by We’re not fooling around, we went to both the Jesse James Birthplace home in Kearney, Mo and to the Jesse James Home where he was shot and killed in St Joseph, Missouri. In spite of his somewhat mythical status, Jesse was emphatically Not A Good Man.
The log cabin farmhouse where he was born was built in 1822. Jesse’s parents purchased the isolated cabin in 1845 with their son Frank, and Jesse was born two years later. It is also where, in 1875, Pinkerton detectives on the hunt for Jesse threw a bomb into the home, killing Jesse’s half-brother Archie and severing mother Zerelda’s right arm.
Wikipedia describes Jesse as “an American outlaw, bank and train robber, guerrilla and leader of the James–Younger Gang.” That about sums it up.
He was active from 1866-1882, during which time he and his gang robbed committed at least twenty robberies (primarily banks, trains and stagecoaches), and murdered around twenty people. Some of the murders were members of his own gang.
Yet thanks to his flamboyant style and daring escapes, newspaper stories and dime novels made him into a legend with a positive spin. There’s no way to shine this apple, though. Portrayals of Jesse as a Robin Hood character have no evidence to support them.
Jesse James rented the home in St Joseph in 1881 under the alias Thomas Howard. He moved his wife Zerelda and their two small children into the home.
By this time, the Missouri governor had announced a $10,000 reward for Jesse’s capture, as he had evaded justice for years and continued to wreak havoc. Robert “Bob” Ford, a member of Jesse’s gang, thought he would be considered a hero if he took out Jesse, not to mention how nice the reward money would be. He was on the lookout for an opportunity.
The chance finally came on April 3, 1882. It was a warm day with open doors and windows, so Jesse had removed his guns so as not to raise the interest of neighbors. When Jesse climbed up on a chair to straighten and dust a picture, Bob shot hm behind his right ear. Jesse was 34 years old.
Bob and his brother (who was present and in on the plan) were arrested and charged with murder, but as the Fords had pre-arranged with the governor their plan to execute Jesse, they were pardoned after their conviction, though they never did receive the reward money.
The real kicker was that they were not, as they expected, considered heroes, but rather cowards for shooting a man with his back turned. Bob himself was shot and killed in a similar matter in 1892.
We listened to the audiobook The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (affiliate link), which we both really enjoyed.
However, the movie of the same name (affiliate link) starring Brad Pitt and Casey Affleck is really worth a watch. Brad plays Jesse as an increasingly disturbed man, with so much of the acting showing on his face and in his mannerisms. Casey plays Robert Ford as such an awkward young man it is almost painful to watch at times.
The movie suggests the possibility that Jesse was just done with his life, and may have almost invited Robert Ford to shoot him. At the home you see the setup where the shooting happened (see cover photo), and it honestly feels like a viable possibility. It seems almost incredulous that Jesse would need a chair to dust or straighten the picture (or even that he would be doing such a thing as a matter of course in the first place).
After Jesse was killed, family members gave tours to the public for 50 cents. The home remained in the family until it was sold to the county in 1978, who obviously continue to operate it as a tourist attraction.
At the birthplace there’s a twenty-minute film, some exhibits with more family artifacts then expected, and then the house itself. You can’t enter the house, but look through screens into each room. A short drive away is Jesse’s grave, where it’s clear some people are still hero-worshipping a ruthless killer.
The St Joseph home was originally located a few blocks from where it now sits.
