When Jesse James Caught His Last Ride

(read in the March 2007 issue of Spirit Magazine, the magazine of Southwest Airlines)

Today is the 125th anniversary of the death of Jesse James, or is it? It was on this date that Jesse James was shot and (presumed) killed at the age of 34. James, who had been living under an alias in St. Joseph, Missouri, took off his gun belt (mistake #1) and stood on a chair (mistake #2) to straighten a picture. He was then shot from behind by his houseguest, Robert Ford.

It has been alleged that James survived, skipped his funeral and went on to live to a ripe old age. Rumors of Jesse James's survival proliferated. Some said that Ford did not kill James, but someone else, in an elaborate plot to allow him to escape justice. Will Davis, a historical interpreter at the Jesse James Farm and Museum in Kearney, Missouri, offers the story that some believe the body buried was Wood Hite, a cousin of Jesse's, who had died a few weeks earlier. According to Wikipedia, some stories say he lived in Guthrie, Oklahoma, as late as 1948, and a man named J. Frank Dalton, who claimed to be Jesse James, died in Granbury, Texas, in 1951 at the age of 103. The body buried in Missouri as Jesse James was exhumed in 1995 and, according to a report, it is believed that the remains were of Jesse James. A court order was granted in 2000 to exhume and test Dalton's body, but the wrong body was exhumed. (A-HA!)

The James home, where Jesse met his maker, in St. Joseph, Missouri, offers a wide variety of artifacts from James. In nearby Kearney, the James farm still stands and tours can be had of the farm and museum. On April 7, the farm will mark the anniversary with a "Black Powder Shooting Contest."