Jesse James shot in the back
Jesse James one of Americas most notorious outlaws is shot to death by Robert Ford a member of his gang who hoped to collect the bounty on Jesses head.Jesse James born in Clay County Missouri in 1847 joined a Confederate guerrilla band led by William Quantrill at the age of 15.Quantrills guerrillas which included several future members of the James Gang terrorized Kansas and Missouri during the Civil War and in August 1863 massacred civilians during a brutal raid on Lawrence Kansas an abolitionist town.After the wars end in 1865 Jesse his brother Frank and brothers Cole James and Robert Younger decided to team up and use their military raiding skills for armed robbery.
In February 1866 18-year-old Jesse planned their first target a bank in Liberty Missouri.On February 13 Frank James led a group of about a dozen men including Cole Younger and other former Confederate guerrillas in the first recorded daylight bank robbery in the United States.They left the bank with 60000 in gold and silver coins paper money and government securities.
Jesse did not participate in the actual robbery but he later became the leader of the James Gang which was eventually reduced to the core unit of James his brother and the three Younger brothers.During the next 16 years the James Gang became Americas most notorious outlaws robbing banks trains stagecoaches stores and individuals of a total of about 300000.The beginning of their downfall came in 1876 when after killing two people and failing to secure any money in an attempted bank robbery at Northfield Minnesota the Younger brothers and several other key members of their gang were captured.The James brothers escaped and did not rob another train until 1880 the same year that Missouri Governor Thomas Crittenden offered a reward for the capture of the James brothers dead or alive.
James Gang member Robert Ford chose the former and on April 3 1882 he shot Jesse James dead.Frank James subsequently surrendered and in trials was twice acquitted eventually dying of old age on his farm near Excelsior Springs Missouri.
