Jesse James, Questionable Beginnings Riddle Future Legend's Past

Whether or not folklore legend Jesse Woodson James made a government deal to avoid death or died from the bullet of Ford's new gun is another story. The wicked cached cards dealt to Jesse James molded him into the man he had become. We begin with his mother Zerelda Cole ^[1] Simms Samuel.

Who was mother?

Zerelda Cole's story marks questionable dark angles from the beginning. Her father's neck broke during a horse riding accident. Her first husband, Robert James, took off for a gold rush never to be seen again with no burial marker to prove his death. He left behind three living children, Jesse, Frank, Susan and a dead son named after him who passed away months after birth. Zerelda's second husband Benjamin Simms, cowardly choleric and cruel to Robert and Jesse, died from, ironic enough, another horse accident.

Zerelda was married a final time to Dr. Reuben Samuels where they had four children of their own. During a gun fight in search of Jesse James their 11 year old son, Archie, was killed. Zerelda's brother committed suicide in 1895 for unknown reasons. Zerelda's path was riddled - with death - a way of life.

Jesse and Zerelda results in Jesse Jr. and Mary Susan.

Zerelda Mimms ^[2] was named after Jesse's mother. Zerelda Mimms was Jesse's first cousin. A bit of, rightful word, inbreeding. Zerelda and Jesse married then had two children. But what became of Jesse Jr. and Mary Susan?

Mary Susan James was born on June 17, 1879 and died on October 11, 1935 ^[3] according to Find a Grave. Henry Lafayette Barr was the man she married. Mary married at the early age of 12 and died at age 56. Her husband, a retired Clay County farmer, just so happened to die in the same year Mary died, on her birthday. Some say it was the day before. Her mother, Zerelda, died at age 55.

Jesse James Jr. and Stella Francis McGowan's marriage deems odd in numbers. Stella was born during February of 1882. They were married according the 1900 and 1920 U.S. census when Jesse James Jr. was 15 years old and Stella at 8. A kid to marry someone under 10 stands for questions surrounding parental guidance.

Breeding a twisted greed.

On the day that Charles and Bob Ford bragged of shooting the wanted outlaw a six year old finds a dead body, his fathers. A man who the boy thought was named "John Davis Howard" was Jesse James. Jesse James Jr. once thought his name was Tim Howard although he went by Tim Edwards to hide his connection to his father. Sense a future personality disorder when it came to the son of Jesse James?

Zerelda, Jesse's wife, was not a fan of public exposure or exploiting her dead husband unlike Jesse's mother. Jesse's mother buried him in her yard so she could keep a watchful eye on him, and to make a buck. She would charge a dollar for a tour. Read further for information surrounding that ongoing tour.

Jesse's wife, however, suffered a depression following the murder of Jesse James to the point where she turned down anything that was remotely connected with a coin and her dead husband's name. It appears that grandmom had an influence on her grandchildren.

Jesse and Zerelda's children, Jesse Edwards James Jr. and Mary Susan James made time for appearances in the 1921 movie "Jesse James Under the Black Flag" after Jesse Jr. wrote a book called "Jesse James, My Father" ^[4] by which lacks in editing with missing text. Not one of the greatest tales to follow.

Remember Jesse James Jr. and Mary Susan were both a product of inbreeding. Mix that with a grandmother's past of men dying in horse accidents, a grandfather disappearing off of the face of the Earth, a father that either had been killed or disappeared through an elaborate plan and the result can be a mad, mad world. Not to be confused with simple anger. Some may even consider comparing the family life of the James as institutional and criminally confident.

When Jesse's wife died she was buried on Mount Olivet Cemetery in Kearney, Missouri. Months later Jesse James' body was moved from the James Family Farm to Mount Olivet. The same location his mother, his step father and half-brother Archie were buried.

Jesse was noted as being shot in the back of the head during 1882. A man who never moved without his firearms at arms length decided one day to do just that. It made little sense to accounts concluding that perhaps James did plan a scheme to avoid death from anyone willing to kill for a full reward. Let's not forget that Ford could have easily claimed the death in order to split the money with James.

James knew he was wanted long in advance. Long enough for inflicted wounds matching James to heal into scars. There are those who believe that Jesse lived past his 80's. If that is true then who was the man who died in his place?

According to Legends of America ^[6] there have been reports of unusual lights shining from inside of the farm after hours, sounds of horses running and whispers in the fog. Could it be sounds of secrets hidden behind deaths of husbands, a double crossed patsy or an unstable family cycle in the afterlife? On a realistic level, could the ghosts prove profitably at state level?

Clay County purchased the Missouri home ^[7] from the grandchildren of Jesse James. The house began to lose it's luster when Frank James son could no longer tend to it's demanding needs. Restored with a year, the home and farm is now a tourist attraction where the hype climbs rewarding in financial success.

With or without a haunting, the James family members are just as much a riddle today as they were in the past.

Note: Jesse James, husband to Sandra Bullock, is not related in any way, shape or form to Jesse Woodson James. Confirmed by the James family and Eric James.

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Source(s):

^[1]Zerelda James, Wikipedia (retrieved April 12)
^[2]Zee James, Legends of America (retrieved April 12)
^[3]Mary Susan James Barr, Find a Grave (retrieved April 12)
^[4] Jesse James, My Father ISBN 9781591070443, Shelfari (retrieved April 12)
^[5]1900, 1920 U.S. Census, Ancestry.com (retrieved April 12)
^{[6, 7]} James Farm Haunting, Jesse James Tour, Legends of America (retrieved April 12)