I watched the film 'Jesses James' with Brad Pitt. Can you tell me some of the evil things Jesse really did?

Question

Everyone here is saying he is their uncle. I'm from Missouri and everyone in Missouri was "related" to him.

I guess it's kind of like the legend of the Cherokee great great grandma that never actually existed.

Answer 1

He and Frank were members of Quantrill's raiders who terrorized the borderlands during the War Between the States. Members were not nice people.

Then he became an outlaw and, in the course of his outlaw career, killed people, usually, if not always, during the commissions of his crimes, like robbery.

I am unaware that he was particularly sadistic or cruel; he was just an outlaw, not evil; at least in the context from which I assume you speak.

From his pictures he wasn't particularly attractive, so it is amusing that his legend always requires hot guys to portray him, like Brad Pitt and Tyrone Power, who was the best looking man who ever lived.

Do watch the film "The Long Riders" about the raid on Northfield, conducted by outlaw families of brothers and strangely they are portrayed by brothers. The stars are the Carradine and Quaid brothers.

One of my favorite movie lines is in this movie, following the bungled bank robbery when they are on the run and losing it. One of them says, "Billy ain't dead. Jesse ain't god, and we ain't leaving".

NOTE: This is all my opinion. I am in no way related to any member of the James family by blood or marriage.

Answer 2

He was notorious for being a train robber and desperado. However, in September of 1864, he became involved with about 80 guerrillas, some dressed in stolen Union Army uniforms into the town of Centralia, Missouri under the leadership of "Bloody Bill" Anderson. They looted the town and reportedly drank whiskey from stolen boots. Anderson blocked the rail line, and the engineer of an approaching train failed to realize it until too late, since the men he saw were wearing blue uniforms. The guerrillas swarmed over the train. The 125 passengers were divided between civilians and soldiers. A total of 23 Union soldiers were aboard, all on leave after the Battle of Atlanta and heading to their homes in northwest Missouri or southwest Iowa.

The Union soldiers were ordered at gunpoint to strip off their uniforms. Anderson called for an officer. Sergeant Thomas Goodman bravely stepped forward, expecting to be shot and the rest spared. Instead, Anderson's men ignored Goodman and began shooting the others. The bodies were then maimed and scalped. Ironically, Sergeant Goodman was either released, or simply walked away in the confusion.

The guerrillas then set fire to the train and sent it running down the tracks toward Sturgeon, Missouri. They torched the depot and rode away from the town.

There is some uncertainty regarding whether Jesse James ever served under Quantrill.

He became famous for bank robberies in 1869 when he shot and killed a cashier

Answer 3

As a member of Quantrill's Raiders he participated in the burning and sacking of several cities in Kansas (most famously Lawrence) in which many unarmed civilians were killed.

He and his brother Frank once tested the strength of a rifle by seeing how many Yankee prisoners it could penetrate with one bullet. The answer was three.

Even in his own lifetime the legend of him as a Robin Hood started, but it was a total invention by hack-writers and newspaper men. He was a remorseless thief who would kill anybody who tried to stop him.

Answer 4

ACCORDING TO FAMILY LEGEND JESSE JAMES IS/WAS MY GREAT, GREAT, GREAT, UNCLE. WHICH IS TO SAY THAT A DAUGHTER OF HIS BROTHER FRANK, ONE ANNA MARIAH JAMES WAS MY GREAT, GREAT, GRAND-MOTHER. IF THAT IS NOT ENOUGH TO SCANDALIZE HIM, HE FOUGHT WITH QUANTRILLS RAIDERS AND WAS INVOLVED IN THE INFAMOUS RAID ON LAWRENCE KANSAS, HE ALSO RAN WITH HIS COUSINS THE YOUNGERS AND WAS ONE OF THE FEW WHO ESCAPED FROM THE DISASTORIUS BANK ROBBERY IN NORTHFIELD, MINNESOTA.

Answer 5

With him being a distant cousin of mine, I would like to say he was a "peach of a guy" but he wasn't. He was a bully and murderer and bank robber and whatever else he could find to destroy.