November 22, 2024 • 38 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, 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.
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
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.
You're to tell the story of America's most notorious outlaw
is Roger McGrath. McGrath is the author of Gunfighters, Holliman
(00:32):
and Vigilantes Violence on the Frontier. He's a US 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.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Take it away, McGrath.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
A great American board. Carl Sandberg said, Jesse James is
the only American bandit who is classical to this country
what Robin Hood or Dick Turpin is to England, whose
exploits are so close to the mythical an apocryphal. Almost
biographers of Jesse James would agree with Sandberg's description. They
(01:14):
portrayed James's 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 sixteen years.
(01:35):
Jesse James rowed 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 trader in
his own gang. Jesse James was born in eighteen forty
seven in Clay County, at the far western edge of Missouri,
an area known as Little Dixie. He is the second
(01:58):
son of Robert and the Zerrilda James. Their older son,
Frank James, is born in eighteen forty three. The father,
Robert James, is a Baptist minister. Here's Civil War historian
Harry Jones.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Robert James.
Speaker 4 (02:16):
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.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
Jesse's mother and now widow, Cyrilda James, is a fierce
Southern woman. She remarries twice after Robert's death and continues
to manage her late husband's three hundred acre hemp farm
and seven slaves. Here's historian David Eisenbach.
Speaker 5 (02:54):
Zerelda raised both of her sons to not only be
for the institution of slavery, but to fight for and
to commit crimes in the name of the cause.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
Her second marriage lasts no more than a few months
before that husband leaves also. Then, in eighteen fifty five,
she marries doctor Reuben Samuel, who spends most of his
time farming rather than practicing medicine. He's quiet and reserved,
Zirelda is stormy and assertive. It proves a good match,
(03:27):
and they have four children together. But life in Missouri
in the eighteen fifties 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
(03:48):
border is forced to take sides. In eighteen fifty four,
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
(04:10):
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.
Speaker 4 (04:23):
The Kansas Nebraska Act leaves the decision on whether a
new territory would be slave or free to the voters.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
No opposition to this act leads to the formation of
the Republican Party and its first presidential candidate, John C.
Fremont in eighteen fifty six. Well nonetheless, the Kansas Nebraska
Act passes, which means slavery could possibly expand into new areas.
(04:56):
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.
(05:19):
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 eighteen fifties. On the James
family farm, Zirelda is busy shaping her boys to be
(05:40):
the next generation of pro Confederate fighters. Here's Jesse James
historian Michael Gooch.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
She was not a wallflower by any means. Very vocal,
very outspoken.
Speaker 6 (05:52):
Don't you take anything from those Yankees, Hemmy.
Speaker 7 (05:57):
Zebra man's responsibility to hold on to what they've got.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
Over the next six years, the James family farm transforms
into a Confederate stronghold. On April twelve, eighteen sixty one,
the South fires and Fort Sumpter in the Civil War
formally begins. Frank James is immediately plunged into battle fighting
for the militia in the Confederate Army, but Union troops
(06:23):
routed the Confederate forces in Missouri and then occupy Clay County.
Here's Andrew Nelson and Civil War historian Christopher Phillips.
Speaker 8 (06:34):
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.
Speaker 9 (06:50):
It was so bad that one Union commander actually ordered
the depopulation of four entire counties of western Missouri. Had
to leave and then their homes were burned.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
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.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
We talk about rough country.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
When we continue more of the life of Jesse James
here on our American Stories. 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. But we can't do it without you.
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(07:44):
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That's our American Stories dot Com.
Speaker 8 (08:09):
Over the last six years, Jesse James has lied this
outlaw band, picking his way on the third Bird Grade
through the trails of this southern.
Speaker 3 (08:19):
Land with a gun in his hand, riding in a
hiding and a running.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
With his ed James and we continue with our American
Stories and with Roger McGrath telling the story.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
Of Jesse James. Let's pick up where we last left off.
Speaker 3 (08:39):
Here's Jesse James biographer Dan.
Speaker 10 (08:41):
Marcoop Union militia in the area started looking for these pushwhackers.
Zeralda had told everyone that Frank was one of them.
Speaker 3 (08:52):
Fifteen year old Jesse is out plowing in a field
when Northern soldiers come looking for Frank. Hang Frank's respected stepfather,
doctor Rubin Samroe to a tree right in front of
Zirelda and Jesse, until Ruben finally gives up Frank's location.
(09:13):
It's this violent experience who will push Jesse to join
his brother. In the spring of eighteen sixty four in Missouri,
vengeance is best got riding with one of the dozens
of Confederate gorilla bands. In the company of these men
who operate outside the rules at war, Jesse James will
(09:36):
be schooled in the art of ambushing, violence and terror.
There are no papers assigned, no uniforms, no government issue firearms.
Jesse simply follows creeks and hog trails into the darkness
of the Missouri woods where the Confederate gorillas make camp.
(09:57):
Most notorious leader of these Confederate Grills. The bands is
Quantrell's Raiders, commanded by William Quantrell. By eighteen sixty three,
Frank James is riding with Quantrell, and a year later
so too his seventeen year old Jesse. Quantrell's band Raid
and Luke, Burne and gild. The main darkets are the railroads,
(10:19):
the lifeblood of the Union advance. One of Quantrell's lieutenants,
Bloody Bill Anderson, said to Jesse not to have any beard.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
He is the.
Speaker 3 (10:30):
Keenest and cleanest fighter in the command well. During the
summer of eighteen sixty four, 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 captioning supplies, they find something even more valuable.
(10:54):
Here's a Civil War historian, Donald Fraser.
Speaker 11 (11:00):
Try and have a bore a number of Union forces
and home Guards that are on their way home, and
they're on armed. They really pose no threat, but they've
now fallen to Bloody Bill Anderson and his band.
Speaker 5 (11:15):
All you yanked at Ny like ball.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
Bloody Bill's gorillas kill four civilians and twenty two Union soldiers.
Speaker 12 (11:24):
Bloody Bill wasn't afraid to send a message that could
be pretty brutal.
Speaker 3 (11:31):
Confederates justifiably argue the maskers are in response to Union
atrocities in Missouri. Jesse is shot in the just the
second time, and shortly thereafter learns of Lee's surrender to
Grant Appomattics in April eighteen sixty five after four years
(11:53):
of bloody fighting, though he has no intention of surrendering.
Speaker 4 (11:57):
For Jesse James, this is not an end of his conflict.
This is the end of someone else's conflict, not Jesse
James's conflict, not Frank James's conflict. Their conflict isn't over.
It's still going on.
Speaker 3 (12:12):
Jesse James returns home to his deeply divided border state
of Missouri. Here's Old West historian Jeff Morey and David Eisenbach.
Speaker 7 (12:24):
After the Civil War, the South was hlatious, it had
been ruined, and there was a great deal of resentment
of northern authority of federal authority.
Speaker 6 (12:35):
Missouri is one of these states that's stuck with the
Union during the Civil War, but had large sectors.
Speaker 9 (12:40):
Of the population that wanted to go with the South
in the first place. So you had Missourians fighting Missourians.
Speaker 3 (12:49):
It's in this incredibly voluable.
Speaker 6 (12:51):
Literally brother against brother world that we get Jesse James.
Speaker 3 (12:57):
Jesse discovers the war is not only torn up Artist homeland,
it's left his family with nothing. With Northern reconstructionists in
power across Missouri, Just and his brother Frank joined forces
with their cousins, the brothers coll Jim and Bob Younger,
who share their fears hatred for Yankees. The Youngers also
(13:18):
served under Quantrell and Bloody Bill and ended up losing
their father and family home to the Union. Just desides
the best way to express his hatred for the North
is to go after Northern wealth.
Speaker 11 (13:32):
They had to do something to strike back against federal
authority and everything they saw as being oppressors in their lives.
Speaker 12 (13:42):
They looked at themselves as freedom fighters and tried to
strike a blow for Southern manhood and Southern honor and
Southern virtue.
Speaker 3 (13:52):
Having converted to the now worthless Confederate money, there's 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
(14:16):
Gang's First Heights is also the first daylight bank robbery
in American history during peacetime. It occurs at two pm
in Liberty, Missouri, on a cold, snowy day on February thirteenth,
eighteen sixty six. The bank is owned by Republican former
militia officers who recently conducted the first Republican Party rally
(14:40):
in Clay County's history. The James Younger Gang hits the
jackpot with a sum equal to nearly nine hundred thousand
dollars in today's money, and the bank is now known
as the Jesse James Bank Museum.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
Rob a Bank, get a named for you.
Speaker 3 (15:00):
Four months later, in Jackson County, Missouri, the gang frees
two jailed members of Quantrelle'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
(15:22):
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 eighteen seventy three. Year
(15:43):
a council bluffs Iowa Jesse and company full of rail
out of place, and the trains engineer John Rafferty sees
it and move as the gang tugs on, a rope
attached to the rail immediately reverses the control lever. He
saves the train, but he and the locomotive flip off
the track.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
And he does.
Speaker 3 (16:05):
Jesse and the boys get some two thousand from the
train 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
(16:27):
and the boys say they did not want to rob
working men or ladies, but only the money and valuables
of the plug at gentlemen. But the train robberies are
bad for both the soft handed businessmen and the callous
hand at workers.
Speaker 5 (16:42):
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 said, I don't
care if it costs me five hundred dollars. 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 to the stateum Is.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
And you're listening to Roger McGrath tell one heck of
a story about Jesse James, his brother Frank as well.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
And back then you had.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
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.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
After the war was over, well, the.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
Conflict wasn't over in the minds of Jesse and Frank.
And many Missourians were against Missouri joining the Union.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
Cause and had a shared hatred for Yankees.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
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 uncle after
Yankee wealth. The story of Jesse James, how he came
to be who he was, That story continues here on
our American stories, and we continue with our American stories
(18:10):
and the riveting story, the remarkable story of Jesse James.
It's also a story about American history and the moment
James and his brother and his crew grew up in.
And that's of course, the Civil War and post Civil
War reconstruction Civil War. Let's pick up where we last
(18:32):
left off with Roger McGrath.
Speaker 3 (18:37):
News of the James brothers hold up spreads quickly. The
robbery is a blue to the railroads and embarrasses the Pinkertons.
Speaker 13 (18:47):
Alan Pekerton, their founder, who had been a spy for
the Union during the Civil War, takes it personally upon
himself to bring Jesse to.
Speaker 3 (18:55):
Justice in Kansas City. The name Jesse James catches the
eye of a former Confederate major turned newspaper editor who
has trained mightily to inspire the Confederate wing of the
Democratic Party to jump back into the fight. Here's Western
Frontier novelist Lieutenant Colonel Fred kiev In Tuni. If there
(19:21):
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 another Confederate grillas, but about
the lost cause of the Old South.
Speaker 10 (19:42):
Edwards, he wanted to see these downtrodden Confederates take their
political future into their own hands, and he thought that
James Gang would inspire them, and that's why he started
writing positive reports. He made them the legends that they were.
Speaker 9 (20:01):
In.
Speaker 3 (20:01):
Edwards fanciful telling. Jesse's religious kind of 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
(20:22):
a criminal, but as a folk hero for the South.
Here's Jesse James, scholar Kathy Jackson.
Speaker 14 (20:30):
If you are 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.
Speaker 3 (20:43):
Jesse partners with Edwards and continues is robbing spree, targeting
Northern Wealth newspaper readers across the country by end of
the robin Hood myth, but not the Pinkertons. Although Governor
Silas Woodson issues a two thousand dollars reward for the
Jam Aiames brothers. The biggest threat to Jesse's life comes
(21:04):
from the private sector, Alan Pinkerton, who's made an art
of reconnaissance and infiltration since his ambitious twenty six year
old undercover agent Joseph Witcher into Clay County.
Speaker 8 (21:20):
The first thing he did after getting off the train
was to go to the sheriff ask whether James or
Samuel farm Is. He told the sheriff who he was
what he was doing. Sheriff told him to not go
out there. Those boys will kill you. If they don't
kill you, the old lady will.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
He didn't listen.
Speaker 8 (21:38):
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 his jacket that said, this
is what happens to detectives who come looking for the
James boys.
Speaker 3 (21:53):
Alan Pinkerton had never suffered a defeat like this.
Speaker 6 (21:57):
It became a personal vendetta for him.
Speaker 8 (22:00):
He began to undertake the operation on his own expense.
Speaker 3 (22:05):
A month after murdering Binkerton agent Witcher, Jesse marries his
first cousin, Zirilda Zi Mimes, 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 halls are thirty thousand dollars from the Kansas Pacific
(22:28):
Railroad and ten thousand in cash and valuables from the
Tishamingo Savings Bank in Corinth, Mississippi. On a January night
in eighteen seventy five, a Pinkerton reading party, suspecting Jesse
is visiting home, surrounds the James family farm.
Speaker 5 (22:48):
Ingerton knew that the James boys would at some point
come to that house. He had men ready at least
eight to ten. Whenever they learned that Jesse and Frank
were at that farm, he was going to send those
men in. Alan Pickerton plodded to bring about the demise
(23:11):
of the James brothers.
Speaker 3 (23:14):
The Pinkert has threw a firebomb into the farmhouse and
hopes are driving Jesse out, but the only ones home
are Jesse's mother, stepfather, and nine year old half brother, Archie.
Speaker 10 (23:27):
And Zeralda. I think it's a firebomb and sweep it
into the fireplace. That turns it into an actual bomb.
Speaker 3 (23:38):
Firebomb 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 Pinkerton's raid as a direct
(23:58):
attack on the South by a northern enemy.
Speaker 5 (24:02):
No one has 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.
Speaker 3 (24:20):
After the Botch Trade, Alan Pinkerdon's detective agency is forced
back away from their more aggressive tactics, Jesse and Frank
hide out in Nashville in the summer. Ze gives birth
to Jesse's son, Jesse Edwards James eighteen seventy six looks
(24:42):
like it could be a banner year for Jesse. He
opens his summer campaign with a fifteen thousand dollars haul
of cash from the Missouri Pacific Railroad. Then Bill Chadwell,
a James gang member from Minnesota, suggests they rob what
he think will be an easy mark in his home state,
(25:03):
deep in Northern Territory. The suggestion is debated within the gang,
but finally it's decided ted four hundred miles north after
Bob Younger informs the boys of a major depositor at
First National Bank of Northfield, Minnesota. Here's reconstructionist historian Eric Fohoner, you.
Speaker 12 (25:26):
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 at Delbert Ames a relatives
up in Northfield, and a lot of his money was
in this bank. And James decided, we're gonna go up there.
(25:49):
We're going to rob that bank to take the money
of the reconstruction Governor of Mississippi.
Speaker 3 (25:58):
On September seventh, eighteen seventy six, the James Younger gang
approaches the First National Bank of Northfield, Minnesota, just forty
five miles south of Minneapolis. But with their long coats
and impressive sight arms, the Missouri Boys stand out among
the mostly farming folk, many of them Swedish immigrants.
Speaker 5 (26:22):
Woo wint enrolled this there vine, who's the cast here?
Speaker 3 (26:28):
You are bad safe now?
Speaker 1 (26:34):
And you've been listening to Roger McGrath tell 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
(26:57):
his men, he's gunned down by the James boy.
Speaker 2 (27:00):
Now it gets really personal.
Speaker 1 (27:02):
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 causes 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.
Speaker 6 (27:36):
Who's in and knocking on my back door? It looks
like Bob and Charlie Ford. How you doing? Boys?
Speaker 2 (27:45):
Well, come on in.
Speaker 1 (27:47):
Here and we continue with our American stories and the
story of Jesse James, and it's being told by Roger McGrath.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
Let's pick up when we last left off. You all
bad safe now.
Speaker 5 (28:07):
The key to the success for the James game has
always been speed, quickness. Joseph Lee Heywood, the cashier that day,
delayed them.
Speaker 3 (28:16):
When Joe Haywood, the bank cashier and Civil War veteran,
won't open the vault. Jesse James loses he his temper
and shoots him in the head.
Speaker 11 (28:27):
Gad of states.
Speaker 5 (28:30):
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 odd. Townspeople are starting to
fight back. They're coming to protect their bank.
Speaker 3 (28:51):
By now ordinary situizans, munchers, bakers, barbers, hardware merchants, farmers,
and Nario Ahman among them. We're grabbing guns and giving
the outlaws what for. Wheel them in a rifle from
the second floor of a hotel. College student and future
physician Henry Wheeler faguely shoots gang member Klel Miller.
Speaker 5 (29:14):
It's pandemonium. The outlaws are fine 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 stream.
It was a complete disaster for the James gang, and
(29:35):
the only thing for them to do is they try
to get out of town.
Speaker 3 (29:38):
Line hardware merchant and so Manning blast Bill Chadwell into
eternity and then shoots Bob Younger's horse out from under him.
Younger rules free of his wounded mount and takes cover
behind the staircase. The outlaws returned fire, but bullets are
(30:00):
coming at them from several directions. Some unarmed citizens throw rocks.
After seven minutes of gunfighting, Jesse orders the retreat had
the gang splits up.
Speaker 5 (30:13):
Joseph Lee Heywood, 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
(30:34):
and revealed about fifteen thousand dollars.
Speaker 3 (30:37):
The robbery is a complete failure. Now the Minnesotans want justice.
More than a thousand grabbed their firearms and formed posseason
picket lines, triggering the largest men in American history.
Speaker 5 (30:50):
There were at least one thousand 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
(31:13):
wanted to see them captured and brought to justice.
Speaker 13 (31:17):
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.
Speaker 3 (31:28):
Over the course of the next two weeks, all of
the James gang are either captured or killed except for
Frank and Jesse.
Speaker 5 (31:37):
These guys were masters at concealing themselves and getting away.
They had to do it all during the Civil War.
They were always outnumbered, It always had people chasing them.
Northfield was the biggest disaster the James that had experienced
since the Civil War. They lost me and that they
(32:01):
had fought with. They both suffered gunshot wounds, but I
think in a way mentally, in some way they're wounded
as well.
Speaker 3 (32:15):
Frank and Jesse rite a circuitous five hundred miles back
home to Missouri with just twenty six dollars and seventy
cents to show for their efforts.
Speaker 10 (32:27):
Frank he ultimately thought, the way this is going, it's
going to be a bullet or a news for them.
But Jesse, he was dire.
Speaker 3 (32:40):
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 alias as a family man,
now with two children in Missouri, Kentucky, and Kansas. Dania
sites do not move in. In eighteen seventy nine, with
(33:00):
his spoils running low and his name out of the press,
Jesse returns to action with the new James Game and
takes six thousand dollars from the Chicago and Alton Railroad.
Speaker 5 (33:13):
At this point, he's just finding somebody that can hold
a gun and hold a horse, and that hopefully it
is trustworthy.
Speaker 3 (33:21):
Jesse plans a job for April fourth, eighteen eighty two
in Platte City, Nebraska. A bank there is stuffed with
cash and needs his attention. Too 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.
Speaker 5 (33:43):
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 vouch for Bob.
Speaker 7 (33:59):
They were not ghost of what he'd had before, just
common run of the mill backcountry.
Speaker 2 (34:04):
Thieves and killers.
Speaker 8 (34:07):
You don't have the people who were trained, if you will,
during the war.
Speaker 3 (34:13):
America's most wanted outlaw. Doesn't realize it. It's not the
law I should be most afraid of, but his newest
gang member, Bob Ford, who is secretly working for Missouri
Governor Thomas Crittendon. The governor has posted a ten thousand
dollars bounty for Jesse, dead or alive, and Ford is
(34:35):
determined to get it.
Speaker 13 (34:38):
Bob Ford was this media saturated fan. There's no better
way to get close to the object of your admiration
than to join his gang and maybe in some way
become a little bit like That's the picture of Bob
Ford that we have today.
Speaker 3 (34:55):
Before they leave for Platte City, Jesse and the Ford
brothers meet for breakfast at his home. After enjoying a
hearty meal prepared for them by Jesse's wife, c they
retire to the living room to discuss their upcoming job.
When Jesse steps up on a chair to straighten a
picture Bob Ford. Arkley draws his revolver and shoots Jesse
(35:19):
through the back of the head. He topples to the
floor and dies. America's most notorious outlaw is thirty four
years old. Bob and Charlie Ford are convicted a murder
and sentenced to be hanged in a matter of days,
though they receive a full pardon from Governor Crittendon. Nonetheless,
(35:39):
the same governor fails to reward them with the ten
thousand dollars bounty.
Speaker 5 (35:45):
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 his
(36:08):
state and game member who shoots his leader in the
back of the head.
Speaker 3 (36:14):
Two years later, twenty seven year old Charlie Ford, suffering
from tuberculosis, had morphine and 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'Kelly.
Speaker 5 (36:37):
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,
(37:00):
awful war, which was a tragic consequence of an awful
awful institution, and.
Speaker 1 (37:08):
A terrific job by the production, editing and storytelling by
our own Greg Hengler and his special thanks as always
to regular contributor Roger McGrath, author of Gunfighters, Highwymen, and Vigilantes,
Violence on the Frontier, and he's a former UCLA history
professor and has appeared on numerous History Channel documentaries.
Speaker 2 (37:27):
He's a freaking contributor here on our American Stories.
Speaker 1 (37:30):
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.
Speaker 6 (37:51):
Jesse. One more shot just for all time, one last flan,
one more head or a dow with Then I quit
while I can. One more shot, just for all times,
(38:15):
One
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.
You're to tell the story of America's most notorious outlaw
is Roger McGrath. McGrath is the author of Gunfighters, Holliman
(00:32):
and Vigilantes Violence on the Frontier. He's a US 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.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Take it away, McGrath.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
A great American board. Carl Sandberg said, Jesse James is
the only American bandit who is classical to this country
what Robin Hood or Dick Turpin is to England, whose
exploits are so close to the mythical an apocryphal. Almost
biographers of Jesse James would agree with Sandberg's description. They
(01:14):
portrayed James's 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 sixteen years.
(01:35):
Jesse James rowed 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 trader in
his own gang. Jesse James was born in eighteen forty
seven in Clay County, at the far western edge of Missouri,
an area known as Little Dixie. He is the second
(01:58):
son of Robert and the Zerrilda James. Their older son,
Frank James, is born in eighteen forty three. The father,
Robert James, is a Baptist minister. Here's Civil War historian
Harry Jones.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Robert James.
Speaker 4 (02:16):
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.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
Jesse's mother and now widow, Cyrilda James, is a fierce
Southern woman. She remarries twice after Robert's death and continues
to manage her late husband's three hundred acre hemp farm
and seven slaves. Here's historian David Eisenbach.
Speaker 5 (02:54):
Zerelda raised both of her sons to not only be
for the institution of slavery, but to fight for and
to commit crimes in the name of the cause.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
Her second marriage lasts no more than a few months
before that husband leaves also. Then, in eighteen fifty five,
she marries doctor Reuben Samuel, who spends most of his
time farming rather than practicing medicine. He's quiet and reserved,
Zirelda is stormy and assertive. It proves a good match,
(03:27):
and they have four children together. But life in Missouri
in the eighteen fifties 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
(03:48):
border is forced to take sides. In eighteen fifty four,
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
(04:10):
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.
Speaker 4 (04:23):
The Kansas Nebraska Act leaves the decision on whether a
new territory would be slave or free to the voters.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
No opposition to this act leads to the formation of
the Republican Party and its first presidential candidate, John C.
Fremont in eighteen fifty six. Well nonetheless, the Kansas Nebraska
Act passes, which means slavery could possibly expand into new areas.
(04:56):
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.
(05:19):
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 eighteen fifties. On the James
family farm, Zirelda is busy shaping her boys to be
(05:40):
the next generation of pro Confederate fighters. Here's Jesse James
historian Michael Gooch.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
She was not a wallflower by any means. Very vocal,
very outspoken.
Speaker 6 (05:52):
Don't you take anything from those Yankees, Hemmy.
Speaker 7 (05:57):
Zebra man's responsibility to hold on to what they've got.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
Over the next six years, the James family farm transforms
into a Confederate stronghold. On April twelve, eighteen sixty one,
the South fires and Fort Sumpter in the Civil War
formally begins. Frank James is immediately plunged into battle fighting
for the militia in the Confederate Army, but Union troops
(06:23):
routed the Confederate forces in Missouri and then occupy Clay County.
Here's Andrew Nelson and Civil War historian Christopher Phillips.
Speaker 8 (06:34):
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.
Speaker 9 (06:50):
It was so bad that one Union commander actually ordered
the depopulation of four entire counties of western Missouri. Had
to leave and then their homes were burned.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
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.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
We talk about rough country.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
When we continue more of the life of Jesse James
here on our American Stories. 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. But we can't do it without you.
Our stories are free to listen to, but they're not
(07:44):
free to make. If you love our stories in America
like we do, please go to our American Stories dot
com and click the donate button. Give a little, give
a lot, help us keep the great American stories coming.
That's our American Stories dot Com.
Speaker 8 (08:09):
Over the last six years, Jesse James has lied this
outlaw band, picking his way on the third Bird Grade
through the trails of this southern.
Speaker 3 (08:19):
Land with a gun in his hand, riding in a
hiding and a running.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
With his ed James and we continue with our American
Stories and with Roger McGrath telling the story.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
Of Jesse James. Let's pick up where we last left off.
Speaker 3 (08:39):
Here's Jesse James biographer Dan.
Speaker 10 (08:41):
Marcoop Union militia in the area started looking for these pushwhackers.
Zeralda had told everyone that Frank was one of them.
Speaker 3 (08:52):
Fifteen year old Jesse is out plowing in a field
when Northern soldiers come looking for Frank. Hang Frank's respected stepfather,
doctor Rubin Samroe to a tree right in front of
Zirelda and Jesse, until Ruben finally gives up Frank's location.
(09:13):
It's this violent experience who will push Jesse to join
his brother. In the spring of eighteen sixty four in Missouri,
vengeance is best got riding with one of the dozens
of Confederate gorilla bands. In the company of these men
who operate outside the rules at war, Jesse James will
(09:36):
be schooled in the art of ambushing, violence and terror.
There are no papers assigned, no uniforms, no government issue firearms.
Jesse simply follows creeks and hog trails into the darkness
of the Missouri woods where the Confederate gorillas make camp.
(09:57):
Most notorious leader of these Confederate Grills. The bands is
Quantrell's Raiders, commanded by William Quantrell. By eighteen sixty three,
Frank James is riding with Quantrell, and a year later
so too his seventeen year old Jesse. Quantrell's band Raid
and Luke, Burne and gild. The main darkets are the railroads,
(10:19):
the lifeblood of the Union advance. One of Quantrell's lieutenants,
Bloody Bill Anderson, said to Jesse not to have any beard.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
He is the.
Speaker 3 (10:30):
Keenest and cleanest fighter in the command well. During the
summer of eighteen sixty four, 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 captioning supplies, they find something even more valuable.
(10:54):
Here's a Civil War historian, Donald Fraser.
Speaker 11 (11:00):
Try and have a bore a number of Union forces
and home Guards that are on their way home, and
they're on armed. They really pose no threat, but they've
now fallen to Bloody Bill Anderson and his band.
Speaker 5 (11:15):
All you yanked at Ny like ball.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
Bloody Bill's gorillas kill four civilians and twenty two Union soldiers.
Speaker 12 (11:24):
Bloody Bill wasn't afraid to send a message that could
be pretty brutal.
Speaker 3 (11:31):
Confederates justifiably argue the maskers are in response to Union
atrocities in Missouri. Jesse is shot in the just the
second time, and shortly thereafter learns of Lee's surrender to
Grant Appomattics in April eighteen sixty five after four years
(11:53):
of bloody fighting, though he has no intention of surrendering.
Speaker 4 (11:57):
For Jesse James, this is not an end of his conflict.
This is the end of someone else's conflict, not Jesse
James's conflict, not Frank James's conflict. Their conflict isn't over.
It's still going on.
Speaker 3 (12:12):
Jesse James returns home to his deeply divided border state
of Missouri. Here's Old West historian Jeff Morey and David Eisenbach.
Speaker 7 (12:24):
After the Civil War, the South was hlatious, it had
been ruined, and there was a great deal of resentment
of northern authority of federal authority.
Speaker 6 (12:35):
Missouri is one of these states that's stuck with the
Union during the Civil War, but had large sectors.
Speaker 9 (12:40):
Of the population that wanted to go with the South
in the first place. So you had Missourians fighting Missourians.
Speaker 3 (12:49):
It's in this incredibly voluable.
Speaker 6 (12:51):
Literally brother against brother world that we get Jesse James.
Speaker 3 (12:57):
Jesse discovers the war is not only torn up Artist homeland,
it's left his family with nothing. With Northern reconstructionists in
power across Missouri, Just and his brother Frank joined forces
with their cousins, the brothers coll Jim and Bob Younger,
who share their fears hatred for Yankees. The Youngers also
(13:18):
served under Quantrell and Bloody Bill and ended up losing
their father and family home to the Union. Just desides
the best way to express his hatred for the North
is to go after Northern wealth.
Speaker 11 (13:32):
They had to do something to strike back against federal
authority and everything they saw as being oppressors in their lives.
Speaker 12 (13:42):
They looked at themselves as freedom fighters and tried to
strike a blow for Southern manhood and Southern honor and
Southern virtue.
Speaker 3 (13:52):
Having converted to the now worthless Confederate money, there's 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
(14:16):
Gang's First Heights is also the first daylight bank robbery
in American history during peacetime. It occurs at two pm
in Liberty, Missouri, on a cold, snowy day on February thirteenth,
eighteen sixty six. The bank is owned by Republican former
militia officers who recently conducted the first Republican Party rally
(14:40):
in Clay County's history. The James Younger Gang hits the
jackpot with a sum equal to nearly nine hundred thousand
dollars in today's money, and the bank is now known
as the Jesse James Bank Museum.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
Rob a Bank, get a named for you.
Speaker 3 (15:00):
Four months later, in Jackson County, Missouri, the gang frees
two jailed members of Quantrelle'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
(15:22):
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 eighteen seventy three. Year
(15:43):
a council bluffs Iowa Jesse and company full of rail
out of place, and the trains engineer John Rafferty sees
it and move as the gang tugs on, a rope
attached to the rail immediately reverses the control lever. He
saves the train, but he and the locomotive flip off
the track.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
And he does.
Speaker 3 (16:05):
Jesse and the boys get some two thousand from the
train 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
(16:27):
and the boys say they did not want to rob
working men or ladies, but only the money and valuables
of the plug at gentlemen. But the train robberies are
bad for both the soft handed businessmen and the callous
hand at workers.
Speaker 5 (16:42):
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 said, I don't
care if it costs me five hundred dollars. 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 to the stateum Is.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
And you're listening to Roger McGrath tell one heck of
a story about Jesse James, his brother Frank as well.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
And back then you had.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
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.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
After the war was over, well, the.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
Conflict wasn't over in the minds of Jesse and Frank.
And many Missourians were against Missouri joining the Union.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
Cause and had a shared hatred for Yankees.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
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 uncle after
Yankee wealth. The story of Jesse James, how he came
to be who he was, That story continues here on
our American stories, and we continue with our American stories
(18:10):
and the riveting story, the remarkable story of Jesse James.
It's also a story about American history and the moment
James and his brother and his crew grew up in.
And that's of course, the Civil War and post Civil
War reconstruction Civil War. Let's pick up where we last
(18:32):
left off with Roger McGrath.
Speaker 3 (18:37):
News of the James brothers hold up spreads quickly. The
robbery is a blue to the railroads and embarrasses the Pinkertons.
Speaker 13 (18:47):
Alan Pekerton, their founder, who had been a spy for
the Union during the Civil War, takes it personally upon
himself to bring Jesse to.
Speaker 3 (18:55):
Justice in Kansas City. The name Jesse James catches the
eye of a former Confederate major turned newspaper editor who
has trained mightily to inspire the Confederate wing of the
Democratic Party to jump back into the fight. Here's Western
Frontier novelist Lieutenant Colonel Fred kiev In Tuni. If there
(19:21):
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 another Confederate grillas, but about
the lost cause of the Old South.
Speaker 10 (19:42):
Edwards, he wanted to see these downtrodden Confederates take their
political future into their own hands, and he thought that
James Gang would inspire them, and that's why he started
writing positive reports. He made them the legends that they were.
Speaker 9 (20:01):
In.
Speaker 3 (20:01):
Edwards fanciful telling. Jesse's religious kind of 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
(20:22):
a criminal, but as a folk hero for the South.
Here's Jesse James, scholar Kathy Jackson.
Speaker 14 (20:30):
If you are 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.
Speaker 3 (20:43):
Jesse partners with Edwards and continues is robbing spree, targeting
Northern Wealth newspaper readers across the country by end of
the robin Hood myth, but not the Pinkertons. Although Governor
Silas Woodson issues a two thousand dollars reward for the
Jam Aiames brothers. The biggest threat to Jesse's life comes
(21:04):
from the private sector, Alan Pinkerton, who's made an art
of reconnaissance and infiltration since his ambitious twenty six year
old undercover agent Joseph Witcher into Clay County.
Speaker 8 (21:20):
The first thing he did after getting off the train
was to go to the sheriff ask whether James or
Samuel farm Is. He told the sheriff who he was
what he was doing. Sheriff told him to not go
out there. Those boys will kill you. If they don't
kill you, the old lady will.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
He didn't listen.
Speaker 8 (21:38):
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 his jacket that said, this
is what happens to detectives who come looking for the
James boys.
Speaker 3 (21:53):
Alan Pinkerton had never suffered a defeat like this.
Speaker 6 (21:57):
It became a personal vendetta for him.
Speaker 8 (22:00):
He began to undertake the operation on his own expense.
Speaker 3 (22:05):
A month after murdering Binkerton agent Witcher, Jesse marries his
first cousin, Zirilda Zi Mimes, 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 halls are thirty thousand dollars from the Kansas Pacific
(22:28):
Railroad and ten thousand in cash and valuables from the
Tishamingo Savings Bank in Corinth, Mississippi. On a January night
in eighteen seventy five, a Pinkerton reading party, suspecting Jesse
is visiting home, surrounds the James family farm.
Speaker 5 (22:48):
Ingerton knew that the James boys would at some point
come to that house. He had men ready at least
eight to ten. Whenever they learned that Jesse and Frank
were at that farm, he was going to send those
men in. Alan Pickerton plodded to bring about the demise
(23:11):
of the James brothers.
Speaker 3 (23:14):
The Pinkert has threw a firebomb into the farmhouse and
hopes are driving Jesse out, but the only ones home
are Jesse's mother, stepfather, and nine year old half brother, Archie.
Speaker 10 (23:27):
And Zeralda. I think it's a firebomb and sweep it
into the fireplace. That turns it into an actual bomb.
Speaker 3 (23:38):
Firebomb 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 Pinkerton's raid as a direct
(23:58):
attack on the South by a northern enemy.
Speaker 5 (24:02):
No one has 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.
Speaker 3 (24:20):
After the Botch Trade, Alan Pinkerdon's detective agency is forced
back away from their more aggressive tactics, Jesse and Frank
hide out in Nashville in the summer. Ze gives birth
to Jesse's son, Jesse Edwards James eighteen seventy six looks
(24:42):
like it could be a banner year for Jesse. He
opens his summer campaign with a fifteen thousand dollars haul
of cash from the Missouri Pacific Railroad. Then Bill Chadwell,
a James gang member from Minnesota, suggests they rob what
he think will be an easy mark in his home state,
(25:03):
deep in Northern Territory. The suggestion is debated within the gang,
but finally it's decided ted four hundred miles north after
Bob Younger informs the boys of a major depositor at
First National Bank of Northfield, Minnesota. Here's reconstructionist historian Eric Fohoner, you.
Speaker 12 (25:26):
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 at Delbert Ames a relatives
up in Northfield, and a lot of his money was
in this bank. And James decided, we're gonna go up there.
(25:49):
We're going to rob that bank to take the money
of the reconstruction Governor of Mississippi.
Speaker 3 (25:58):
On September seventh, eighteen seventy six, the James Younger gang
approaches the First National Bank of Northfield, Minnesota, just forty
five miles south of Minneapolis. But with their long coats
and impressive sight arms, the Missouri Boys stand out among
the mostly farming folk, many of them Swedish immigrants.
Speaker 5 (26:22):
Woo wint enrolled this there vine, who's the cast here?
Speaker 3 (26:28):
You are bad safe now?
Speaker 1 (26:34):
And you've been listening to Roger McGrath tell 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
(26:57):
his men, he's gunned down by the James boy.
Speaker 2 (27:00):
Now it gets really personal.
Speaker 1 (27:02):
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 causes 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.
Speaker 6 (27:36):
Who's in and knocking on my back door? It looks
like Bob and Charlie Ford. How you doing? Boys?
Speaker 2 (27:45):
Well, come on in.
Speaker 1 (27:47):
Here and we continue with our American stories and the
story of Jesse James, and it's being told by Roger McGrath.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
Let's pick up when we last left off. You all
bad safe now.
Speaker 5 (28:07):
The key to the success for the James game has
always been speed, quickness. Joseph Lee Heywood, the cashier that day,
delayed them.
Speaker 3 (28:16):
When Joe Haywood, the bank cashier and Civil War veteran,
won't open the vault. Jesse James loses he his temper
and shoots him in the head.
Speaker 11 (28:27):
Gad of states.
Speaker 5 (28:30):
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 odd. Townspeople are starting to
fight back. They're coming to protect their bank.
Speaker 3 (28:51):
By now ordinary situizans, munchers, bakers, barbers, hardware merchants, farmers,
and Nario Ahman among them. We're grabbing guns and giving
the outlaws what for. Wheel them in a rifle from
the second floor of a hotel. College student and future
physician Henry Wheeler faguely shoots gang member Klel Miller.
Speaker 5 (29:14):
It's pandemonium. The outlaws are fine 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 stream.
It was a complete disaster for the James gang, and
(29:35):
the only thing for them to do is they try
to get out of town.
Speaker 3 (29:38):
Line hardware merchant and so Manning blast Bill Chadwell into
eternity and then shoots Bob Younger's horse out from under him.
Younger rules free of his wounded mount and takes cover
behind the staircase. The outlaws returned fire, but bullets are
(30:00):
coming at them from several directions. Some unarmed citizens throw rocks.
After seven minutes of gunfighting, Jesse orders the retreat had
the gang splits up.
Speaker 5 (30:13):
Joseph Lee Heywood, 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
(30:34):
and revealed about fifteen thousand dollars.
Speaker 3 (30:37):
The robbery is a complete failure. Now the Minnesotans want justice.
More than a thousand grabbed their firearms and formed posseason
picket lines, triggering the largest men in American history.
Speaker 5 (30:50):
There were at least one thousand 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
(31:13):
wanted to see them captured and brought to justice.
Speaker 13 (31:17):
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.
Speaker 3 (31:28):
Over the course of the next two weeks, all of
the James gang are either captured or killed except for
Frank and Jesse.
Speaker 5 (31:37):
These guys were masters at concealing themselves and getting away.
They had to do it all during the Civil War.
They were always outnumbered, It always had people chasing them.
Northfield was the biggest disaster the James that had experienced
since the Civil War. They lost me and that they
(32:01):
had fought with. They both suffered gunshot wounds, but I
think in a way mentally, in some way they're wounded
as well.
Speaker 3 (32:15):
Frank and Jesse rite a circuitous five hundred miles back
home to Missouri with just twenty six dollars and seventy
cents to show for their efforts.
Speaker 10 (32:27):
Frank he ultimately thought, the way this is going, it's
going to be a bullet or a news for them.
But Jesse, he was dire.
Speaker 3 (32:40):
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 alias as a family man,
now with two children in Missouri, Kentucky, and Kansas. Dania
sites do not move in. In eighteen seventy nine, with
(33:00):
his spoils running low and his name out of the press,
Jesse returns to action with the new James Game and
takes six thousand dollars from the Chicago and Alton Railroad.
Speaker 5 (33:13):
At this point, he's just finding somebody that can hold
a gun and hold a horse, and that hopefully it
is trustworthy.
Speaker 3 (33:21):
Jesse plans a job for April fourth, eighteen eighty two
in Platte City, Nebraska. A bank there is stuffed with
cash and needs his attention. Too 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.
Speaker 5 (33:43):
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 vouch for Bob.
Speaker 7 (33:59):
They were not ghost of what he'd had before, just
common run of the mill backcountry.
Speaker 2 (34:04):
Thieves and killers.
Speaker 8 (34:07):
You don't have the people who were trained, if you will,
during the war.
Speaker 3 (34:13):
America's most wanted outlaw. Doesn't realize it. It's not the
law I should be most afraid of, but his newest
gang member, Bob Ford, who is secretly working for Missouri
Governor Thomas Crittendon. The governor has posted a ten thousand
dollars bounty for Jesse, dead or alive, and Ford is
(34:35):
determined to get it.
Speaker 13 (34:38):
Bob Ford was this media saturated fan. There's no better
way to get close to the object of your admiration
than to join his gang and maybe in some way
become a little bit like That's the picture of Bob
Ford that we have today.
Speaker 3 (34:55):
Before they leave for Platte City, Jesse and the Ford
brothers meet for breakfast at his home. After enjoying a
hearty meal prepared for them by Jesse's wife, c they
retire to the living room to discuss their upcoming job.
When Jesse steps up on a chair to straighten a
picture Bob Ford. Arkley draws his revolver and shoots Jesse
(35:19):
through the back of the head. He topples to the
floor and dies. America's most notorious outlaw is thirty four
years old. Bob and Charlie Ford are convicted a murder
and sentenced to be hanged in a matter of days,
though they receive a full pardon from Governor Crittendon. Nonetheless,
(35:39):
the same governor fails to reward them with the ten
thousand dollars bounty.
Speaker 5 (35:45):
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 his
(36:08):
state and game member who shoots his leader in the
back of the head.
Speaker 3 (36:14):
Two years later, twenty seven year old Charlie Ford, suffering
from tuberculosis, had morphine and 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'Kelly.
Speaker 5 (36:37):
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,
(37:00):
awful war, which was a tragic consequence of an awful
awful institution, and.
Speaker 1 (37:08):
A terrific job by the production, editing and storytelling by
our own Greg Hengler and his special thanks as always
to regular contributor Roger McGrath, author of Gunfighters, Highwymen, and Vigilantes,
Violence on the Frontier, and he's a former UCLA history
professor and has appeared on numerous History Channel documentaries.
Speaker 2 (37:27):
He's a freaking contributor here on our American Stories.
Speaker 1 (37:30):
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.
Speaker 6 (37:51):
Jesse. One more shot just for all time, one last flan,
one more head or a dow with Then I quit
while I can. One more shot, just for all times,
(38:15):
One
Host
Lee Habeeb
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