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InJesse James Old Story JosephBy Mnu»nx Chilcot*.N t rdttor, St. Joieph iUft.) Newt Prtsi.»T. JOSEPH, MO., June 12., ap —When a fellow downin Lawton. Ok., turned up recently claiming that he .. jesse James, no one around St.,. i was surprised. The folks nd here are accustomed to that‘“f thing. It has been going onfor years.V e James has become an Amer-, •can legend. His connection with st ; ,eph was merely that he lived here briefly. But, unfortunately for t‘he itv that gave the world the p ; , xpress and launched Eugene pj.’ (n his career, Jesse James ar st. Joseph are almost synony-m‘ v Jesse had the hard luck of jje.nt: shot in the back of the head, with fatal results, during the period: he was holing up here under the name of Mr. Howard.pt-rupls City Election.That was more than sixty-six vear aso. Jesse was shot on the mommg of April 3. 1882. It was theri;, of the hottest city election St.,Joseph ever had, but hardly any-bodv bothered to vote after it was I learned that the nice Mr. Howard who had been everybody’s friendwas really the outlaw, and that hehad been slain for a reward.For about fifty years the identity never was questioned, so thorough was the proof at the time. About 1930 the new Jesse Jameses appeared. Fir.-t off was a story from! Florence. Colo., to the effect that a' man who died there was believed to have been the real Jesse James. His body was exhumed and photographed. ■ [The s’ ry was enough to cause the St. Joseph Gazette to go to a great deal of trouble to hunt down’ the facts Judge T. P. Ryan, who was an assistant prosecutor at the time of the slaying, was Interviewed I ember 13. 1931. He wa3 con-vinced that the man slain in 1882, was Jesse James. He described in, detail the events of the fateful day.He had received a telephone call from the city marshal. (St. Joseph had telephones In 1882 though few cities could boast of such a system.) Mat dial Enos Craig reported he had two men in custody who said they killed Jesse James. They were theFord brothers.Judge Ryan described the day’s events including the tearful visitof the widow of Jesse James, askingfor ciMody of the body.The Contender of 1932.On June 22. 1932. a gentleman appeared at the office of the News-Press, which had taken over the Gazette, and calmly announced he was the original Jesse James. To prove it, he wanted reporters—and a photographer—to go with him tothe old James house on Lafayette street, where he would submit convincing proof, he said. ,The newspaper boys went, andthe new Jesse James told his story J He said it was true a man was killedin the home, but the man wasn’tJesse James. He said he and his brother. Frank, were riding toward» i°»?e when they heard the shot’that killed the man later identifiedf T He t0( k $50 ln S°ldhe body of the dead man, ran out-Mde buried a gun and fled.to Prove to you I am Jessey n ^V0ing 10 dig UP that gun, f i r™. already hasn’t beenJrt, That 8un will have the ini-L u ?arved with a Penknife on tho black handle.”much said, the man known a' Jesse James picked up a grub-bir.i toe, started digging in a clump or r.rrant bushes and in practically no time had dug up a gun. Gen-1’demen, does that convince you I am me original Jesse James?”Well, a lot of people weren’t convinced. The widow of Jesse James.made a denial. The controversy mtted until July 5. 1934, when Henrv wauman, now dead, rame to the Xfws-Press with a photograph. He a grading contractor in 1895,J d as part of the improvement of Ufayette street the whole top of ‘p big hill had been cut off. The -use where Jesse James was killed nad been placed on a crib and the was reduced in height by twelve fifteen feet, a gun buried by p in 1882 would have been at ra t fourteen feet under ground ln fder to be within reach df a grubbing hoe In 1932.That was the last St. Joseph heard [r the Jesse James of 1932. But mere have been others. !A rouple of years later the Electric neater brought in a man who put °n a 30-minute show every night,'laming he was the original JesseJames He discussed incidents of my life while he paced back and forth on the stage. He had one principal line of talk as theater pa-trons heckled him. If I’m notJames, who am I,” he would avk over and over again. One pa-ron. after sitting through the JesseJames show twice and an It” girl him once, shouted “If he is Jesse James, i’m Clara. Bow.N Carnival Without One.4bout that time every circus and carnival company had an original p M' James. Out in California a ip.low was arrested on charges of °b’uning money by false pretenses ! c false presenses being that claimed to be Jesse James, win exoneration he had to prove he was a train robber and a bank robber. it wound up In a sanity hear-Jup at Los Angeles. Superior Judge Thomas Gould ended the case by dismissing the proceedings, but remarking: You’re sane but you are either a great bandit or a great liar. ,r; lt;1 T think you are a mighty goodimposter,Vear after year the city desk of ’he ‘ ews-Press received letters such ’his one from Vandalia, 111.: ka ’ summer we saw a carnival at • ■ and my husband and I talked 0 a man who said he was Jesse Jan v. He was in a side show and vard we went around to talk n. He sounded real honest, smdaid he robbed the rich to give tc Poor. I wonder if you know * ! 1 ier or not the man killed ln h in 1882 was really JJames?'* Joseph has tried ln vain to ; its connection with J James. Known for many yeari as Him city of millionaires because of Tttily fortunes founded by outflt-; ’ *he ’49ers, 8t. Joseph did not relish Jesse. It much preferred to ’htnk about the pony express.Hit all in vain. Two-thirds of pony express building collapsedwinter while waiting for a res-at ion movement. The Jesse Jan:c$ house, moved two miles to be m * conveniently located for tour-P*oks ’em in at two-bids *
Newspaper Details
Kansas City Star
Kansas City, Missouri, US
Sun, Jun 13, 1948
Page 110
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
USA 11 Jan 2019
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