JESSE JAMES : How to be a Thief and a Celebrity same time

Synopsis

Jesse James was born on September 5, 1847, in Kearney, Missouri. James and his brother Frank served for the Confederate Army before embarking on criminal careers in the Old West. The James brothers made a name for themselves as bank and train robbers, leading the James-Younger gang. Gang member Robert Ford killed Jesse James in 1882, after which James became a legend of the Old West.

Early Life

American outlaw, robber and legendary figure Jesse Woodson James was born on September 5, 1847, in Kearney, Missouri.

Jesse and his brother Frank James were educated and hailed from a prestigious family of farmers. Their father, the Reverend Robert James, was a Baptist minister who married Zerelda Cole James and moved from Kentucky to Missouri in 1842. In the summer of 1863, the James farm was brutally attacked by Union soldiers.

Jesse was 16 when he and Frank became Confederate guerrilla soldiers, riding alongside William Quantrill and “Bloody Bill” Anderson.

Partners in Crime

Some historians accuse Jesse and Frank of being cruel to Union soldiers, while others argue that it was the brutal treatment the brothers received that turned them to a life of crime. Either way, they rebelled against harsh postwar civil legislation and took the law into their own hands. They began robbing trains, stagecoaches and banks that were owned or operated by a Northern institution.

There has been speculation that the boys and their gangs were like Robin Hood, robbing the rich and giving to the poor, but there is no evidence for that. Most likely, they kept the money for themselves. From 1860 to 1882, the James Gang was the most feared band of outlaws in American history, responsible for more than 20 bank and train robberies and the murders of countless individuals who stood in their way. They stole an estimated $200,000. They were legends in their own time, popular in Missouri for actively trying to further the Confederate cause.

On December 7, 1869, the gang robbed the Gallatin, Missouri, bank. Jesse asked to change a $100 bill, and thinking that the banker was responsible for the death of Bloody Bill, shot the man in the heart. Local newspapers labeled the actions vicious and bloodthirsty and called for the gang’s capture. From that robbery to the end of their careers, members of the James Gang had a price on their heads, dead or alive

On December 7, 1869, 22-year-old Jesse James robbed the Daviess County Savings Association bank in Gallatin, Missouri, and killed the cashier. The crime, while far from James’ first act of violence, led him to be labeled an outlaw for the first time in newspapers and prompted the state’s governor to offer rewards for the capture of James and his older brother, Frank, who was believed to have taken part in the holdup. Over the next dozen years, until his death in 1882, Jesse James would become one of America’s most famous bandits, sticking up banks, stage coaches and trains. Check out four fascinating facts about the legendary lawbreaker

•  Jesse James was a preacher’s son
•  He was a Confederate guerilla in the U.S. Civil War.
• James was murdered at 34.
• His remains were exhumed.