When Did Jesse James Die and Who Killed Him - Essay Example

Jesse James Introduction Few of the people have attracted the global fascination all around the world's legendary characters like the outlaw, Jesse James. A number of people call him the America's Robin Hood, but others distinguish him as a cold blooded killer. Jesse Woodson James was born in Kearney, Missouri on September 5, 1847. Rev. Robert, his father, was a Baptist minister who helped to find William Jewell College in Liberty, Mo. He was the most famous group member of the James Younger Gang. However, after his death, Jesse became a legendary figure of the Wild West. Unfortunately, he got killed from his own gang member, namely Robert Ford. Jesse James Every century conveys its villains and heroes. Sometimes, a character sways forward with a mixture of two that can be due to the worlds that doesn't know whether to hate or love that person or he or she becomes a landmark in the complex study of mankind. Such milestone is Jesse James. He was born in Kearney, Missouri on September 5, 1847. Jesse James was a member of the famous group namely, James Younger Gang. Most of the people say that it was the brutal treatment from the Union Soldiers that changed the life of Jesse James and led him towards the crime during the Civil War. The war devastated the Missouri and shaped the life of Jesse. Undoubtedly, during the war, he learned how to kill while riding with his gang member William Quantrill and Bloody Bill Anderson. After the war, Jesse was injured whilst yielding. Within a year, Frank, another group member, and Jesse are suppose to have succeeded the first daylight bank theft in peace point in time. They ran away with $60,000 from the Liberty, Mo. bank not far from their dwelling. For the subsequently 15 years, the James boys wandered all through the U.S. robbing trains and banks of their gold, constructing a fable that was to exist more than a century after Jesse's passing away. However, during this time, Jesse got married to his own cousin namely, Zerelda after her mother and was called Zee in short. They both together had two children, Jesse Edwards and Mary. A Pinkerton Detective Agency was called in to assist the catch of the famous thieves. On Christmas Eve, Jesse and Zee stimulated their family into a little house, which was located on top of the high hill. Living under the unspecified name of Tom Howard, Jesse rented the house from a city councilman. With his gang exhausted by arrests, deaths, and defections, Jesse realized that he had only two men left whom he could trust and they were his own brothers Bob and Charley Ford. To better defend his own self, Jesse asked the Ford brothers to move in with him and his family. However, Jesse did not know that Bob Ford had been carrying out secret discussions with Thomas T. Crittenden, the Missouri governor, to bring in Jesse James. Crittenden had made the capture of the James brothers his top precedence; in his opening address he affirmed that no political causes could be permitted to keep them from justice. Banned by law from presenting an adequately large reward, he had turned to the railroad and conveyed the corporations to put up a $10,000 reward for each of them. On April 3, 1882, after having his breakfast, the Fords and James arranged for departure for one more robbery, going in and out of the house to set up the horses. It was an oddly hot day; James removed his coat, and then affirmed that he should eliminate his firearms as well, in case he looks suspicious. James observed a dirty picture on the wall and stood on a chair to clean it. Robert Ford took benefit of the chance, and shot James in the back of the head. (City of St. Joseph, 2007). His murder became a nationwide commotion. The Fords made no effort to conceal their task. Certainly, Robert Ford wired the governor to assert his prize. As crowds pushed into the small house in St. Joseph to see the dead thief, the Ford brothers admitted defeat and surrendered to the authorities, but they were disappointed to find they were accused with first degree murder. The Ford brothers were tried and prisoners. They were sentenced to death by hanging, but within two hours, they were granted a full pardon by the Governor of Missouri. The governor's quick pardon recommended that he may have been alert that the brothers intended to kill, rather than capture, Jesse James. The proposition that the chief executive of Missouri plotted to kill a private citizen worried the public and helped generate a new legend in James. Although, there were rumors of Jesse James's endurance, reproduced roughly as soon as the newspapers proclaimed his death. Some said that Robert Ford murdered him someone other than James, in a complicated plot to allow him to run away from honesty. Some people believe that Jesse James hid in the upper floor of a two story house in Dublin, Texas while he was hiding from the authorities. During his existence, Jesse James was mainly distinguished by former Confederates, to whom he pleaded openly in his letters to the journalists. Without any doubt, some historians praise him with contributing to the growth of Confederates to supremacy in Missouri politics. His return to misdemeanor after the fall of modernization, however, was devoid of political implications, but it helped reinforce his place in American remembrance as a simple but extraordinarily effectual thief. During the Populist and Progressive periods, he appeared as America's Robin Hood, standing up next to the corporations in justification of the small farmer. This criminal image is still seen in movies, as well as songs and myths. Though he remains a notorious symbol in the literary battles over the place of the Civil War in American history, he is regarded as a hero by the neo Confederate pressure group. Jesse James died in 1882, but the legend of Jesse James continues more than a century beyond his death. Today Jesse and Frank James are among the best-known Americans in the world. (Yvonne James, 2000). Conclusion In that short duration of life, Jesse James moved dishonest yet brilliant, unschooled yet victorious in a changing world. At the same time as he rode at his climax, the nation fall over over its centenary celebration, happy, fat and beating its loyal breast till black and blue. Changes were coming, some frightening in view, others promising. In no other fold of life was American colloquialism revolving an about-face more harshly than in the West. But, Jesse James outride the changes taking place around him, thumbing his nose at others who said this was a reorganized world, and sustained to be the Templar knight of things that were, custom his burden friends. Bibliography City of St. Joseph. St. Joseph History - Jesse James. 2007. The City of St. Joseph Missouri. March 23, 2008. http://www.ci.st-joseph.mo.us/history/jessejames.cfm Yvonne James. Most Wanted: Frank and Jesse James. 2000. James Website Coordinator. March 23, 2008. http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/daisy/jamesged.htm Read More