Jesse Woodson James (September 5, 1847–April 3, 1882) was an American outlaw, the most famous member of the James-Younger gang. Since his death, Jesse James has become a figure of folklore.
Biography
Pre-Civil War
Jesse James was born in Centerville, Missouri (later renamed
Kearney). His father, Robert James, was a
slave-owning
hemp farmer and
Baptist minister from Kentucky who helped found
William Jewell College in
Liberty, Missouri and later died in
California. Robert's widow,
Zerelda, married again, first to a wealthy man who soon died, then to a timid doctor named
Reuben Samuel, who moved into the James home. In the tumultuous years leading up to the
American Civil War, Zerelda and Reuben acquired a total of seven slaves and grew tobacco on their well-appointed farm.
Civil War
When the Civil War began,
Union forces quickly drove organized
Confederate units out of
Missouri. But the state was badly divided between Unionists and Southern sympathizers (including the James-Samuel family), and local tensions were exacerbated by raids by
abolitionist Union troops and simple bandits from
Kansas. Jesse's older brother,
Frank James, fought with the regular Confederate army until illness forced him to return home. In 1863, Frank joined the Confederate
bushwhackers,
guerrillas who were battling Union forces in western Missouri, in a savage war marked by atrocities by both sides; the warfare was probably more intense because it was largely waged by Missourians, with Unionist
militia pitted against Confederate insurgents, which often pitted neighbors against neighbors. Frank and Jesse's own stepfather,
Reuben Samuel, was tortured by local militiamen hunting for Frank's band. Frank eventually linked up with
Quantrill's Raiders and took part in the
bloody massacre of 200 men and boys in
Lawrence, Kansas.
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Dad keeps kid. Actress Sandra Bullock & husband Jesse James won custody battle against adult film star Janine Lindemulder. http://ow.ly/RmOJ
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Assassination of Jesse James, Up, Shaun of the Dead, Dead Man's Shoes, Good Night/Good Luck, Mou Gaan Dou, In Bruges #filmsofthedecade
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IMDb: Jesse James - Filmography and pictures
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