The James-Younger Gang

• by George Bailey • Published: March 27, 2007

Jesse James was born in Clay County, Missouri. Life in Missouri immediately following the Civil War was nearly as difficult as it had been during war time. Union cavalrymen were known to terrorize civilians (James himself was shot a month after the war ended) and Confederates were forbidden to vote. Though the romantic illustration of James in American folklore that understands him to have been this country’s Robin Hood is un-supported by the facts (Jesse’s late work was apolitical and arbitrary), the post-war political conditions certainly motivated him and his gang initially. The robbery of Daviess County Savings Association in Gallatin, Missouri put Jesse in the papers for the first time. There, he killed a cashier he mistakenly believed to be Samuel Cox—the assassin of “Bloody Bill” Anderson, an ex-lieutenant in Quantrill’s Raiders and Jesse’s ex-boss. Following the dissolution of the James-Younger Gang, Jesse, along with his brother Frank, tried to live peacefully in Nashville. But Jesse, unlike his brother, wasn’t suited for the quiet life and announced returned to Glendale, Missouri for his first, post-sabbatical robbery. Jesse’s new gang members weren’t as skilled as his former colleagues and it wasn’t long before Jesse rented a house in Saint Joseph, Missouri in which to hide from the authorities. At this point the governor of Missouri, Thomas Crittenden, had hired an undercover agent named Bob Ford to kill Jesse, which Ford did in this house on April, 3rd, 1882.