CROSSING OUTLAWS: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF JESSE JAMES AND JESUS OF NAZARETH Robert Paul Seesengood and Jennifer L. Koosed Then and there was concocted the most diabolical plan ever conceived and adopted to rid the State of an outlaw since the world began. That an outlaw shall pillage is to be expected; that in his wild and crime-stained career even red-handed murder and cruel assassination may stalk companion-like beside him would cause surprise to no one; but that the Governor of the State, the conservator of the liber- ties of her people, and the preserver and executor of her laws, should league with harlots, thieves and murderers to procure assassination, is astounding almost beyond belief. – Frank Triplett, The Life, Times and Treacherous Death of Jesse James, 219. Am I a bandit that you come to arrest me in the dark of night with swords and cudgels? – Mark 14:48 Betrayal of a Bandit Jesse Woodson James was shot in the back of the head with a .45 Colt Navy revolver by Robert Newton Ford on April 3, 1882. By the time of his death, Jesse James was the most notorious gunman and bandit on the ante-Bellum Missouri frontier; wanted posters dotted the territory promising $5000 for his seizure or murder with an additional $5000 upon his arraignment. Bob Ford and his brother Charlie had recently joined James’ gang of bandits. Planning a new caper, both Ford brothers were staying with Jesse in his home in St. Joseph, Missouri, along with Jesse’s wife and infant children. On the morning of April 3rd, after a night’s sleep, a full breakfast, and some light chores with the horses, they both drew on Jesse James while he was in his own front parlor. Describing the scene from the public testimony of Bob and Charles Ford, one biographer writes: 362 robert paul seesengood and jennifer l. koosed On the morning of April 3rd, 1882, Jesse James stood in a chair, brush- ing some pictures with a feather duster. His coat was off, as the weather was warm; the door was open to admit the breeze, and he feared that suspicion might be attracted if he continued to wear his belt containing one pistol. Laying his belt aside, as he had often done before . he got upon a chair to use a feather duster, and here he committed the fatal mistake of turning his back to the Fords.1 Bob Ford fired the fatal shot. Charlie, according to later testimony, drew but did not fire; neither brother spoke a word. Jesse heard them as they drew and cocked their revolvers but offered only a slight turn of his head; he made no attempt to defend himself or flee. Jesse James Jesse began his violent career as a teenager riding with civil war gue- rillas led by the ruthless William Clarke Quantrill seeking revenge for atrocities—some real and some imagined—committed by Union loyal- ists. After the Civil War, Jesse and his brother Frank began a career of banditry famous for its daring and excessive violence. Their notable partnership with the Younger Brothers (Cole, Bob and Jim) marks a rough “high point” in banditry that secured a permanent place for the “James-Younger” gang in the lore of the American West. By 1882, the two gangs had separated. Pressed by increasingly determined govern- ment officials and more than 16 years of fugitive life, Jesse was forced to partner with men much less experienced, less loyal to him personally, and imminently more dangerous. The details of Jesse’s death were well publicized. He “lay in state” for nearly a week. Local, state, and even national newspapers picked up the story and the subsequent trial of the Fords. Local conversation and newspaper editorials argued about the Missouri governor’s behind- the-scenes role in the execution. Public opinion was firmly set against the Fords, branding them not only traitors but cowards. Bob Ford was excoriated in popular opinion and routinely compared with notable traitors of history, particularly Judas Iscariot. John Newman Edwards, editor for the Sedalia Daily Democrat and long time supporter of Jesse James wrote, “such a cry of horror and indignation . is . thunder- 1 Frank Triplett, The Life, Times and Treacherous Death of Jesse James (Stamford, CT: Longmeadow Press, 1992), 224..