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Jesse James: Hot Topic In Life And DeathBv SCOTT KRAFTAssociated Pit** H'filerST JOSEPH. Mo iAP' A handful of historians carefully dug into an abandoned grave last fall What thev found re vived a century old debate about the life and death of Jesse JamesIs a 38-caliber bullet they unearthed the slug that “laid poor Jesse in his grave0 Or was it a 44 caliber slug, as the man who pulled the trigger had claimed0Jesse James has been immortalized in song, prose, film But the true story behind the legend may never be known It literally has been whittled away by tourists, fraught with con flicting accounts and glossed over by the prospect of a quick buckWas he an American Robin Hood° A greedy murderer0 Whatever he was, this outlaw who pioneered the davltght hank holdup and perfected the art of train robbery isn't forgottenAlltRT LEA TRIBUNE, Sanfey, Jww 17,1979Tourists by the thousands flock to his stomping grounds in Nor thwest Missouri, and debate over his death on April 3, 1882 still ragesThe grave of Jesse Woodson James was still fresh when his grieving but practical mother. Zerelda, started selling tours of the family log cabin for a quar ter For another two bits, she’d take your picture next to the gravemarker or let you have a pebble from the gravesite When the pebbles ran low she'd send a neighbor's kid to the nearby creek for moreToday, the Jesse James busi ness is booming He’s become bigger than life. says one his torianThe 20th century team sifting the empty plot on the farm near Kearney. Mo , was mindful of misadventures there more than 75 years before Jesse's ornate iron casket with glass sides fell apart when his family tried to move it. and some bones fell back into the grave The7nBremains were moved to a cemetery But what had been left behind0 The recent excavation turned up pieces of coffin, bone frag ments. a tuft of hair and the bullet No major archaeological find, but enough to answer a few historical questions and raise many more Some 700 books have been written on the James Gang, most of questionable accuracy I'm amazed at the lack of scholarly research on Jesse James, says Milton Perry, a Clay County historian “Only now are we beginning to know more about the real Jesse James The real person and the folklore hero aren't much alike The greatest Jesse James legend is that he robbed fromthe rich to give to the poor, but. Perry says, “there's noevidence that the James Gang ever gave to the poor Folklore depicted Jesse as lashing out at nated institutions of the day Banks were a target because they took property from farmers, trains because they ran roughshod over farmers when track was laid “The James Gang was innovative. it attacked institutions rather than individ uals. Perry says “People sort of applauded and envied anyone who could rob those hated institutions But the evidence indicates that James, like other outlaws, was interested only in loot, and he personally killed tfi persons Until recently, it was general ly accepted that Jesse was killedby a 4Acaliber bulletA police firearms expert in In dependence. Mo . says the 38-caliber slug found in the James Farm grave could be the fatal bullet It was old enough, he said, and its condition was “con sistent with other slugs which have passed through a victim's skullThe Pony Express Historical Association in St Joseph, owner of the murder site, assails that conclusion A spokesman. Gary Chilcote, claims a hole in the wall at the murder scene is proof that the fatal slug exited Jesse’s headThe hole certainly is proof enough for tourists Over the years they have managed to widen it to the size of a large potato by collecting keepsake splinters Chilcote believes oneof the early tourists probably retrieved the bullet for a souve nirA newspaper story published four days after the murder says an autopsy showed the bullet lodged in Jesse s head Autopsy records haven’t been found, however Until all the evidence is in. history buffs in these parts will continue the controversy And controversy means tourists Jesse James' life and death are depicted in sequence near St Joseph and Kansas City tfr day The farm near Kearney where he grew up. the Liberty bank 10 miles away where the gang staged its first holdup, and the St Joseph house where Jesse met his death The cabin where Jesse James was born, reared and later hid from authorities rests on rolling farmland overlooking a shallow creek Its wood planks, brittle after 120 years, need repair A $50,000 restoration is underwaj there, and Parks Director Stephen, Davis says, “I’m still hoping fee'll find a bag of loot stashed'Amewhere. ’The sclt;pe of Jesse's first bank robbery, the Clay County Savings %ociation in Liberty, has been tutored Visitors can buy Jame»\Gang souvenirs in the gift shfA and their dollars are beginnlfc to replace the $80,000 Jesse James carried out of town in 1885More than 20.000 annually visit the site in v Joseph where Jesse was murditedOn the day of ds death, Jesse James was disabling bank robbery plans in his Mfcjse with two new cohorts Chuiey and Bob Ford During the conversation. Jesse noticed a Yarned inscription on the **11, “God Bless This Home. w«| crooked He stood on a chair to draighten it.The Ford brothers dtfew their guns they had been waiting for such a moment Bob. 1 baby-WIKK'-' cuuiug illGang's 16-year reign The gang had been blamed for nearly every robbery in the country - no matter that some were pulled off at nearly tho same time hundreds of miles apart Historians give this final toll 11 banks, seven trains three stagecoaches, one county fair and a payroll messenger At the grave. Jesse's mother erected the gravestone bearing these words:Murdered by a traitor and coward whose name is not wor thy to appear here .”Thomas Kvamme Writes The Sports Scope Tuesdays and Thursdays
Newspaper Details
Albert Lea Sunday Tribune
Albert Lea, Minnesota, US
Sun, Jun 17, 1979
Page 8
Full Page
Clipped by
Joplin P.
MO, USA 20 Sep 2024
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