Jesse James Was Murdered for Cash and a Pardon
Fans of American folklore know the story well. Notorious outlaw Jesse James was in his home on April 3, 1882 hashing out plans for a bank heist with new recruits Charles and Robert Ford. At some point during the meeting, James got up on a chair to straighten a crooked picture on the wall. Robert drew his pistol and shot Jesse James in the back of the head, sending the already famous bank robber into American legend.
Jesse James is one of America’s most celebrated criminals. From his outlaw peak after the Civil War on up through the present day, James has been romanticized in countless books, television programs, and films. But his true-life origins and the inspiration for his life of crime came from a dark place and a dark time.
Born in 1847, Jesse and his older brother Frank grew up in Clay County, Mo., bordering what was then the Kansas Territory. Southern sentiments were strong in the region. The James family was slave owners and not immune to the growing anti-Union views of the time. Passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854 drew Clay County into a hotbed of violence as pro- and anti-slavery militias battled along the Kansas-Missouri border.
When the Civil War broke out, Frank joined up with a Confederate guerrilla outfit led by William Quantrill. Roving guerrilla bands were common in the border states, but Quantrill was in a category all by himself. Described by many as a drifter before the war, Quantrill was known to have dealings with both pro- and anti-slavery groups. He was not so much a supporter of the Confederate cause as he was a seeker of violence and chaos.
On Aug. 21, 1863, Quantrill’s Raiders descended on Lawrence, Kan., with orders to kill “every man big enough to carry a gun.” Between 160-190 men and boys were killed, some even scalped or dismembered. Buildings were burned and the town was left devastated. Union troops looking for payback hunted down members of the gang. They came across the James family homestead and tortured young Jesse and his stepfather in a vain attempt to locate Frank.
Mad with revenge, Jesse joined up with Frank and William “Bloody Bill” Anderson, a member of Quantrill’s group. They took part in the Centralia Massacre in Missouri on Sept. 27, 1864, in which 22 unarmed Union soldiers on furlough were executed. When a Union infantry regiment gave chase to the Confederates, Anderson’s guerrillas turned on their pursuers, killing 123 of them. Jesse killed their commanding officer Major A.V.E. Johnston.
James was badly wounded twice during the war, but the James brothers fought until the bitter end. Like many southerners, Jesse and Frank harbored deep resentment over the outcome of the struggle and its impact on their family and friends. Their way of life had been decimated and they wanted revenge on the Union and its institutions.
The James brothers committed their first robbery on Feb. 13, 1866 in Liberty, Mo.,, and they never looked back. Soon, they partnered up with other veterans from Quantrill’s Raiders, including Cole Younger and his brothers. The James-Younger Gang committed numerous bank, stagecoach, and train robberies throughout the 1870s. Many died along the way, including innocent bystanders. And many of those who lost their money in the robberies were actually the friends and supporters of the men committing the crimes.
Despite all this, Jesse James and his gang were treated as heroes. In a time when the rural population held little respect for the government, Jesse James was Robin Hood, righting the wrongs committed by the Union during the Civil War, or as it was better known in the South, the War of Northern Aggression.
After Jesse’s death, the Ford brothers became social pariahs. The truth came out that Robert killed James in exchange for some cash and a pardon from Missouri Governor Thomas Crittenden for a murder which Robert had committed a couple months before. The Fords were viewed as cowards and forced to leave the state. Charles, in poor health and deep depression over his involvement in the killing, committed suicide in 1884. Robert drifted from town to town, trading off his infamy by performing reenactments of the shooting of Jesse James. He was murdered in Colorado in 1892.
