{"id":113784,"date":"2019-11-15T17:33:11","date_gmt":"2019-11-15T22:33:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gunsamerica.com\/digest\/?p=113784"},"modified":"2019-11-15T17:33:11","modified_gmt":"2023-09-06T02:00:08","slug":"the-execution-slaying-of-jesse-james","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gunsamerica.com\/digest\/the-execution-slaying-of-jesse-james\/","title":{"rendered":"The Execution Slaying of Jesse James: Murdering a Murderer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"The
Jesse James was the first man to rob an American bank in daylight. An inveterate killer, he ultimately died as he lived. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Jesse James was America\u2019s first outlaw folk\nhero. Jesse was the second living son of Baptist minister Robert S. James and\nhis wife Zerelda. They married when Robert was 23 and Zerelda 16. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
Jesse James\u2019 mother was a headstrong woman whose perseverance in the face of adversity was legendary. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Zerelda stood nearly six feet tall and was an imposing woman. Pastor Robert struck out alone for California during the gold rush to save the souls of the miners. Upon arrival, he promptly contracted a disease and died. Zerelda was left with 225 acres, three children, and five slaves. There had been six but the good reverend sold one to pay for his doomed trip.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
Dr. Reuben Samuel left the medical profession when he married Zerelda to raise tobacco. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Zerelda remarried, but that man was thrown from a horse and died. She married her third husband, a physician, in 1855 and insisted on a prenuptial agreement to ensure that the Missouri farm stayed with her family. Along the way, Jesse and his older brother Frank developed a taste for chaos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
The question of slavery split the James\u2019 corner of Missouri apart. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Slavery was like gunpowder in the volatile border areas between North and South in the late 1850s. This part of Missouri became known as \u201cLittle Dixie.\u201d Slave labor drove both tobacco and hemp farming. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
There was little over which to compromise when it came to slavery. The resulting tensions unleashed torrents of blood. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Opinions rode the fringes with very\nlittle middle ground. This explosive milieu was populated by abolitionist\nRepublicans and pro-slavery Democrats. Both ideologies formed militias. The end\nresult was violence aplenty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
The years immediately preceding the American Civil War were fraught with chaos. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

From 1854 until 1861 the ongoing guerilla\nconflict was known as Bleeding Kansas. Frank was old enough to participate. Jesse\nwas not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
As a teenager Jesse James watched his stepfather tortured at the hands of Federals. This experience embittered the young man even further against the Union. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

With the formal outbreak of war in 1861, Frank joined a local Confederate company and fought at the Battle of Wilson\u2019s Creek. In May of 1863, a Union militia company raided the James’ farm looking for members of Frank\u2019s unit. They tortured Jesse\u2019s stepfather the physician Reuben Samuel by hanging him by the neck from a tree and lowering him only when death was imminent. They also flogged young Jesse mercilessly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
Jesse James donned a uniform and fought against the Union as a teenager. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Frank escaped and joined the legendary\nQuantrill\u2019s raiders. The torture left Jesse with a bad taste concerning\nabolitionists so he enlisted in the Spring of 1864 alongside his brother. At\nage 16 Jesse James was officially a soldier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
This was war at its ugliest, and Quantrill\u2019s Raiders were known to mete out frontier justice as the need arose. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A month later, Jesse\u2019s unit captured one Brantley Bond, a member of the mob that had whipped him and nearly killed his stepfather. As Bond begged for his life young Jesse simply reminded him of his previous ill deeds and shot him dead. The following day they captured Alvis Dagley, another of Bond\u2019s comrades. This time Frank did the honors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

War Ages a Man<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
\"The
Jesse was shot in the chest during a botched robbery in 1864. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Jesse was shot twice that summer. The\nfirst wound involved the theft of an unattended saddle. The saddle\u2019s owner glimpsed\nthe crime and shot the boy in the right chest. Gunshot wounds can be fickle\nunpredictable things. Jesse recovered from this one fairly quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
Jesse James blew one of his fingers off while cleaning his 1851 Colt Navy revolver. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Later Jesse was cleaning one of his\nrevolvers when it went off and took with it the end of his left middle finger. Jesse\nwas said to have shouted, \u201cOh, ding it! Ding it! How it hurts!\u201d He was, after all,\nthe son of a Baptist minister. From that point forward close friends and family\nreferred to him informally as Dingus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
\u201cBloody Bill\u201d Anderson was a legendary Confederate guerilla leader. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By September 1864 Jesse was riding with \u201cBloody Bill\u201d Anderson, the commander of a ruthless Confederate mob known as the Bushwhackers. This crew made a habit of scalping those they killed in battle. On September 27th<\/sup> Jesse and his mates sacked Centralia, Missouri, cutting down 24 unarmed Federals who had the misfortune of arriving by train during the attack. Later that afternoon, Anderson\u2019s mounted unit routed 115 Union troops sent to kill them. During the pursuit, the lithe young Jesse caught up with the Federal commander on horseback and shot him through the head at close range. Word of this remarkable feat sparked what would soon become nationwide fame.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
The James brothers knew nothing but violence. With the end of the war, they put their martial skills to use robbing trains and banks. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In May of 1865 during a skirmish with a Union patrol, Jesse caught a pistol ball in the right lung, nearly atop the site of his previous wound. This time he did not fare so well. By the time he healed the war was over. However, there is a fine line between roving independent Cavalry unit and a band of outlaws. Frank and Jesse allied with some old Army buddies and launched upon their true calling. They started robbing banks and trains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Making of a\nLegend<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
\"The
Cole Younger and his band of cutthroats rounded out the James-Younger gang. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The details of Jesse James\u2019 criminal exploits\nhave been documented exhaustively in print and film. He associated with the\nlikes of Cole Younger and killed as he stole. One of his first banks was the\nDaviess County Savings Association in Gallatin, Missouri. Jesse and Frank supposedly\nentered the bank and shot Captain John W. Sheets dead before escaping with a\npittance. Later they bragged at having murdered Major Samuel Cox, the man who\nkilled their former commander Bloody Bill Anderson. Sheets\u2019 death was\napparently simple mistaken identity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
Much of Jesse James\u2019 inflated reputation came at the hands of overly imaginative pulp writers. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Over the next several years Jesse was\ntied to nineteen robberies and the deaths of twenty men, seven of them in his\nown outlaw gang. Jesse likely conducted the first daylight armed robbery of a\nbank in the United States. Pulp writers of the day made him out to be a 19th<\/sup>\ncentury Robin Hood, but there is no evidence he gave any of his ill-gotten cash\nto anyone outside his immediate family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
Despite losing her right arm to a Pinkerton bomb, Jesse James\u2019 mother Zerelda lived to be 86 years old. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Violence followed Jesse everywhere. In\n1875 a group of Pinkerton detectives tossed a bomb through the kitchen window\nof his family home. The device killed his eight-year-old half brother outright\nand blew his mother Zerelda\u2019s right arm off at the elbow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
After a lifetime spent together as criminals the two James boys finally parted company in 1881. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By 1876 the James-Younger gang was done. Only Jesse and Frank remained breathing and free. After a brief hiatus, they went on one final crime spree, but their notoriety had become their downfall. In 1881 Frank left for Virginia, while Jesse headed home to Missouri. They would never see each other again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Murder<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
\"The
Robert Ford was one of the few men Jesse James still trusted after a lifetime on the run. The authenticity of this photograph has been questioned, but we will presume it to be genuine. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A life of crime inevitably breeds paranoia, and Jesse trusted few men. Two remaining in his inner circle were Charley and Robert Ford. For his own protection, Jesse asked the Ford brothers to move in with him. Unbeknownst to him, Robert had struck a deal with Missouri Governor Thomas Crittenden. With a $10,000 bounty on the line, Bob Ford awaited his opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
The execution-style killing of Jesse James by Robert Ford titillated Americans from coast to coast. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

On April 3, 1882, the 34-year-old\nseasoned criminal Jesse James was in his living room alone with Bob and Charley\nFord. Laying his revolvers on the sofa, Jesse walked across the room and stood\non a chair to clean the dust from a dirty photograph. Bob Ford drew his Smith\nand Wesson Model 3 revolver and shot Jesse in the back of his head. Two old bullet\nwounds to the chest and a missing finger provided definitive identification of\nthe corpse. Jesse James was 34 years old.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Gun<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
\"The
The Smith and Wesson Number 3 .44 was a common and popular handgun in the Old West. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The nickel-plated Smith and Wesson Model\n3 .44-caliber revolver that Bob Ford used to kill Jesse James was made in 1875.\nA cartridge-firing, top-break, single-action design, the Model 3 was produced\nin a bewildering array of variations. The gun was also called the S&W\nSchofield after Army Major George Schofield who made several improvements to\nthe original design.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
Legendary lawman Wyatt Earp was among the many famous characters to wield the S&W Model 3. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Wyatt Earp used a Schofield revolver\nduring the gunfight at the OK Corral. Teddy Roosevelt, John Wesley Hardin, Billy\nthe Kid, and Annie Oakley used them as well. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
George Schofield eventually died by the gun that bore his name. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In 1882 George Schofield ultimately killed\nhimself with one of these eponymous guns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
The actual murder weapon, shown here, was engraved to commemorate its significance. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Ford gifted the murder weapon to his jailer after his release from prison in appreciation of his kind treatment. The weapon was then purchased from the son of the jailer by E. Stanley Gary who had the words \u201cBob Ford killed Jesse James with this revolver at St Joseph, MO, 1882\u201d engraved upon the lock. In 1952 a collector purchased the gun and then lent it to the Jesse James Museum in 1967.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
After disappearing for more than fifteen years the Jesse James murder weapon went on to become the most valuable Old West firearm in the world. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The gun was stolen a year later and\npresumed lost until 1993 when it went up for auction in Britain by an anonymous\nseller. The pistol then sold for $160,000. In 2003 Ford\u2019s revolver was\nauctioned yet again. This time it brought $350,000, setting a record for\nhistorical Western firearms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Denouement<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
\"The
Bob and Charley Ford traveled the country recreating the murder of Jesse James for money. A 2007 depiction of the event starring Brad Pitt and Casey Affleck is a great watch for anyone interested in the tale. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Ford brothers surrendered to\nauthorities and were surprised to be charged with first-degree murder for the\nkilling of Jesse James. They were indicted, pled guilty, sentenced to death by\nhanging, and then pardoned by Governor Crittenden all in a single day. Most of\nthe reward went to law officers involved in the scheme. The Ford brothers were\nreduced to recreating the killing as part of a touring show to support\nthemselves. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
Charley Ford ultimately descended into squalor and killed himself. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Charley developed TB and along with it a\nmorphine addiction and took his own life in 1884. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
Robert Ford also died badly. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Bob Ford opened a portable tent saloon. In\n1892 Edward O\u2019Kelley walked into Ford\u2019s establishment\nwith a double-barreled shotgun. He said flatly, \u201cHello, Bob,\u201d and then shot Ford\nin the throat, killing him instantly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
Zerelda James made her sentiments fairly clear when she crafted the prose with which to adorn her son Jesse\u2019s tombstone. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

On Jesse\u2019s tombstone his\nmother had engraved, \u201cIn Loving Memory of My Beloved Son,\nMurdered by a Traitor and a Coward Whose Name is not Worthy to Appear Here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
The Smith and Wesson Model 3 that was used to kill Jesse James was a radically advanced combat handgun for its day. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"The
Jesse James\u2019 life of crime and mayhem lacked the glamor depicted in books and movies. Hounded and harassed to the end he was finally gunned down brutally by a friend. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"The<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

  Buy and Sell on GunsAmerica!<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jesse James\u2019 life of crime and mayhem lacked the glamor depicted in books and movies. Hounded and harassed to the end he was finally gunned down brutally by a friend. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":66,"featured_media":113807,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_specdata_upc":"","_specdata_placement":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,257,772],"tags":[132,102,752],"featured":[],"hunt365":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-113784","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-gunsamerica-authors","8":"category-historical-guns","9":"category-will-dabbs","10":"tag-buzz","11":"tag-feature-articles","12":"tag-historical-guns"},"yoast_head":"\nThe Execution Slaying of Jesse James: Murdering a Murderer<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Execution Slaying of Jesse James: Murdering a Murderer - Will Dabbs\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/gunsamerica.com\/digest\/the-execution-slaying-of-jesse-james\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Execution Slaying of Jesse James: Murdering a Murderer\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Jesse James\u2019 life of crime and mayhem lacked the glamor depicted in books and movies. 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However, shooting guns and claiming it was work seemed like a pretty sweet hustle. As a result, Will serendipitously transformed an avocation into a vocation. Raised in the Mississippi Delta, Will flew UH1H, OH58A\\\/C, CH47D and AH1S helicopters operationally as an Army Aviator. He is SCUBA-qualified and has parachuted out of perfectly good airplanes at 3 o'clock in the morning. Will has summited Mount McKinley, Alaska, six times\u2026always at the controls of an Army helicopter, which is the only way sensible folk climb mountains. Will has delivered sixty babies and occasionally wrung human blood out of his socks. He is married to his high school sweetheart and has three awesome adult children. Turn-ons include vintage German machineguns, flying his sexy-cool RV6A airplane, Count Chocula cereal and the movie \u201cAliens.\u201d www.word-monkey.com Experience: -Professional Writer-thousands of publishing credits for dozens of titles -Mechanical Engineer\\\/Practicing Physician -Instrument-rated Commercial Pilot -Sunday School Teacher\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/www.word-monkey.com\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.facebook.com\\\/will.dabbs.9\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.instagram.com\\\/drwildmanmd\\\/\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/gunsamerica.com\\\/digest\\\/author\\\/willdabbs\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Execution Slaying of Jesse James: Murdering a Murderer","description":"The Execution Slaying of Jesse James: Murdering a Murderer - Will Dabbs","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/gunsamerica.com\/digest\/the-execution-slaying-of-jesse-james\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Execution Slaying of Jesse James: Murdering a Murderer","og_description":"Jesse James\u2019 life of crime and mayhem lacked the glamor depicted in books and movies. 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