This is Bob Ford showing the gun he
used to kill Jesse
Jesse Woodson James was born Sept. 5 1847, and died April 3 1882. Jesse was a Bank and train robber, a murderer, an outlaw, and a gang leader. Jesse had a yonger sister, and a brother named Frank and they both were in a gang together. The gang was most active in the years of 1866 to 1886.
Jesse was born in Clay country Missouri. His dad, Robert James, was a hemp farmer and a Baptist minister. Robert traveled to California during the Gold Rush and preached to the people over there. He died in California when Jesse was just 3 years old. Jesse's mothers name was Zerelda, and after Roberts death she remaired 2 times.
The Civil War mostley mad Jesse James the man he was. He fought for the Confederates, and in 1864 he suffered a chest wound while he was a part of a bushwhacker group, which is a kind of guerrilla warfare. He was the most famous bushwhacker. After the Civil war Missouri was pretty much ruined. The Bushwhacker group Jesse was a part of stayed together and started robbing republican owned banks. Jesse was thought to still be on bedrest for his chest wound during those robberies.
Jesse James did not become famous, however, until December 7 1869, when he and Frank robbed the Daviess County Savings Association. They only got a little bit off money, but Jesse shot and killed the chashier mistaking him for the man who killed "Bloody Bill" Anderson, the man who led the bushwhcker group Jesse fought with. That robbery made Jesse, for the first time, an outlaw and the Missouri governor put out a reward for his capture.
On July 21, 1873, they turned to train robbery, derailing the Rock Island train in Adair, Iowa and stealing approximately $3,000. The James later train robberies were not so big. They didnt hold up passengers but went to the express safe in the baggage car instead.
Jesse and his cousin Zee married on April 24, 1874, and had two children who survived to adulthood: Jesse Edward James and Mary Susan James.On September 7, 1876, the James-Younger gang attempted a raid on the First National Bank. All of the other people in the gang were eventually killed or captured, except for the James', so the gang was no longer.
The James' went to Tennessee and changed their names. Frank settled down buy Jesse continued a life of crime. He created a new gang in 1879,they did a spree of crimes, then turned on eachother. Jesse moved back to Missouri, there he joined the Ford brothers who in time killed Jesse James.
My sources were Wikipedia and this website about Missouri.
Jesse James
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