Legends of the Old West - JESSE JAMES Ep. 1 | "American Outlaw"

Episode Date: November 11, 2018

In the aftermath of the Civil War, the South was in ruins. The leaders of the Missouri guerillas were dead. Jesse James and his older brother, Frank, rose to prominence and began their careers and killers and thieves... and a Kansas City newspaperman began a campaign to turn them into heroes. Join Black Barrel+ for early access and bingeable seasons: blackbarrel.supportingcast.fm/join For more details, visit our website www.blackbarrelmedia.com and check out our social media pages. We’re @OldWestPodcast on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Benefits vary by card. Other conditions apply. Jesse and Frank tried to keep their horses quiet. They were mounted and ready to run, but they hid in their stable and waited as four men rode into the yard of the family farm. They probably couldn't see what was happening outside, but they'd been expecting the men. Hopefully the men would ask their questions and leave. But if not, suddenly they heard a commotion outside. A 13-year-old boy threw open the door of the James family farmhouse, surprising the two men who were about to knock.

The boy raced out to the stable and dragged open the door. Frank and Jesse spurred their horses and charged out of the stable and dragged open the door. Frank and Jesse spurred their horses and charged out of the stable. Rifle fire opened up on them from the field behind the house. Two men were stationed there to stop their escape. The men at the house ran for their horses and fired at the James workers. Frank and Jesse galloped toward a rail fence. Their horses leapt over the fence without a moment of hesitation. The four men chasing them were not so lucky. Three of their four horses refused to make the jump, and the pursuit quickly fizzled out. Ten minutes later, the coast was clear and the James boys trotted back to their farm.

It was the first attempted arrest of the brothers as suspected outlaws. the first attempted arrest of the brothers as suspected outlaws. They were wanted for robbery and murder, and that event would vault them from obscurity to notoriety. They were rebels, young and wild, honed by the violence of the Civil War and infuriated by the policies that followed. But they didn't begin the post-Civil War years as the leaders of an outlaw gang. Like everything, they and their circumstances evolved. This is how it began. From Black Barrel Media, this is Season 3 of the Legends of the Old West podcast. From Black Barrel Media, this is Season 3 of the Legends of the Old West podcast. I'm your host, Chris Wimmer, and this is the first episode of a five-part series on Jesse James.

If you're new to the show, you might want to go back and listen to Episode 5 of Season 1. It covers Jesse's younger years growing up in Missouri and as a guerrilla fighter in the Civil War. In this series, we'll dive into the 16-year career of one of the true legends of the Old West. Bank robberies, train robberies, pursuit by the Pinkertons, the spectacular failure of the Northfield Raid, and the fateful meeting of a young man named Robert Ford. It's all here. And now, here's Jesse James, Episode 1, American Outlaw. As a podcast network, our first priority has always been audio and the stories we're able

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Go to shopify.com slash r-e-a-l-m now to grow your business, no matter what stage you're in. Shopify.com slash realm. By the end of 1866, they were all dead. All the leaders of the Missouri guerrillas. All the men Jesse James and his older brother Frank had served under during the Civil War. Captain William Quantrill was dead and buried in an unmarked grave in Kentucky. His lieutenant, Bloody Bill Anderson, was dead, and his body had been

desecrated by the people of Richmond, Missouri. Bloody Bill's lieutenant, Archie Clement, was dead. He had just died in a hail of gunfire in Lexington, Missouri. December 13th, 1866, Lafayette County, Missouri. The Union Army controlled the town of Lexington as it did every other quarter of the South after the Civil War. Archie Clement, the vicious hot-headed leader of the surviving Missouri guerrilla fighters, galloped right into the center of town at the head of a column of 26 men, two of whom were Frank and Jesse James. Archie had a $300 bounty on his head, and he was in full view of the Union militia, and he could not have cared less. He was brash and defiant, as always. The Union military commander had a warrant for Archie's arrest,

but the commander was a cool customer. He saw no reason to stage a gun battle in the center of town. He would be patient and wait for his chance. Several hours later, his patience was rewarded. Archie was in the bar of the city hotel drinking with an old friend. It was just the two of them. All the other bushwhackers had left town. A man ran into the county courthouse and told the union commander of the news. The commander ordered three soldiers to go to the hotel and arrest Archie. But then he had second thoughts. Archie was a fierce fighter. Would three men be enough to handle him? At the last second, the commander sent the roughest man in his troop running after the first three. And the fourth man, let's just say, was not subtle.

The first three soldiers had a plan. They were going to engage Archie in conversation, buy him drinks, and hopefully take him without firing a shot. They walked into the hotel and eased up to the bar. They ordered drinks for themselves, trying to act casual before they approached Archie. And then the fourth man burst through the door and yelled, surrender! Archie leapt out of his chair and pulled both pistols. His friend dove over the pool table and sprinted toward the hotel stairs. One of the soldiers snapped off a shot that hit Archie's friend in the leg. Archie raced

into a side office. The soldier fired and hit Archie's friend in the leg. Archie raced into a side office. The soldier fired and hit Archie in the right side of the chest. Archie kept running. He charged outside and dashed down the icy street. The soldiers rushed out of the hotel. They fired at Archie as they chased him. The gunfight the commander had hoped to avoid now raged in the streets. Archie ran past the courthouse, which was the headquarters of the militia.

A barrage of gunfire shattered the windows of the courthouse as the soldiers blasted Archie Clement. Archie collapsed to the ground. One of the soldiers from the bar walked up to him. Archie was clearly dying, and the soldier asked him, What do you want me to do with you? Archie said, I've done what I always said I'd do. Die before I'd surrender.

Archie Clement died on a street in Lexington, Missouri, two weeks before the end of the year 1866. He was Jesse James' mentor and probably closest friend in the outfit. It was a deeply personal loss for Jesse, and one of the many things that helped fuel his rising anger and hatred for the North, the Union Army, and the Radical Republican Party, as it was called by Southerners after the war. But the loss also opened the door for Jesse to become the leader

of arguably the most famous gang of outlaws in American history. The James Gang, as it would later be called, didn't form overnight. Jesse didn't round up a group of friends and relatives and say, all right, here's what we're going to do. We're going to rob banks, trains, and stagecoaches. We're going to target financial institutions that represent the oppressive power of the North. We're going to make political statements with everything we do, and we're going to become heroes to the South. All of that happened, but it happened gradually. The gang, as we refer to it today, evolved out of the old guerrilla fighters of Missouri.

After the Civil War, the South was in ruins. Cities and towns had been destroyed. Farms had been burned to the ground. The livestock was gone, killed for food for both armies, or killed to deny food to both armies. And beyond the physical damage was the human damage. 620,000 soldiers died in the war. If you adjust that number to correspond to today's population, it would be like losing 6 million people. The economy had been annihilated. The most valuable asset had been the land, the farm itself, and now that was devastated.

After that, much of the wealth of the South was tied up in human commodities, slaves. In cold monetary terms, Southerners lost hundreds, or hundreds of thousands, or millions of dollars of what they considered to be their property. The wealth of the South was utterly wiped out. In Missouri, the population had dropped by 300,000 during the war. People had been killed in battle, murdered, driven out, banished, or just simply fled in fear. Massive sweeping changes were coming to America. Slavery was ending. The financial system was evolving, and the political system was tearing itself apart and reforging with new parties that held new values. The dominant party in Missouri was called the Radicals. It was essentially

the Republican Party of Abraham Lincoln and the Union. The Radicals took control of the Missouri government in the election of 1864 and immediately wrote a new constitution. The new one freed all the slaves and gave them a few civil rights. As the war drew to a close in the spring of 1865, the radicals tried to remake Missouri, and the most divisive part of their plan was the oath. In order to vote, every man had to swear that he had not committed one of 86 acts of rebellion listed in the oath, including sympathizing with the rebels in general or a rebel individually. Instantly, 35,000 to 50,000 men were disqualified.

Members of government were thrown out of office. Lawyers, teachers, and ministers were kicked out of their positions. All of these vacancies were filled by radicals. Radicals intended the oath to do two things. Drive out the ideology of slavery by driving out the slaveholders, which would open the door for northerners to move into the state, and just simply to punish people for rebellion. It succeeded in fostering hatred and pushing some men toward a new form of rebellion, the outlaw gang. Former rebels felt angry, isolated, and alienated, and this was the world

that the Missouri Guerrillas returned to after the war. Throughout the summer, fall, and winter of 1865, they straggled back into Missouri, and they were not welcomed by everyone. Missouri was a conflicted state within the conflict. Even though it was a slave state and aligned with the South, 112,000 men joined the Union Army. Others joined the official Southern Army. Still others, like the James Boys, joined guerrilla bands who were their own special breed of fighter. Oftentimes, they were more like terrorists or murderers than they were soldiers. They had their supporters for sure, but they also had their haters. So when they returned home, they had to be on guard at all times. People who had had family members killed by these bushwhackers were eager for revenge.

There were numerous examples of bushwhackers who were killed in public when grieving family members spotted them. And that in itself was a new phenomenon in America. Revenge with a gun. Before the Civil War, almost no one walked around with a gun. If there was a fight, it was a fistfight. After the war, men came back hardened by extreme violence and carrying new inventions, repeating rifles and revolvers. Now men walked everywhere with pistols strapped to their hips. Disputes that used to escalate into fistfights now escalated into gunfights. So when the bushwhackers came back to Missouri, they reunited. They stuck together out of camaraderie, hatred for the radicals, and just simple safety.

They went everywhere together, and they went everywhere armed. By December of 1865, all the surviving members of the old guerrilla bands were back in Missouri, which included the James family, Dave Poole, Jim Cummins, Jim Anderson, who was Bloody Bill's brother, and Archie Clement. Two months later, the first daylight bank robbery in peacetime America happened in Clay County, the home of the James boys. On January 31, 1866, the men who owned and operated the Clay County Savings Association held a mass meeting of radicals in Liberty, Missouri. Exactly two weeks later, a dozen men rode into town and robbed the bank. They stole an incredible $58,000, but perhaps more importantly, they sent a message. The bandits were dressed in sky-blue overcoats

like Union Army officers, a tactic commonly used by Missouri guerrillas during the Civil War. They targeted a bank that was a prominent institution of the Radical Republican Party instead of the other one in town that had no affiliation. And they used old guerrilla raiding trails to make their escape. The signs were clear to everyone. Bushwhackers did this. And worse than the robbery, they had killed a 19-year-old young man as they galloped out of town. Two posses chased the bandits but lost the trail. In the days that followed, names of possible suspects started to emerge. They were all from Bloody Bill Anderson's old troop of guerrilla fighters. Frank and Jesse James were not among them, but many of their associates were. In mid-March, the Republican governor of Missouri authorized militia companies to hunt down and destroy the Bushwhacker groups led by Bloody Bill's brother and Archie Clement.

All spring and summer, there was murder and mayhem in the Missouri countryside. Many people feared another civil war was on the way. By the fall, it was clear that the old bands of guerrilla fighters were using four adjoining counties as their stronghold, Clay, Jackson, Ray, and Lafayette. As an election loomed at the end of the year, Lexington, in Lafayette County, became the epicenter of rebel resistance. Lexington was the hometown of infamous bushwhacker Dave Poole, and Lafayette County was the headquarters of Archie Clement. In hindsight, no one was surprised that Lexington was the site of the second bank robbery in Missouri in 1866, or that Dave Poole was probably involved. On October 30th, four men ran into the Alexander Mitchell & Company bank.

They ran out with $2,000, jumped on their horses, and galloped out of town. The scene was made more surprising by the fact that Dave Poole wasn't drunk. It was lunchtime, and if it was lunchtime, it meant it was time for Dave Poole to start drinking in the bar of the City Hotel. But at the time of the robbery, he and his brother were loitering on the sidewalk. As the bandits raced out of town with their loot, Dave and his brother chased them. Several hours later, the brothers came back saying they had lost the thieves after a running gunfight. To most people, it seemed too convenient. More likely, Dave was in on the heist. He loudly swore he would shoot any man who challenged his story, and no one did, publicly.

Six weeks later, Dave Poole rode back into town with his friend and fellow rebel leader, Archie Clement. After months of bloodshed in the hills, this overt move by the bushwhackers seemed sure to cause a fight. But it didn't. The guerrillas eventually wandered out of town, all except Archie Clement. The end of the day found him dead in the street outside the Lexington County Courthouse after a gun battle with the local militia. For the first few months of 1867, the guerrillas were scattered and leaderless. There were still small robberies and killings, but no major bank jobs. Until May 22nd.

Men drifted into Richmond, Missouri all afternoon on that Thursday the 22nd. No one paid much attention to them until about a dozen men congregated on horseback in front of the Hughes and Wasson Bank. The bank was not allied with the radicals. In fact, it was owned by two members of the conservative party. But the owners were staunch unionists, so it was an acceptable target. And Richmond was the town that had desecrated the body of guerrilla leader Bloody Bill Anderson, so it was a target in and of itself. Four men went into the bank and collected $3,500. Outside, citizens became concerned about the horsemen. Something started the shooting.

Maybe someone shouted a warning or fired a shot at the bandits. We're not sure, but either way, it erupted into a full-fledged firefight. The outlaws fired on the townspeople as they ran for cover. Lieutenant Frank Griffin ran into the yard of the courthouse and hid behind a tree. He fired at the bandits with his rifle. The mayor of Richmond, John Shaw, sprinted down the street with his pistol in hand, shouting at bystanders to take cover. The mayor of Richmond, John Shaw, sprinted down the street with his pistol in hand, shouting at bystanders to take cover. The four robbers in the bank ran outside with the stolen cash. The men on horseback were certainly not frightened by the gunfire. They fought back with deadly aim as the men with the money leapt into the saddle. They shot Lieutenant Griffin in the

head. He fell dead on the spot. They gunned down Mayor Shaw with a bullet to the heart. Griffin's elderly father ran up the street toward the bank, and the robbers shot him in the head too. As his dead body lay on the ground, one of the thieves put another bullet in his corpse before they spurred their horses and galloped out of town. The deputy sheriff gathered a posse and took off after the robbers. A gun battle ensued, but the robbers knew all the backwoods trails, and they eventually escaped. A list of possible suspects began to circulate. Rumors flew in every direction as people speculated about men who might have been responsible.

Jesse James was still too obscure, so he wasn't on the list, but people began to whisper that he was the kind of person who could do such a thing. Posse's and vigilante squads prowled the countryside looking for the men on the list, or men who were reported to be connected to Bushwacker groups. Casualties piled up. Angry mobs stormed jails and lynched suspected outlaws. Firefights claimed the lives of bushwhackers, posse members, and innocent bystanders. And every time people thought the cycle of violence was winding down, something happened and it spun back up again.

In November of 1867, the first National Bank of Independence was robbed. It led to more manhunts and more hangings in February 1868. One by one, all of the old bushwhackers were captured, killed, or gave up the outlaw life. Through process of elimination, Frank and Jesse James were rising up the ranks. In March 1868, they quietly traveled the back roads to Kentucky. Some of the older, surviving members of Quantrill's raiders had a plan to rob a bank that was co-owned by the brother of a prominent Missouri Unionist politician. Five men, likely including Cole Younger for the first time, robbed the Nimrod Long & Company Bank in Russellville and escaped with $12,000.

In the wake of the robbery, detectives were able to trace Frank and Jesse to a hotel in town, but couldn't confirm that they had actually taken part in the theft. They were on the fringes of the job, but the real work had been done by the older men. It was the last time Frank and Jesse were on the sidelines, though. Detectives tracked down and killed the man who had planned the Kentucky job. And now it was time for Frank and Jesse James to lead. In the fall of 1868, Jesse was seen around Missouri dressing like a dandy and riding a fine horse, probably thanks to his share of the money from the Kentucky robbery.

The James family in general had recovered from the devastation of the Civil War. Jesse's mother, Zerelda, and her third husband, Reuben, had restarted the farm in Clay County. After three years of hard work, they were successful hemp and tobacco farmers again. And they had a brood of young children running around the house, one of whom was named Archie, at Jesse's insistence. But Missouri was rapidly changing around them. The railroad boom was in full swing. Companies raced to crisscross the country with iron tracks, and every local government wanted in on the action. They sold

bonds to raise money to bring the railroad to town. Private citizens hurried to places like Missouri to buy hundreds of thousands of acres in hopes of selling the land to the railroads for huge profits. Northerners rushed into Missouri to begin new lives on cheap land of their own. And many Missourians were happy to sell their land, make quick money, and move farther west. The man who owned the farm next to the James family did exactly that. Northerners, immigrants, freed slaves, and railroads all flooded into Missouri. And then the Republican Congress passed the Reconstruction Act of 1867 and stoked the fires of resistance again.

The South was divided into five military districts, and every state except Tennessee was now ruled by a military governor. In early 1868, an obscure group from Pulaski, Tennessee rose to prominence. Members wore a variety of disguises in the early years as they terrorized Union supporters and freed slaves, but eventually they would become iconic for their white hoods. In this maelstrom of change, the Bank of Russellville, Kentucky had been robbed. A few months later, all of the old leaders of the Missouri the Bank of Russellville, Kentucky had been robbed. A few months later, all of the old leaders of the Missouri Gorillas were gone, and Jesse was seen with new clothes

and a nice horse. On September 5, 1868, he turned 21 years old. Exactly one year later, Jesse asked the Mount Olive Baptist Church to take his name off the roll, as if he knew what he was about to do. Jesse demandait à la Chambre de la Baptiste de Mount Olive pour qu'il prenne son nom de la rôle, comme s'inent les marques qu'ils aiment et font d'importantes économies, en plus des remises en argent. Et vous pouvez aussi commencer à gagner des remises en argent dans vos magasins préférés, comme Old Navy, Best Buy et Expedia, et même cumuler les ventes et les remises en argent. C'est facile à utiliser et vous obtenez vos

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plus pour votre argent. C'est R-A-K-U-T-E-N. December 7th, 1869, Gallatin, Missouri. Jesse and Frank sat on their horses in front of the Davies County Savings Association. The bank was in a small brick building that also housed the office of a lawyer named William McDowell. At about 12.30 p.m., Jesse swung down from his horse and entered the bank. William McDowell watched the 22-year-old Missouri gorilla from his office in the corner. Jesse's gaze locked on the cashier, who sat in front of the safe at the back of the building. The cashier approached the stern-looking stranger, and Jesse handed him a banknote that he wanted to exchange.

As the cashier examined the note, Frank walked up behind Jesse. The cashier sat down at his desk and began to scribble on a piece of paper. Jesse glared at the man. He pulled a revolver from his coat and leveled it at the man's chest. He cursed the cashier for having caused the death of bloody Bill Anderson. He squeezed the trigger and the gunshot boomed in the small space. The slug slammed into the cashier's chest and before the man could slide out of his chair, Jesse shot him in the forehead. William McDowell jumped out of his chair and raced for the door. Jesse spun and fired twice at the lawyer. One bullet missed, but the other hit McDowell in

the arm as he escaped outside. The brothers grabbed a portfolio off the cashier's desk and then ran out to their horses. McDowell was hollering the alarm as the James boys leapt onto their mounts. Townspeople rushed into the street with rifles in hand. Jesse and Frank spurred their mounts and galloped out of town. Citizens fired at them, and Jesse's horse suddenly reared. It dumped Jesse to the ground, but one of his boots got caught in the stirrup. The horse dragged him 30 or 40 yards before he could pull free. Frank circled back and pulled Jesse onto his horse.

Frank kicked the animal, and they sprinted away from town with the gunshots still echoing behind them. Frank kicked the animal and they sprinted away from town with the gunshots still echoing behind them. A mile outside Gallatin, they approached a farm and spotted a horse tied to a fence. The horse's owner was outside and the brothers rode up with pistols pointed at the man's head. He could only watch as Jesse untied the animal and galloped away with his brother. Behind them, a posse charged out of town and was gaining ground on the bandits. Three miles later, Jesse and Frank hit a stream and rode through its waters to mask their trail. The posse searched the area, but Jesse and Frank had escaped. The brothers trotted out of the stream at a town named Kidder, and Jesse started bragging

to every stranger they passed. He had gotten revenge for the death of Bloody Bill Anderson. He had killed Samuel P. Cox, the man who had killed Bloody Bill. Except he hadn't. Jesse didn't know it, but the cashier was not Samuel P. Cox. Cox did live in Gallatin, but the man Jesse killed was the owner and sole operator of the bank, John Sheets. Sheets was well-liked and a prominent man in town. The people of Gallatin were furious. The newspaper in St. Joseph said that if the

killers were found, there would be no need for a jury. The gunmen would never see the inside of a courtroom. Jesse and Frank hadn't really even robbed the bank. The portfolio they had stolen contained paperwork, not money, and they had killed the wrong man. The law was now on their trail. Jesse's horse had been traced back to him, and two heavily armed men from Gallatin tracked him to Liberty. The men partnered up with Deputy Sheriff John Thomason and his son, and they headed for the James farm. When they arrived, Jesse and Frank were ready for them. The sheriff and his son went to the door of the farmhouse. The men from Gallatin circled through the nearby woods so they could cover the yard. Thomason reached out to knock on the door. It flew open before he could touch it. The son of the James family's former slave ran outside and hurried to the stable. He threw open the door

and Jesse and Frank galloped out of the stable. The two men from Gallatin opened fire. Thomason and his son opened fire. Jesse and Frank leapt over a fence at a full gallop and raced away. The four officers jumped into their saddles and began the chase. Thomason was in the lead and he leapt over the fence. He urged his horse to run faster, and then he realized something didn't feel right. He looked around and found out he was alone. The others couldn't make their horses jump the fence. They'd had to dismount and take down the fence. Thomason had to make a choice. He reined in and jumped down. He only had two shots left, and he had to make them count. He fired at the brothers and missed. Not only that, but the shot scared his horse and the animal darted away without him. The riderless horse

caught up to the James boys and they shot it, leaving Thomason to trudge back to the farm on foot. When he reunited with his son and the two men from Gallatin, he commandeered a horse and the four men left without catching Jesse and Frank. Ten minutes later, the brothers rode back to the farm and discovered the small posse was gone. They rode to nearby Kearney full of rage. They trotted up and down the streets, shouting and cursing. Frank had five pistols on him. Jesse had three and a rifle. Frank had five pistols on him. Jesse had three and a rifle. They stopped in front of a store and yelled for the owner to come out. He was John Groom, and we'll hear his name again down the road. Groom wouldn't budge. He stayed inside. They lied and shouted they had killed Deputy Sheriff Thomason and his son, but then they said they hadn't killed the man in Gallatin.

They rode out of town and delivered a terrifying message to two men they passed. They said they would never be taken alive, and they would kill any man who attempted to follow them. Bounties totaling more than $1,000 were placed on their heads. Platoons of militia organized to hunt them down. Jesse James and his older brother Frank were no longer on the sidelines. They were squarely in the spotlight. Thanks to the murder in Gallatin, everyone in Missouri knew their names. And one man couldn't be more excited about their actions. Newspaper editor John Newman Edwards was about to turn them into cult heroes

John Newman Edwards was introduced to the James Boys sometime in the spring of 1870 he had heard about Jesse's attempt to avenge the death of Bloody Bill Anderson in Gallatin and he wanted to meet the brothers Edwards was an eloquent writer and a chronic alcoholic, and he didn't want the Civil War to end. He began his newspaper career right before the war broke out, but put it on hold when the fighting began. He spent three years as an aide to General Joe Shelby, and then followed Shelby down to

Mexico rather than surrender in 1865. They spent a year in exile before returning to Missouri. Edwards restarted his newspaper career in St. Louis before seeing an opportunity on the other side of the state in Kansas City. The town was booming and he teamed up with a former colonel to begin the Kansas City Times in 1868, which dropped him right into the backyard of the James boys. Edwards' fame rose quickly as the editor of the Kansas City Times. He relived the glory days of the war by writing romanticized stories of the battles fought by General Shelby's men. His readers loved them, but he didn't want to just use his newspaper to talk about the past.

He wanted to use it to change the present. He was a firm believer in the Southern cause, and he hated the radicals. But the radicals were crumbling on their own. Congress passed the 15th Amendment to the Constitution in February 1870, which gave every man the right to vote regardless of color. which gave every man the right to vote regardless of color, it essentially ended Missouri's policy of denying the right to vote to former rebel soldiers and sympathizers. That spring, John Newman Edwards met Frank and Jesse James and embarked on a newspaper campaign that turned the brothers into Robin Hood-style folk heroes.

The friendship changed the lives of the three men forever, and it gave the public the first words directly from Jesse James in June of 1870. Jesse wrote a letter to the paper addressed to the governor of Missouri. He proclaimed his innocence for the murder in Gallatin and said he would turn himself in if he thought he could get a fair trial. But he knew that would never happen. He was a known bushwhacker, and he thought he'd be mobbed and killed before he ever made it to trial. But he knew that would never happen. He was a known bushwhacker, and he thought he'd be mobbed and killed before he ever made it to trial. A month later, Jesse sent another note to the newspaper. This time, he claimed he had an alibi, and he produced three sworn statements that said he was in Kearney at the time of the shooting in Gallatin. Two were from family members,

and one was from Mr. John Groom, the man who owned a store in Kearney. Groom had hidden in the store while Jesse and Frank shouted for him to come outside. These statements helped the public begin to lean in the direction of Jesse's innocence. Folks were still wary of the brothers, but they trusted them more than the authorities. Still, the James boys were now famous, and notorious, and they decided to lay low for the winter. They followed their old Civil War trails down to Dallas County, Texas, and spent the winter out of the public eye.

Texas was a haven for wanted men, and it was here that they reunited with their old friends the Youngers. It was here that they reunited with their old friends the Youngers. The formation of the James Younger gang was still on the horizon, but don't worry, you won't have to wait long. Jesse and Frank returned to Missouri in February 1871, and now it was time for their personal lives to begin. Both men started relationships with their future wives. Jesse had fallen in love with his first cousin Z, which was short for Zerelda, the same name as his mother.

Z had nursed him back to health several years earlier when he'd been shot in the chest during the Civil War. They had clearly formed a bond, and now it began to blossom into a relationship. formed a bond, and now it began to blossom into a relationship. Frank began the secret courtship of a schoolteacher named Anna Ralston. Anna's father said years later he would never have approved of a husband like Frank James if he had known what was going on. But Frank and Anna successfully hid their romance from her father in the early stages. Though the two men were finding love, they were nowhere close to settling down. In fact, their criminal careers were just beginning. The last two years had made them famous. The next three would make them legends.

It began with a robbery in Iowa, then one in Kentucky, then Missouri. Then they hit railroads and stagecoaches and more banks from Arkansas to West Virginia. The Pickerton Detective Agency tracked them across the country and attacked the James farm in Missouri with terrible consequences. The body counts skyrocketed. The James brothers, along with the youngers, became the most wanted men in America and the most famous. All that is next time on the Legends of the Old West podcast. If you enjoyed the show, please give it a rating and a review on iTunes or wherever you're listening. You can check out our website at blackbarrelmedia.com and follow us on social media. Our Facebook page is Legends of the Old West Podcast, and our handles on Twitter and Instagram are at Old West Podcast. Thanks again. We'll see you next week.