The 1869 robbery marked the emergence of Jesse James as the most famous survivor of the former Confederate bushwhackers. One such occasion marked a significant turning point in Bob Fords life. Suffering from tuberculosis (then incurable) and a morphine addiction, Charley Ford committed suicide on May 6, 1884, in Richmond, Missouri. . Ford was promised the $5,000 bounty once he killed James, but received only a fraction of the amount when he did. Detectives threw an incendiary device into the house; it exploded, killing James's young half-brother Archie (named for Archie Clement) and blowing off one of Zerelda Samuel's arms. [10], The JamesSamuel family sided with the Confederates at the outbreak of war. [60][61][62], After receiving a small portion of the reward, the Fords fled Missouri. Unable to return to a normal life, the young man turned to a life of crime instead. None of James's biographers accepted them as plausible. After the deadly heist, an influential pro-Confederate newspaper editor in Missouri, John Newman Edwards, befriended Jesse and went on to promote the former bushwhacker as a hero and defiant Southern patriot of the Reconstruction era. But soon he was released on one condition that he murder Jesse James. James's initiative in creating his rising public profile is debated by historians and biographers. [59] The governor's quick pardon suggested he knew the brothers intended to kill James rather than capture him. 622 Words; 2 Pages; . [33], Jesse and his cousin Zee married on April 24, 1874. In January 1882, two James Gang members, Wood Hite and Dick Liddil, got into an argument while hiding out in the home of Fords sister. After they arrived in Clay County, 16-year-old Jesse James joined his brother in Taylor's group. Jesse James : [last words] Don't that picture look dusty? Some of Sam Bass' last words. [6][pageneeded] Crittenden had made capturing the James brothers his top priority; in his inaugural address he declared that no political motives could be allowed to keep them from justice. Missouri was a border state, sharing characteristics of both North and South, but 75% of the population was from the South or other border states. By the spring of 1882, with his gang depleted by arrests, deaths and defections, James thought that he could trust only the Ford brothers. During the 1869 bank robbery in Gallatin, the incident that first brought Jesse public notice as an outlaw, he shot and killed the banks cashier in an act of revenge, thinking the man was Samuel Cox, commander of the pro-Union militia troops who had murdered guerrilla leader Bloody Bill Anderson in October 1864. The gang targeted the bank after learning that Adelbert Ames, a former Union general and Republican governor of Reconstruction-era Mississippi, had recently moved to Northfield. On April 3, 1882, Jesse James was shot and killed by Robert Ford, a new recruit to the gang who hoped to collect a reward on James's head and a promised amnesty for his previous crimes. [14] Jesse and his cousin began a nine-year courtship that culminated in their marriage. Web. Some filmmakers portrayed the former outlaw as a revenger, replacing "social with exclusively personal motives. Ford wasted no time in establishing a tent saloon in its place. After Charley committed suicide in 1884, Robert hopscotched from town to town, before opening a saloon in Creede, Colorado. Frank, however, decided to move to safer territory and headed east to settle in Virginia. Robert traveled to California during the Gold Rush to minister to those searching for gold;[4] he died there when James was three years old. Narrator: The day before he died was Palm Sunday. Because the gang received support by many former Confederate soldiers in Missouri, they eluded the Pinkertons. They surrendered themselves to legal authorities but were dismayed to be charged with first degree murder. 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. In May of that year, a Union militia company raided the JamesSamuel farm looking for Frank's group. Anxious at being so close to the man they intended to kill, they nevertheless managed to keep cool as they waited for the right moment to strike. Overheated after moving around, James shed his coat and vest and, after worrying out loud that a neighbor might spot his weapons, also removed his gun belt. [53] Although Charley had been out on raids with James, Bob Ford was an eager new recruit. [14], As a result of the James brothers' activities, Union military authorities forced their family to leave Clay County. Frank Triplett wrote about James as a "progressive neo-aristocrat" with "purity of race". The robbery quickly went wrong, however, and after the robbery only Frank and Jesse James remained alive and free. They were brought into a meeting with Crittenden, as they had been around James's cousin Wood Hite the day Hite was murdered. Charles heard that Frank James was seeking revenge on them for his brothers murder. 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]. 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. James wrote about this death with bitterness a decade later.[21][22]. Bolton also revealed that her brother had a plan that could prove useful, and on January 13, the governor held another meeting with Robert in a Kansas City hotel room, where they forged the arrangement that promised Ford the reward money and a pardon for all crimes committed in exchange for the apprehension of James. 18 Apr. [1], In the 1950s, James was pictured as a psychologically troubled man rather than a social rebel. Jesse is believed to have shot and killed the cashier, Captain John Sheets, mistakenly believing him to be Samuel P. Cox, the militia officer who had killed "Bloody Bill" Anderson during the Civil War. Things escalated when they both drew their guns and shot each other. Edwards, his old enabler, no longer responded to his mail, seemingly content that many old Confederate colleagues had risen to positions of power around the region. The Ford Brothers Indicted, Plead Guilty, Sentenced To Be Hanged, And Pardoned All In One Day", "Jesse James's Assassination and the Ford Boys", "Bob Ford's Narrow Escape. Allan Pinkerton never pursued his hunt for Jesse and Frank any further. Over the years, several different men claimed to be Jesse James. Ford had his back to Kelly. Festivities include telling Jesse James's history in stories and by reenactments of stagecoach holdups. 2023, A&E Television Networks, LLC. Ford was buried in Creede. The governor had offered rewards higher than the new limit only on Frank and Jesse James. Many people from Missouri migrated to Kansas to try to influence its future. Leo Sayer has married his partner Donatella Piccinetti in an intimate home ceremony. Afterward, Pinkerton denied that the raid's intent was arson. Dyer, Robert. Initially, Ford was charged with murdering both Wood Hite and Jesse James, but true to his word; Governor Crittenden pardoned him while he stood trial for the murder. Sheets."[31]. However, when Ford first met James in 1880 he was an admirer of his exploits. 2 Samuel 23King James Version. The high tensions in politics accompanied his outlaw career and enhanced his notoriety.[30][33]. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Already a celebrity in life, James became a legendary figure of the Wild West after his death. [14], The death of Jesse James became a national sensation. [64][65] Public opinion was divided between those against the Fords for murdering Jesse and those of the opinion that it had been time for the outlaw to be stopped. Unarmed, he mounted a chair to dust off a picture on the wall, his back to the brothers as they cocked their pistols. He was buried in Granbury Cemetery, where the headstone bears the name of "Jesse Woodson James". On April 3, 1882, the Ford brothers met James at his home in St. Joseph, Mo. [23] Historians believe that the James brothers were involved in this crime. [11] Frank James joined a local company recruited for the secessionist Drew Lobbs Army, and fought at the Battle of Wilson's Creek in August 1861. At the time, James was already mythologized as an American Robin Hood, while Ford was viewed as a traitor who turned on James for a bounty. In 1879, the James gang robbed two stores in far western Mississippi, at Washington in Adams County and Fayette in Jefferson County. According to legend, they lashed young Jesse. [44], Cole and Bob Younger later said they selected the bank because they believed it was associated with the Republican politician Adelbert Ames, the governor of Mississippi during Reconstruction, and Union general Benjamin Butler, Ames's father-in-law and the Union commander of occupied New Orleans. After the war, as members of various gangs of outlaws, Jesse and Frank robbed banks, stagecoaches, and trains across the Midwest, gaining national fame and often popular sympathy despite the brutality of their crimes. 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. [72] During his lifetime, James was celebrated chiefly by former Confederates, to whom he appealed directly in his letters to the press. The Missouri state legislature narrowly defeated a bill that praised the James and Younger brothers and offered them amnesty. Legend has it that Ford left after he lost a shooting contest with Jose Chavez y Chavez, an ally of Billy the Kid. [14] At the age of 17, Jesse suffered the second of two life-threatening chest wounds when he was shot while trying to surrender after they ran into a Union cavalry patrol near Lexington, Missouri.[16][17]. Following the raid, public support for Jesse and Frank increased, and the Missouri state legislature even came close to passing a bill offering the men amnesty. Already a celebrity in life, James became a legendary figure of the Wild West after his death. Jesse was born in Clay County, Missouri, on September 5, 1847, to Zerelda and Robert James, hemp farmers who owned six slaves. Audiences would chant lyrics from a popular song of the day at Fords events. Raised in the "Little Dixie" area of Western Missouri, James and his family maintained strong Southern sympathies. O'Kelley was sentenced to life in prison, but his sentence was subsequently commuted because of a 7,000-signature petition in favor of his release, as well as a medical condition. Local violence continued to increase in the state; Governor Thomas Clement Fletcher had recently ordered a company of militia into Johnson County to suppress guerrilla activity. 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. After he married, he migrated to Bradford, Missouri and helped found William Jewell College in Liberty, Missouri. . Much of the dramatic build-up to the Civil War centered on the violence that erupted on the KansasMissouri border between pro- and anti-slavery militias. He and his brother Charley, both members of the James-Younger Gang under James's leadership, went on to perform paid re-enactments of the killing at publicity events. 1. As he did so, Bob drew his gun and shot him in the back of the head, killing him. The gang left with $2,000 cash from the second robbery and took shelter in abandoned cabins on the Kemp Plantation south of St. Joseph, Louisiana. While they later tried to justify robbing the banks, most of their targets were small, local banks based on local capital, and the robberies only penalized the locals they claimed to support. He fell ill and returned home soon afterward. . THE JAMES-YOUNGERS. Ford erected a tent saloon to operate from temporarily until his former establishment could be rebuilt. This is a reference to a short time James supposedly spent near this area. The only known civil case involving Frank and Jesse James was filed in the Common Pleas Court of Daviess County in 1870. The Chicago-based agency worked primarily against urban professional criminals, as well as providing industrial security, such as strike breaking. When the Civil War came, young Jesse watched his older brother Frank . With the saloon out of business, Ford moved on to Creede, Colo. On May 29, 1892, he opened a dance hall but six days later it burned down along with Creedes business district. On June 8, 1892, Edward O'Kelley went to Creede, loaded a double-barrel shotgun, entered Ford's saloon and said "Hello, Bob" before shooting Ford in the throat, killing him instantly. The approach of the American Civil War loomed large in the JamesSamuel household. 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