{Wild Bill Hickok} {Billy the Kid} {Doc Holliday} {John Wesley Hardin}
Jesse James
Jesse Woodson James...a leftover trained killer
from the War Between the States. Jesse was born in Kearney Missouri September
5, 1847. He spent most of his life as a farm boy until he entered the war at
the age of 15. Jesse's brother Frank was already a
guerrilla fighter for the confederacy, and young Jesse was soon to follow his brother’s
footsteps. When Jesse joins the Confederate cause he was taken under his wing
by Capt. "Bloody" Bill Anderson. From
Capt. Anderson, Jesse learned how to use a gun, and a horse in battle, and most
of all...how to kill without mercy.
After the war Jesse and his brother Frank, teamed up with Cole, Bob, and Jim
Younger, better known as the Younger brothers. The
three brothers made up the rest of the James gang. The gang spent their life
robbing banks, robbing trains, and either wound up dead...in prison. The only
two that didn't die young was Frank James and Cole Younger. They we're released
from prison as old men.
Jesse was one of the most contrary individuals in history. He was a good father
and family man, a devoted Southern Baptist, and he was also a thief and a
murderer. Jesse James life came to an end April 3, 1882, when he was shot in
the back of his head while he straightened a picture on the wall. The man who
shot him had claimed to be his cousin, and while they planned another bank
robbery, Jesse was killed by Bob Ford. Mr. Ford was
labeled a coward for the rest of his life, which came ten years later when he
was killed in a barroom brawl.