FROM THE MORGUE
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Copyright 2007 by William A. Mays, Proprietor
April 22, 1882
| A DASTARD'S DEED. |
| The Bold Bandit, Jesse James, Assassinated by One of His Gang. |
| The Famed Desperado Shot from Behind by a Man Whom He had Befriended. |
The citizens of St. Joseph, Mo., were thrown into a great flutter on the 3d inst. by the rumor that the notorious bandit Jesse James had been assassinated that morning by a member of his band in a cottage just outside the town, where he and his wife had lived for some time. With him resided Robert and Chas. Ford, members of his gang. Charles had lived in the shanty since last November but Robert did not arrive from the east until a few days before the tragedy.
On the morning of the 3d inst. the three were preparing to go on one of those raids which have made the name of Jesse James a terror and James and the two Fords were in a room alone with him. The bandit had taken off his pistol belt and had stepped on a chair to brush some dust from a picture. The brothers had determined to kill their friend and get the reward and this was their chance.
They exchanged glances and silently stepped between the pistols and their victim. Both drew their pistols. The click of the hammers fell on the ear of Jesse and he was turning his head evidently to see what caused the warning sound when Robert sent a bullet crashing through his brain. The murdered bandit fell backward without a cry and rolled in his death agony on the floor.
Jesse's wife, who was in the next room, ran in and saw the two brothers scaling the fence and making off. The murdered man breathed his last a few minutes after in her arms.
Some skeptical persons who are aware of Jesse's grim, jocular habit of fixing up a corpse to resemble himself in order that he may get the reward for his own death, as has occurred several times before, are very cautious in receiving this story, although James' wife declares that the body is that of the robber chief and his mother corroborates her statement.
The old lady was very bitter against the men who had betrayed her son, saying that the silver mounted pistol with which the deed had been done was a present to Robert Ford from Jesse. As she was passing out of the court room on the 4th inst. with the two orphan children of the brigand she met Dick Little, whose late confession gave away James, his gang and his haunts, and presenting the children to him she told them to look at the false friend and betrayer of their father and added many choice recriminations suggested by her frantic grief.
She glared at him with the fury of a tigress.
"Traitor! traitor! traitor!" she cried, "God will send vengeance on you. You are the cause of all this. Oh, you villain, I would rather be in my poor boy's place than in yours."
She afterward called on the Fords who were placed in jail for safety after giving themselves up, and had an excited scene with them. Little received a letter from James last week stating that he was doomed and that Jesse would never be content until he had made him a corpse. The coroner's jury found that they had sat upon the body of the real almon pure Jesse James this time and no double.
The Ford brothers claim that they are detectives and that they joined the band and participated with the robber in many of his lawless deeds in order that they might get the dead wood on him and capture him. This proving unpracticable after many attempts they finally concluded to kill him and claim the reward. Robert, who did the killing, is a boyish looking young fellow, aged 22, and says that he had an understanding with Gov. Crittenden to do the deed.
Jesse James was the son of a Baptist clergyman of Kentucky and was educated with his younger brother Frank, now reformed and residing respectably in Texas under an assumed name, at Georgetown College, Ky. In 1846 Rev. Mr. James removed to Clay County, Mo., where he led the life of a farmer in addition to performing duty as a Baptist minister to a small congregation. Jesse James' father died in 1849 and his widow married Dr. Reuben Samuels of Clay County, Missouri. When the war opened Dr. Samuels' house was attacked by Union men and he was severely beaten by the mob. His step sons Jesse and Frank in revenge began a life of lawlessness. They joined Quantrell's guerrillas and were the most fiendish of that entire troop of murderers.
In 1865 the band was broken up by the killing of Quantrell in a fight with United States troops and the James boys returned to their mother's house where they lived peaceably for some time.
But the old spirit of lawless adventure was still in them. In 1868 they met at the Lexington, Ky., races the Younger brothers and George Sheppard, who had been their comrades with Quantrell. On their way home the party of friends visited Russelville, robbed the bank of $14,000 and fled to Texas.
They turned up again in December, 1869, when they with the Younger brothers and several others of their comrades of the guerrilla band robbed the Gallatin bank and after murdering several men again escaped to their hiding place in Texas.
For a time they lived quietly on the Missouri farm, improving it with their ill gotten wealth.
In the spring of 1870, however, they and the Youngers got their band of guerrillas together again and made a slashing raid into Iowa. At noonday seven of them rode into the town of Corydon, dismounted at the bank, entered with drawn revolvers, intimidated the cashier, cleaned out the safe, emptied ten thousand dollars into a meal sack and rode away with it. Three months after the two James boys and the four Younger brothers again attended the Kentucky races and in the afternoon rode over to Columbus, cleaned out the bank, shot the cashier and rode away to their hiding place in the Cumberland mountains in safety, although the country was aroused and armed parties were searching for them everywhere.
The gang lay quiet for a time after this to enjoy their wealth but came to the front again in a startling manner on Sept. 26, 1872. On that date there was an immense attendance at the Missouri state fair at Kansas City, Mo. There were 30,000 people present and among them the James and Younger boys. The money taken in at the gate Wednesday was enormous in amount and the robbers cast covetous eyes on it.
While a sensational trot was in progress between Ethan Allen and another crack horse and the attention of the vast assemblage was drawn to this event the bandits rode up to the office of the fair ground and found Mr. Hall, the treasurer of the fair association, counting his money. They covered him with their pistols and seizing the receipts of the day, amounting to $12,000, galloped away.
They next turned their attention to train robbery. It was in June, 1873, they made their first attempt in this direction at Council Bluffs on the Rock Island road. They took up a rail, throwing the train off the track, killing the engineer and fireman and mangling a number of the passengers. Then they went through the express car and rode off each laden with a fortune in specie, bank bills and gold bricks. A large reward was offered for their apprehension but they found safety in their haunts in the Indian country.
During the following year they amused themselves with a number of profitable stage robberies. In Jan., 1874, the band appeared at Gad's Hill, Mo., on the Iron Mountain road, flagged a train, boarded it and got away with $11,000 from the express and all the money and loose valuables of the passengers.
This was too much; so the railroad and express companies combined to hunt Jesse down. They engaged Pinkerton, who sent a detachment of detectives to spy on the robbers. One of those, Louis Weicher, a very shrewd officer, penetrated to the haunts of the gang disguised as a German emigrant. The morning after he had started on his mission his dead body with seven bullet wounds in it was found suspended to a tree. There was pinned on the breast a scrap of paper on which was written "This shall be the fate of all of Pinkerton's detectives who come into Missouri."
On the morning of the 3d inst. the three were preparing to go on one of those raids which have made the name of Jesse James a terror and James and the two Fords were in a room alone with him. The bandit had taken off his pistol belt and had stepped on a chair to brush some dust from a picture. The brothers had determined to kill their friend and get the reward and this was their chance.
They exchanged glances and silently stepped between the pistols and their victim. Both drew their pistols. The click of the hammers fell on the ear of Jesse and he was turning his head evidently to see what caused the warning sound when Robert sent a bullet crashing through his brain. The murdered bandit fell backward without a cry and rolled in his death agony on the floor.
Jesse's wife, who was in the next room, ran in and saw the two brothers scaling the fence and making off. The murdered man breathed his last a few minutes after in her arms.
Some skeptical persons who are aware of Jesse's grim, jocular habit of fixing up a corpse to resemble himself in order that he may get the reward for his own death, as has occurred several times before, are very cautious in receiving this story, although James' wife declares that the body is that of the robber chief and his mother corroborates her statement.
The old lady was very bitter against the men who had betrayed her son, saying that the silver mounted pistol with which the deed had been done was a present to Robert Ford from Jesse. As she was passing out of the court room on the 4th inst. with the two orphan children of the brigand she met Dick Little, whose late confession gave away James, his gang and his haunts, and presenting the children to him she told them to look at the false friend and betrayer of their father and added many choice recriminations suggested by her frantic grief.
She glared at him with the fury of a tigress.
"Traitor! traitor! traitor!" she cried, "God will send vengeance on you. You are the cause of all this. Oh, you villain, I would rather be in my poor boy's place than in yours."
She afterward called on the Fords who were placed in jail for safety after giving themselves up, and had an excited scene with them. Little received a letter from James last week stating that he was doomed and that Jesse would never be content until he had made him a corpse. The coroner's jury found that they had sat upon the body of the real almon pure Jesse James this time and no double.
The Ford brothers claim that they are detectives and that they joined the band and participated with the robber in many of his lawless deeds in order that they might get the dead wood on him and capture him. This proving unpracticable after many attempts they finally concluded to kill him and claim the reward. Robert, who did the killing, is a boyish looking young fellow, aged 22, and says that he had an understanding with Gov. Crittenden to do the deed.
Jesse James was the son of a Baptist clergyman of Kentucky and was educated with his younger brother Frank, now reformed and residing respectably in Texas under an assumed name, at Georgetown College, Ky. In 1846 Rev. Mr. James removed to Clay County, Mo., where he led the life of a farmer in addition to performing duty as a Baptist minister to a small congregation. Jesse James' father died in 1849 and his widow married Dr. Reuben Samuels of Clay County, Missouri. When the war opened Dr. Samuels' house was attacked by Union men and he was severely beaten by the mob. His step sons Jesse and Frank in revenge began a life of lawlessness. They joined Quantrell's guerrillas and were the most fiendish of that entire troop of murderers.
In 1865 the band was broken up by the killing of Quantrell in a fight with United States troops and the James boys returned to their mother's house where they lived peaceably for some time.
But the old spirit of lawless adventure was still in them. In 1868 they met at the Lexington, Ky., races the Younger brothers and George Sheppard, who had been their comrades with Quantrell. On their way home the party of friends visited Russelville, robbed the bank of $14,000 and fled to Texas.
They turned up again in December, 1869, when they with the Younger brothers and several others of their comrades of the guerrilla band robbed the Gallatin bank and after murdering several men again escaped to their hiding place in Texas.
For a time they lived quietly on the Missouri farm, improving it with their ill gotten wealth.
In the spring of 1870, however, they and the Youngers got their band of guerrillas together again and made a slashing raid into Iowa. At noonday seven of them rode into the town of Corydon, dismounted at the bank, entered with drawn revolvers, intimidated the cashier, cleaned out the safe, emptied ten thousand dollars into a meal sack and rode away with it. Three months after the two James boys and the four Younger brothers again attended the Kentucky races and in the afternoon rode over to Columbus, cleaned out the bank, shot the cashier and rode away to their hiding place in the Cumberland mountains in safety, although the country was aroused and armed parties were searching for them everywhere.
The gang lay quiet for a time after this to enjoy their wealth but came to the front again in a startling manner on Sept. 26, 1872. On that date there was an immense attendance at the Missouri state fair at Kansas City, Mo. There were 30,000 people present and among them the James and Younger boys. The money taken in at the gate Wednesday was enormous in amount and the robbers cast covetous eyes on it.
While a sensational trot was in progress between Ethan Allen and another crack horse and the attention of the vast assemblage was drawn to this event the bandits rode up to the office of the fair ground and found Mr. Hall, the treasurer of the fair association, counting his money. They covered him with their pistols and seizing the receipts of the day, amounting to $12,000, galloped away.
They next turned their attention to train robbery. It was in June, 1873, they made their first attempt in this direction at Council Bluffs on the Rock Island road. They took up a rail, throwing the train off the track, killing the engineer and fireman and mangling a number of the passengers. Then they went through the express car and rode off each laden with a fortune in specie, bank bills and gold bricks. A large reward was offered for their apprehension but they found safety in their haunts in the Indian country.
During the following year they amused themselves with a number of profitable stage robberies. In Jan., 1874, the band appeared at Gad's Hill, Mo., on the Iron Mountain road, flagged a train, boarded it and got away with $11,000 from the express and all the money and loose valuables of the passengers.
This was too much; so the railroad and express companies combined to hunt Jesse down. They engaged Pinkerton, who sent a detachment of detectives to spy on the robbers. One of those, Louis Weicher, a very shrewd officer, penetrated to the haunts of the gang disguised as a German emigrant. The morning after he had started on his mission his dead body with seven bullet wounds in it was found suspended to a tree. There was pinned on the breast a scrap of paper on which was written "This shall be the fate of all of Pinkerton's detectives who come into Missouri."