Jesse James III

from Chap 3

Jesse 'emerges' from the Shadows

Eleven years had passed since the St. Joseph hoax. It was 1893 andd three men were seated in a private railway coach at Chicago's Columbia Exposition or World's Fair. Outside the bright lights of the midway the shouts and laughter of throusands of delighted patrons created excitement in the night.

There was excitement in the railway coach, too. Buffalo Bill Cody, 48, and a year younger than his guest, poured another drink and shook his finger at Robert E. Lee, his 18 year old bodyguard.

"And to think, Bobby, you were about to shoot my friend here," the man with the flowing hair and large goatee exclaimed. "My God, son, this man is the real honest-to-God Jesse James, one of the original backers of my Wild West Show."

The young man stirred uneaasily. "Well, sir, I had no way of knowing your orders have been to keep peole from coming into the railfoad car."

Jess lit a long, black cigar and grinned, "Take it easy on young Mr. Lee, I was kind of pushy so he was just doing his job."

Buffalo Bill chuckled. "Well, it's a damn good thing you didn't tell him you were Jesse James." Turning to young Lee, he said," Jesse here is the deadliest shot in the West. Fellow that used to work for me, Wild Bill Hickock, once thought he was." Cody turned to Jesse and winked.

Robert E. Lee refilled the visitor's glass with brandy. Then he stepped back, but kept his ears open. The two old friends talked for an hour about famous characters of the West. What they told wasn't history as young Lee had been taught. How could his teachers have been so wrong? Fifty-five yeaers later Lee was still wondering.

"Bill," Jess finally said, "how'd you like a real attraction for a few weeks?"

"Always looking for talent, you know that. Got somebody in mind?"

"Yup, me!"

"You?" Cody hastily put his glass down. "You mean Jess James reveals himself?"

"That's what I had in mind, Bill."...

35...Jesse spent three weeks as Buffalo Bill's guest and the multi-millionaire even gave shooting exhibitions at Cody's show. Robert E. Lee recalled years later that he was disturbed by the fact that Buffalo Bill, when he had been drinking, openly introduced his sharpshooter as "the real Jesse Fames" to some of his friends.

But Jesse accepted his old friend's advice and went on helping to shape the history of the West, but about a dozen years after his Chicago talk with Buffalo Bill the bug to "emerge" again hit the outlaw. He hired a "high-priced lawyer with political influence and dispatched him to Washington.

The lawyer asked the U.S. Attornyey-General, "What would you say if I told you that Jesse James is my client?"

"I'd say you were either a damn liar or had been out in the sun too long!"...

...In 1936 when Jesse was 92 he attended a Confederate convention in East Texas and the old soldiers sat around for three days and nights swapping tales of the War Between the States. The old warrior was onpenly accepted as Jesse James. After all, most of the old vets had known him most of their lives.

Four years later in 1940, Col. J. Frank Dalton finally decided to make his move. Although he was 96 and suffering from a broken right hip, he gathered up his documents, got DeWitt Travis(Qunantrill's youngest son) to drive him, and headed toward Missouri for what he called "the showdown." On the way, their car became involved in an accident and the old man returned home disappointed. But Jesse was talking to relatives and friends, revealing his secret past. He even lectured throughout Texas, admitting he was "the real Jesse James." "Colonel Dalton," long a favorite of the Texas Rangers, had opened a hole in the dike. His long-ketp secret was beginning to seep through...


37
...In a separate action, Jesse III had taken his crippled grandfather to Lawton, Oklahoma, and tipped reporters at The Lawton Constitution who were busy with a three week investigation of the old man's claims. Search Magazine Publisher Palmer sent Shevlin to Lawton to personally check out Jess Frank Dalton. Shevlin wired Palmer on May 18, 1948, "He is our man." Palmer went to radio station WMAQ in Chicago where the 10:15 pm news broadcast was preempted and the sensational news that Jesse W. James was still alive was spread across the airwaves.

The next day, Wednesday, May 19, 1948, The Lawton Constitution's page 1 banner read,"Jesse James is Alive! In Lawton" The wire sevices picked up the story and old Jess, finally emerged with a flourish, received excellent, if controversial coverage, all over the world. Newsmen pounded on his door day and night, and oldtimers flocked to Lawton. Parades were held in Oklahoma and the old outlaw thoroughly enjoyed the attention...

...For instance, Jesse toold the Lawton reporters that on September 5, 1914, at the age of 67 he enlisted in the Canadian army and fought four years in Europe, emerging a lieutenant-colonel. More incredible, he said he learend to fly and spent the final 22 months of World War I in the Royal Air Force.

Actually, Jess stayed in the U.S. and patriotically sold war bonds in both World War I and II. He did learn to pilot a plane, but the man who once held the fastest guns in the West couldn't get his lcense because of "bad coordination." He never attempted to drive a car..

Old Jess told Hall and Whitten that after the Civil War he joined th U.S. Fifth Cavalry. Some historians seized upon this as a "whopper." But this was the truth. Using as assumed name, probably "Sergeant Lawrence Schofield," he never advanced beyond the rank of sergeant because he was ex-Confederate. In a few months he "bought his way out." He more likely simply deserted. "I had a reason for joining the Yankees," he told his family, "because there were some things I had to set up."

The Lawton reporters wrote that the famous outlaw "graduated with honors from the University of Michigan: in law because he tried medicine and "couldn't stand the sight of blood." Actually, Jesse, using the name, J.H. James, did get a medical diploma from Missouri Medical college, but studied only enough law for his own use.

Jesse also portrayed himself as a soldier of fortune to the Oklahoma newsmen. He said he fought in the Beer War on the side of the Dutch, rose to the rank of colonel in the Brazilian army, etc. He said he once fought the Hottentots, "that fierce tribe in Africa and the only people I ever ran from." But Jesse hadn't done these things – he was merely covering up for old compadres still alive.

In all, an estimated thirty-thousand people thronged to Lawton for a look or an interview with Jesse James. On July 7, 1948, Guthrie, Oklahoma, staged a giant parade in honor of the emerged outlaw. RKO movie stars waved at the crowds. It was a gala event. Al Jennings, the reformed outlaw; Jim Thorpe, the famous Indian athlete and Captain Roy Aldrich of the Texas Rangers all came forward to identiffy their long-time friend as the real Jesse James.

Riding in the second car at the Guthrie parade was another famous outlaw, William H. Bonney, better known as Billy the Kid. History says Billy was slain by Pat Garrett at the age of 22 in Ft. Cumner, N.M., July14, 1881, but "the Kid" lived a full life as "Brushy Bill' Roberts. In fact, he resided next door to Jesse James for six years of his life. Both old men knew the other's secret.

It seemed the old Kentucky-born outlaw, now turned respectable as he lived on borrowed time, never grew tired shaking the hands of oldtimers he had known through the misty decades. Jess III marveled at the number of old stars, some of them former bandits, still alive in 1948.

But the old man, who once headed the Kinghts of the Golden Circle, top Confederate undrground organization and one of the most efficient the world has ever known, was worried because he had lost track of his first cousin, Jesse R.(Dingus) James, born September 5, 1847, in Clay County, Missouri. Jesse Woodson James knew Dingus was alive, but he didn't know where.

"I'd seen him sitting there the day before – but now I suddenly realized it was cousin Dingus," James III recalls, "so I got two silver dollars, walked by the old man and said, 'Turkey Tracks', and tossed a dollar in his hat. I walked a few steps, came back and dropped another dollar in his hat and asked, 'Seen a turtle go by, my friend?"

Old Dingus looked up and squinted. "Nope, I ain't seen a turtle, but I know you're from the Organization – where's Jesse?" But Dingus refused to accompany Jesse III into the hotel. He came to the room after dark, using the service elevator. The two old cousins staged a tearful reunion and talked until dawn...

-Del Schrader and Jesse James III, Jesse James was One of his names