Jessie James
Jesse James
Jesse James, an notorious outlaw known for robbing trains, banks, and stagecoaches, became one of the most well known names in the history of the Old west. Born to Zerelda and Robert James in Clay County Missouri, Jesse's family were hemp farmers. At the start of the Civil War, James himself was still too young to go off and fight, so he was left with his family whilst his older brother, who was named Frank, went off to fight for the confederates.
It would eventually be Frank's actions in the war that leads to Jesse's introduction to the real world. During the war against the Union, there were a few confederates that were in favour of using guerrilla tactics in order to ambush the northern soldiers. Frank's involvement with them led Union soldiers to the James's Family Farm, where Jesse and his step-father where shaken and tortured for information.
It was this that led to Jesse joining "Bloody Bill" Anderson and his group of bloodthirsty guerrilla fighters. This group was well known for chasing Union soldiers all over the Missouri countryside. After the war ended, many of these people found it hard to assimilate back into everyday life. This was especially true for both Jesse and his brother Frank.
Marred by the humiliation the confederacy was still facing after the Civil War and the death of Bill Anderson, Jesse and Frank target a bank in Gallatin, Missouri that belonged to the man that had supposedly killed Bloody Bill. It was after he shot the cashier and left with his brother that James's name first appered in the newspaper.
It was in a trip to Northfield, Minnesota, that things went south. The robbery was unsuccessful, leaving two men dead, and Jesse and Frank fleeing all the way to Tennessee. It was there that they would live under aliases. Jesse settled down with a wife and their son Jesse, but he grew restless.
In 1879, Jesse James returned to his life of crime. He had constructed a new gang, but unlike previously, they were not made of ex-confederates, but instead of money hungry outlaws. Missouri's governor put a $10,000 bounty on Jesse's head, which eventually ended with him taking a bullet to the back of his skull.
Whilst the man died without many close allies, it is the tales spread by word of mouth and the newspapers that leads us to the myth that we know today.