![]() ![]() Most historians agree that it would be physically impossible to jump Devil’s Gulch, located in Garretson, South Dakota. Legend says Jesse jumped a 20 foot gulch on horseback while fleeing a scene, but historians say it probably never happened. Jesse (and his brother) cost his mother her arm and his half-brother his life.Īgents of the Pinkerton Detective Agency on the hunt for Jesse and brother Frank threw an incendiary device into the family home, killing the 4-year-old half-brother and causing the mother to need her right arm amputated.ġ5. Who takes their gang on their honeymoon? Jesse James, that’s who.ġ4. He, along with his gang, robbed a stagecoach while on his honeymoon in Austin, TX, 1874. He later wrote (anonymously) in a public letter “It is true that I shot a little girl, though it was not intentional, and I am very sorry that the child was shot and if the parents will give me their address through the columns of the Kansas City Weekly Times, I will send them money to pay her doctor’s bill.”ġ3. He (or possibly one of his “colleagues”) shot a little girl while robbing the Kansas City Exposition on Sept. Most agree that it was accidental, but there is speculation that it was a suicide attempt.ġ2. Despite the Robin Hood image of stealing from the rich and giving to the poor, there is no evidence that Jesse and his gang ever did so.Įvidence suggests they kept all of their spoils for themselves.ġ1. There is a hell of an excitement in this part of the country!”ġ0. They were masked, and started in a southerly direction after they had robbed the train, all mounted on fine-blooded horses. The southbound train on the Iron Mountain Railroad was stopped here this evening by five heavily armed men and robbed of _ dollars… The robbers were all large men, none of them under six feet tall. One, which exaggerates Jesse’s height, is said to have read: “The most daring robbery on record. Jesse loved publicity, and was even known to hand out “press releases” to witnesses at the scenes of his crimes. He would write favorable news articles with gems such as “ men who might have sat with Arthur at the Round Table, ridden in tourney with Sir Lancelot, or won the colors of Guinevere” (Kansas City Times, 29 Sept. The James gang’s “Robin Hood” image was carefully crafted with the help of editor John Newman Edwards. Because he didn’t like to curse, he said “That’s the dod-dingus pistol I ever saw”.Ĩ. He reportedly earned the nickname after shooting off the tip of his finger while cleaning a pistol. He married his first cousin Zerelda “Zee” Mimms (who was named after Jesse’s mother). Jesse and other guerrillas might have slaughtered and scalped unarmed Union soldiers. Once in 1864 while trying to steal a saddle from a farmer and once the following year by Union soldiers.ĥ. Before he even became an outlaw, Jesse was shot in the chest on two separate occasions. This incident is believed to be the spark that led to Jesse joining the Confederate guerrillas.Ĥ. When Jesse was about 15, Union soldiers seeking information attacked the James household, hanging Jesse’s stepfather from a tree (he survived, but with mental damage) and roughing up young Jesse. Residing in Missouri, the James family owned slaves and supported the Confederacy.ģ. He left home when Jesse was very young to minister to gold seekers out West and died of cholera while there.Ģ. His father was a hemp farmer and Baptist minister. Many people even see Jesse James as a type of Robin Hood or folk hero, despite his sometimes murderous ways.Īlthough separating fact from fiction can be quite a task when it comes to folk figures like Jesse, we’ve dug up some interesting tidbits about this mythical man of the West that we think you’ll enjoy. They then collected valuables from the passengers, bringing the total up to about $3,000 (about $50,000 by today’s standards).Īfter 141 years, Jesse James remains one of the most iconic and romanticized figures in American history, even though he had little regard for the lives of others (such as the engineer of the train, who died as a result). They boarded the crashed train wearing white Ku Klux Klan masks and searched the safe that they believed held gold bullion, only to be disappointed by a meager $2,000. The outlaws used stolen tools to pry up part of the track, pulling it aside with rope as the train rounded a blind curve. On July 21, 1873, infamous outlaw and American folk figure Jesse James robbed his first train in Adair, Iowa with the help of his posse, the James-Younger Gang. ![]()
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