Frank & Jesse James

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  • JESSE JAMES


    Born
    Jesse Woodson James
    September 5, 1847
    Clay County, Missouri, USA


    Died
    April 3, 1882 (aged 34)
    St. Joseph, Missouri, USA


    Spouse(s)
    Zerelda Mimms


    Children
    Jesse E. James,
    Mary James Barr
    Parents
    Robert S. James, Zerelda Cole James


    Occupation
    Farmer, Train Robber, Bank Robber, Outlaw


    Mini-Biography
    Full Biography Jesse James


    Jesse Woodson James (September 5, 1847 – April 3, 1882) was an American outlaw, gang leader, bank and train robber and murderer from the state of Missouri and the most famous member of the James-Younger Gang. Already a celebrity when he was alive, he became a legendary figure of the Wild West after his death. Some recent scholars place him in the context of regional insurgencies of ex-Confederates following the American Civil War rather than a manifestation of frontier lawlessness or economic justice.


    .


    Left Jesse. Right Frank


    Jesse and his older brother Frank James were Confederate guerrillas during the Civil War. They were accused of participating in atrocities committed against Union soldiers. After the war, as members of one gang or another, they robbed banks and murdered bank employees or bystanders. They also robbed stagecoaches and trains. Despite popular portrayals of James as a kind of Robin Hood, robbing from the rich and giving to the poor, there is no evidence that he and his gang used their robbery gains for anyone but themselves.


    The James brothers were most active with their gang from about 1866 until 1876, when their attempted robbery of a bank in Northfield, Minnesota, resulted in the capture or deaths of several members. They continued in crime for several years, recruiting new members, but were under increasing pressure from law enforcement. On April 3, 1882, Jesse James was killed by Robert Ford, who was a member of the gang living in the James house and who was hoping to collect a state reward on James' head.
    Information from Wikipedia.



    Site at 1318 Lafayette, where James was killed.
    To the right is the top of Patee House,
    where his mother Zerelda stayed after his death.
    His house was moved to the Patee House grounds.



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


    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 have received little credence, then or later. None of James's biographers has accepted them as plausible. The body buried in Kearney, Missouri, as Jesse James's was exhumed in 1995 and subjected to mitochondrial DNA typing. The report, prepared by Anne C. Stone, Ph.D., James E. Starrs, L.L.M., and Mark Stoneking, Ph.D., stated the mtDNA recovered from the remains was consistent with the mtDNA of one of James's relatives in the female line.


    One prominent claimant was J. Frank Dalton, who died August 15, 1951, in Granbury, Texas. Dalton was allegedly 101 years old at the time of his first public appearance, in May 1948. His story did not hold up to questioning from James's surviving relatives.


    Compiled and edited by ethanedwards
    Information and Photographs from Wikipedia
    ___________________________________________________________________________________________


    FRANK JAMES


    Born
    January 10, 1843
    Clay County, Missouri, USA


    Died
    February 18, 1915 (aged 72)
    Clay County, Missouri


    Occupation
    Farmer, Train Robber, Bank Robber, Outlaw, Circus & Stage Act, Museum Proprietor


    Mini- Biography
    Full Biography- Frank James- Wikipedia


    Frank James was born in Clay County, Missouri on 10th January, 1843.
    His father left home as a child in search of gold in California and never returned.
    Frank and his brother Jessie James were brought up by their mother, Zeralda James.


    The James family were owners of slaves and supported the Confederate Army during the American Civil War.
    In 1862 William Quantrill established a band of guerilla fighters. Frank James joined and other members
    of the gang included Jessie James, Cole Younger and James Younger.


    As well as attacking Union troops the Quantrill Raiders also robbed mail coaches, murdered supporters of Abraham Lincoln
    and persecuted communities in Missouri and Kansas that Quantrill considered to be anti-Confederate.
    The gang also gained a reputation for murdering members of the Union Army that the gang had taken prisoner.



    On 21st August, 1863, the Quantrill Raiders committed one of the worst atrocities of the Civil War
    when it attacked the town of Lawrence. During the raid Quantrill's gang killed 150 inhabitants and set fire
    to over 180 buildings. Frank James was with William Quantrill when he was killed in Kentucky in 1865.


    After the war Frank and his brother Jessie James became outlaws and established a gang that included Bob Younger,
    Cole Younger, James Younger, Bill Chadwell, Clell Miller and Charlie Pitts.


    On 13th February, 1866, the gang robbed a bank at Liberty, Missouri. Over the next few years the brothers
    took part in twelve bank robberies, seven train robberies, four stage-coach robberies and various other criminal acts.
    During these crimes at least eleven citizens were killed by the gang. As well as their home state of Missouri
    they were also active in West Virginia, Alabama, Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas and Minnesota.


    On 7th September, 1876, the gang attempted to rob the First National Bank in Northfield, Minnesota.
    During the raid one of the gang shot and killed the cashier, Lee Heywood.
    Members of the town decided to fight back and they opened fire on the gang.
    Bill Chadwell, Clell Miller and Charlie Pitts were killed whereas Bob Younger, Cole Younger
    and James Younger, were all wounded and captured.



    Frank James and Jessie James were also wounded but managed to get away from Northfield.
    After this disaster Frank decided to go into hiding and rented a home in Nashville, Tennessee.
    Jessie and Frank also began to recruit a new gang that included Robert Ford, Charlie Ford and Dick Liddel.


    On 8th October, 1879, the gang held up the Chicago & Alton Railroad at Glendale, Missouri and stole $6,000.
    This was followed by other raids, in one, at Blue Cut, Missouri, in September, 1881,
    the gang killed the conductor and a pensioner.
    The governor of Missouri, Thomas Crittenden,
    now responded by offering a reward of $10,000 for the capture of Jessie James.


    Robert Ford, a member of the Jessie James gang, contacted Governor Crittenden and offered
    his services in order to gain this reward. On 3rd April, 1882, Ford visited Jessie James in his home
    and when he stood on a chair to straighten a picture on the wall, he shot him in the back of the head.
    Ford was found guilty of murder and sentenced to death.
    Two hours later he was pardoned by Crittenden and given his reward.



    Left Jesse. Right Frank


    Frank James and Jessie James were also wounded but managed to get back to Missouri.
    The governor of Missouri, Thomas Crittenden, now offered a reward of $10,000 for the capture of Jessie James.
    On 3rd April, 1882, Robert Ford, a recent recruit to the gang, shot Jessie James in the back of the head
    as he stood on a chair to straighten a picture on the wall. Ford was found guilty of murder but was immediately
    pardoned by Crittenden and given his reward.


    Frank James was well aware that he would also be the target of an assassination attack and on 5th October, 1882,
    surrendered to the authorities. He was charged with the murder of a passenger during a train robbery in Winston.
    At the beginning of the trial the prosecutor predicted that James would be acquitted when he said:
    "The verdict of the jury that is being selected is already written."
    The defence concentrated on James record during the American Civil War.
    The point being made that James had risked his life in defence of "Southern rights".
    Despite the evidence that Frank James had killed the passenger, the jury refused to convict him.


    Frank James did not return to crime and instead attempted to make a living working on the stage and in the circus.
    He also turned the family farm into a museum and charged visitors 30 cents to see the grave of Jessie James.


    He also took an interest in politics and in 1897 stated:
    "If there is ever another war in the country, it will be between capital and labour.
    I mean between greed and manhood. And I'm as ready to march now in defence of American manhood
    as I was when a boy in defence of the South."


    Frank James died on the family farm on 18th February, 1915.
    Information from Spartacus Educational

    Best Wishes
    Keith
    London- England

    Edited 18 times, last by ethanedwards ().

  • Jesse James was a distant cousin of mine. He was an older second cousin of my maternal grandpa. Thank goodness, my grandpa didn't follow in Jesse's footsteps.

    I've got both the old James films on disc. They're both excellent movies.

    De gustibus non est disputandum

  • This is more than a little off topic, but my maternal grandfather, Charles Johnson, was a professional boxer from the Bronx. As such, he met Frank James at an exhibition in, I believe, the early 1900s after Frank had been released from his sentence, and shook his hand.
    The only proof of this is my Pa's word, which is good enough for me. I was too young at the time to ask more questions.




    We deal in lead, friend.

  • This is more than a little off topic, but my maternal grandfather, Charles Johnson, was a professional boxer from the Bronx. As such, he met Frank James at an exhibition in, I believe, the early 1900s after Frank had been released from his sentence, and shook his hand.
    The only proof of this is my Pa's word, which is good enough for me. I was too young at the time to ask more questions.




    We deal in lead, friend.


    Great little story Gorch. It always amazing the stories people have tucked away.

    "Pour yourself some backbone and shut up!"

  • Thanks for the Frank James story Ethan. After watching the clip, it went to My Name is Nobody. Now, I have two to search for and watch.


    Cool story Gorch. Ya just never know do ya? I didn't realize the real Wyatt Earp was around to know Pappy and actually draw the scene at the OK Corral for him and Hank, but now, I know that Frank James was still alive a lot longer than I thought also. Wonder who my grandfather knew that he never told me about? KP

    God, she reminds me of me! DUKE

  • Pappy -John Ford's movie, "My Darling Clementine" is very enjoyable, but not very accurate.


    The James gang were just common criminals, should have been shot a whole lot earlier. They knew better but they just kept on robbing banks.

    "A people that values their Privileges above it's Principles. Soon looses both." Dwight Eisenhower