Jesse James by Beaux Castillo

 Jesse James was a well-known bank robber in the South. He was a very cordial toward of all of his victims. (Casey Affleck as Bob Ford 88)Most people say that he would stay in the banks for a while to get a feel for the building and plan his attack.  He didn’t believe in killing the victims but he enjoyed the rush of the money reward. Like any other bank robber, there were many conspiracy theories about his acts and his life such as:

1.         Was he stabbed by his Mothers Friend?

2.         Was he shot by his partner?

3.         Did he fake his death and change his name?

Let’s go through these theories and see what you think?

Jesse James was a very well respected young man in his younger days and he had many aliases and identities. He looked very highly of his mother and brother. He would do anything for her and his family. While he was on the run the Agents of the Pinkerton Detective Agency came and set off a device to detect Jesse to come out but the device injured his mother and brother. The device killed the 4-year-old half-brother and causing the mother to need her right arm amputated (Kathleen Halms). Jesse loved his mother with every bone in his body. He grew up on a farm just inside the state line of Kansas. It was very open and filled with wildlife. When he was 8 years old, him and his brother, were trying to construct a small explosive that was homemade by Jesse and his brother Frank. Like any other boy would, he lit it near the house and his mother just so happened came outside and ran into the explosive. The boys went into shock and after the smoke cleared you could clearly see his mother’s arm was almost gone. They rushed her to the clinic where they amputated her right arm. The boys felt horrible and his mom was very angry with him. From that point on it was hard for Jesse and his mom to reconnect and get along together. As he grew older and moved out and never looked back. This just made him mad and of course he retaliates. I believe that this accident is what changed his nice internal feelings into a mean external feeling.

Jesse James internal feelings were very powerful. He was a very smart man. He could map out a bank in less than 30 minutes. He was a genius to me. I still can’t find the bread isle and I have gone to the same store for the past 19 years and for him to know a place in 30 minutes is remarkable. His partners were very smart as well. Then would go through the bank before him and give him a layout of the bank to help him out. He used many different names and identities. Some people know him as Thomas Howard, John. D. Howard, William Campbell (a Texas cattleman), and Charles Lawson of Nottingham, England (Charles). There was one time when he was questioning whether he was going to be able to pull off an English Accent. He had more of a southern accent and it was very questionable. His son Jesse James, Jr. even said that he father would walk with a cane and a limp. (Charles)

Did one of Jesse James partners in crime kill him? Did his Mothers friend stab him in the back? Or was he hung by the law? These conspiracy theories just make me wonder what really happened to him. While robbing all of the banks around the States, many people had plenty of time to plan their attack on Jesse. The Law had put a bounty on his body dead or alive so many people were on the lookout for him but who got him last is the big question.

             Was he shot by one of his good friend and partner while on a robbery? Jesse had a friend named Bob that ran around with him during grade school. They both robbed many banks in their time and stole thousands of dollars from lots of people. They would travel around and find trains with people and valuable items on board and steal them. Now what they did with the money was a mystery.  Most people would say that they would steal from the rich and give it all to the poor. The only proof of this was when they killed an 8yr old girl during a robbery in Kansas. After the incident occurred, Jesse sent the mother money to pay for the funeral and all her expenses toward the little girl. The only evidence that helps prove this mystery is that Bob needed the money at the time and he knew there was a bounty on his best friend so he killed him.  That was his only option to get the money. There was a rumor that once Frank received the money he committed suicide because he couldn’t live with the guilt that was on his chest.                 

 Many people claim that he faked his death and changed his full name a few times. He had many different identity’s and different accents to go along with the name. One of the name of J. Frank Dalton. The name "Dalton" was his mother's maiden name.  The initial "J" stood for "Jesse," and "Frank" was his brother's name  As Chief of the Inner Sanctum of the Knights of the Golden Circle, James was one of the most powerful men in America.  Schrader writes, "The Knights had industrial as well as military spies on both sides of the Atlantic." When he chose to go through with this name change he had to learn how to speak with a dialect. The learned to talk with a British accent and the people who knew that he was going to do this didn’t think that he would have been able to pull this off be somehow he did. There were two different men in the United States that claimed to be Jesse James after his death. The gentleman that lived in Oklahoma claimed to be Jesse two months after they pronounced him dead. He went around dressed like an outlaw and had the identical clothes on him just like Jesse did. Now the other gentleman was not as outspoken as the other. He was very quiet and supposedly he hid in the woods up in Kansas. 

              Jesse James was a well-known bank robber in the South. He was a very cordial toward of all of his victims (Casey Affleck as Bob Ford 88). He didn’t believe in killing the victims but he enjoyed the rush of the money reward. Like any other bank robber, there were many conspiracy theories about his acts and his life such as:

1.         Was he stabbed by his Mothers Friend?

2.         Was he shot by his partner?

3.         Did he fake his death and change his name?

All the evidence points toward the second theory. So with that being said I believe that his partner murdered him.

Work Cited

Harvey, Steve. "A Jesse James Impostor Took Truth for a Ride." Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, 2011. Web. 09 May 2016. <http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jan/16/local/la-me-0116-then-20110116>.

Bison Bill's Weird West." Bison Bill's Weird West. Web. 09 May 2016. <http://www.bisonbill.com/Bison8.html>.

"Jesse James." Bio.com. A&E Networks Television. Web. 09 May 2016. <http://www.biography.com/people/jesse-james-9352646#!>.

"Jesse James." Bio.com. A&E Networks Television. Web. 09 May 2016.     

               <http://www.biography.com/people/jesse-james-9352646#!>.