The Use of Deception
Who was Jesse James? Can we trust photos and artefacts?
To understand Jesse James and his unit's (gang) operations, one must first understand the duties and tactics of mounted cavalry of the time period. Tactics such as hit and run attacks, destruction of infrastructure, counter- insurgency, reconnaissance and intelligence services were used from the time of the revolutionary war until the post-civil war, and up to and including the Indian Wars. The trans-Mississippi theater of war was a very brutal affair. The border wars had begun ten years in advance of the wide spread American civil war. Armies of the day consisted of large fighting units of infantry, artillery and mounted cavalry. The horse mounted soldier (cavalry) had filled a vital role of the settlement of the west since the early days of American expansionism. Dragoons, meaning; soldiers mounted with rifles and side arms helped in the expansion into the American wilderness. But the term mounted soldier took on a new meaning in western Missouri as union militia had seized control of western Missouri early in the war, and conducted politically driven violent purges of pro-rebellion families who resided in western Missouri. The absence of sanctioned military units left a power void in the western part of the state, which was quickly filled with citizen/ guerilla soldiers fighting a bloody counter-insurgency war on their own soil. The civil war in western Missouri was truly a war between brothers and neighbors.
But for Jesse James, the war would continue to rage for at least another eight years as Jesse and his brother Frank would turn the war against the new world order that had been forced upon the post war south. The main tools of this continuing war would be based on mounted guerilla tactics, attacks on corporate commerce, propaganda and covert tactics.
Multiple Identities
As time passed, it became apparent that there was plenty of confusion about who Jesse James was and what his end game was, as his activities seemed to have no end. It has been rumored that Jesse may have used as many as seventy two different alias names;
In 1881 Governor Thomas T. Crittenden issued a proclamation for the arrest of Frank and Jesse James. By 1882 Jesse James had moved his family back to St. Joseph, Missouri. Still using his alias, James passed himself off as a cattle buyer and brought two new men, Robert and Charley Ford, into his gang to help him scout banks for future robberies.
-Missouri State Historic Society
On Christmas Eve (1881), Jesse and Zee moved their family into a small house atop a high hill overlooking St. Joseph. Living under the assumed name of Tom Howard, Jesse rented the house from a city councilman for $14 a month. He attended church, but did not work for a living.
- www.stjosephmo.gov
It is obvious that James had learned the art of covert ops and espionage well while conducting guerilla operations in western Missouri, and this M.O. (Modus Operandi) had carried into the post-war years. A product of his M.O. was not only using alias names, it also included spreading information and disinformation and maintaining caches valuables and money.
After Jesse's Assassination
After his death, collectable items in the way of photos, documents and firearms were sold and passed off as belonging to Jesse James. Though not unique, the selling false historic artefacts has been ongoing for many years and many faked antiquities have found their way into the hands of unsuspecting collectors. What is unique about this particular story is that the so called artefact was apparently sold by Jesse James mother Zerelda Samuel.
Pistol marked with JJ, may have come from Zerelda James
Courtesy Patrick Taylor Meguiar
The above pistol was allegedly sold by Zerelda Samuel, it was fraudulently
doctored it to look like it was really Jesse's pistol down to the "J. J." on the grip. According to Patrick Meguiar the original buyer was a doctor who went to Zeralda to buy a gun belonging to Jesse James and she sold him the pistol with J. J. and signed the letter making the claim it was his pistol. Then it was owned by a gentleman in Bowling Green Kentucky, and was later sold to another private party. He had the fine case made to hold the pistol, letter from Zeralda and the picture of the man that was killed when the James Younger Gang robbed the bank in Northfield, Minnesota.
Photo Courtesy of Patrick Meguiar
Letter signed by Zerelda Samuel, Photo of August Sanborn who was killed in
Northfield Minnesota by the James gang.
Sorting Through the Photos
There is a lot of confusion about historic photos. Adding to this is modern technology which has given history buffs, genealogists and true researchers a mountain of easily accessible data to mine through. But in addition to this, its a fueled phenomena that Author and Wyatt Earp historian Glenn Boyer called "photowishitis". Though his tongue in cheek statement holds some truth, there are photos out there which may be the real thing, but due diligence must be done on each one to determine the validity of any serious claim. The same is true with anything that pertains to Jesse James. There are a number of photos of James out there, but the best evidence suggests that the following three photos are indeed Jesse James. 1-3, the final two photos fall into some question. 4-5.
(1)
The best, known photo of Jesse James
Description from the Library of Congress;
Title: [Jesse James, half-length portrait, facing front, holding handgun at his waist]
Date Created/Published: St. Louis : Taylor Copying Co., [1864] c1882 May 15.
Medium: 1 photographic print.
Reproduction Number: LC-USZ62-3855 (b&w film copy neg.)
Rights Advisory: No known restrictions on publication.
Call Number: BIOG FILE - James, Jesse Woodson, 1847-1882 [item] [P&P]
Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print
Notes:
N7862 U.S. Copyright Office.
Title devised by Library staff.
Copyright stamp appears on upper left corner.
Photograph is a reproduction of an ambrotype. The original ambrotype was a reversed image, making it appear that Jesse James was left-handed, which he was not. (Source: researcher W. Munn, 2020 and historical.ha.com)
Published in: "Famous People" chapter of the ebook Great Photographs from the Library of Congress, 2013.
The Post Mortem photo
There are many rumors and legends surrounding the death of Jesse James. Some think that James was
not killed by Bob Ford and went onto to live to an entirely different life. Some stories have Jesse living until he was over a hundred years old. However, the best case scenario is still the original story, that being that Jesse James was assassinated by Bob Ford, with Charlie Ford present in the room. Its worth noting that Bob Ford was murdered in revenge for killing Jesse James and Charlie Ford committed suicide ;
Harrison Throw, James Wilkerson, William C Clay, CD. Axman and Miss Mattie Collins (Dick Liddil's wife) all of Kansas City, arrived this morning, arrived this evening, and at midnight came up to the world's hotel to view the body, all identified it positively as that of Jesse James. Mrs. Little (Liddil?) wept when she saw the dead man and in the severest manner denounced "the cowardly snot" who assassinated him. She went over the story of Mrs. Moulton (Bolton) working up the job on Jesse James to win Dick from her, and proclaimed that Bob Ford had killed her man, he never would have escaped. She was in hopes that Mrs. Samuels and Mrs. James would not suspect her at this time. Mrs. Samuels and Mrs. James accompanied by Mr. James and Mr. Mimms, of Kansas City, will start i n the morning for Kearny with the body of Jesse for burial at the old homestead. The body of Jesse James was shipped from this city onthe 7 o'clock train of the Hannibal and St. Joe railway this evening, in the custody of Marshall Craig of this city and the family of the dead desperado, consisting of L.W. James, a cousin of Jesse R. Mimms, the widows brother, Mrs. James, Mrs. Samuels and two children. It was taken to Kearny, Clay County Missouri, and buried on the James homestead.
-St. Joseph Daily Gazette, April 3-5th 1882 from Bob Ford Was His Name, Jesse James Was His Game" By Sybil Montana
(2)
The postmortem photo is the best
Evidence and the most verifiable photo of Jesse James. Photo from
Description from the library of congress;
Title: [Jesse James dead; clothed; 3/4 length]
Date Created/Published: c1882.
Medium: 1 photographic print.
Reproduction Number: LC-USZ62-42551 (b&w film copy neg.)
Rights Advisory: No known restrictions on publication.
Call Number: BIOG FILE - James, Jesse [item] [P&P]
Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA
Notes:
Photo by R. Uhlman, St. Joseph, Mo.
Slightly different angle from LC-USZ62-4049.
This record contains unverified, old data from caption card.
*Thousands of copies of the post mortem photos were created and sent
all over the country.
From the
Omaha Daily Bee
Thu, Apr 06, 1882
(3)
A young Jesse James, Photo courtesy of Patrick Meguiar, has a
verified chain of custody, scientific research And due diligence conducted.
*See the attached article
(4)
Mistaken Identity
Jeremiah James
According to Patrick Meguiar, John Thomas LaRance says this is Jeremiah James. He has dark eyes unlike Jesse's very light blue eyes. John is on the board of the James Farm.
(5)
This may indeed be controversial, but this well known photo of Jesse James, my not be James.
It has a description on it claiming to be certified by Jesse James widow.
Description from the Library of Congress;
Title
Jesse James
Summary
Portrait, bust, 3/4, facing left.
Created / Published
c1882 May 22.
Headings
- James, Jesse,--1847-1882
Notes
- This record contains unverified, old data from caption card.
Medium
1 photographic print.
Call Number/Physical Location
BIOG FILE - James, Jesse [item] [P&P]
Repository
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA
Digital Id
cph 3a07300 //hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3a07300
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