think I can get a fair trial, I will surrender myself
to the civil authorities of Missouri. But I will
never surrender myself to be mobbed by a set
of bloodthirsty poltroons.”
Jesse James, age 22, was now an outlaw. Over
the next 12 years there would be more hard rid-
ing, more robberies and more innocent victims,
more letters denying involvement, and more
offers of surrender in return for the guarantee
of a fair trial. Jesse, his brother Frank, and their
brothers in crime became the most wanted, the
most despised, and the most celebrated outlaws
in the nation. But on a spring day in 1882, Jesse’s
run finally came to an end. With the promise of
a large reward from Missouri’s governor, gang
member Charlie Ford fired one momentous shot
into the back of the outlaw leader’s skull.
But the bullet that killed Jesse James had
been fired years before Ford pulled the trigger
on his revolver. While still a youth, Jesse’s life
was dramatically upended by the violence of a
horrendous civil war, which in turn had been
brought about by the tragedy and violence of
slavery. Like his fellow bushwhackers, many of
them teenagers as well, Jesse became numb to
the bloodshed and fixated on revenge. He killed
men, and men tried to kill him. He learned to
steal and pillage, justifying his actions with his
own skewed moral code. Such are the things
that make an outlaw.
Newspaperman and James brothers’defend-
er John Newman Edwards conceded that Jesse
and Frank were“bad citizens.”But, he explained,
“they are bad because they live out of their time.”
More than 150 years later, Jesse James seems to
have escaped time altogether, for the life and
deeds of the Baptist minister’s son turned out-
law appear to be forever etched in the American
consciousness.CAPITOL
CRIME
The deeds of Jesse
James and his
partners in crime
are immortalized
in Thomas Hart
Benton’s 1936 mural
cycle “A Social
History of the State of
Missouri,” displayed
at the Missouri State
Capitol (above).
MARK LEE GARDNER.
©BENTON TESTAMENTARY TRUSTS/UMB BANK TRUSTEE/VEGAP, BARCELONA, 2018MARK LEE GARDNER, A MISSOURI NATIVE, IS AN AWARD-WINNING
AUTHOR AND HISTORIAN LIVING AT THE FOOT OF COLORADO’S PIKES
PEAK. HE IS CURRENTLY WRITING A DUAL BIOGRAPHY OF LAKOTA
LEADERS CRAZY HORSE AND SITTING BULL.BOOK
Shot All to Hell: Jesse James, the Northfield Raid,
and the Wild West’s Greatest Escape
Mark Lee Gardner, William Morrow, 2013.Learn moreNATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC HISTORY 87