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Jesse James Biography

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JAMES, JESSE W. (1847-82). An American outlaw, born in Clay Co., Mo., where his father, Robert James, a Baptist preacher, owned a farm. The family were Southern in their sympathies during the Civil War, and as a consequence were persecuted by their Union neighbors. In order to get revenge, Jesse joined Quantrell's guerrillas and soon earned a name for reckless daring. At the conclusion of peace he surrendered, desperately wounded, and returned to his old home. In 1886, however, he was outlawed, and from that time until his death was constantly pursued by officers of the law. During these years he attained a world-wide notoriety by the crimes he committed or was charged with having committed, by his romantic adventures, and his almost invariable success. These exploits were generally bank or train robberies. Finally Governor Crittenden of Missouri offered a reward of $10,000 for his capture, dead or alive, and, tempted by this bribe, two members of his own band, Robert and Charles Ford, killed him in his home at St. Joseph, Mo. (April 3, 1882). The murderers then surrendered to the police, and presumably received the reward of their treachery. On the eighteenth of the same month both of the Fords pleaded guilty (at St. .Joseph, Mo.) to the charge of having killed James (though it was generally believed that Robert fired the shot) and were sentenced to death, but were pardoned by Governor Crittenden. Frank James, Jesse's brother, surrendered in the following October; but although he was held in jail more than a year awaiting trial, he was never convicted on any charge. He spent the last 30 years of his life as a farmer and died near Excelsior Springs, Mo., Feb. 18, 1915, at the age of 74. Jesse James's son, in a biography of the outlaw, asserted that James was always anxious to surrender, provided the authorities would guarantee him protection and a fair trial. Consult: Jesse James, Jr., Jesse James, my Father (Independence, Mo., 1899); Edwards, Noted Guerrillas, or the Warfare of the Border (1877); American Law Review, vol. xvi (St. Louis, Mo.).

The New International Encyclopaedia, Vol. XII (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 553.