FACTS ABOUT JESSE JAMES

1. He was the son of a Baptist minister. He went to the California gold fields where he caught a disease and died, leaving his wife to bring up Frank, Jesse, and Susan.  She remarried a couple of times and remained a staunch supporter of her boys.
2. When the Civil War broke out, Frank joined Quantrill’s guerrilla militia that battled Union supporters in Missouri. He participated in the infamous raid on Lawrence, Kansas.  The  teenage Jesse was roughed up and his stepfather was hanged (surviving with mental damage) by Unionists who were trying to find Frank.
3. At age 16, Jesse joined the guerrillas. He and Frank ended up with William “Bloody Bill” Anderson.  In a raid on Centralia, Missouri, they executed twenty Union soldiers they had captured.  They later killed about a hundred more who were pursuing them.  They may have scalped some of the bodies.
4. A month after Lee surrendered to Grant, Jesse was shot in the chest in a skirmish. He was nursed by his cousin who he later married and had two kids with.
5. He first made headlines when he shot a bank cashier in 1869. A pro-Confederate newspaper editor befriended Jesse and began to give him great press coverage.  He created the Robin Hood image that made Jesse a legend.  There is no evidence Jesse shared his loot with the poor.
6. His first train robbery was on July 21, 1873. The gang removed a track and caused the train to crash.  They wore KKK hoods.  The robbery netted about $3,000.
7. In 1874, the Pinkerton Detective Agency was put on their gang’s trail. On Jan. 25, 1875, the Pinkerton’s raided the James’ farm.  They threw an incendiary device which exploded, killing a four-year old half-brother and costing their mother an arm.  Frank and Jesse were not there.  The incident created a lot of sympathy for the brothers and the Pinkertons were called off.
8. Their spree came to an end due to a bank robbery in Northfield, Minnesota. Their gang included the Younger brothers (Cole, Jim, and Robert) and three others.  Things fell apart when the cashier refused to open the fault.  He was killed.  The townspeople opened fire on the gang, killing two, and chasing the rest out of town with several wounded.  Two weeks later, in a gunfight near Madello, Minnesota, the Youngers were captured.  The James were not with them.  They decided to lay low for a few years.
9. They returned to robbery in 1879 with a new gang that they did not vet well enough. On April 3, 1872, one of their gang members shot Jesse in his living room as Jesse was dusting a picture on the wall.  Bob Ford had made a deal with the Governor.
10. Jesse’s nickname was Dingus. He got it from when he shot off the tip of a finger while cleaning his gun. He said: “That’s the dod-dingus pistol I ever saw.”

https://www.whizzpast.com/25-little-known-facts-about-the-outlaw-jesse-james/

https://www.history.com/news/7-things-you-might-not-know-about-jesse-james