Hello onthetrail
I hope this is of some interest.
There is so much written about this mans life to point where it is hard to know what is true or not. There are a lot of places claiming association with this famous outlaw.
The history channel documentary I heard through various sources was disappointing to some because they thought that some of the alleged caches retrieved of Jessie James were faked for the sake of the documentary. Some believed that there is insufficient evidence to link Jesse James to any buried treasure.It is a fact that his alleged wife died in complete poverty.
Jesse James was a outlaw of larger than life and glamorized into a folk hero. many towns claimed his presence, many wanting to be associated with notoriety of being connected with him. Today some people see tourist dollars in selling the legend.
But who was this near mythical figure that his story was even known to people in other countries?
Jesse Woodson James (September 5, 1847 ? April 3, 1882) was an American outlaw, gang leader, bank and train robber 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 economic justice.
Jesse and his older 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 and murdered bank employees or bystanders.
They also waylaid 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.
The James brothers were most active with their gang from about 1866 to 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.
Jesse James as a young man of 16 battle scared from the civil war in which for him never ended and became the killing machine that by living by the gun and dying by the gun became the legend we hear today.
From a man who lived a day to day existence ruled by gun. Why would a man with so much of a price on his head would even bother to bury treasure when is only going to be one likely outcome?
I would be very skeptical of any alleged loot claimed to be buried by Jessie James. however very interesting the history of this outlaw is.
hardluck. :
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« Last Edit: November 13, 2009, 05:19:15 am by hardluck »
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