How Did Jesse James Get Famous
While Jesses James preferred the spotlight, his brother Frank James preferred a good book and the company of his family. Still, his gun was always at the ready.
Wikimedia CommonsAn older Frank James at 55-years-old.
Frank James was the older brother to the now-legendary American outlaw Jesse. Although on the surface they seemed very similar, in truth the siblings were quite different.
- However, of all the crimes associated with these men, Gads Hill undoubtedly did the most to create the myth of Jesse James as an American Robin Hood. Reports of the outlaws stealing from the rich passengers aboard the train and tales of their giving to the poor widows and farmers as they escaped across the Ozarks are legendary.
- The robbery of 1869 made James a famous criminal and he was titled as an outlaw and the then Governor of Missouri put a reward on his capture. This started the famous union of James and the editor of the Kansas City Time, John Newman Edwards. Edwards published letters from James for the public to let people know his motives.
- Jamesis a recurring character on Glee. He was a senior at Carmel High School in Akron, Ohio, the male lead of Vocal Adrenaline and one of the main antagonists in Season One. He was instructed to befriend Rachel by Vocal Adrenaline coach Shelby Corcoran, who is secretly Rachel's biological mother. Jesse and Rachel began dating, and he briefly transfers to William McKinley High School.
Jesse James was a daring outlaw from Missouri. He became a legend in his own lifetime by committing crimes supposedly out of revenge for the poor treatment he, his family, and other Southern sympathizers received from Union soldiers during the Civil War.
Jesse was showy, daring to the point of recklessness, and had a thirst for fame that would eventually be his downfall. Frank was shy, referred to spend his time reading, and married a schoolteacher. What both brothers did have in common was a fierce love of their Southern home and a deep resentment of the “Northern aggressors.”
The Start Of The James Gang
Wikimedia CommonsJesse James and his older brother Frank (right).
Seemingly in contrast with his bookish nature, Frank joined up with William Quantrill‘s famously bloody Confederate guerrillas during the American Civil War. Jesse James eagerly followed his older brother into battle and together they terrorized the countryside, attacking both Union soldiers and civilians as part of the guerrilla gang.
Far from healing the nation’s wounds, the Civil War left deep scars of regional divisions throughout the United States. Some in the former Confederacy harbored feelings of resentment towards the North; to the agricultural South, the post-war boom of industry and finance represented the triumph of the Union victors. Although their side had lost, Jesse and Frank were not ready to surrender their arms, and the cash-carrying trains and banks presented tempting targets.
On Feb. 13th, 1866, a group of unidentified outlaws carried out the first daytime bank robbery in the United States. The robbery was notable because rather than slink in anonymously under the cover of darkness, the thieves had boldly walked in, beat up the cashier, and made off with nearly $60,000 worth of cash, gold, and bonds. Although it has never been proved, it’s believed this 1866 robbery was the first committed by the James brothers and their gang.
It certainly fits the pattern: Jesse’s flair for showmanship combined with the gang’s choice of targets (the Clay County Savings Association that was robbed in 1866 was run by former Republican militiamen) would characterize the gang’s exploits during their decade-long reign.
1881 Reward poster for the James Brothers
Newspapers quickly realized the popularity of stories about the outlaw brothers and eagerly published as many stories as possible about the James brothers’ exploits, presenting them as heroes of the repressed Southern states. James-mania reached such a fever-pitch in the South that the state legislature of Missouri actually came close to granting amnesty to their entire James–Younger Gang, despite their string of violent escapades.
Jesse thrived in the spotlight and even began dropping his own press releases at the crime scenes. Frank, however, eventually tired of a life on the run. After a botched robbery, he recalled the days he had spent with his family on a farm as “the happiest I have spent since my boyhood.”
The Public Turns On The Jesse And Frank James
Getty ImagesAmerican outlaw Frank James (second from left) and others pose over the dead body of his brother Jesse James at Sidenfaden Funeral Parlor in St. Joseph, Mo. April 4, 1882.
Public sympathy for the James Brothers did have its limits.
The golden boys of the South lost their Robin Hood-like image as protectors of the poor after an 1881 train robbery. Conductor William Westfall was shot in the back as he was collecting tickets while passenger Frank McMillen was shot straight through the forehead as he peered through a car window. There was no positive spin the formerly-fawning press could put on these murders.
After popular support for the brothers eroded, Missouri put out a $5,000 reward for each of them. Jesse’s band of merry men clearly valued cash over loyalty and the outlaw was brutally shot down by Robert Ford, a member of his own gang. Showing that his hold on the popular imagination had not quite broken, one newspaper wistfully reported the story with the headline “GOODBYE JESSE.”
Although his brother’s death had sealed Jesse’s status as an American legend, Frank James decided he preferred to live on in the real world rather than just American lore. Five months after his brother was murdered, he turned himself in to the governor of Missouri, stating, “I have been hunted for twenty-one years, have literally lived in the saddle, have never known a day of perfect peace. It was one long, anxious, inexorable, eternal vigil.”
Luckily for him, the allure of the James brothers lingered long enough to ensure that three separate juries failed to convict Frank of any crime.
Frank went on to live a relatively normal life for the next three decades.
He coasted off of his former celebrity status by touring the country as part a traveling theater company. Far from lapsing back into his former outlaw ways, the only connection he had with his past life as a criminal was when he and his old fellow gang-member Cole Younger teamed up to produce the “James-Younger Wild West Show. ”
In contrast to his brother’s bloody demise, Frank James passed away peacefully on his family’s Missouri farm at the ripe old age of 72.
After learning about Frank James, read about the Robert Ford, the man who killed Jesse James. Then learn about Ned Kelly, Australia’s armored outlaw turned folk hero.
Who was Jesse James?
Jesse James and his brother Frank were notorous outlaws during the heyday of the American West.
How Did Jesse Owens Get Famous
The James brothers were both born in Missouri, the sons of Robert and Zerelda (Cole) James. James was born on September 5, 1847 and his brother Alexander Franklin 'Frank' James was born January 10, 1843. There father died while the boys were young and their mother was married a couple of more times after his death.
How Did Jessie James Decker Get Famous
Quantrill's Raiders and Bloody Bill Anderson
During the Civil War the James brothers were Confederate guerrillas in Missouri. Frank joined Quantrill's Raiders and eventually followed Quantrill to Texas. When Frank returned to Missouri with a group of the raiders, Jesse joined the group.
After the leader of their group was severely wounded, the brothers joined up with Bloody Bill Anderson's group. The brothers were accused of committing atrocities against Union troops when they reportedly participated in the Centralia Massacre where Anderson's bushwackers killed or wounded 22 unarmed Union soldiers.
The James-Younger Gang
After the Civil War, the James brothers took up crime as the more famous members of the James-Younger gang. The gang committed train robberies, bank robberies, and murder from 1866 until 1876 when an attempted robbery of the Northfield, Minnesota bank resulted in the deaths and capture of some of the gang. While Frank retired from crime after that attempt, Jesse returned to crime by forming a new gang in 1879.
The end came for Jesse James on April 3, 1882 when a member of the gang, Robert Ford, shot Jesse in the back of the head in an attempt to collect a $10,000 reward. Jesse had by then become America's most wanted criminal.
The Royal Ancestry of Jesse James
How Did Jessie James Decker Became Famous
Susanna Norwood is the 6th great-grandmother of the outlaw Jesse James. She is also the key to his royal ancestry through her father Capt. John Norwood who came to Virginia from England about 1650.
Harry Newman in his 'To Maryland from Overseas' states the following about Capt. John Norwood:
This reference to “professional' research is what links Capt. John Norwood of Virginia to Tyringham Norwood of England. Harry Newman died shortly after publishing this account and the details regarding this 1961 research apparently has not been published. So without further research, any royal cousins or famous kin through Capt. John Norwood should be prefixed with the adjective ”probable.'
