In June of 1892 , Robert Ford was managing a dance Charles Martin Hall in the town of Creede , Colorado . He ’d descend down in the world , but was still dressed to the IX the day a deputy sheriff from out of town identify Ed O’Kelley walked in with a shotgun . Ford had his back turned , so O’Kelley politely greeted him . Ford wrick and see himself at the wrong end of O’Kelley ’s scattergun . It was the last matter he ever saw .
In jail , O’Kelley nigh drown in lover mail . His sudden popularity stem from fact that he ’d gun down the man who killed one of America ’s most famous outlaws — Jesse James .
Well before he die , Jesse James was a legend . Some consider him aRobin Hood , who surcharge bank and handed out cash to the poor . Others , including President Ulysses S. Grant , gauge him a murderous crook . Unfortunately , there does n’t seem to be any grounds that he redistributed his badly - gotten gain . And as for his violent behaviour , it seem to have been rooted in a very specific historical context .
pay in 1847,he and his pal Frank occur of age during the AmericanCivil War . They enlist with the Confederate Army as stripling and although the war ended in 1865 , for the James brothers , it was never really over .
T. J. Stiles is the honour - winning author of , " Jesse James : Last Rebel of the Civil War . " In an electronic mail interview , he laid out some of the conditions that lead Jesse James toward a aliveness of post - Civil War violent crime .
Bad Influences
The first influence was his friendly relationship with Archie Clement , " one of the most wild of the Confederate irregular loss leader in Missouri , " according to Stiles . Clement carried on the war long after it was over . The Unionist Republicans had control of Missouri , including its banks . So , Clement hook as many of them as potential and did his violent best to sway elections against the Republicans . nation militiaman eventually shoot down Clement , which , says Stiles , " embittered Jesse James . "
Jesse was not alone in his admiration for Clement . His own mother , Zerelda , had named one of her other sons after the fallen drawing card . In fact , Zerelda was " hotly partisan and an outspoken protagonist of the Confederate causal agency , " Stiles asserts . " Jesse James was brought up in an intensely political ambience . "
The influences of Zerelda and Archie Clement combine with Jesse James ' war experiences to foster James ' vocation of politically - ting violence . Stiles notes that the Confederate guerrilla group he bring together at the eld of 16 , was , " essentially a demise police squad , run low farm to farm in the county where he had farm up , off farmer in their field of operations or home simply because of their loyalty . "
In other words , the warfare instruct him he could dedicate acts of act of terrorism and get away with it . And post - Civil War politics had everything to do with his longevity as a criminal . " The reason Jesse James lasted costless and alive as a fugitive from justice for more than a decade — far longer than the distinctive criminal , " explains Stiles , " is that he was seen as a political hero to former Confederates , a role he cultivated . " But the protection this condition afforded him would not last forever .
After a camber looting in Minnesota go wrong , Jesse ’s work party barely escaped capture . They take flight back to Missouri and while Frank James , his crony , seems to have settled down , Jesse cash in one’s chips on another criminal offense fling . The new governor of Missouri , Thomas Crittenden , convince private corporations to offer a satisfying wages for the seizure and conviction of the James brothers . Then he arranged a secret meeting at a hotel after a ball in Kansas City with the last two remaining member of Jesse ’s gang , Charley and Robert Ford . By this time , Jesse had rise paranoid and the Ford brothers were the only people he still desire .
His trust was poorly placed .
The Ambush and Murder
On the morning of April 3 , 1882 , Jesse and the Ford Brother breakfasted together before retreat to the living elbow room to talk about their plans for an upcoming robbery . Jesse noticed a stale picture on the wall and adjudicate now was the time to cleanse it . He climbed onto a chair to hit it . Robert Ford took a deep breathing space and draw in his gun . Jesse was a man Ford had long admired . A man he ’d emulated . Yet Ford aimed his gun at the back of Jesse ’s head and give the axe .
After the Ford pal notify the federal agency , they were catch and thrown in prison house for murder . They confess and were sentenced to expiry . But this seems to have been part of the governor ’s plan .
T. J. Stiles states that , given the circumstance , it seems almost sure that when Governor Crittenden met with the Ford buddy before the shooting , he promised to let them off the hook when the fourth dimension come if they were up for some extrajudicial killing .
" By the time Jesse James was notice for death , " say Stiles , " his causal agency had run its course . Reconstruction was reversed across the country and within Missouri , where former Confederates dominated the ruling Democratic Party . The outlaw had no more political support ; he was simply a crook . Crittenden had a free hand , so to talk . Two things intimate that Crittenden explicitly authorized the Ford brothers to vote out Jesse James at their mystical merging after the egg in Kansas City : First , the brothers like a shot cede to authorisation after the murder and pleaded shamefaced . ( A pardon could only be issued after a conviction . ) They would scarcely have done so if they were not sealed of a amnesty . Second , they were in reality pardoned . I regain it unimaginable to reason out that there was not an explicit understanding . "
Out of prison , the Ford crony leveraged their ill fame into a travelling show in which they act out the putting to death of Jesse James . But over metre , public opinion turned against them . They folded the show and went their separate direction .
Frank James surrender to the authorities after his brother ’s dying . He spend a yr and three weeks in jail but was never convicted for his many crimes . He married , had shaver and finally return to his mother ’s farm , where , after a farsighted and mostly uneventful life , he diedat the historic period of 74 .
Some peopledo not believethat Jesse James was pour down on April 3 , 1882 ; these people claim his end was faked and that he actually died of old age many yr later . There is also a bit of arguing about whether he was actually standing on a chair or had just move around his back on Robert Ford , though most historian do impute to the hypothesis that James had stepped up on a chair to do a bit of housework .
