Stephanie Finochio
Finochio, as Trinity, in 2006
Ring name(s)	American Power[1][2] Italian Finesse[1][2] Starfire[1][2] Stephanie Starr[1][2] Stephanie[1] Trinity[1][2] Untamable Spirit[1][2]
Billed height	5 ft 6 in (1.68 m)[1]
Billed weight	121 lb (55 kg)[1]
Born	(1971-12-01) December 1, 1971 (age 40)[1][2] Long Island, New York, United States[1][2]
Billed from	New York City
Trained by	Chris Bassett[1] Chris Divine[1][2] The S.A.T.[1] Mikey Whipwreck[1][2][3]
Debut	October 10, 2002[4]
Retired	2007[1]

Stephanie Finochio (born December 1, 1971) is an American stuntwoman and former professional wrestler and valet. She is best known by her ring name Trinity and for her stints in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling and World Wrestling Entertainment.

Professional wrestling career[link]

Debut and independent circuit (2002–2005)[link]

After completing her training, Finochio made her professional wrestling debut on October 10, 2002 without using her surname, where she lost to Phoenix.^[4] On October 13, Finochio, now using the ring name Trinity, defeated Simply Luscious to win her first professional wrestling match.^[4] On October 26, Finochio made her Chikara debut under the ring name Stephanie Starr, where she lost to Mercedes Martinez.^[4] On November 1, Trinity lost to Luscious in a rematch.^[4] On January 17, 2003, Trinity wrestled against NWA Canadian Women's Champion Bam Bam Bambi for the title, but was defeated.^[4]

On September 13, Trinity defeated April Hunter to win the vacant CSWF Women's Championship.^[4] Trinity made her first title defense on February 21, 2004 against Ariel, where she was successful in retaining the title.^[4] On August 28, 2004, Trinity lost the title to Hunter in a four-way match also involving Ariel and Tracy Brooks, ending her reign at 350 days.^[5]

On May 13, 2005, Trinity competed at the Queens of Chaos' debut event, where she competed in a battle royal to determine the promotion's inaugural World Championship, which was ultimately won by Nikita.^[4]

Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (2003–2005)[link]

On January 29, Finochio made her Total Nonstop Action Wrestling debut as Trinity, where she and Kid Kash defeated Desire and Sonny Siaki in a mixed tag team match.^[4] Trinity then defeated Desire in a singles match on February 5 before later defeating ODB on February 26.^[4] On March 19, Trinity became the first woman in TNA history to compete for one of the promotion's male championships, as she wrestled against Kid Kash and Amazing Red in a three-way match for Kash's X Division Championship, but was unable to win the title.^[4] In April, Finochio formed the New York Connection (NYC) alongside Glenn Gilbertti, Vito LoGrasso, and Johnny Swinger.^[6] The NYC had their first match together on April 28, where Trinity, Gilbertti, and Swinger lost to Desire, Pat Kenney, and Sonny Siaki before losing a rematch on June 3 in a dark match before the inaugural episode of Impact!.^[4] Trinity then began feuding with Desire, and proceeded to defeat her in a stretcher match on June 23 and then again in a mixed tag team match on July 7 to end the feud.^[4] At the inaugural Victory Road pay-per-view on November 7, 2004, Trinity defeated Jacqueline Moore in an open challenge.^[7]

After the NYC disbanded, Trinity entered into an angle with Tracy Brooks and TNA's Director of Authority Dusty Rhodes over the position of Rhodes' personal assistant. Brooks eventually won the job after her team of The Disciples of Destruction defeated Trinity's team, Phi Delta Slam, at the inaugural Destination X pay-per-view on March 13, 2005.^[8] Trinity then became the manager of Michael Shane and resumed her feud with Brooks, who became the manager of Chris Sabin. At the inaugural Hard Justice pay-per-view, Trinity and Shane were defeated by Brooks and Sabin after Brooks turned on Sabin and Shane turned on Trinity.^[9]

World Wrestling Entertainment (2006–2007)[link]

Ohio Valley Wrestling[link]

After leaving TNA, Finochio received a try-out match World Wrestling Entertainment, where she and Chris Cage lost to Beth Phoenix and Aaron Stevens on November 9, 2005.^[2] After appearing on the January 6, 2006 episode of Heat alongside Talia Madison in a segment with The Heart Throbs, WWE officially signed Finochio to a contract.^[2] She was then placed in WWE's developmental territory Ohio Valley Wrestling, where she made her debut on March 22, 2006 as the special guest referee in a match between Shelly Martinez and Beth Phoenix, which Phoenix won.^[2] Finochio, as Trinity, made her in-ring debut for OVW on March 29 in a match against Sosay that ended in a no-contest after she was attacked Phoenix.^[4] In response to the attack, Trinity wrestled against Phoenix on April 5, but was defeated.^[4]

ECW[link]

On the June 13 episode of ECW on Sci Fi, Trinity made her WWE debut the manager for the Full Blooded Italians (Little Guido, Tony Mamaluke and Big Guido).^[2][6] On June 24 at an ECW house show, Finochio injured her knee after executing a moonsault from the top rope to the outside of the ring during a catfight with Kelly Kelly and Francine that stemmed from Francine winning a bikini contest earlier in the night.^[2] She underwent surgery a few days later, and was given a recovery time of six to eight weeks.^[2][10]

Finochio made her return October 7, where she lost to Jazz in a singles match at a house show.^[4] She lost to Jazz in a rematch the next night.^[4] On the October 31 episode of ECW on Sci Fi, Trinity won the first ever ECW Diva Halloween Costume Contest after being voted over Kelly Kelly and Ariel.^[2] On January 13, 2007, Trinity teamed with fellow ECW Diva Kelly Kelly in a losing effort to Michelle McCool and Jillian Hall at a house show.^[4] The following day, Trinity wrestled her final match in the WWE as she and Kelly lost to McCool and Hall in a rematch.^[4]

Finochio was later released from her WWE contract on June 22, 2007.^[11]

Retirement[link]

After being released from WWE, Finochio retired from professional wrestling in order to concentrate on her stunt work.^[1][12] On September 20, 2008, Finochio made a one-night return to wrestling under her old Stephanie Starr ring name, where she lost a three-way match to Peggy Lee Leather that also involved Fantasy.^[4] On April 19, 2012, Finochio began competing in roller derby as a member of the Strong Island Derby Revolution.^[13]

Media[link]

Filmography[link]

• Homicide (1991) stunts^[14]
• Anaconda (1997) stunts^[14]
• U Turn (1997) stunts^[14]
• USMA West Point (1998) stunts^[14]
• A Murder of Crows (1998) stunt driver^[14]
• Last Request (1999) utility stunts^[14]
• The Tic Code (1999) utility stunts^[14]
• Fever (1999) stunts^[14]
• Jesus' Son (1999) stunts^[14]
• Stringer (1999) stunt double^[14]
• Keeping The Faith (2000) stunt double^[14]
• Nora (2000) stunts^[14]
• Frequency (2000) utility stunts^[14]
• Big Money Hustlas (2000) stunts^[14]
• Pollock (2000) stunts^[14]
• Prince of Central Park (2000) stunts^[14]
• Brooklyn Babylon (2001) stunt double^[14]
• Bad Company (2002) stunt double^[14]
• Stuart Little 2 (2002) stunts^[14]
• Swimfan (2002) stunts^[14]
• Solos (2003) stunts^[14]
• The Beat (2003) stunts^[14]
• Daredevil (2003) stunts^[14]
• School of Rock (2003) stunts^[14]
• Nikki and Nora (2004) stunt double^[14]
• Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) stunt player^[14]
• Spider-Man 2 (2004) stunts^[14]
• Taxi (2004) stunts^[14]
• Coalition (2004) as Leah^[14]
• Before Sundown (2005) as Sheriff^[14]
• Strangers with Candy (2005) stunts^[14]
• War of the Worlds (2005) stunts^[14]
• World Trade Center (2006) stunts^[14]
• Knock, Knock (2007) as Rachel Volpe^[14]
• The Bourne Ultimatum (2007) stunts^[14]
• Awake (2007) as Lilith (stunt double)^[14]
• Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008) stunts^[14]
• Burn After Reading (2008) stunts^[14]
• Duplicity (2009) stunts^[14]
• Sex and the City 2 (2010) stunts^[14]
• Jesse (2011) as Jesse^[14]
• The Night Never Sleeps (2012) as Officer Rourke^[14]

Television[link]

• Oz (2002) in episode "Dream a Little Dream of Me" (stunts)^[14]
• Chiller Cinema (2003) in episode "Nashville Horror-Fest '03: Part 1" as herself^[14]
• Sex and the City (2003) in episode "The Domino Effect" as Samantha Jones (stunt double)^[14]

Personal life[link]

Finochio was born and raised in Long Island, New York, where she graduated from Lindenhurst High School in 1989 before later graudating from Dowling College in 1994 with a Bachelor of Business Administration in accounting and a Bachelor of Arts in psychology.^[3] She later returned to Dowling and earned a master's degree in education in 2000.^[3]

Finochio has over twenty years of experience as a dancer and is a certified aerobics instructor.^[1] She also has breast implants, which she acquired while working in Ohio Valley Wrestling.^[2]

In wrestling[link]

• Finishing moves
  • Fall From Grace (Moonsault)^{[1][2][7][15]}

• Signature moves
  • Backhand chop^[9]
  • Body slam^[9]
  • Diving crossbody^[7]
  • Dragon suplex^[2][15]
  • Fujiwara armbar^[15]
  • Hurricanrana^[2][9][15]
  • Missile dropkick^[9]
  • Powerslam^[7]
  • Shooting star press^[2]

• Wrestlers managed
  • Divine Storm (Chris Divine and Quite Storm)^[2]
  • The Full Blooded Italians (Little Guido, Tony Mamaluke, and Big Guido)^[16]
  • Glenn Gilbertti^[16]
  • Kid Kash^[16]
  • Phi Delta Slam (Bruno Sassi and Big Tilly)^[8][16]
  • Chris Sabin^[16]
  • Michael Shane^[16]
  • Johnny Swinger^[16]

Championships and accomplishments[link]

• CyberSpace Wrestling Federation
  • CSWF Women's Championship (1 time)^[5]

• Total Nonstop Action Wrestling
  • Knockout of the Year (2003)^[17]

References[link]

External links[link]

Professional wrestling portal

• Official website
• Official fansite
• G.L.O.R.Y. Biography
• Online World Of Wrestling Profile
• Stephanie Finochio at the Internet Movie Database

Jessie J
Jessie J at the O2 Arena in London in 2011.
Background information
Birth name	Jessica Ellen Cornish
Also known as	Jessie J
Born	(1988-03-27) 27 March 1988 (age 24) Chadwell Heath, London, England, United Kingdom
Genres	pop, hip hop, R&B, dance-pop, soul
Years active	2005–present
Labels	Lava, Universal Republic, Island, Gut
Website	jessiejofficial.com

Jessica Ellen Cornish (born 27 March 1988), better known by her stage name Jessie J, is an English singer and songwriter. Born and raised in London, she studied at the BRIT School before signing with Gut Records and striking a songwriting deal with Sony/ATV Music Publishing where she wrote for artists such as Chris Brown and Miley Cyrus.

Signed with Universal, Jessie J came to prominence following the release of her debut single "Do It Like a Dude" which peaked at number two on the UK Singles Charts. After scoring her first number one in the United Kingdom, France, Ireland and New Zealand with the song "Price Tag", she released her debut album Who You Are (2011) which charted at number two in the UK. Other releases from the album include "Nobody's Perfect", "Who's Laughing Now" and "Who You Are" which charted within the top 20 in the UK but the release of fifth single "Domino" spawned international chart success, peaking at number 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US, and becoming her second UK number one. Aside from her musical career, Jessie J is currently a coach and mentor on television show The Voice UK.

Citing various influences, Jessie J is recognized for an unconventional musical and performance style^[1][2] that mixes her soul voice with contemporary R&B, pop, and hip-hop influences. Jessie J has garnered various awards and nominations for her contributions to the music industry, including the 2011 Critics' Choice BRIT Award and the BBC's Sound of 2011. As of April 2012, Jessie has sold over 11 million singles and 2.5 million records worldwide.^[3][4]

Early life[link]

Jessie J was born Jessica Ellen Cornish in Chadwell Heath, London,^[5] daughter of Stephen Cornish and Rose Cornish (née Archer). She was educated at Mayfield High School in the London Borough of Redbridge. She attended Colin's Performing Arts School and as an 11-year old-was cast in Andrew Lloyd Webber's West End production of Whistle Down the Wind.^[6][7][8] Jessie has two sisters, who are five and seven years older than her, who were both head girls at school. Unlike her academic sisters, Cornish has stated she was "never really that good at anything". She said, "At school they were like 'oh, you're a Cornish girl' and they kind of expected me to be the same as my sisters. Give me something to draw or an outfit to pick for someone, or hair, make-up, acting, write a song, I'm fine with it, but anything to do with sums – it was never my thing." She also said she never based her intelligence on her exam results.^[9] She also said she was always good at singing and it was her "thing". At the age of 16 she began studying at the BRIT School and at 17 she joined a girl group named Soul Deep.^[10] She graduated in the class of 2006 along with singers Adele and Leona Lewis.^[11] At 18 she suffered a stroke.^[12]

Music career[link]

2006–2010: Career beginnings[link]

Jessie J was signed to Gut Records, recording an album for the label, but the company went bankrupt before any material was released.^[8][10] She then found success as a songwriter, gaining a Sony ATV publishing contract.^[13] She was also the support act for Cyndi Lauper during Lauper's UK dates of her 2008 Bring Ya To The Brink tour (Lauper invited J to join her on stage for the performances of "Girls Just Want To Have Fun"). Jessie has also written lyrics for artists such as Chris Brown and Miley Cyrus, including "Party in the U.S.A.".^[14][15] Jessie J was also part of a girl band, called Soul Deep, for two years, however she left due to thoughts that "it wasn't going anywhere". Despite people thinking that her first notoriety was through YouTube, Jessie was signed for four years before her first video was posted. Jessie first came to the attention of Lava Records when her publisher at Sony/ATV, Rich Christina, sent Lava president Jason Flom a link to her MySpace page, which the record executive loved.^[16] After seeing an impressive U.S. showcase, Lava was, along with several other labels, keen to sign the artist but progress was hampered by her management's insistence on, what Flom called, a "crazy deal", and their refusal to let Jessie speak to any labels directly.^[16] Despite this, Senior Director of A&R at Lava, Harinder Rana, made surreptitious efforts to meet Jessie on her own in winter of 2008. Later in the year a change in management to Sarah Stennett and Nadia Khan of Crown Music allowed record deal negotiations to take place. Jessie eventually signed with Lava as part of a joint venture with Universal Republic.^[16]

[edit] 2010–2012: Who You Are

Jessie J performing at a concert in New York City in 2011.

Jessie J began recording her debut studio album in 2006 and it was completed on 19 January 2011.^[17][18] She revealed that "Big White Room" would be on the album and was written from an experience she had when she was 11 years old, although she wrote the song at age 17, in hospital, where a ward mate, a little boy, died.^[19] Jessie J says the album's title track, "Who You Are", is one of her proudest creations, she said the song is a "positive role model for young people" and "I always say that I'm half-artist, half-therapist".^[19] In late 2010 Jessie J released her first single, "Do It Like a Dude" which was co-written with George Astasio, Tj Normandin, Jason Pebworth, Jon Shave, Kyle Abrahams and Peter Ighile. Originally, she wrote the song with Rihanna in mind because "Rude Boy" was released at the time, partly inspiring the song. She then sent the song to her label, Island Records, before sending it to Rihanna's management. Island insisted the song become Jessie J's first single.^[20] She wishes to perform the song with Rihanna at one point.^[21] The single gained positive reception from critics.^[22] The single charted at number two on the UK Singles Charts. Her follow-up single "Price Tag" was released in late January 2011. This was written by Jessie J, Lukasz Gottwald, Claude Kelly, and Bobby Ray Simmons, Jr. and charted at number one in the top of the charts. "Price Tag" was released in the United States on 1 February 2011 and peaked at 23 on the Billboard Hot 100.^[23] "Price Tag" also charted at number-one in New Zealand and Ireland and is the most successful online video J has released. As of October 2011, the video has generated over 148 million views on Youtube and Vevo, making it the 22nd most viewed music video of all time.^[24][25] Her first American television appearance was as the musical guest on the 12 March 2011 episode of NBC's Saturday Night Live.^[26]

On 25 February 2011 her debut album, Who You Are, was released.^[27] The album first entered the charts on 6 March 2011 where it charted on the UK Album Charts at number two. The album charted into the top ten in a number of countries and number 11 in the United States.^[28] After the release she went on to release a third single from the album, "Nobody's Perfect".^[29] MTV reported that the single is, so far, only confirmed for release in the United Kingdom.^[30] The album's fourth single was "Who's Laughing Now". "Domino" was her second US single.^[31] The Dr. Luke-produced track was sent to mainstream radio on 6 September 2011.^[32] With the success of Who You Are in North America, Jessie was chosen to tour as the opening act for American pop artist Katy Perry's California Dreams Tour in 2011 but after she was unable to fully recover from her injuries during rehearsals she was forced to pull out under the doctor's orders.^[33] Jessie J served as the house artist at the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards, performing several of her original songs along with covers around commercial breaks.^[34]

James Morrison's third studio album, The Awakening features a collaboration with Jessie J called "Up", the song was released as a single on 4 December 2011. Jessie J re-released "Who You Are" on 9 November 2011, featuring the regular tracks plus "Domino" and two new songs. "Domino" became her first top 10 hit in the U.S., following the success of "Price Tag". The song also peaked at number 1 in January 2012 in the UK, before it was even officially released there.

[edit] 2012–present: Second studio album and The Voice

On 4 October 2011, Jessie announced that she will be one of four coaches for new BBC program, The Voice UK.^[35] The show was announced after the success of the US version, The Voice. It premiered in March 2012 on BBC One. It will be presented by Holly Willoughby and Reggie Yates, with will.i.am (of The Black Eyed Peas), Tom Jones and Danny O'Donoghue (of The Script) joining Jessie on the coaching panel.^[36] The first stage of the competition, The Blind auditions, began in London on 18 January 2012 at the BBC Television Centre and finished filming on 22 January 2012. The winner will receive £100,000 and a record deal with Universal Republic. It was also reported that the 4 coaches recorded a cover of the Black Eyed Peas song, "I Gotta Feeling", and will release an accompanying music video to help promote the show.^[37]

On 31 January 2012, Jessie announced that she had begun recording for her second studio album.^[38] She also stated that she hopes to collaborate with many artists this year, possibly including some of her fellow coaches on The Voice.^[39] It was revealed that she has worked in the studio with Cee-Lo Green after he tweeted her on twitter. Jessie has also revealed on twitter that she has worked with Diane Warren as well as reuniting in the studio with her 'Price Tag' co-writer Claude Kelly.

Jessie will embark on her first arena tour in March 2013. Via microblogging website, Twitter, Jessie J confirmed the tour will be called Nice to Meet You Tour.^[40]

Personal life[link]

Jessie J performing at the 2011 The Big Chill, sitting on the "gilded throne" she used for performances while her foot was broken.

In early 2011 she suffered a panic attack on stage after she was forced to perform in the dark. "I did a gig recently and had a panic attack on stage," she told NOW. "The night was called 'Black Out' and I had to perform in the dark. I asked them to turn on the lights and they didn't. I was onstage in pitch black and, because I couldn't see anything, I started to panic. It was awful."^[41]

Jessie J is bisexual and stated in an interview on the "In Demand" radio show on 3 March 2011, "I've never denied it. Whoopie doo guys, yes, I've dated girls and I've dated boys – get over it."^[42][43] However, in April 2012 The Sun outed her as homosexual which she denied via Twitter, calling it a "yet another boring untrue story".^[44] According to The Guardian, Jessie J's sexuality is valuable to young teens, especially for young girls unsure of themselves because of their sexuality and identity, to feel "that this does happen and this is normal."^[45]

On 12 June 2011 at the Capital Radio Summertime Ball, Jessie ruptured several tendons in her foot during rehearsals, and performed her set the following day while sitting on a gilded throne.^[46] For her appearance at Glastonbury Festival 2011 on 25 June 2011, she performed on the throne again, claiming her physician had told her not to perform with her broken foot which would take six weeks to heal.^[47] Jessie J was scheduled to play at several festivals throughout the summer, however it was reported on 1 July 2011 that she would not be able to attend T in the Park, T4 On The Beach, Wembley:Orange, iTunes Festival, Lovebox and Oxegen due to the injuries to her foot. Jessie J personally tweeted before surgery; "Keep making nervous jokes with the doctor and he keeps looking at me blankly. Which is making me laugh even more. It's getting serious. I just took my nose stud out." Tweeting after the surgery, she wrote: "Can't keep tweeting. Still very dizzy and being sick. But I'm OK, I got through it." Her record label released an official statement on 30 June 2011 that under strict orders from her doctor, she will not be able to perform for a number of weeks so she can heal and recuperate properly.^[48] She returned to the concert circuit in late August, including sets at the V Festival^[49] and The Big Chill. For the 2011 VMA's she was still in a cast and using the throne to keep off it.

Jessie J confirmed on 2 August 2011 that she would be shaving her hair off for charity in 2012. Speaking via her official Twitter account she said: "It’s hair, It will grow back. Even if it takes 2 years, if it saves lives it’s worth it. Even if its 1 life that’s something."^[50]

‎Artistry and voice[link]

Jessie J performing at the Bournemouth International Centre in 2011.

Although she was first identified as a soul singer, she primarily records songs of contemporary R&B and pop music with hip-hop influences.

Music critic Matthew Perpetua of Pitchfork Media compared Jessie J to her peers Adele and Amy Winehouse, but suggested she was missing something: "Whereas Adele and Winehouse also have powerhouse voices, they fit into clear aesthetic niches and invest their songs with depth and humanity. Jessie J doesn't have even a fraction of their restraint." Perpetua added: "Her idea of showcasing her gift is to shoot for a blaring melisma on "Mamma Knows Best" that makes Christina Aguilera seem as subtle as Joni Mitchell by comparison."^[51]

Ailbhe Malone of the music magazine NME also recognized Cornish's "undeniably potent voice". However, she pointed out the possible "identity crisis" that might have been caused by Jessie's songwriter past: "This is an album of singles for other artists. There’s Rihanna Jessie (‘Do It...’), Perry Jessie (‘Abracadabra’), Pixie Jessie (‘Mamma Knows Best’), Ellie Jessie ('Big White Room')."^[52]

Caroline Sullivan of The Guardian shared her positive opinion about the singer, saying that "if any singer has the potential to be the British Katy Perry or Pink, with the accompanying millions of sales, it's her". Sullivan also complimented Cornish's attitude: "[Her songs] are delivered with a confidence that money can't buy."^[53]

Entertainment Weekly's music critic Adam Markovitz said of Jessie: "The 23-year-old Brit has all the tools, from a monster voice to an ear for hooks — she co-wrote Miley Cyrus' 'Party in the U.S.A.' — and a manic persona that's equal parts Katy Perry, Kristin Chenoweth, and Alice Cooper."^[54]

Discography[link]

• Who You Are (2011)

Concert tours[link]

Headlining

• Stand Up Tour (2011)
• Heartbeat Tour (2011-12)
• Nice To Meet You Tour (2013)

Filmography[link]

Awards and nominations[link]

References[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Jessie J

External links[link]

• Official website
• Jessie J discography at Discogs
• Jessie J's channel on YouTube
• Jessie J's BBC Sound of 2011 page at BBC Online

Jesse James
Jesse James c. 1882
Born	Jesse Woodson James (1847-09-05)September 5, 1847 Kearney, Missouri, U.S.
Died	April 3, 1882(1882-04-03) (aged 34) St. Joseph, Missouri, U.S. 39°45′28″N 94°50′39″W / 39.757813°N 94.844087°W / 39.757813; -94.844087 (Site of fatal shot killing Jesse James)
Nationality	American
Known for	Robbery
Spouse	Zerelda Mimms
Children	Jesse E. James, Mary James Barr
Parents	Robert S. James, Zerelda Cole James

Jesse Woodson James (September 5, 1847 – April 3, 1882) was an American outlaw, gang leader, bank robber, train robber and murderer from the state of Missouri and the most famous member of the James-Younger Gang. Already a celebrity when he was alive, he became a legendary figure of the Wild West after his death. Some recent scholars place him in the context of regional insurgencies of ex-Confederates following the American Civil War rather than a manifestation of frontier lawlessness or alleged economic justice.^[1]

Jesse and his brother Frank James were Confederate guerrillas during the Civil War. They were accused of participating in atrocities committed against Union soldiers. After the war, as members of one gang or another, they robbed banks, stagecoaches and trains. Despite popular portrayals of James as a kind of Robin Hood, robbing from the rich and giving to the poor, there is no evidence that he and his gang used their robbery gains for anyone but themselves.^[2]

The James brothers were most active with their gang from about 1866 until 1876, when their attempted robbery of a bank in Northfield, Minnesota, resulted in the capture or deaths of several members. They continued in crime for several years, recruiting new members, but were under increasing pressure from law enforcement. On April 3, 1882, Jesse James was killed by Robert Ford, who was a member of the gang living in the James house and who was hoping to collect a state reward on James' head.

Early life[link]

Jesse James Farm in Kearney.

Jesse Woodson James was born in Clay County, Missouri, near the site of present day Kearney, on September 5, 1847. Jesse James had two full siblings: his older brother, Alexander Franklin "Frank", and a younger sister, Susan Lavenia James. Across a creek and up a hill from the house on the right was the home of Daniel Askew, where Askew was killed on April 12, 1875. Askew was suspected of cooperating with the Pinkertons in the January 1875 arson of the house (in a room on the left). James's original grave was on the property but he was later moved to a cemetery in Kearney. The original footstone is still outside, although the family has replaced the headstone.

His father, Robert S. James, was a commercial hemp farmer and Baptist minister in Kentucky, who migrated to Bradford, Missouri after marriage and helped found William Jewell College in Liberty, Missouri.^[1] He was prosperous, acquiring six slaves and more than 100 acres (0.40 km²) of farmland. Robert James travelled to California during the Gold Rush to minister to those searching for gold^[3] and died there when Jesse was three years old.^[4]

After Robert James' death, his widow Zerelda remarried twice, first to Benjamin Simms and then in 1855 to Dr. Reuben Samuel, who moved into the James' home. Jesse's mother and Reuben Samuel had four children together: Sarah Louisa, John Thomas, Fannie Quantrell and Archie Peyton Samuel.^[3][5] Zerelda and Reuben Samuel acquired a total of seven slaves, who served mainly as farmhands in tobacco cultivation in Missouri.^[5][6]

Historical context[link]

The approach of the American Civil War overshadowed the James-Samuel household. Missouri was a border state, sharing characteristics of both North and South, but 75% of the population was from the South or other border states.^[3] Clay County was in a region of Missouri later dubbed "Little Dixie," as it was a center of migration from the Upper South. Farmers raised the same crops and livestock as in the areas they migrated from. They brought slaves with them and purchased more according to need. The county counted more slaveholders, who held more slaves, than other regions of the state. Aside from slavery, the culture of Little Dixie was Southern in other ways as well. This influenced how the population acted during and for a period of time after the American Civil War. In Missouri as a whole, slaves accounted for only 10 percent of the population, but in Clay County they constituted 25 percent.^[7]

After the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854, Clay County became the scene of great turmoil, as the question of whether slavery would be expanded into the neighboring Kansas Territory came to dominate public life. Numerous people from Missouri migrated to Kansas to try to influence its future. Much of the tension that led up to the Civil War centered on the violence that erupted in Kansas between pro- and anti-slavery militias.^[6][8]

American Civil War[link]

Jesse James (unknown date)

The Civil War may have shaped Jesse James' life. After a series of campaigns and battles between conventional armies in 1861, guerrilla warfare gripped the state, waged between secessionist "bushwhackers" and Union forces which largely consisted of local militia organizations ("jayhawkers"). A bitter conflict ensued, bringing an escalating cycle of atrocities by both sides. Guerrillas murdered civilian Unionists, executed prisoners and scalped the dead. Union forces enforced martial law with raids on homes, arrests of civilians, summary executions, and banishment of Confederate sympathizers from the state.^[9]

The James-Samuel family took the Confederate side at the outset of the war. Frank James joined a local company recruited for the secessionist Drew Lobbs Army, and fought at the Battle of Wilson's Creek, though he fell ill and returned home soon afterward. In 1863, he was identified as a member of a guerrilla squad that operated in Clay County. In May of that year, a Union militia company raided the James-Samuel farm, looking for Frank's group. They tortured Reuben Samuel by briefly hanging him from a tree. According to legend, they lashed young Jesse.^[3]

Quantrill's Raiders[link]

Frank eluded capture and was believed to have joined the guerrilla organization led by William C. Quantrill. It is thought that he took part in the notorious massacre of some 200 men and boys in Lawrence, Kansas, a center of abolitionists.^[10][11]

Frank James followed Quantrill to Texas over the winter of 1863–64. In the spring he returned in a squad commanded by Fletch Taylor. After they arrived in Clay County, 16-year-old Jesse James joined his brother in Taylor's group.^[3]

In the summer of 1864, Taylor was severely wounded, losing his right arm to a shotgun blast. The James brothers joined the bushwhacker group led by Bloody Bill Anderson. Jesse suffered a serious wound to the chest that summer. The Clay County provost marshal reported that both Frank and Jesse James took part in the Centralia Massacre in September, in which guerrillas killed or wounded some 22 unarmed Union troops; the guerrillas scalped and dismembered some of the dead. The guerrillas ambushed and defeated a pursuing regiment of Major A.V.E. Johnson's Union troops, killing all who tried to surrender (more than 100). Frank later identified Jesse as a member of the band who had fatally shot Major Johnson.^[12] As a result of the James brothers' activities, the Union military authorities made their family leave Clay County. Though ordered to move South beyond Union lines, instead they moved across the nearby state border into Nebraska.^[13]

After Anderson was killed in an ambush in October, the James brothers separated. Frank followed Quantrill into Kentucky; Jesse went to Texas under the command of Archie Clement, one of Anderson's lieutenants. He is known to have returned to Missouri in the spring.^[12] Jesse was shot while trying to surrender when they ran into a Union cavalry patrol near Lexington, Missouri. Jesse James suffered the second of two life-threatening chest wounds.^[14][15]

After the Civil War[link]

Jesse and Frank James, 1872

Clay County Savings in Liberty

At the end of the Civil War, Missouri was in shambles. The conflict split the population into three bitterly opposed factions: anti-slavery Unionists, identified with the Republican Party; the segregationist conservative Unionists, identified with the Democratic Party; and pro-slavery, ex-Confederate secessionists, many of whom were also allied with the Democrats, especially the southern part of the party. The Republican Reconstruction administration passed a new state constitution that freed Missouri's slaves. It temporarily excluded former Confederates from voting, serving on juries, becoming corporate officers, or preaching from church pulpits. The atmosphere was volatile, with widespread clashes between individuals, and between armed gangs of veterans from both sides of the war.^[16][17]

Jesse recovered from his chest wound at his uncle's Missouri boardinghouse, where he was tended to by his first cousin, Zerelda "Zee" Mimms, named after Jesse's mother.^[12] Jesse and his cousin began a nine-year courtship, culminating in marriage. Meanwhile, his old commander Archie Clement kept his bushwhacker gang together and began to harass Republican authorities.

These men were the likely culprits in the first daylight armed bank robbery in the United States during peacetime,^[18] the robbery of the Clay County Savings Association in the town of Liberty, Missouri, on February 13, 1866. This bank was owned by Republican former militia officers who had recently conducted the first Republican Party rally in Clay County's history. One innocent bystander, a student of William Jewell College (which James's father had helped to found), was shot dead on the street during the gang's escape.^[19] It remains unclear whether Jesse and Frank took part.

After their later robberies took place and they became legends, there were those who credited them with being the leaders of the Clay County robbery.^[12] It has been argued in rebuttal that James was at the time still bedridden with his wound. No concrete evidence has surfaced to connect either brother to the crime, or to rule them out.^[20] On June 13, 1866 in Jackson County, Missouri two jailed members of Quantril's gang were demanded to be freed by a gang and the Jailor killed^[21] it is believed the James Brothers were involved.

This was a time of increasing local violence; Governor Fletcher had recently ordered a company of militia into Johnson County to suppress guerrilla activity.^[22] Archie Clement continued his career of crime and harassment of the Republican government, to the extent of occupying the town of Lexington, Missouri, on election day in 1866. Shortly afterward, the state militia shot Clement dead, an event James wrote about with bitterness a decade later.^[19][20]

The survivors of Clement's gang continued to conduct bank robberies over the next two years, though their numbers dwindled through arrests, gunfights and lynchings. While they later tried to justify robbing the banks, these were small, local banks with local capital, not part of the national system that was an object of popular discontent in the 1860s and 1870s.^[23] On May 23, 1867, for example, they robbed a bank in Richmond, Missouri, in which they killed the mayor and two others.^[12][24] It remains uncertain whether either of the James brothers took part, although an eyewitness who knew the brothers told a newspaper seven years later "positively and emphatically that he recognized Jesse and Frank James ... among the robbers."^[25] In 1868, Frank and Jesse James allegedly joined Cole Younger in robbing a bank at Russellville, Kentucky.

Jesse James did not become famous, however, until December 7, 1869, when he and (most likely) Frank robbed the Daviess County Savings Association in Gallatin, Missouri. The robbery netted little money, but it appears that Jesse shot and killed the cashier, Captain John Sheets, mistakenly believing him to be Samuel P. Cox, the militia officer who had killed "Bloody Bill" Anderson during the Civil War. James's self-proclaimed attempt at revenge, and the daring escape he and Frank made through the middle of a posse shortly afterward, put his name in the newspapers for the first time.^[26][27][28] An 1882 history of Daviess County said, "The history of Daviess County has no blacker crime in its pages than the murder of John W. Sheets."^[29]

The 1869 robbery marked the emergence of Jesse James as the most famous of the former guerrillas and the first time he was publicly labeled an "outlaw," as Missouri Governor Thomas T. Crittenden set a reward for his capture.^[29] This was the beginning of an alliance between James and John Newman Edwards, editor and founder of the Kansas City Times. Edwards, a former Confederate cavalryman, was campaigning to return former secessionists to power in Missouri. Six months after the Gallatin robbery, Edwards published the first of many letters from Jesse James to the republic, asserting his innocence. Over time, the letters gradually became more political in tone, denouncing the Republicans and voicing James' pride in his Confederate loyalties. Together with Edwards's admiring editorials, the letters turned James into a symbol of Confederate defiance of Reconstruction. Jesse James's initiative in creating his rising public profile is debated by historians and biographers, though the tense politics certainly surrounded his outlaw career and enhanced his notoriety.^[28][30]

Meanwhile, the James brothers joined with Cole Younger and his brothers John, Jim and Bob as well as Clell Miller and other former Confederates to form what came to be known as the James-Younger Gang. With Jesse James as the public face of the gang (though with operational leadership likely shared among the group), the gang carried out a string of robberies from Iowa to Texas, and from Kansas to West Virginia.^[31] They robbed banks, stagecoaches and a fair in Kansas City, often in front of large crowds, even hamming it up for the bystanders.

On July 21, 1873, they turned to train robbery, derailing the Rock Island train in Adair, Iowa and stealing approximately $3,000 ($51,000 in 2007). For this, they wore Ku Klux Klan masks, deliberately taking on a potent symbol years after the Klan had been suppressed in the South by President Grant's use of the Force Acts. Former rebels attacked the railroads as symbols of threatening centralization.^[32]

The James' gang's later train robberies had a lighter touch. In only two train hold-ups did they rob passengers, because James typically limited himself to the express safe in the baggage car. Such techniques reinforced the Robin Hood image that Edwards created in his newspapers, but the James gang never shared any of the robbery money outside their circle.^[30]

Pinkertons[link]

The Adams Express Company turned to the Pinkerton National Detective Agency in 1874 to stop the James-Younger gang. The Chicago-based agency worked primarily against urban professional criminals, as well as providing industrial security, such as strike breaking. Because the gang received support by many former Confederate soldiers in Missouri, they eluded the Pinkertons. Joseph Whicher, an agent dispatched to infiltrate Zerelda Samuel's farm, shortly afterwards was found killed. Two others, Captain Louis J. Lull and John Boyle, were sent after the Youngers; Lull was killed by two of the Youngers in a roadside gunfight on March 17, 1874. Before he died, Lull fatally shot John Younger. A deputy sheriff named Edwin Daniels also died in the skirmish.^[33][34]

Allan Pinkerton, the agency's founder and leader, took on the case as a personal vendetta. He began to work with former Unionists who lived near the James family farm. On the night of January 25, 1875, he staged a raid on the homestead. Detectives threw an incendiary device into the house; it exploded, killing James's young half-brother Archie (named for Archie Clement) and blowing off one of the arms of the James familiy's matriarch Zerelda Samuel. Afterward, Pinkerton denied that the raid's intent was arson, but biographer Ted Yeatman located a letter by Pinkerton in the Library of Congress in which Pinkerton declared his intention to "burn the house down."^[35][36]

The raid on the family home outraged many, and did more than all of Edwards's columns to create sympathy for Jesse James. The Missouri state legislature only narrowly defeated a bill that praised the James and Younger brothers and offered them amnesty. Allowed to vote and hold office again, former Confederates voted to limit reward offers that the governor could make for fugitives. This extended a measure of protection over the James-Younger gang. (Only Frank and Jesse James previously had been singled out for rewards larger than the new limit.)^[37][38]

Downfall of the gang[link]

Jesse and his cousin Zee married on April 24, 1874, and had two children who survived to adulthood: Jesse Edward James (b. 1875) and Mary Susan James (b. 1879). Twins Gould and Montgomery James (b. 1878) died in infancy. Jesse, Jr. became a lawyer in Kansas City, Missouri and Los Angeles, California.^[39]

On September 7, 1876, the James-Younger gang attempted a raid on the First National Bank of Northfield, Minnesota. After this robbery and a manhunt, only Frank and Jesse James were left alive and uncaptured.^[40] Cole and Bob Younger later stated that they selected the bank because they believed it was associated with the Republican politician Adelbert Ames, the governor of Mississippi during Reconstruction, and Union general Benjamin Butler, Ames' father-in-law and the Union commander of occupied New Orleans. Ames was a stockholder in the bank, but Butler had no direct connection to it.^[41]

The gang attempted to rob the bank in Northfield about 2 p.m. on September 7, 1876 but the robbery was bungled because several gang members had been drinking that morning, something Jesse James would never have permitted had he been present in Northfield. This was a primary reason Jesse James was never indicted for the Northfield crimes. Jesse James was a highly disciplined Confederate terrorist in his day, but he never drank alcohol and never permitted his gang members to drink alcohol on the job because he had seen the disastrous results of drunken raids during and after the war. Northfield residents had seen the gang members leave a local restaurant near the mill shortly after noon, and they testified in Faribault at the Younger brothers' trial that they smelled of alcohol and that gang members were obviously under the influence when they greeted General Ames near the mill. To carry out the robbery, the gang divided into two groups. Three men entered the bank, two guarded the door outside, and three remained near a bridge across an adjacent square. The robbers inside the bank were thwarted when acting cashier Joseph Lee Heywood refused to open the safe, falsely claiming that it was secured by a time lock even as they held a bowie knife to his throat and cracked his skull with a pistol butt. Assistant cashier Alonzo Enos Bunker was wounded in the shoulder as he fled out the back door of the bank.

Meanwhile, the citizens of Northfield grew suspicious of the men guarding the door and raised the alarm. The five bandits outside fired in the air to clear the streets, which drove the townspeople to take cover and fire back from protected positions. Two bandits were shot dead and the rest were wounded in the barrage. Inside, the outlaws turned to flee. As they left, one shot the unarmed cashier Heywood in the head. Historians have speculated about the identity of the shooter but have not reached consensus on his identity.

The gang barely escaped Northfield, leaving two dead companions behind. They killed two innocent victims, Heywood, and Nicholas Gustafson, a Swedish immigrant from the Millersburg community west of Northfield. A massive manhunt ensued. It is believed that the gang burned 14 Rice County mills shortly after the robbery.^[42] The James brothers eventually split from the others and escaped to Missouri. The militia soon discovered the Youngers and one other bandit, Charlie Pitts. In a gunfight, Pitts died and the Youngers were taken prisoner. Except for Frank and Jesse James, the James-Younger Gang was destroyed.^[43][44]

Later in 1876, Jesse and Frank James surfaced in the Nashville, Tennessee area, where they went by the names of Thomas Howard and B. J. Woodson, respectively. Frank seemed to settle down, but Jesse remained restless. He recruited a new gang in 1879 and returned to crime, holding up a train at Glendale, Missouri (now part of Independence, Missouri),^[45] on October 8, 1879. The robbery was the first of a spree of crimes, including the holdup of the federal paymaster of a canal project in Killen, Alabama, and two more train robberies. But the new gang did not consist of battle-hardened guerrillas; they soon turned against each other or were captured, while James grew paranoid, killing one gang member and frightening away another.

By 1881, with authorities growing suspicious, the brothers returned to Missouri where they felt safer. In December, Jesse rented a house in Saint Joseph, Missouri, not far from where he had been born and raised. Frank, however, decided to move to safer territory, heading east to Virginia.^[46][47]

Death[link]

Site at 1318 Lafayette Street, where James was killed. To the right is the top of Patee House, where his wife Zerelda stayed after his death. His house was subsequently moved to the Belt Highway and later to its current location on the Patee House grounds.

Jesse James's home in St. Joseph, where he was shot (currently at the grounds of the Patee House)

With his gang nearly annihilated, James trusted only the Ford brothers, Charley and Robert.^[48] Although Charley had been out on raids with James, Bob was an eager new recruit. For protection, James asked the Ford brothers to move in with him and his family. James had often stayed with their sister Martha Bolton and, according to rumor, he was "smitten" with her.^[2] James did not know that Bob Ford had conducted secret negotiations with Thomas T. Crittenden, the Missouri governor, to bring in the famous outlaw.^[48] Crittenden had made capture of the James brothers his top priority; in his inaugural address he declared that no political motives could be allowed to keep them from justice. Barred by law from offering a sufficiently large reward, he had turned to the railroad and express corporations to put up a $5,000 bounty for each of them.^[2]

On April 3, 1882, after eating breakfast, the Fords and James prepared to depart for another robbery. They went in and out of the house to ready the horses. As it was an unusually hot day, James removed his coat, then removed his firearms, lest he look suspicious. Noticing a dusty picture on the wall, he stood on a chair to clean it. Bob Ford shot James in the back of the head.^[49][50][51] James' two previous bullet wounds and partially missing middle finger served to positively identify the body.^[12]

The murder of Jesse James became a national sensation. The Fords made no attempt to hide their role. Indeed, Robert Ford wired the governor to claim his reward. Crowds pressed into the little house in St. Joseph to see the dead bandit, even while the Ford brothers surrendered to the authorities but they were dismayed to find that they were charged with first degree murder. In the course of a single day, the Ford brothers were indicted, pleaded guilty, were sentenced to death by hanging, and two hours later were granted a full pardon by Governor Crittenden.^[52]

The governor's quick pardon suggested that he knew the brothers intended to kill James rather than capture him. Like many who knew James, the Ford brothers never believed it was practical to try to take him into custody.^{[citation needed]} The implication that the chief executive of Missouri conspired to kill a private citizen startled the public and added to James' notoriety.^[53][54][55]

After receiving a small portion of the reward, the Fords fled Missouri. Law enforcement officials active in the plan also shared the bounty. Later the Ford brothers starred in a touring stage show in which they reenacted the shooting.^[56][57]

Suffering from tuberculosis (then incurable) and a morphine addiction, Charley Ford committed suicide on May 6, 1884, in Richmond, Missouri. Bob Ford operated a tent saloon in Creede, Colorado. On June 8, 1892, a man named Edward O'Kelley, went to Creede, loaded a double barrel shotgun, entered Ford's saloon and said "Hello, Bob" before shooting Bob Ford in the throat, killing him instantly. O'Kelley was sentenced to life in prison. O'Kelley's sentence was subsequently commuted because of a 7,000 signature petition in favor of his release. The governor pardoned him on October 3, 1902.^[58]

James' mother Zerelda Samuel wrote the following epitaph for him: In Loving Memory of my Beloved Son, Murdered by a Traitor and Coward Whose Name is not Worthy to Appear Here.^[48] James's widow Zee died alone and in poverty.

Rumors of survival[link]

Rumors of Jesse James's survival proliferated almost as soon as the newspapers announced his death. Some said that Robert Ford killed someone other than James, in an elaborate plot to allow him to escape justice. These tales have received little credence, then or later. None of James's biographers has accepted them as plausible. The body buried in Kearney, Missouri, as Jesse James's was exhumed in 1995 and subjected to mitochondrial DNA typing. The report, prepared by Anne C. Stone, Ph.D., James E. Starrs, L.L.M., and Mark Stoneking, Ph.D., stated the mtDNA recovered from the remains was consistent with the mtDNA of one of James's relatives in the female line.^[59] This theme resurfaced in a 2009 documentary, Jesse James' Hidden Treasure, which aired on the History Channel. The documentary was dismissed as pseudo-history and pseudo-science by historian Nancy Samuelson in a review she wrote for the Winter, 2009-2010 edition of The James-Younger Gang Journal.^[60]

One prominent claimant was J. Frank Dalton, who died August 15, 1951, in Granbury, Texas. Dalton was allegedly 101 years old at the time of his first public appearance, in May 1948. His story did not hold up to questioning from James' surviving relatives.^[61]

Legacy and controversies[link]

James's turn to crime after the end of the Reconstruction era helped cement his place in American life and memory as a simple but remarkably effective bandit. After 1873 he was covered by the national media as part of social banditry.^[62] During his lifetime, James was celebrated chiefly by former Confederates, to whom he appealed directly in his letters to the press. Displaced by Reconstruction, the antebellum political leadership mythologized the James Gang exploits. Frank Triplett wrote about James as a "progressive neo-aristocrat" with purity of race.^[63] Indeed, some historians credit James' myth as contributing to the rise of former Confederates to dominance in Missouri politics^{[citation needed]} (in the 1880s, for example, both U.S. Senators from the state, Confederate military commander Francis Cockrell and Confederate Congressman George Graham Vest, were identified with the Confederate cause).

In the 1880s, after James' death, the James Gang became the subject of dime novels that represented the bandits as pre-industrial models of resistance.^[63] During the Populist and Progressive eras, James became a symbol as America's Robin Hood, standing up against corporations in defense of the small farmer, robbing from the rich and giving to the poor while there is no evidence that his robberies enriched anyone other than his gang and himself.^[2]

In portrayals of the 1950s, James was pictured as a psychologically troubled individual rather than a social rebel. Some filmmakers portrayed the former outlaw as a revenger, replacing "social with exclusively personal motives."^[64]

Jesse James remains a controversial symbol, one who can always be interpreted in various ways, according to cultural tensions and needs. Although some of the neo-Confederate movement regard him as a hero^[53][65][66] renewed cultural battles over the place of the Civil War in American history have replaced the long-standing interpretation of James as a Western frontier hero. Some point to his absolute commitment to slavery and his vow after the Civil War to shoot any black in Missouri not fulfilling the role of a slave.

While his "heroic outlaw" image is still commonly portrayed in films, as well as in songs and folklore, recent historians place him as a self-aware vigilante and terrorist who used local tensions to create his own myth among the widespread insurgent guerrillas and vigilantes following the American Civil War.^[1]

Museums[link]

Museums and sites devoted to Jesse James:

• James Farm in Kearney, Missouri: In 1974 Clay County, Missouri, bought it. The county operates the site as a house museum and historic site.^[67]
• Jesse James Home Museum: The house where Jesse James was killed in south St. Joseph was moved in 1939 to the Belt Highway on St. Joseph's east side to attract tourists. In 1977 it was moved to its current location, near Patee House, which was the headquarters of the Pony Express. The house is now owned and operated by the Pony Express Historical Association.^[68]
• The Jesse James Bank Museum, on the square in Liberty, Missouri, is the site of the first daylight bank robbery in peacetime. The museum is managed by Clay County along with the James Farm Home and Museum outside of Kearney, Missouri. ^[69]
• First National Bank of Northfield: The Northfield Historical Society in Northfield, Minnesota, has restored the building that housed the First National Bank, the scene of the 1876 raid.^[70]
• Heaton Bowman Funeral Home, 36th Street and Frederick Avenue, St. Joseph, Missouri. The funeral home's predecessor conducted the original autopsy and funeral for Jesse James. A room in the back holds the log book and other documentation.
• The Jesse James Tavern is in his father's birthplace in Asdee, County Kerry, Ireland, from where his father immigrated to the US in the 1840s as a young man.^[71] The parish priest, Canon William Ferris, says a solemn requiem mass for Jesse James every year on April 3.

Festivals[link]

The Defeat of Jesse James Days in Northfield, Minnesota, is among the largest outdoor celebrations in the state and is held annually in September during the weekend after Labor Day, though it is now documented and in dispute whether Jesse James was ever in Northfield because he was never indicted for his crimes. Thousands of visitors watch reenactments of the robbery, a championship rodeo, a carnival, performances of a 19th-century style melodrama musical, and a parade during the five-day event.^[72]

Jesse James' boyhood home in Kearney, Missouri, is a museum dedicated to the town's most famous resident. Each year a recreational fair, the Jesse James Festival, is held during the third weekend in September.^[73]

During the annual Labor Day weekend Victorian Festival^[74] at the 1866 Col. William H. Fulkerson estate Hazel Dell in Jersey County, Illinois, Jesse James' history is told in stories and by reenactments of stagecoach holdups. Over the three-day event, thousands of spectators learn of the documented James Gang's stopping point at Hazel Dell and of their connection with ex-Confederate Fulkerson.

Russellville, Kentucky, the site of the robbery of the Southern Bank in 1868, holds the Jesse James International Arts and Film Festival. The JJIAFF completed its second annual event in April 2008 and the third annual is planned for April 25, 2009. The festival has featured a bluegrass band from San Francisco and experimental bands from southern Kentucky as well as painters, sculptors, photographers and comic artists. Children's activities are a mainstay of the festival. A highlight for adults is the film festival held at the Logan County Public Library in Russellville. Past entrants have included films from Norway and northwestern Kentucky, modern silent film projects, nature studies, and fan films.

In addition, the annual Tobacco and Heritage Festival in Russellville features a reenactment of the James-Younger Gang's robbery of the Southern Bank. Today used as a residence, the historic structure on South Main Street has been preserved by the town and county.

The small town of Oak Grove, Louisiana, also hosts a town-wide annual Jesse James Trade Days, usually in the early to mid fall. This is a reference to a short time James supposedly spent near this area.

Cultural depictions[link]

A dime novel featuring Jesse James.

Literature[link]

The James brothers became a staple in dime novels of the era, peaking in the 1880s following Jesse's death. James has often been used as a fictional character in many Western novels, including some published while he was alive. For instance, in Willa Cather's My Antonia, the narrator reads a book entitled 'Life of Jesse James' - probably a dime novel.

In Charles Portis's 1968 novel, True Grit, the U.S. Marshal Rooster Cogburn describes fighting with Cole Younger and Frank James for the Confederacy during the Civil War. Long after his adventure with Mattie Ross, Cogburn ends his days in a traveling road show with the aged Cole Younger and Frank James.

During his travel to the "Wilde West," Oscar Wilde visited Jesse James' hometown in Missouri. Learning that James had been assassinated by his own gang member, "...an event that sent the town into mourning and scrambling to buy Jesse's artifacts," "romantic appeal of the social outcast" in his mind, Wilde wrote in one of his letters to home that: "Americans are certainly great hero-worshippers, and always take [their] heroes from the criminal classes."^[75]

Comics[link]

In 1969, artist Morris and writer René Goscinny (co-creator of Asterix) had Lucky Luke confronting Jesse James, his brother Frank, and Cole Younger. The adventure poked fun at the image of Jesse as a new Robin Hood. Although he passes himself off as such and does indeed steal from the rich (who are, logically, the only ones worth stealing from), he and his gang take turns being "poor," thus keeping the loot for themselves. Frank quotes from Shakespeare, and Younger is portrayed as a fun-loving joker, full of good humor. One critic has likened this version of the James brothers as "intellectuals bandits, who won't stop theorising their outlaw activities and hear themselves talk."^[76] In the end, the at-first-cowed people of a town fight back against the James gang and send them packing in tar and feathers.

Music[link]

In his adaptation of the traditional song "Jesse James," Woody Guthrie magnified James's hero status. "Jesse James" was later covered by the Anglo-Irish band The Pogues on their 1985 album Rum, Sodomy, and the Lash, and by Bruce Springsteen on his 2006 tribute to Pete Seeger, We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions.

A somewhat different song titled "Jesse James," referring to Jesse's "wife to mourn for his life; three children, they were brave," and calling Robert Ford "the dirty little coward who shot Mr. Howard," was also the first track recorded by the "Stewart Years" version of the Kingston Trio at their initial recording session in 1961 (and included on that year's release Close-Up).

Echoing the Confederate hero aspect, Hank Williams, Jr.'s 1983 Southern anthem "Whole Lot Of Hank" has the lyrics "Frank and Jesse James knowed how to rob them trains, they always took it from the rich and gave it to the poor, they might have had a bad name but they sure had a heart of gold."

Rock band James Gang was named after Jesse James's gang. Their final album, released in 1976, was titled Jesse Come Home.

Warren Zevon's 1976 self-titled album Warren Zevon includes the song "Frank and Jesse James," a romantic tribute to the James Gang's exploits, expressing much sympathy with their "cause." Its lyrics encapsulate the many legends that grew up around the life and death of Jesse James. The album contains a second reference to Jesse James in the song "Poor Poor Pitiful Me" with the lyric "Well, I met a girl in West Hollywood, I ain't naming names. She really worked me over good, she was just like Jesse James." Linda Ronstadt covered the song a year later with slightly altered lyrics.

In her album Heart of Stone (1989), Cher included a song titled "Just Like Jesse James," written by Diane Warren. This single, which was released in 1990, achieved high positions in the charts and sold 1,500,000 copies worldwide.

The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's album Uncle Charlie and His Dog Teddy features the song "Jesse James," ostensibly recorded on a wire recorder.

Jon Chandler has also written a song about Jesse and Frank James entitled "He Was No Hero," written from the perspective of Joe Hayward's widow cursing Bob Ford for cheating her out of killing Jesse James.

Around 1980 a concept album titled The Legend of Jesse James was released. It was written by Paul Kennerley and starred Levon Helm (The Band) as Jesse James, Johnny Cash as Frank James, Emmylou Harris as Zee James, Charlie Daniels as Cole Younger, and Albert Lee as Jim Younger. There are also appearances by Rodney Crowell, Jody Payne, and Rosanne Cash. The album highlights Jesse's life from 1863 to his death in 1882. In 1999 a double CD was released containing The Legend Of Jesse James and White Mansions, another concept album by Kennerley about life in the Confederate States of America between 1861-1865.

Stage Productions[link]

• The musical melodrama "Jesse," written by Bob and Marion Moulton with lyrics by Prairie Home Companion writer/performer Vern Sutton and music by William Huckaby and Donna Paulsen,^[77] has since 1976 ^[78] (the centennial of the James-Younger gang's Northfield bank raid) traditionally been performed in Northfield, Minnesota during the town's annual The Defeat of Jesse James Days.^[79]

Films[link]

There have been numerous portrayals of Jesse James in film and television,^[80] including two wherein Jesse James, Jr. depicts his father. In many of the films, James is portrayed as a Robin Hood-like character.^[81]

• 1921: Jesse James Under the Black Flag, played by Jesse James, Jr.
• 1921: Jesse James as the Outlaw, played by Jesse James, Jr.
• 1927: Jesse James, played by Fred Thomson
• 1939: Jesse James, played by Tyrone Power with Henry Fonda as Frank James and John Carradine as Bob Ford
• 1939: Days of Jesse James, played by Don 'Red' Barry
• 1941: Jesse James at Bay, played by Roy Rogers
• 1947: Jesse James Rides Again, played by Clayton Moore
• 1949: I Shot Jesse James, played by Reed Hadley
• 1950: Kansas Raiders, played by Audie Murphy
• 1951: The Great Missouri Raid, played by Macdonald Carey
• 1954: Jesse James Women played by Don 'Red' Barry
• 1957: The True Story of Jesse James, played by Robert Wagner
• 1959: Alias Jesse James, played by Wendell Corey in a comedy starring Bob Hope
• 1960: Young Jesse James, played by Ray Stricklyn
• 1965: The Legend of Jesse James, TV series starred by Allen Case
• 1966: Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter, played by John Lupton
• 1969: A Time for Dying, played by Audie Murphy
• 1972: The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid, played by Robert Duvall
• 1980: The Long Riders, played by James Keach
• 1986: The Last Days of Frank and Jesse James, played by Kris Kristofferson with Johnny Cash as Frank James and Willie Nelson as Gen. Jo Shelby
• 1994: Frank and Jesse, played by Rob Lowe
• 1999: Purgatory, played by J.D. Souther
• 2001: American Outlaws, played by Colin Farrell
• 2005: Just like Jesse James is the title of a movie that appears in Wim Wenders' Don't Come Knocking, in which Sam Shepard plays an aging western movie star whose first success was with that movie.
• 2005: Jesse James: Legend, Outlaw, Terrorist (Discovery HD), played by Daniel Lennox
• 2007: The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, played by Brad Pitt, with Casey Affleck as Bob Ford^[81]

Television[link]

• The actor Lee Van Cleef played Jesse James in a 1954 episode of Jim Davis's syndicated television series, Stories of the Century, the first western series to win an Emmy Award.
• The ABC series The Legend of Jesse James aired during the 1965-1966 television season, with Christopher Jones as Jesse, Allen Case as Frank James, Ann Doran as Zerelda Cole James Samuel, Robert J. Wilke as Marshal Sam Corbett, and John Milford as Cole Younger.
• In the episode of Little House on the Prairie titled "The Aftermath" (aired November 7, 1977), Jesse (Dennis Rucker) and Frank James (John Bennett Perry) took refuge in Walnut Grove after a failed robbery attempt.
• In the American Western series The Young Riders (1989–1992), Jesse James is portrayed by the late actor Christopher Pettiet. He appeared in 17 episodes.
• An episode of Deadliest Warrior on "Spike TV" features the Jesse James gang vs. the Al Capone gang. The main weapons used by Jesse James was the Colt .45, the Pistol Whip, the Winchester rifle, and the Bowie Knife. The Jesse James gang came out victorious in the simulated match.
• In Episode 33 of Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction in a segment titled "Mysterious Strangers," a story is told about two men in 1870 who take refuge on a rainy night in an old widow's house. While there they find out that she is about to lose her home to foreclosure. The strangers disappear in the night, leaving her $900 to give to the banker, only to rob the banker of their own money after he retrieved it from the woman the next morning. The strangers, at the end of the story, turn out to be Frank and Jesse James. Beyond Belief purports that the story is documented and true.

References[link]