17 - Life and Adventures of Frank and Jesse James by Joseph. A. Dacus

Dive into the thrilling lives of Frank and Jesse James in this podcast. From meticulously detailed tales of their notorious exploits to the unexpected endings of their adventurous journeys, this biography narrated by PJ Landau is not to be missed.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Section seventeen, comprising chapters forty six and forty seven of
Life and Adventures of Frank and Jesse James by J. A. Dakis.
This LibriVox recording is in the public domain recording by P. J. Landau,
Chapter forty six Epistles of Jesse James. How Jesse takes

(00:23):
his own part with a pen. Some terse specimens of
Jesse's style. Jesse James is not an educated man in
the scholastic sense of that term. In this respect, he
differs widely from his brother Frank, who has a fair
knowledge of the Latin and Greek languages, and is said
to be able to converse fluently in the Spanish and

(00:44):
German tongues. Frank was a college student when the war
was commenced. In Jesse, a schoolboy in a country place.
He had made some progress, had learned to quote, read, write,
and cipher unquote, and was wrestling with quote the knotty
intricacies of English grammar and geography when his career in

(01:06):
school was stopped short by the political events occurring around him.
It cannot be expected that Jesse's literary performances should exhibit
the classic finish of an Addison or an irving and yet,
barring his faulty orthography, his style is direct and pointed,
and under other circumstances he might have become a very

(01:26):
good newspaper reporter. Although Jesse is deficient in the command
of language to express his views in accordance with the
canons of literary criticism, yet his letters, if not elegant
specimens of composition, are at least vigorous and clear. It
is a matter of regret that so few specimens of

(01:47):
his epistolary ability are available. We have succeeded in obtaining
copies of a few of his letters, but unfortunately none
which reveal the domestic relations and characteristics of the man.
Such of Jesse's letters, as we have been able to secure,
which have any interest for the public, we present in
this chapter. The following note was addressed from Jesse to

(02:10):
a friend in Missouri, and came into the hands of
a gentleman, who, for reasons which the author is bound
to respect, desires his name to be withheld. The orthography
alone is revised. The year it will be observed is
not given. Comanche, Texas, June tenth. Dear Jim, I hear

(02:31):
they are making a great fuss about Old Dan Ascue
and say the James Boys done the killing. It's one
of old Pink's lies, circulated by his sneaks. I can
prove that I was in Texas at Dallas on the
twelfth of May when the killing was done. Several persons
of the highest respectability know that I could not have

(02:52):
been in Clay County, Missouri at that time. I might
name a number who could swear to this, whose words
would be taken anywhere. It's my opinion Ascue was killed
by Jack Ladd and some of Pinkerton's men. But no
meanness is ever done now, but the James Boys must
bear the blame for it. This is like the balance

(03:13):
of the lies they tell about me and my brother.
I wish you would correct the lies that Kansas City
papers have printed about the shooting of Old Ascue, and
oblige yours faithfully, Jesse. The date of the murder of
Ascue given in the above letter is wrong. That event
occurred on the night of April twelfth, and not May,

(03:35):
as the writer of the above note assumes. The following
is a characteristic note. It contained several allusions unintelligible to
the uninitiated. It was written to an old comrade who
long ago abandoned a wild life and is living as
a respectable citizen fort Worth, March tenth, eighteen seventy seven.

(03:57):
Dear Blank, the beaves will soon be ready. As soon
as the roads dry up and the streams run down,
we will drive. We expect to take a good bunch
of cattle in. You may look out. There will be
plenty of bellowing after the drive. Remember it is business.
The range is good. I learn between Sidney and Deadwood.

(04:19):
We may go to pasture somewhere in that region. You
will hear of it. Tell Sam to come to Honey Grove,
Texas before the drive season comes. There is money in
the stock, as ever Jesse Jay. The following letter was
obtained in Colorado by a gentleman who claims to be
well acquainted with the handwriting of Jesse James and claims

(04:41):
that it was dropped by Jack Bishop. As to its authenticity,
we leave the reader to judge it is in style
much such a letter as Jesse James might have written.
Rest Ranch, Texas, January twenty third. Dear Jack, we had
a little fun on the other side the line. Lately,

(05:01):
A lot of greasers came over and broke up several ranches.
Some of us were down that way, and the cowboys
wanted us to help them, and we done it. Some
of our cattle had been taken, and I don't owe
the yellow legs anything good anyhow, Well, we left some
half a dozen or more for carrion bird meat. We
brought the cattle back. I was confound and glad we

(05:23):
met some cavalry out after raiders. There was a big
lot of them motley scamps, and we would have had
a pretty rough time, I expect, but the sneaks got
back as fast as they could. You would have enjoyed
the racket as ever, yours, j W. J. The last
letter to an individual which we here present is vouched

(05:44):
for as being in the handwriting of Jesse James by
Marshal James Liggett. It was written to George W. Shephard
about two weeks after the Glendale train robbery. In this
as in the other notes given above, we have revised
the orthography without correcting the grammatical errors. The letter is
without date and runs as follows, Friend, George, I can't

(06:08):
wait for you here. I want you to meet me
on Rogue's Island, and we will talk about that business
we spoke of. I would wait for you, but the
boys wants to leave here, don't fail to come, and
if we don't buy them cattle, I will come back
with you. Come to the place where we met, going
south that time, and stay in that neighborhood until I

(06:28):
find you, your friend Jay. On many occasions, Jesse has written,
or caused to be written exculpatory letters for publication in
the public journals. We present a few of these as
specimens of Jesse's epistolary style, and because of the interesting
character of their allusions to his own conduct. It will

(06:50):
be observed that the dates of outrages on banks and
railways are wrong in several instances, as given in these letters.
For instance, the following communication appeared in the Nashville, Tennessee
banner of July tenth, eighteen seventy five. Raytown, Missouri, July fifth,
eighteen seventy five. Gentlemen, as my attention has been called

(07:14):
recently to the notice of several sensational pieces copied from
the Nashville Union in American stating that the Jameses and
youngers are in Kentucky. I ask space in your valuable paper.
To say a few words. In my defense, I would
treat these reports with silent contempt. But I have many
friends in Kentucky and Nashville that I wish to know

(07:37):
that these reports are false and without foundation. I have
never been out of Missouri since the Amnesty bill was
introduced into the Missouri legislature last March asking for pardon
for the James and Younger Boys. I am in constant
communication with Governor Hardin, Sheriff Groom of Clay County, Missouri,

(07:57):
and several other honorable county and states officials. And there
are hundreds of persons in Missouri who will swear that
I have not been in Kentucky. There are desperadoes roving
round in Kentucky, and it is probably very important for
the officials of Kentucky to be vigilant if a robbery
is committed in Kentucky. To day, Detective bl of Louisville

(08:18):
would telegraph all over the United States that the James
and Younger Boys did it, just as he did when
the Columbia, Kentucky bank was robbed April twenty ninth, eighteen
seventy two. Old Blie, the Sherman Bummer who is keeping
up all the sensational reports in Kentucky, and if the
truth were known, I am satisfied. Some of the informers

(08:40):
are concerned in many robberies charged to the James and
Younger Boys. For ten years, the radical papers in Missouri
and other states have charged nearly every daring robbery in
America to the James and Younger Boys. It is enough
for the northern newspapers to persecute us, without the papers
of the South, the land we fought for for four

(09:02):
years to save from northern tyranny, to be persecuted by
papers claiming to be democratic as against reason. The people
of the South have only heard one side of the report.
I will give a true history of the lives of
the James and Younger Boys to the banner in the future,
or rather a sketch of our lives. We have not

(09:23):
only been persecuted, but on the night of the twenty
fifth of January eighteen seventy five, at the midnight hour,
nine Chicago assassins and Sherman bummers, led by Billy Pinkerton Junior,
crept up to my mother's house and hurled a missal
of war a thirty two pound shell in a room
among innocent women and children, murdering my eight year old

(09:46):
brother and tearing my mother's right arm off, and wounding
several others of the family, and then firing the house
in seven places. The radical papers here in Missouri have
repeatedly charged the Russellville, Kentucky robbery to the James and
younger boys. While it is well known that on the
day of the robbery March twentieth, eighteen sixty nine, I

(10:08):
was at the Chaplain Hotel in Chaplain, Nelson County, Kentucky,
which I can prove by mister Tom Marshall, the proprietor,
and fifty others. And on that day my brother Frank
was at work on the Laponsou ranch in San Luis
Obispo County, California, for J. D. P. Thompson, which can
be proven by the Sheriff of San Luis Obispo County

(10:30):
and many others. Frank was in Kentucky the winter previous
to the robbery, but he left Alexander Sayers in Nelson
County January twenty fifth, eighteen sixty eight, and sailed from
New York City January the sixteenth, which the Books of
the United States Mail line steamers will show. Probably I

(10:51):
have written too much and probably not enough, but I
hope to write much more to the banner in the future.
I will close by sending my kindest regards to old
doctor Eve, and many thanks to him for kindness to
me when I was wounded under his care Yours respectfully,
Jesse James. The following communications appeared in the Kansas City

(11:13):
Times during the excitement succeeding the great train robbery at
Rocky Cut near Otterville, Missouri. The first one appeared in
the Times in its edition of August fourteenth, eighteen seventy six,
and the second one came out on the morning of
the twenty third of the same month. Jesse James's first letter,

(11:33):
Oak Grove, Kansas, August fourteenth, eighteen seventy six. You have
published Hobbes Carey's confession, which makes it appear that the
Jameses and the Youngers were the Rocky Cut robbers. If
there was only one side to be told, it would
probably be believed by a good many people that Carrie
has told the truth. But his so called confession is

(11:57):
a well built pack of lies from beginning to end.
I never heard of Hobbes carry Charles Pitts, and William Chadwell.
Until Carrie's arrest, I can prove my innocence by eight good,
well known men of Jackson County and show conclusively that
I was not at the train robbery. But at present
I will only give the names of two of those gentlemen,

(12:20):
to whom I will refer for proof. Early on the
morning after the train robbery, east of Sedalia, I saw
the Honorable D. Gregg of Jackson County and talked with
him for thirty or forty minutes. I also saw and
talked to Thomas Pitcher of Jackson County the morning after
the robbery. Those two men's oaths cannot be impeached, so

(12:42):
I refer the grand Jury of Cooper County, Missouri, and
Governor Harden to those men before they act so rashly
on the oath of a liar, thief and robber. Carry
knows that the Jameses and youngers can't be taken alive,
and that is why he has put it on us.
I have referred to Messrs Pitcher and greg because they

(13:03):
are prominent men, and they know I am innocent, and
their words can't be disputed. I will write a long
article to you for the Times, and send it to
you in a few days, showing fully how Hobbs carry
has lied. Hoping the Times will give me a chance
for a fair hearing and to vindicate myself through its columns.
I will close respectfully. J. James Second Letter, Safe Retreat,

(13:29):
August eighteenth, eighteen seventy six. I have written a great
many articles vindicating myself of the false charges that have
been brought against me. Detectives have been trying for years
to get positive proof against me for some criminal offense
so that they could get a large reward offered for
me dead or alive, and the same by Frank James

(13:52):
and the younger boys. But they have been foiled on
every turn, and they are fully convinced that we will
never be taken alive. And now they have fell on
the deep laid scheme to get Hobbs Kerry to tell
a pack of base lies. But thank god, I am
yet a free man and have got the power to
defend myself against the charge brought against me by Kerry,

(14:15):
a notorious liar and poltroon. I will give a full
statement and prove his confession false lie number one, he said,
a plot was laid by the Jameses and Youngers to
rob the Granby bank. I am reliably informed that there
never was a bank in Granby. Lie number two he

(14:35):
said he met with Cole Younger and me at mister Tyler's.
If there is a man in Jackson County by that name,
I am sure that I am not acquainted with him.
Lie number three he said, Frank James, was it mister
Butler's in Cass County. I and Frank don't know any
man in Cass County by that name. I can prove

(14:57):
my innocence by eight good citizens of Jackson County, Missouri,
but I do not propose to give all their names
at present. If I did, those cutthroat detectives would find
out where I am. My opinion is that Bacon Montgomery,
the scoundrel who murdered Captain A. J. Clements December thirteenth,
eighteen sixty six, is the instigator of all this Missouri

(15:21):
Pacific affair. I believe he planned the robbery and got
his share of the money, and when he went out
to look for the robbers, he led the pursuers off
the robber's trail. If the truth was half told about Montgomery.
It would make the world believe that Montgomery has no equal,
only the Bender family and the midnight assassins who murdered

(15:42):
my poor, helpless and innocent eight year old brother and
shot my mother's arm off. And I am of opinion
that he had a hand in that dirty, cowardly work.
The detectives are a brave lot of boys, charge houses,
break down doors, and make the gray hairs stand up
on the head of unarmed victims. Why don't President Grant

(16:03):
have the soldiers called in and send the detectives out
on special trains after the hostile Indians a m Pinkerton's
force with hand grenades, and they will kill all the
women and children. And as soon as the women and
children are killed, it will stop the breed, and the
warriors will die out. In a few years, I believe

(16:23):
the railroad robbers will yet be sifted down on someone
at Saint Louis or Sedalia, putting up the job and
then trying to have it put on innocent men, as
Carrie has done. Hoping the Times will publish just as
I have written, I will close Jesse James Chapter forty seven, Glendale,

(16:44):
The Last Great Train Robbery. A night ride to a
lonely wayside station, how the robbery was effected. The eastern
part of Jackson County, the western part of Lafayette, and
down southward through Cass County constitute the very center of
the field of operations chosen by the old guerrilla leaders Quantrelle,

(17:06):
Todd Anderson, Younger, Pool Clements, and the Jameses during the war.
The Snee Hills and the timber crowned undulations bordering the
Big Blue afforded them excellent hiding places when sorely pressed,
and from their fastnesses in the hills they could easily
make forays into the very suburbs of the garrison towns

(17:27):
of Kansas City, Independence, Lexington, Pleasant Hill, and Harrisonville. They
knew every pathway over the hills, and every crossing place
along the streams. Around and among these forests were the
farms and dwellings of their friends and warm sympathizers in
their cause. Time has wrought some changes in the country

(17:50):
since those days, But the forest crowned hills and the
deep tangled thickets, and the sparkling streams still or there.
The face of nature has changed, but little among the
hills of the Snee or along the banks of the blue.
It was meet that the bandits, who were believed to
be the same men who once were gorillas, should come

(18:10):
back to the scenes of their earlier adventures to consummate
their latest and most daring robbery. October seventh, eighteen seventy nine,
was a beautiful, sunny, warm day. The woods had not
yet assumed the sober brown hues of autumn, but nature
was lovely in the rich ripeness of the summer's clothes.

(18:32):
The great tide of human life flowed on in its
accustomed channels. Some were engaged in the pursuit of pleasure,
Some were in search of gain, Others were toiling for bread.
Some were happy in having accomplished their designs. Others were
wretched in realizing the bitterness of disappointment. Some were glad

(18:52):
in the knowledge that they had contributed to the happiness
of their fellow mortals. Others were miserable because they beheld
the gloe gladness of their neighbors and knew of the
triumphs of their rivals. Some planned good deeds, others plotted
dark crimes. These all go to constitute the atoms of

(19:13):
the mighty tide of human life. And their plans, purposes,
and deeds all contribute to the production of the surges
and swirls of the stream as it flows through time
to the gulf of eternity. There were always plotters since
the world began, Men have schemed, and until the end
of time. There will be the good and the bad

(19:34):
in humanity, sometimes one and sometimes the other quality predominating.
And so while the autumn sunshine was golden and the
wood cricket's chirp was mournful, the schemers were prodding their
brain in the devising of a scheme to commit a
grievous crime. Glendale is a lonely wayside station in the

(19:55):
western part of Lafayette County, Missouri, on the line of
the Chicago and d Alton Railway Kansas City Branch. There
is a water tank, a little station house, and a
few houses in a narrow vale wedged in between rugged
hills which are covered with lofty trees and tangled thickets,
a fit place for the rendezvous of a banditi. Glendale

(20:19):
is about twenty miles from Kansas City and on the
line of the road between Independence and Blue Springs, in
the very midst of a region where many of the
darkest crimes and deeds of blood which mark the gorilla
warfare of the border, were committed both by the Federal
militia and the Confederate gorillas. The country about Glendale is

(20:40):
one of the wildest regions in western Missouri, and the
hills and dark ravines afford excellent opportunities for the concealment
of both men and horses. A better situation for a
successful foray by brigands does not exist on the line
of the road between Chicago and Kansas City. The Night

(21:01):
Express train bound from Kansas City to Chicago and Saint
Louis left the Union depot in the first named city
on the evening of the seventh at six o'clock and
consequently was due at Glendale at about seven o'clock, a
short time after daylight had faded from the west. Now,
as we have before intimated, Glendale is a place with

(21:23):
a nice name, but few inhabitants, though perhaps it is
not destined to go down to history with the historic
interest attached to Arabella, Malplakeett, Shiloh, Kennesaw, or Waterloo. Yet
so early in its history Glendale has become famous. The
incident which contributed so much to this result occurred on

(21:44):
the evening of the seventh of October eighteen seventy nine.
In addition to the station house, the business of Glendale
is represented by a post office and a general store
kept by the postmaster. The evening in question was very
pleasant outside of houses, and when the curtains of night
were drawn and the store was lighted, the postmaster and

(22:06):
four others who constituted the male population of the place
except the station agent, mister MacIntyre, had gathered in front
of the little store to discuss the neighborhood's affairs. They
were quietly interchanging views. Suddenly a stranger joined the circle, and,
walking quickly to where the proprietor was sitting, he tapped

(22:26):
him on the shoulder and said, I want you. What
do you want? Asked the other. The new arrival did
not deign to answer the question, but quietly stepped away
and said, here boys. In a minute, nay a moment,
half a dozen rough looking men, muffled and masked, stood
by a side, armed with huge pistols in wicked looking knives.

(22:48):
Their pistols they held cocked in their hands. Then the leader,
in a harsh, grating voice, said, now take care make
tracks out of this. The terrified citizens started to obey.
As they were going, the leader said to the depot,
do you hear, in great consternation, the little company of
citizens filed away to the depot. In the depot was

(23:10):
the operator and agent, mister MacIntyre, and mister W. E. Bridges,
assistant Auditor of the Chicago and Alton Railway Company, already
under duress. When the citizens were all assembled in the room,
the leader said, now sit down, act clever, and keep still,
or you will not have heads left on you. Of course,
obedience to such an order was just then regarded by

(23:33):
all the parties as a great virtue, and they therefore obeyed.
The masked men, who had now assembled to the number
of twelve, according to one account fourteen by another witness,
tore away the telegraphic instrument and went out and cut
the wires. The instrument was smashed. Now, said the leader,
whose only mask was a long dark beard. I want

(23:55):
you to lower that green light. But said the agent,
the train will stop if I do. That's the alumn
precisely what we want it to do. My buck, And
the sooner you obey orders, the better I will give
you a minute to lower the light, said the bearded leader,
at the same time thrusting a cocked pistol to the
face of the agent. The operator could see the long,

(24:17):
bright barrel of the pistol, and the dark, cavernous interior
of the tube had a forbidding appearance. He looked up
into the face of the long bearded man. He saw
a cold, fixed look, and every indication, so far as
features could reveal, intentions that the robber chieftain meant just
what he said, and he lowered the light. Of course,

(24:38):
the position of the light was in order to the
conductor to stop at Glendale and receive fresh instructions according
to the code of signals in use among railway men,
but to be perfectly sure of the expected plunder, and
in order to destroy even the possibility of the train
passing without making a stop, the robbers heaped a pile
of cross ties, fence rails another lumber across the track.

(25:02):
Having completed their preparations, the robbers quietly awaited the coming
of the train. It was a little after seven o'clock.
The prisoners in the station house were wondering about what
would happen next, and especially were they concerned and anxious,
respecting what should happen to them. Then the distant rumbling
of the train was heard louder and louder. It fell

(25:23):
upon the ears of the listeners. The engineer saw the
signal displayed which commanded him to stop. He sounded the
whistle and ordered the brakes on. The train stood still
on the track with the engine at the tank. The conductor,
with lantern in hand, sprang upon the platform ere the
wheels had ceased to revolve, and was about to proceed

(25:45):
to the little station house to receive his orders. But
he had made little progress in that direction when a
man rushed up to him with a cocked revolver, which
he held out as if to fire. This man was
speedily joined by another who was also armed in like manner.
Both the men wore masks. Mister Greeman, the conductor, was,

(26:06):
of course powerless to resist such odds, and, with mingled
feelings of alarm and disgust, was compelled to await the
pleasure of the strange men, whom he now knew to
be robbers. Two men rushed up to the cab of
the locomotive and made prisoners of the engineer and firemen
by the presentation of pistols and the stern declaration that

(26:27):
instant death would certainly follow a failure to obey or
an attempt at resistance. One of the robbers, addressing the engineer,
called out, hand me that coal hammer of yours. What
do you want of it? Asked the other hand, It
here very quick, or you'll never have use for another
was the emphatic command of the robber, accompanied by a

(26:47):
very significant movement of the pistol. Arm thus appealed to
the engineer obeyed, the large hammer used by stokers to
break coal was handed to the mast desperado. Then a
group of the masked men with the long bearded men
at their head, gathered at the door of the express car.
One of the men with the coal hammer then commenced

(27:08):
beating on the door of the car. The messenger, who
was in charge of a large sum of money more
than thirty five thousand dollars in currency and much other
valuable property, was inside, but had refused to open the door.
The messenger, mister William Grimes, could hear the blows of
the ponderous hammer and knew that his place would soon

(27:29):
be opened to the marauders. The door was already yielding.
It was falling to splinters, and a minute later the
car was broken into by the masked and armed robbers.
Grimes in the meanwhile had formed a hasty plan to
escape with the money. While the robbers were beating on
the door. He opened the safe, took therefrom a large

(27:49):
amount of money hastily deposited in a satchel, and re
locked the door of the safe, and was attempting to
escape by the other door. He was too late. The
robbers sprang into the car before he was ready to
leave it. In any event, escape was rendered impossible by
the fact that the other door of the car was guarded.
He could only have escaped a part of the band

(28:12):
to fall into the hands of their comrades. When the
robbers rushed into the car after having broken the door open,
one of them cried out to the messenger, here you
gimme that key. I will not. You may take it,
answered the messenger. The words had no more than escaped
his lips when one of the gang in the car
dealt him a terrible blow with the butt of a

(28:33):
heavy revolver, which felled him to the floor. They took
the key, opened the safe and rifled it of all
its contents which were of value to them. They then
took the packages from the messenger's satchel and the great
railway and express robbery at Glendale was an accomplished fact.
During the time occupied by a part of the robber

(28:55):
band about the express car, a patrol was distributed along
the sides end the train, and these were discharging firearms
at intervals for the purpose, as is supposed, of intimidating
the passengers. The whole time occupied in completing this great
robbery probably did not exceed ten minutes. The whole amount

(29:16):
of booty secured was probably fully forty thousand dollars. The
passengers were greatly alarmed during these proceedings. Valuables were hastily
concealed under seats, about the persons of the owners, and
wherever else a place not likely to be examined by
the robbers could be found. After concluding the work which

(29:36):
brought them to Glendale, the brigands, amid the reports of
pistol shots, set up a shout which echoed among the
hills for a long distance around, sought their horses mounted
and rode away through the gloom. They had locked the
citizens in the little station house. These waited until everything
seemed still about the place, for the train had moved on,

(29:58):
And then they broke down the door and walked out
of their temporary prison house. End of Section seventeen.