Home, 36th and Frederick Avenue, St. Joseph, MO. The funeral home's predecessor conducted the original autopsy and funeral for Jesse James. If you ask politely at the front desk the staff will escort you to a small room in the back that holds the log book and other documentation.
  • In Asdee, North Kerry, Ireland - the home of his ancestors, there was a small museum and the parish priest, Canon William Ferris, said a solemn requiem mass for Jesse's soul every year on 3rd April. See Fintan O'Toole's book "A Mass for Jesse James".

[edit] See also

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ T. J. Stiles, Jesse James: Last Rebel of the Civil War (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2002)
  2. ^ Jesse James
  3. ^ T. J. Stiles, Jesse James: Last Rebel of the Civil War (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2002), 20-5.
  4. ^ Ted P. Yeatman, Frank and Jesse James: The Story Behind the Legend (Nashville: Cumberland House, 2000), 26-8; William A. Settle, Jr., Jesse James Was His Name, or, Fact and Fiction Concerning the Careers of the Notorious James Brothers of Missouri (Columbia, Mo.: University of Missouri Press, 1966), 6-11.
  5. ^ R. Douglas Hurt, Agriculture and Slavery in Missouri's Little Dixie (Columbia, Mo.: University of Missouri Press, 1992); Stiles, 37-55.
  6. ^ Michael Fellman, Inside War: The Guerrilla Conflict in Missouri onto the American Civil War (New York: Oxford University Press, 1989); 61-143.
  7. ^ Yeatman, 30-45; Stiles, 61-2, 84-91.
  8. ^ Yeatman, 48-58, 62-3, 72-5; Stiles, 100-11, 121-3, 136-7, 140-1, 150-4.
  9. ^ William E. Parrish, Missouri Under Radical Rule, 1865-1870 (Columbia, Mo.: University of Missouri Press, 1965); Stiles, 149-67.
  10. ^ Yeatman, 83-9; Stiles, 168-75, 179-87.
  11. ^ [1]
  12. ^ Stiles, 190-206; Yeatman, 91-8; Settle, 32-42.
  13. ^ Settle, 32-42; Stiles, 207-26.
  14. ^ Stiles, 249-58; Yeatman, 111-20.
  15. ^ Yeatman, 128-44; Stiles, 272-85.
  16. ^ Settle, 76-84; Stiles, 286-305.
  17. ^ Stiles, 324-5.
  18. ^ Yeatman, 169-86; Stiles, 326-47.
  19. ^ Yeatman, 193-270; Stiles, 351-73
  20. ^ Stiles, 363-75; Yeatman, 264-9.
  21. ^ Yeatman, 270-2; Settle, 117-36.
  22. ^ Ries, Judith: Ed O'Kelley: The Man Who Murdered Jesse James' Murderer, Stewart Printing and Publishing Co., Marble Hill, Missouri, 1994 (ISBN 0-934426-61-9)
  23. ^ Anne C. Stone, Ph.D., James E. Starrs, L.L.M., and Mark Stoneking, Mitochondrial DNA Analysis of the Presumptive Remains of Jesse James.
  24. ^ Richard Slotkin, The Fatal Environment: The Myth of the Frontier in the Age of Industrialization, 1800-1890 (New York: Atheneum, 1985), and Gunfighter Nation: The Myth of the Frontier in Twentieth-Century America (New York: Atheneum, 1990), 125-55; Stiles, 376-95; Settle, 149-201.
  25. ^ Fans de Lucky Luke website (in French) [ http://www.fandeluckyluke.com/albums/dar-04-jesse.htm]
  26. ^ Jesse James at the Internet Movie Database

[edit] References

These are various biographies, articles, and books that address Jesse James:

  • Hobsbawm, Eric J.: Bandits, Pantheon, 1981
  • 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; or, Fact and Fiction Concerning the Careers of the Notorious James Brothers of Missouri, University of Missouri Press, 1966
  • 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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