Jesse James: The Wild West's Most Notorious Outlaw

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Navy Federal is insured by NCUA. This is Lee Habib and this is Our American Stories, the show where America is the star and the American people. After a century and a half, Jesse James remains one of the most iconic and romanticized figures in American history. Here to tell the story of America's most notorious outlaw is Roger McGrath. McGrath is the author of Gunfighters, Hollowmen and Vigilantes, Violence on the Frontier. He's a U.S. Marine and former history professor at UCLA. He's appeared on numerous History Channel documentaries and he's a regular contributor here on Our American Stories.

Take it away, McGrath. A great American poet, Carl Sandburg, said, Jesse James is the only American bandit who is classical, who is to this country what Robin Hood or Dick Turpin is to England, whose exploits are so close to the mythical and apocryphal. Well, most biographers of Jesse James would agree with Sandburg's description. They portray James as dashing, courageous and romantic. And he certainly was all of those things.

However, it can also be ruthless, cunning and deadly. Most of all, though, he was extraordinarily good at what he did, robbed banks and trains. For 16 years, Jesse James rode and robbed and went unapprehended.

When his end did come, he came not at the hands of a lawman, but at the hands of a traitor in his own gang. Jesse James was born in 1847 in Clay County at the far western edge of Missouri, an area known as Little Dixie. He is the second son of Robert and Zerelda James. Their older son, Frank James, is born in 1843. The father, Robert James, is a Baptist minister. Here's Civil War historian Harry Jones. Robert James, he's selected by a group of men there who want to go out west to California.

And he's the chaplain on this expedition to go out gold mining. Jesse's a very young child at this time, and his father dies in California. Jesse's mother, and now widow, Zerelda James is a fierce southern woman. She remarries twice after Robert's death and continues to manage her late husband's 300 acre hemp farm and seven slaves.

Here's historian David Eisenbach. Zerelda raised both of her sons to not only be for the institution of slavery, but to fight for it and to commit crimes in the name of the cause. Her second marriage lasts no more than a few months before that husband leaves also. Then in 1855, she marries Dr. Reuben Samuel, who spends most of his time farming rather than practicing medicine. He's quiet and reserved. Zerelda is stormy and assertive.

It proves a good match, and they have four children together. But life in Missouri in the 1850s is hardly stable. The question of slavery is ripping apart the American frontier. When Jesse is just nine, the Kansas-Missouri border war erupts.

During the five years of bloody war that followed, everybody on the border is forced to take sides. In 1854, the institution of slavery is being challenged in the nation's capital. A Nebraska territory on Missouri's border is ready to become a state. Democratic Senator Stephen Douglas believes that the majority of citizens in a territory should decide the issue of slavery for themselves. Douglas proposes splitting the territory into Kansas and Nebraska and have the residents in each area vote for a slave state or a free state. The Kansas-Nebraska Act leaves the decision on whether a new territory would be slave or free to the voters.

No opposition to this act leads to the formation of the Republican Party and its first presidential candidate, John C. Fremont, in 1856. Well, nonetheless, the Kansas-Nebraska Act passes, which means slavery could possibly expand into new areas. This ignites a firestorm and Kansas becomes a battleground as free soil proponents rush in from the north and slavery advocates rush in from Missouri. Western Missouri becomes a staging ground for pro-slavery southerners and are pejoratively called bushwhackers. Free soil farmers from the north are called Jayhawkers. Kansas becomes Bleeding Kansas. Could be said the Civil War starts in Kansas in the late 1850s. On the James family farm, Zerelda is busy shaping her boys to be the next generation of pro-Confederate fighters. Here's Jesse James historian Michael Gooch. She was not a wallflower by any means, very vocal, very outspoken. Don't you take anything from those Yankees, you hear me?

It's every man's responsibility to hold on to what they've got. Over the next six years, the James family farm transforms into a Confederate stronghold. On April 12, 1861, the south fires on Fort Sumter and the Civil War formally begins. Frank James is immediately plunged into battle, fighting for the militia in the Confederate Army. But Union troops rout the Confederate forces in Missouri and then occupy Clay County.

Here's Andrew Nelson and Civil War historian Christopher Phillips. The southern sympathizers in this area could easily be taken out, lynched in their own yards. Their houses were burned on a regular basis, livestock confiscated by the Union authorities.

And it became an eye for an eye. It was so bad that one Union commander actually ordered the depopulation of four entire counties of western Missouri. Everyone had to leave and then their homes were burned. And you've been listening to Roger McGrath setting up a context in which Jesse James was born. And my goodness, talk about a divided nation. We're sitting right in the middle of bloody Kansas, which truly is the beginning of the American Civil War.

Talk about rough country when we continue more of the life of Jesse James here on Our American Stories. Black Friday is coming, and for the adults in your life who love the coolest toys, well, there's something for them this year too. Bartesian is the premier craft cocktail maker that automatically makes more than 60 seasonal and classic cocktails, each in under 30 seconds at the push of a button. And right now, Bartesian is having a huge site-wide sale. You can get $100 off any cocktail maker or cocktail maker bundle when you spend $400 or more. So, if the cocktail lover in your life has been good this year, or the right kind of bad, get them Bartesian. At the push of a button, make bar quality cosmopolitans, martinis, manhattans, and more. All in just 30 seconds. All for $100 off.

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These innovations will shape the way live sports are covered moving forward, and for that, T-Mobile congratulates Sony and CBS for their unconventional thinking. Oh, hi. This is Chelsea Handler from the Dear Chelsea Podcast. This episode is brought to you by O-Pill, the first over-the-counter daily birth control pill available in the U.S. I love shedding light on what's important for women's healthcare, and one thing that makes healthcare easier is making birth control more convenient to access. Well, let me introduce O-Pill. O-Pill is a daily birth control pill that is FDA-approved, full prescription strength, and estrogen-free. Plus, there's no prescription needed. Finally, the days of needing a prescription for birth control are over, a sentence I very much enjoy saying. This is our moment to take control of our health and reproductive journeys because O-Pill is birth control in your control. O-Pill is available online and at most major retailers.

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Happy riding! Here at Our American Stories, we bring you inspiring stories of history, sports, business, faith, and love. Stories from a great and beautiful country that need to be told.

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Let's pick up where we last left off. Here's Jesse James' biographer, Dan Marcoot. Union militia in the area started looking for these pushwhackers.

Zeralda had told everyone that Frank was one of them. Fifteen-year-old Jesse is out plowing in a field when Northern soldiers come looking for Frank. They hang Frank's respected stepfather, Dr. Reuben Samuel, to a tree right in front of Zeralda and Jesse until Reuben finally gives up Frank's location. It's this violent experience that will push Jesse to join his brother in the spring of 1864. In Missouri, vengeance is best got riding with one of the dozens of Confederate guerrilla bands. In the company of these men who operate outside the rules of war, Jesse James will be schooled in the art of ambushing violence and terror.

There are no papers to sign, no uniforms, no government-issued firearms. Jesse simply follows creeks and hog trails into the darkness of the Missouri woods where the Confederate guerrillas make camp. The most notorious leader of these Confederate guerrilla bands is Quantrell's Raiders, commanded by William Quantrell. By 1863, Frank James is riding with Quantrell, and a year later, so too is 17-year-old Jesse.

Quantrell's band raid and loot, burn and kill. Their main targets are the railroads, the lifeblood of the Union advance. One of Quantrell's lieutenants, Bloody Bill Anderson, said to Jesse, not to have any beard, he is the keenest and cleanest fighter in the command. Well, during the summer of 1864, Jesse is shot in the chest. Within a month, he's back in the saddle, and he participates in a train hijacking led by Bloody Bill at Centralia, Missouri.

Instead of capturing supplies, they find something even more valuable. Here's Civil War historian Donald Frazier. This train has aboard a number of Union forces and homeguards that are on their way home, and they're unarmed. They really pose no threat, but they've now fallen to Bloody Bill Anderson and his band.

All you Yankees are going to die like dogs! Bloody Bill's guerrillas kill four civilians and 22 Union soldiers. Bloody Bill wasn't afraid to send a message.

That can be pretty brutal. Confederates justifiably argue the massacres are in response to Union atrocities in Missouri. Jesse is shot in the chest a second time, and shortly thereafter learns of Lee's surrender to Grant Appomattox in April 1865. After four years of bloody fighting, though, he has no intention of surrendering. For Jesse James, this is not an end of his conflict. This is the end of someone else's conflict. Not Jesse James' conflict. Not Frank James' conflict. Their conflict isn't over. It's still going on. Jesse James returns home to his deeply divided border state of Missouri. Here's Old West historian Jeff Morey and David Eisenbach. After the Civil War, the South was hellacious.

It had been ruined. And there was a great deal of resentment of Northern authority, of federal authority. Missouri is one of these states that stuck with the Union during the Civil War, but had large sectors of the population that wanted to go with the South in the first place. So you had Missourians fighting Missourians. It's in this incredibly volatile, literally brother against brother world that we get Jesse James. Jesse discovers the war has not only torn apart his homeland, it's left his family with nothing. With Northern Reconstructionists in power across Missouri, Jesse and his brother Frank join forces with their cousins, the brothers Cole, Jim, and Bob Younger, who share their fierce hatred for Yankees.

The Youngers also served under Quantrell and Bloody Bill and ended up losing their father and family home to the Union. Jesse decides the best way to express his hatred for the North is to go after Northern wealth. They had to do something to strike back against federal authority and everything they saw as being oppressors in their lives. They looked at themselves as freedom fighters and tried to strike a blow for Southern manhood and Southern honor and Southern virtue.

Having converted to the now worthless Confederate money, there is very little United States currency left in the South. Most of the money held in the banks is coming in from Reconstructionists investing in Reunion. Jesse James' decision, therefore, to rob banks is as much political as it is criminal. The gang's first heist is also the first daylight bank robbery in American history during peacetime.

It occurs at 2 p.m. in Liberty, Missouri on a cold, snowy day on February 13, 1866. The bank is owned by Republican former militia officers who recently conducted the first Republican party rally in Clay County's history. The James Younger gang hits the jackpot with a sum equal to nearly $900,000 in today's money, and the bank is now known as the Jesse James Bank Museum.

Rob a bank, get it named for you. Four months later in Jackson County, Missouri, the gang frees two jailed members of Quantrill's Raiders, killing the jailer in their effort. Now, the railroads are established by the Union during the war, and the railroad is a symbol of Northern power and progress and a tool to rebuild the country and its wealth. The Pinkerton National Detective Agency headquartered in Chicago is hired to guard the cargo of railroads. For Jesse and Frank, the trains are a perfect target. Jesse's first train robbery comes in 1873 near Council Bluffs, Iowa. Jesse and company pull a rail out of place, and the train's engineer, John Rafferty, sees it move as the gang tugs on a rope attached to the rail.

He immediately reverses the control lever. He saves the train, but he and the locomotive flip off the track, and he dies. Jesse and the boys get some $2,000 from the train's safe, not the great haul they were expecting, and decide to rob the passengers also.

Then, waving their hats and shouting farewell, the boys gallop off. Evidently feeling bad about robbing the passengers, in their next train robbery, Jesse and the boys say they did not want to rob working men or ladies, but only the money and valuables of the plug-hat gentleman. But train robberies are bad for both the soft-handed businessmen and the callous-handed workers. The railroads do not want robbers stopping their train. They don't want robbers terrifying their passengers.

It's bad for business. In fact, there was one railroad passenger who said, I don't care if it costs me $500, I'm not riding a train through Missouri. I'll go around through Iowa or Minnesota or whatever, but I'm not going to take a train through the state of Missouri. And you're listening to Roger McGrath tell one heck of a story about Jesse James, his brother Frank, as well. And back then, you had to choose sides, especially if you were somebody looking to get into a fight. And there was the Union militia, and there was the Confederate militia in Missouri. And Jesse and Frank chose to work with the Confederate militia. After the war was over, well, the conflict wasn't over in the minds of Jesse and Frank. And many Missourians were against Missouri joining the Union cause and had a shared hatred for Yankees. And the best way to express that, of course, for young men and young fighters like Jesse and Frank was to, well, see themselves as modern freedom fighters and go after Yankee wealth.

The story of Jesse James, how he came to be, who he was, that story continues here on Our American Stories. Black Friday is coming, and for the adults in your life who love the coolest toys, well, there's something for them this year, too. Bartesian is the premier craft cocktail maker that automatically makes more than 60 seasonal and classic cocktails, each in under 30 seconds at the push of a button. And right now, Bartesian is having a huge site-wide sale. You can get $100 off any cocktail maker or cocktail maker bundle when you spend $400 or more. So if the cocktail lover in your life has been good this year or the right kind of bad, get them Bartesian at the push of a button. Make bar-quality cosmopolitans, martinis, Manhattans, and more, all in just 30 seconds, all for $100 off.

Amazing toys aren't just for kids. Get $100 off a cocktail maker when you spend $400 through Cyber Monday. Visit bartesian.com slash cocktail.

That's B-A-R-T-E-S-I-A-N dot com slash cocktail. Congratulations to Easterseals Southern California on their first place win for innovation in customer service at this year's Unconventional Awards by T-Mobile for Business. Easterseals has used T-Mobile 5G to create immersive VR development tools that aid people with autism in addressing transportation barriers. These tools are shaping the way safe and personalized skill building is delivered.

And for that, T-Mobile congratulates Easterseals Southern California for their unconventional thinking. Oh, hi, this is Chelsea Handler from the Dear Chelsea podcast. This episode is brought to you by O-Pill, the first over-the-counter daily birth control pill available in the U.S. I love shedding light on what's important for women's health care. And one thing that makes health care easier is making birth control more convenient to access. Well, let me introduce O-Pill. O-Pill is a daily birth control pill that is FDA approved, full prescription strength and estrogen free. Plus, there's no prescription needed. Finally, the days of needing a prescription for birth control are over, a sentence I very much enjoy saying. This is our moment to take control of our health and reproductive journeys because O-Pill is birth control in your control. O-Pill is available online and at most major retailers.

Use code O-P-I-L-L-O-T-C. O-P-I-L-L-O-T-C for 25% off your first month of O-Pill at opill.com. Attention parents and grandparents. Are you searching for the perfect gift for your kids this holiday season?

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Their holiday sales have begun, offering the biggest deal of the year. Save up to 33% on bikes, no code needed. Plus get free shipping and a free bike lock and pump with your first purchase after signing up for their newsletter. Visit GuardianBikes.com to take advantage of these deals and secure your holiday gifts today.

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Let's pick up where we last left off with Roger McGrath. News of the James brothers' holdup spreads quickly. The robbery is a blow to the railroads and embarrasses the Pinkertons. Allen Pinkerton, their founder, who had been a spy for the Union during the Civil War, takes it personally upon himself to bring Jesse to justice. In Kansas City, the name Jesse James catches the eye of a former Confederate major turned newspaper editor who is trying mightily to inspire the Confederate wing of the Democratic Party to jump back into the fight.

Here's Western frontier novelist, Lieutenant Colonel Fred Chiaventoni. If there was ever a minister of propaganda for the Southern rebels and the outlaws that followed the Civil War, it was John Newman Edwards. For Edwards and many other Southerners, this is not only about Jesse and other Confederate guerrillas, but about the lost cause of the Old South. Edwards, he wanted to see these downtrodden Confederates take their political future into their own hands, and he thought the James gang would inspire them, and that's why he started writing positive reports. He made them the legends that they were.

In Edwards, fanciful telling. Jesse's religious, kind to women, children, and animals, saves poor widows from foreclosure. Well, he is America's Robin Hood. Thanks to John Newman Edwards and the power of the press, Jesse James is no longer seen as a criminal, but as a folk hero for the South.

Here's Jesse James scholar, Kathy Jackson. If you're going to be an outlaw, what better way to escape the law and get people to help you than to have them believe that you are doing it for them, for a greater good. Jesse partners with Edwards and continues his robbing spree targeting Northern wealth.

Newspaper readers across the country buy into the Robin Hood myth, but not the Pinkertons. Although Governor Silas Woodson issues a $2,000 reward for the James brothers, the biggest threat to Jesse's life comes from the private sector. Alan Pinkerton, who's made an art of reconnaissance and infiltration, sends his ambitious 26-year-old undercover agent, Joseph Witcher, into Clay County. First thing he did after getting off the train was to go to the sheriff, ask where the James or Samuel farm is.

He told the sheriff who he was, what he was doing. Sheriff told him, do not go out there. Those boys will kill you.

If they don't kill you, the old lady will. He didn't listen. He was later found the next day with four gunshot wounds in his chest and two in his head with a note pinned on his jacket that said this is what happens to detectives who come looking for the James boys.

Alan Pinkerton had never suffered a defeat like this. It became a personal vendetta for him, and he began to undertake the operation on his own expense. A month after murdering Pinkerton agent Witcher, Jesse marries his first cousin, Zerelda Z. Mims, named after Jesse's own mother.

But it doesn't slow him down. Trains and banks continue to fall victim to his gang at a startling rate. Largest hauls are $30,000 from the Kansas Pacific Railroad and $10,000 in cash and valuables from the Tishomingo Savings Bank in Corinth, Mississippi. On a January night in 1875, a Pinkerton reading party suspecting Jesse is visiting home surrounds the James family farm. Pinkerton knew that the James boys would at some point come to that house.

He had men ready at least 8 to 10. Whenever they learned that Jesse and Frank were at that farm, he was going to send those men in. Alan Pinkerton plotted to bring about the demise of the James brothers. The Pinkertons threw a fire bomb into the farmhouse in hopes of driving Jesse out.

But the only ones home are Jesse's mother, stepfather, and 9-year-old half-brother, Archie. Reuben and Zerelda think it's a fire bomb and sweep it into the fireplace. That turns it into an actual bomb. The fire bomb explodes and kills Archie and mangles his mother's right hand so bad it is later amputated.

The explosion is heard as far away as three miles. John Newman Edwards frames the story of the Pinkertons raid as a direct attack on the South by a northern enemy. No one is ever brought to trial for the murder of Jesse's half-brother, which again gives Jesse a reason to seek his own justice. If the law is not going to bring these guys to justice, then Jesse's going to do what he can.

After the botched raid, Alan Pinkerton's detective agency is forced to back away from their more aggressive tactics. Jesse and Frank hide out in Nashville. In the summer, Zee gives birth to Jesse's son, Jesse Edwards James. 1876 looks like it could be a banner year for Jesse. He opens his summer campaign with a $15,000 haul of cash from the Missouri Pacific Railroad, then Bill Chadwell. A James gang member from Minnesota suggests they rob what he thinks will be an easy mark in his home state, deep in Northern Territory.

A suggestion is debated within the gang, but finally it's decided. Ted, 400 miles north after Bob Younger informs the boys of a major depositor at First National Bank of Northfield, Minnesota, here's Reconstructionist historian Eric Foner. You can rob a bank in Missouri. Why do you have to go hundreds of miles away to rob a bank? They've got plenty of banks. Because he had heard that the Reconstruction governor of Mississippi, Adelbert Ames, had relatives up in Northfield, and a lot of his money was in this bank. And James decided, we're going to go up there and we're going to rob that bank to take the money of the Reconstruction governor of Mississippi. On September 7, 1876, the James Younger gang approaches the First National Bank of Northfield, Minnesota, just 45 miles south of Minneapolis.

But with their long-standing support, and impressive sight arms, the Missouri boys stand out among the mostly farming folk, many of them Swedish immigrants. Move! What do you intend to rob this here bank? Who's the cashier?

You will pay it safe now. And you've been listening to Roger McGrath tell the story of Jesse James, Lost Causer James. The story of Jesse James. Lost Causer John Newman Edwards took liberties to turn James into a hero for the South, and creating a southern version of Robin Hood and the Robin Hood myth. Pinkerton wasn't buying it, and the former intelligence man for the union got to work. After one of his men is gunned down by the James boys, now it gets really personal. And after a raid of the James family home, one of the James boys' in-laws was killed, and this fueled the myth of the Lost Causers even deeper. And the thicker this gets, the better it gets.

When we come back, more with Roger McGrath on Jesse James, the myth and the reality here on Our American Stories. Black Friday is coming, and for the adults in your life who love the coolest toys, well, there's something for them this year too. Bartesian is the premier craft cocktail maker that automatically makes more than 60 seasonal and classic cocktails, each in under 30 seconds at the push of a button. And right now, Bartesian is having a huge site-wide sale. You can get $100 off any cocktail maker or cocktail maker bundle when you spend $400 or more. So, if the cocktail lover in your life has been good this year, or the right kind of bad, get them Bartesian. At the push of a button, make bar-quality cosmopolitans, martinis, manhattans, and more. All in just 30 seconds. All for $100 off.

Amazing toys aren't just for kids. Get $100 off a cocktail maker when you spend $400 through Cyber Monday. Visit bartesian.com slash cocktail.

That's B-A-R-T-E-S-I-A-N dot com slash cocktail. Congratulations to CBS Sports and Sony Electronics for their first place wins for Innovation in Industry at this year's Unconventional Awards by T-Mobile for Business. In a collaboration that was clearly built on breaking new ground, CBS and Sony created a first-of-its-kind broadcast for the PGA Championship. Using a custom-built T-Mobile private 5G network to power the live production, they deployed a 5G wireless camera system throughout the event. The network's speed, combined with Sony's innovative ultra-low latency video codec, allowed for seamless, high-quality footage without disruption. With that innovative approach, CBS gave broadcasters the tools they need to do what they do best, take their coverage to entirely new places.

These innovations will shape the way live sports are covered moving forward, and for that, T-Mobile congratulates Sony and CBS for their unconventional thinking. Oh, hi. This is Chelsea Handler from the Dear Chelsea Podcast. This episode is brought to you by Opil, the first over-the-counter daily birth control pill available in the U.S. I love shedding light on what's important for women's health care, and one thing that makes health care easier is making birth control more convenient to access.

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You are bad safe now. The key to the success for the James gang has always been speed, quickness. Joseph Lee Haywood, the cashier that day, delayed them. When Joe Haywood, the bank cashier and Civil War veteran, won't open the vault, Jesse James loses his temper and shoots him in the head. Clear the streets! Jesse's men are firing off their guns, telling people to get back. This is kind of shock and awe in the middle of the street, but these people aren't being shocked, and they're not being awed. Townspeople are starting to fight back.

They're coming to protect their bank. By now, ordinary citizens, butchers, bakers, barbers, hardware merchants, farmers, and nary a lawman among them, were grabbing guns and giving the outlaws what for. Wheeling a rifle from the second floor of a hotel, college student and future physician Henry Wheeler fatally shoots gang member Clell Miller.

It's pandemonium. The outlaws are firing revolvers, which are pretty inaccurate on horseback. The townspeople have shoulder guns.

They're very accurate. These guys are getting shot to pieces on the street. It was a complete disaster for the James gang, and the only thing for them to do is to try to get out of town alive. A hardware merchant, Ansel Manning, blasts Bill Chadwall into eternity and then shoots Bob Younger's horse out from under him. Younger rolls free of his wounded mount and takes cover behind a staircase. The outlaws return fire, but bullets are coming at them from several directions.

Some unarmed citizens throw rocks. After seven minutes of gun fighting, Jesse orders a retreat, and the gang splits up. Joseph Lee Haywood, the acting cashier that day, was a thorn in the side to the plans of these robbers. He delayed them. They don't get the money they come for. In fact, the safe was unlocked the whole time. Had they just tried that handle, it would have opened up and revealed about $15,000.

The robbery's a complete failure. Now the Minnesotans want justice. More than 1,000 grab their firearms and form posses and picket lines, triggering the largest men in American history. There were at least 1,000 men going after these guys. It was instant national news, especially when the James gang was associated with this robbery. Jesse and Frank were southern boys and murderers. They were hated in Minnesota, and everyone wanted to see them captured and brought to justice. Jesse and Frank go one way, but the youngers are apprehended. This is the ill-fated moment in the career where what had been a successful gang has reached a dead end.

Over the course of the next two weeks, all of the James gang are either captured or killed, except for Frank and Jesse. These guys were masters at concealing themselves and getting away. They had to do it all during the Civil War. They were always outnumbered. They always had people chasing them.

Northfield was the biggest disaster the Jameses had experienced since the Civil War. They lost men that they had fought with. They both suffered gunshot wounds, but I think, in a way, mentally, in some way, they're wounded as well. Frank and Jesse ride a circuitous 500 miles back home to Missouri with just $26.70 to show for their efforts. Frank, he ultimately thought, the way this is going, it's going to be a bullet or a noose for them. But Jesse, he was die-hard. After losing every member of his gang, the most wanted man in America goes into hiding over the next several years. Jesse spends his time living under aliases as a family man. Now with two children, Frank and Jesse, in Missouri, Kentucky, and Kansas.

The danger seats do not move. Then in 1879, with his spoils running low and his name out of the press, Jesse returns to action with the new James gang and takes $6,000 from the Chicago and Alton Railroad. At this point, he's just finding somebody that can hold a gun and hold a horse and that hopefully is trustworthy. Jesse plans a job for April 4, 1882 in Platte City, Nebraska.

A bank there is stuffed with cash and needs his attention. Two young and newly recruited gang members, Charles and Robert Ford, will go along. Charlie helped Jesse rob the Chicago and Alton Railroad, but Bob has yet to see any action. Jesse needs an extra man because he has a bank robbery planned in Platte City. So he's willing to accept this young Bob Ford who's Charlie's brother because Jesse liked Charlie Ford and I'm sure that Charlie vouched for Bob. They were not a ghost of what he'd had before, just common run-of-the-mill backcountry thieves and killers.

You don't have the people who were trained, if you will, during the war. America's most wanted outlaw doesn't realize it. It's not the law he should be most afraid of, but his newest gang member, Bob Ford, who is secretly working for Missouri Governor Thomas Crittenden. The governor has posted a $10,000 bounty for Jesse, dead or alive, and Ford is determined to get it. Bob Ford was this media-saturated fan.

There's no better way to get close to him or the object of your admiration than to join his gang and maybe in some way become a little bit like him. That's the picture of Bob Ford that we have today. Before they leave for Platte City, Jesse and the Ford brothers meet for breakfast at Jesse's home. After enjoying a hearty meal prepared for them by Jesse's wife, Zee, they retire to the living room to discuss their upcoming job. When Jesse steps up on a chair to straighten a picture, Bob Ford quickly draws his revolver and shoots Jesse through the back of the head.

He topples to the floor and dies. America's most notorious outlaw is 34 years old. Bob and Charlie Ford are convicted of murder and sentenced to be hanged. In a matter of days, though, they receive a full pardon from Governor Crittenden.

Nonetheless, the same governor fails to reward them with the $10,000 bounty. You know, Jesse James is already a hero to many people. When he's killed, he's now a martyr. And it's the way that he's killed. Had he been captured and tried and had he been executed, it would have been much different.

But this is a collusion between the governor of a state and a gang member who shoots his leader in the back of the head. Two years later, 27-year-old Charlie Ford, suffering from tuberculosis and morphine-addicted, shoots himself to death with his own gun. A decade later, Bob Ford, who wasn't celebrated as the hero he thought he should have been, is shot to death by Ed O'Kelley. Jesse reaches incredible new heights in the American imagination as a hero, as a martyr, and as a representative of the defeated South. I grew up in Jesse James country. When I was a kid, Jesse James was a hero.

Now, I see Jesse as a tragic consequence of an awful, awful war, which was a tragic consequence of an awful, awful institution. And a terrific job on the production, editing, and storytelling by our own Greg Hengler. And a special thanks, as always, to regular contributor Roger McGrath, author of Gunfighters, Highwaymen, and Vigilantes, Violence on the Frontier, and he's a former UCLA head. He's a former UCLA history professor, and has appeared on numerous History Channel documentaries. He's a frequent contributor here on Our American Stories.

What a story he told. The story of Jesse James and so much more, including the Civil War and Reconstruction, here on Our American Stories. Jesse? Jesse! One more shot just for old times, one last dance. One more hit oughta do it, then I quit while I can.

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