Jesse James Killed: The Outlaw Era Ends

Robert Ford shot Jesse James in the back of the head on April 3, 1882, in James's rented house in St. Joseph, Missouri. James had turned to straighten a picture on the wall and removed his revolvers, either to dust or because the room was warm. Ford, who was 20 years old and had been living with James for weeks as part of his gang, fired a single .44 caliber round from a Smith & Wesson revolver. James was 34. Ford had made a secret deal with Missouri Governor Thomas Crittenden, who had offered a $10,000 reward for James's capture or death. Crittenden was under pressure from the railroad companies that James had been robbing for over fifteen years. Ford expected to collect the reward and receive a pardon for his own crimes. Jesse Woodson James had been born in Clay County, Missouri on September 5, 1847. He fought with Confederate guerrillas during the Civil War under William "Bloody Bill" Anderson and participated in the Centralia Massacre. After the war, he and his brother Frank formed a gang that robbed banks, trains, and stagecoaches across the Midwest for sixteen years. They were among the first American criminals to receive extensive press coverage, and sympathetic newspaper editors, particularly John Newman Edwards of the Kansas City Times, cultivated James's image as a Robin Hood figure who stole from corporations and gave to the poor. Whether James ever redistributed his stolen money is doubtful. What is not doubtful is that he killed at least five people during robberies and was responsible for considerably more violence. Ford and his brother Charles were charged with murder, convicted, sentenced to death, and immediately pardoned by Governor Crittenden as arranged. The public was not grateful. Ford was reviled as a coward who had shot an unarmed man in the back. He spent the rest of his short life performing in traveling shows that reenacted the killing and drinking heavily. He was shot and killed by Edward Capehart O'Kelley in a tent saloon in Creede, Colorado on June 8, 1892. He was 30.