The Day Jesse James Was Killed

By Carl W. Breihan

Jesse James is Dead!

On April 3, 1882, a bullet fired by Bob Ford from a Smith & Wesson .44 revolver ended the life of Jesse James, notorious badman. Since then, the James story has grown into a full-blown American legend.

Here is the dramatic, day-by-day account of the gunman’s lawless adventures—which to some held the bravura of a Robin Hood and to others were wanton banditry—right up to the blood-curdling moment when Jesse is shot down dead in his own parlor.

Now, for the first time, new material—drawn from authentic letters, old newspapers, and the personal remembrances of the James family, neighbors, and friends—casts a fascinating light on the motives and deeds of the entire James gang.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Normanby Press
• Release date: Feb 7, 2017
• ISBN: 9781787203969

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Text originally published in 1961 under the same title.

© Pickle Partners Publishing 2016, all rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted by any means, electrical, mechanical or otherwise without the written permission of the copyright holder.

Publisher’s Note

Although in most cases we have retained the Author’s original spelling and grammar to authentically reproduce the work of the Author and the original intent of such material, some additional notes and clarifications have been added for the modern reader’s benefit.

We have also made every effort to include all maps and illustrations of the original edition the limitations of formatting do not allow of including larger maps, we will upload as many of these maps as possible.

THE DAY JESSE JAMES WAS KILLED

BY

CARL W. BREIHAN

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Contents

TABLE OF CONTENTS 25

DEDICATION 26

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 27

FOREWORD 28

MEMBERS OF THE JAMES FAMILY 33

A JESSE JAMES CRIME CHRONOLOGY 34

DAWN, APRIL 3, 1882 36

CHAPTER 1 36

THE BEGINNING, 1850-1863 46

CHAPTER 2 46

CHAPTER 3 49

CHAPTER 4 52

CHAPTER 5 57

THE JAMES GANG, 1865-1876 59

CHAPTER 6 59

CHAPTER 7 62

CHAPTER 8 64

CHAPTER 9 68

CHAPTER 10 72

CHAPTER 11 75

CHAPTER 12 79

1876, NORTHFIELD, MINNESOTA, BEGINNING OF THE END 81

CHAPTER 13 81

CHAPTER 14 86

CHAPTER 15 90

CHAPTER 16 93

CHAPTER 17 98

CHAPTER 18 106

EARLY MORNING, APRIL 3, 1882 112

CHAPTER 19 112

THE INQUEST 121

CHAPTER 20 121

AFTERMATH 128

CHAPTER 21 128

CHAPTER 22 135

CHAPTER 23 137

CHAPTER 24 141

CHAPTER 25 150

REQUEST FROM THE PUBLISHER 157

DEDICATION

Dedicated to

Gregory Gundlach

and

Ken and Les Strobl

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

IN GRATEFUL APPRECIATION TO THOSE MANY FINE people who so willingly and ably assisted me in the compilation of this work. Their helpfulness and kindness took many a weary load from my shoulders, and enabled me to locate data that otherwise might have remained hidden years longer.

My thanks to W. E. Littler, editor Adair, Iowa, News; Lewis Ketring, Jr., Lakewood, California; Herb Glass, Bullville, New York; Glenn Clairmonte, New York, whose editorial assistance has been invaluable; Harry Younger Hall, nephew of Cole Younger, Lee’s Summit, Missouri; Charles Kemper, historian, Independence, Missouri; Dr. Frank O’Kelley, brother of the man who killed Bob Ford, Patton, Missouri; O. C. Sheley, Independence, Missouri; Miles Standish, Kansas City, Missouri; Henry G. Lingenfelder, Baltimore, Maryland; Ed Bartholomew, Houston, Texas; Uncle Charlie Bell, historian, Louisville, Kentucky; Elmer Sparks, Canadian, Texas; Fred Mazzulla, Denver, Colorado; Loring Campbell, Burbank, California; Wm. Morrison, historian-researcher, El Paso, Texas; and the personnel of the many museums I visited as well as the helpful folks at the National Archives in Washington.

If I missed anyone it is not intentional, please believe me. My heartfelt thanks to all those who assisted me in this undertaking.

FOREWORD

THE NAME OF JESSE JAMES HAS ALWAYS STIRRED THE imagination of young and old alike. Visions of daring gunplay, while yelling bandits race down upon some defenseless bank or stagecoach, rise before our eyes. But we must realize that no band in history came to a more ignominious end than the James gang of Missouri. It seems that all their activities led them straight to that day in Northfield, Minnesota, when the gang as a power died.

And singly, too, all of them met disaster. Only Frank James survived his punishment. Clell Miller and Bill Chadwell died in the streets of Northfield. Sam Wells (alias Charlie Pitts) was killed in the swamps when he and the Youngers tried to fight off a posse. The Youngers were later imprisoned at Stillwater, Minnesota. Tucker Bassham also served a term in the penitentiary. Ed Miller was killed by Jesse James and left lying in the road in Saline County, Missouri. Clarence Hite was sentenced to twenty-five years in prison and, though pardoned, died of consumption shortly afterward. Bill Ryan, sentenced to the Missouri penitentiary for twenty-five years, was pardoned by Governor Morehouse after seven years and then was killed in an accident. Wood Hite was killed by Bob Ford and Dick Liddil. Dick Liddil gave himself up and became a witness for the state, then died in Cincinnati, Ohio, and was buried at Independence, Missouri. Jesse James was killed by Bob and Charley Ford at St. Joseph, Missouri. Charley Ford, borne down by disease and remorse, committed suicide in a weed patch outside Richmond, Missouri. Bob Ford was killed by Edward O’Kelley at Jimtown, Colorado.

The simple truth is that these outlaws committed holdups and murders in order to get money, not for revenge upon Northern men for mistreatment received during the Civil War as they claimed. With possibly two exceptions the banks they robbed during their fifteen-year career belonged to Southern men and were located in Missouri, Kentucky, and Virginia. Most of the people killed during bank robberies were Southerners.

The bank was eventually broken by Southerners, ex-Confederates who felt the stigma of the crimes and pursued the members of the James gang until they were destroyed. Although the Northerners were strongly opposed to the Missouri bandits, they seemed to think it was the business of the Southerners to put a stop to their activities. Chiefly responsible for the outcome were Captain M. M. Langhorne, deputy county marshal, ex-Confederate; H. H. Craig, police commissioner born in Kentucky; Cornelius Murphy, county marshal born in Virginia; Colonel J. E. Payne, ex-Confederate; W. G. Keshlaer, deputy marshal, whose brother had been killed while serving in the Confederate Army; James Goodwin, ex-Confederate on the staff of General Fitzhugh Lee; James R. Timberlake, sheriff of Clay County, ex-Confederate; Major E. A. Hickman, who lost an arm while in the Confederate Army; William Z. Hickman, son of Major Hickman; and Amazon Hays, deputy county marshal, brother of Colonel Upton Hays of the Confederate Army.

The years following the death of Jesse James brought forth eleven impostors who claimed the dubious fame of being none other than the assassinated outlaw. The most noted of the eleven was the last, J. Frank Dalton, who appeared in Lawton, Oklahoma, as late as 1949. The author spent three years investigating Dalton and exposing him. Sometimes the old codger presented a pitiful sight, becoming entangled in his own web of facts and myths about the Missouri bandit, and it seemed that his exploiters were more to blame than he was.

According to the newspapers, the old-time outlaw Al Jennings identified Dalton as the real Jesse and his story was corroborated by John Trammell, a hundred-year-old colored man. Here is a statement by Fred C. Pottorff of Parsons, Kansas:

June 16, 1955

I asked Al Jennings at his home if he thought Dalton was Jesse James, and he answered, Hell, no! I told him I believed I read somewhere that he had said so, and he replied, "I don’t remember saying so. Somebody probably just wrote that.

When the author contacted John Trammell in Oklahoma he replied:

July 25, 1955

CARL W. BREIHAN: MY FRIEND

Now sir: J. Frank Dalton was not Jesse James. Jesse told me that he had some relatives by that name. Jesse James went by some strange names when he did not want to be identified. He played a Rev. Jones in Mississippi and his brother Frank took the part of a doctor.

Yours truly

JOHN TRAMMELL

John Trammell was a cook for the James band for many years, and he recalled without hesitation verifiable incidents as far back as 1879—incidents he would not have known if he hadn’t been with Jesse and Frank.

On July 20, 1939, the following article was published in a Corpus Christi (Texas) newspaper:

Frank Dalton, ninety-one, one of the last of Quantrill’s Raiders, Civil War fighters, is a resident of Corpus Christi. He calls himself an accidental Texan, having been born at Goliad, March 8, 1848, while his father, a United States Army colonel, was en-route to the Mexican War.

Dalton weighs 182 pounds and is 5’ 10½" tall, with white hair hanging over his shoulders. The hair formerly hung to his waist but it was cut off two years ago while he was in a hospital with a broken leg.

He joined Quantrill’s men when fifteen and said he knew Jesse James, Cole Younger, and others who made borderland history more than sixty years ago.

Since the Civil War, Dalton has been a United States marshal, a United States soldier, Texas ranger, and a Texas oil man, but always has stayed along the frontier. He draws an old-age pension but says he longs to write his story for the movies. He has written several short stories and made contributions to the Missouri Historical Society, especially since the film Jesse James was produced. They wanted me to give accurate accounts of the battle of Centralia and others, he said.

Dalton scoffs at reports that Jesse James was not killed April 3, 1882. Tom Crittenden, then governor of Missouri, identified Jesse, his former schoolmate, Dalton said.

When he joined the army in 1868 Dalton said he married the regimental colonel’s daughter. Mrs. Dalton, who died in 1928, helped him write stories for newspapers and magazines and although he has an offer from a prominent weekly magazine, Dalton said he has been unable to accept because no one has been able suitably to take his wife’s place.

As a member of Troop S of the 1st Regiment, Fifth Cavalry, Dalton was with General Custer in the Sioux campaign along the Big and Little Horn rivers in Montana. He was with the United States Army for nine years and for five years was a Texas ranger, then went to Fort Smith, Arkansas, as a United States marshal. When Indian Territory was opened as a state, Dalton went to Whitehead, Okla. In 1931 he went to Gladewater, Texas, and engaged in oil development.

A careful and detailed check into these statements has proved that nearly all of them are false. The most obvious mistake, of course, is that Lieutenant-Colonel Custer commanded the Seventh Regiment of cavalry, not the First Regiment Fifth Cavalry. There was no Company S in Custer’s command, which consisted of Companies H, D, K, C, E, F, I, L, B, M, A and G.

It was long afterward that Dalton posed as Jesse James, and he had various backers. One man from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, was known as Robert E. Lee, and he conducted a Jesse James Museum and was therefore glad to add to the publicity of the name. He said about Dalton: Boys, it’s him. I can hardly believe my eyes, but that man is truly Jesse James. I can’t be mistaken. It’s the old bandit himself.

Frank James’ son said about Dalton’s claim: Oh, yes, this is not new to me. You see, I have had eleven Uncle Jesses since 1882. They bob up every once in a while. None of them have ever come to see me, though. They are too busy at fairs, rodeos, and making money out of it. At one time two of them were operating at the same time. So far none has had the missing fingertip.

One of the prominent fakers was John James (no relation), an escaped mental patient from a soldiers’ home in Illinois. His claim was exposed in the 1930’s, and he passed away in 1947 at Little Rock, Arkansas.

Some years after the Columbia bank robbery, a tent show opened in that little Kentucky town. An old fellow came out to the front platform and shouted, The original and only Jesse James! Here was another of those impostors trying to earn money by claiming to be Jesse James. At that time Marshal Evan Atkin was the principal law-enforcement agency in Columbia. With a grin on his face he retired to the courthouse and hunted up the original bench warrant issued when the real Jesse James and his gang were accused of having perpetrated the bank robbery. Marshal Atkin returned to the carnival grounds. The man who claimed to be Jesse James was still holding the crowd spellbound as he recounted astounding adventures and escapes from the long arm of the law.

Marshal Atkin stepped forward and asked, Is this man really and truly Jesse James?

Why, my dear sir, there is absolutely no doubt of it. This is Jesse James! the barker said.

The old man interrupted and drawled, Why, shore I’m Jesse James.

The marshal then showed them his badge and remarked, Well, I have a warrant right here in my pocket for the arrest of Jesse James on a charge of murder and bank robbery. If you are not out of town in thirty minutes I’ll serve this warrant on you.

That took care of one impostor.

On September 6, 1952, the following letter from Mrs. Stella James, widow of Jesse James’ son, Jesse Edwards James, was published in the St. Louis Dispatch:

I am the widow of Jesse Edwards James who was the son of Jesse James. I married young Jesse in 1900.

In not one of the more than fifty years of close association with the James family have I ever had the slightest reason to doubt that Jesse James was killed by Bob Ford on April 3, 1882.

My husband was seven years old when his father was killed. The murder made an indelible impression on his young mind.

Many times my husband has related the story in detail to me. Jesse’s son disregarded the fake claims of the many would-be Jesse Jameses. The family has grown accustomed to such claims.

I can remember eleven different men who claimed to be Jesse James since I have been in the family.

Our family has never wanted publicity. We have no protection by law from these fakers—or as to the kind of books or motion pictures that are produced. We have wanted to live quiet and normal lives.

I have four very fine daughters and four fine grandchildren. In all fairness to these young people I hope you will give me a chance to disprove the story that Frank Dalton, who died last year in Texas, was really Jesse James.

When Lee Howk came out with the Dalton claim he was using the same affidavits and story that were used by another man back in 1932.

I had read all of these affidavits and felt sure Howk was using them as he had the same story about the man who was killed by Ford as being a Charlie Bigelow. I then called on Mr. Howk—incognito, of course—and asked Mr. Howk if this man was the same one who had made the claim in 1932. He said he was.

I then convinced him that this old man died in Little Rock, Arkansas. Later Lee Howk sent a man who said he was Rev. Highley to see me, to say that if our family would claim this old man as Jesse James we would be paid $50,000.

Our answer to that was a letter to Mr. Howk by our attorney, stating he expected to bring a lawsuit to stop them from exploiting the old man in California. Mr. Howk then left Los Angeles; the old man, Dalton, was taken in charge by our police officers and placed in a rest home and later sent back to his home.

I want to assure you that if Jesse James had lived these many years he would have been cared for by his son and family and not have been exploited over the country for the few dollars that would be made from such an exploitation.

I can’t help but feel that the reading public would like to hear the truth about this Lee Howk story.

Now we have seen the last of the impostors, for the element of time has taken care of that.

CARL W. BREIHAN

MEMBERS OF THE JAMES FAMILY

NAME—BORN—DIED

Robert Sallee James—July 17, 1818—August 19, 1851

Zerelda Cole James (Samuel)—January 29, 1825—February 10, 1911

Alexander Franklin James—January 10, 1844—February 18, 1915

Robert R. James—July 19, 1845—August 21, 1845

Jesse Woodson James—September 5, 1847—April 3, 1882

Susan James (Parmer)—November 25, 1849—March 3, 1889

Reuben Samuel—January 12, 1828—March 1, 1908

Sarah Samuel (Nicholson)—December 26, 1858—September 15, 1915

John T. Samuel—May 25, 1861—March 15, 1932

Fannie Quantrill Samuel (Hall)—October 18, 1863—May 30, 1922

Archie Peyton Samuel—July 26, 1866—January 26, 1875

Zerelda Mimmbs (James)——?—1845—November 30, 1900

Annie Ralston (James)—January 25, 1853—July 6, 1944

Jesse Edwards James—August 31, 1875—March 26, 1951

Mary James (Barr)—July 17, 1879—October 11, 1935

Robert Franklin James—February 6, 1878—November 18, 1959

A JESSE JAMES CRIME CHRONOLOGY

February 13, 1866—the Commercial Bank of Liberty, Missouri, robbed of $58,000. A young boy killed.

October 30, 1866—the Mitchell & Company banking firm of Lexington, Missouri, robbed of $2,000.

March 2, 1861—the private banking concern of Judge William McLain entered by bandits, who were thwarted and fled. McLain was wounded and died shortly after.

May 23, 1867—the Hughes and Mason Bank of Richmond, Missouri, robbed of $4,000 in gold coins. Sheriff and son killed.

March 21, 1868—the Southern Bank of Russellville, Kentucky, robbed of $14,000.

December 7, 1869—the Daviess County Bank in Gallatin, Missouri, robbed of an undetermined amount of money. The cashier killed.

June 3, 1871—County Treasurer’s office at Corydon, Iowa, held up. Also the Obocock Brothers Bank of Corydon cleaned out same day.

April 29, 1872—Kentucky Deposit Bank of Columbia, Kentucky, robbed of $1,500. Cashier murdered.

September 26, 1872—the Kansas City Fair robbed of its gate receipts of about $10,000.

May 27, 1873—Ste. Genevieve, Missouri, Savings Association robbed, but the big money overlooked.

July 21, 1873—the first train robbery credited to the James gang. Train of the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific robbed near Adair, Iowa. Engineer killed.

January 15, 1874—Stagecoach robbery of passengers on the run between Malvern, Arkansas, and Hot Springs.

January 31, 1874—train robbery at Gads Hill, Missouri.

April 7, 1874—the San Antonio-Austin, Texas, stage plundered.

December 13, 1874—Kansas and Pacific train held up at Muncie, Kansas, and robbed of a fortune in gold dust.

September 1, 1875—the bank at

Reviews for The Day Jesse James Was Killed

[lamour_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

This is a very detailed volume on the life of Jesse and Frank James. Unfortunately, it is marred by the author's insistence of putting dialogue in the mouths of these men and women who are long dead. I found this very distracting. It also makes the book an historical novel and not a biography. On the plus side, his research seems impeccable some of which he includes in the form of letters, speeches and other documents. Despite my reservations, it was a pleasant read about a dangerous man who became an American folk hero.