The MURDER HOUSE & Grave of the Outlaw JESSE JAMES!!! | History Traveler Episode 214

[Music] in the years after the civil war jesse james emerged as really one of the most famous outlaws of the 1800s this is a guy who had been hardened by his experience in the civil war uh you know as a confederate gorilla running with guys like uh bloody bill anderson and throughout the 1870s jesse james kind of became i don't know like a little bit of a folk hero uh he he was kind of like this this confederate avenger uh during the reconstruction era who was uh like a robin hood who uh you know took from the rich and uh gave to the poor at least that's how he was portrayed in in the press well as the 1880s set in jesse james's situation had changed a little bit for one uh his old gang had kind of fallen apart the the younger brothers had been shot up and were in prison and uh he had kind of fallen out with his brother frank and he had come back to where i am today in st joseph missouri to try and put together a new gang and kind of oh start re restart his career as uh an outlaw but things weren't going to go so well for jesse james and a man who lived by the sword was going to die by the sword in this house right here [Music] dead gum as you can tell it is windy as heck today here in saint joseph missouri and as i said we are here at the home of jesse james you can see here on their sign out front it says where where jesse james was killed so as i mentioned jesse james had you know kind of moved around uh as an outlaw and in the beginning of the 1880s uh he and his wife and two children uh moved back to missouri and came here to st joseph and uh were living under an assumed name and this was probably not the best place to come back to because the the governor of missouri at the time guy by the name of governor crittenden had basically declared war on all outlaws and had put a 10 000 on the head of jesse james and the outlaws that were in his gang and as i mentioned uh james was trying to kind of like rebuild a gang and kind of resume his career as an outlaw and there were a couple of guys in his crew that he probably should not have trusted all right so we're gonna go inside here and take a look at the home where jesse james was killed all right making our way up the stairs here to the jesse james house and man this wind is just an absolute beast today uh now one thing that we should mention about this house let's see they got a sign up here oh yeah they actually mentioned what i was going to say so here it says jesse james home outlaw jesse james was shot and killed in this house on april 3rd 1882 uh it was then at 1318 lafayette on the hill above petty house and was moved here in 1977. so we're gonna go in here and take a look around but uh just keep in mind that uh this house has been moved but it is the original house all right so we just got into the house here and uh right off the bat they have all kinds of cool artifacts that that are tied to uh frank and jesse james in some way now this isn't the exact revolver that was carried by jesse james but this is a 36 cult that is very much like what he would have had they do have some things that are authentic artifacts that belong to frank and jesse like this rattlesnake necktie that was worn by frank james so that's pretty wild they also have a shaving mug that belonged to jesse james these are some shoes that were worn by frank james and then over here now they have a little smith and wesson revolver that now this is not like a replica or one that was like what they would have used this this is the actual revolver that was owned by frank james so that is just pretty darn interesting okay so this is a really small house only you know four rooms here at least on this level and i've just moved into the front room so by 1882 um like i said outside there there wasn't much of jesse james's gang left so he was kind of trying to to rebuild a gang and two guys that were basically on this new crew were bob and charlie ford they were they were brothers and on the morning of april 3rd 1882 all three bob and charlie and jesse james were right here in this very room and this is where jesse james was going to experience his final moments so again this is the front room where uh bob and charlie ford and jesse james were planning another robbery and as i had mentioned before governor crittenden had had actually secretly met with bob ford and uh had it arranged for bob ford to either turn jesse james in or uh or kill him for a reward the problem was the brothers were afraid of jesse james because he was always armed well on the morning of april 3rd he had taken off his jacket and he had also taken off his gun belt so he didn't like alert the neighbors and uh as they were sitting here in this room jesse james happened to look up at this piece of framed needlework that was either off kilter i've also heard that that there was dust that he was going to clean off of it and he stood up on a chair to fix it and from this spot bob and charlie ford stood up and pointed their guns at him and bob ford is the one who actually pulled the trigger and shot jesse james in the back of the head he of course was immediately killed uh there was kind of a legend there for a while that this was the bullet hole and over a period of years people picked at it and you know took souvenirs uh that was probably just a coincidence uh the bullet likely didn't exit his skull but something else that's interesting is if you look right here on the floor now you notice there's a bunch of pieces of the floorboard that look to have been carved out well that was where there were some blood stains from jesse james and then over the years you know souvenir hunters you know hacked out pieces of the floor to take home for themselves but pretty crazy to be standing right here in this very spot where on april 3rd 1882 one of the most famous outlaws of all time was killed by bob ford [Music] they also have a few pictures here that show what the jesse james home would have looked like in 1882 so here's a crowd that is gathered at his home on april 3rd the the day that he died and then of course the house was moved and then was was moved back here and also in this room they have some artist depictions of jesse james now there was an urban legend that the the person who was killed was not really jesse james and you always hear stories like this uh you know how he you know maybe escaped and you know lived to be an old man or things like that well in 1995 they actually exhumed the body of jesse james to do some some dna testing this is something that the family wanted to do and they found out that the person in the grave was in fact jesse james now here is what is really crazy what you're looking at here are different artifacts that came out of the grave so here is broken glass from the the coffin viewing glass they also have wood fragments from the coffin of jesse james and also the coffin handles which is just absolutely crazy um but something else uh i mentioned that jesse james was a um confederate gorilla with with like bloody bill anderson well he had been shot a couple of times during the civil war and there is a 36 caliber round ball that was recovered from the chest area in the casket that was kind of in the lung area of jesse james and then they also have this tie pin that you can see in his funeral photo that is absolutely wild okay here is something else that is pretty crazy uh whenever they exhumed jesse james's body in 1995 they took a casting of his skull and also of his teeth and on this casting as it rotates around you can actually see where the entrance hole of the bullet was for the skull so there's no there's no exit so it probably lodged right behind his eye but man oh man all right and uh just real quick this is the uh bedroom of the jesse james home uh now something about this whole story that you do have to have some empathy uh is that whenever jesse james was killed his wife and two young kids were in the house as well so whenever the the gun shot went off his wife rushed into the room and the ford brothers said that it was an accidental discharge and then and then they escaped from the house [Music] uh one other quick thing before i leave this house that i thought was just kind of funny this is a a love seat and you'll notice that there is a piece of the back that is missing on one side well that's not an accident this was by design the the man would sit right here on the area with the back and then the woman would not have any back support so would be required to lean on the shoulder of the man who was sitting next to her that is kind of sneaky [Music] [Music] okay that uh that was pretty wild to actually be standing in the very spot where one of the most famous outlaws of all time was was murdered uh by by bob ford um absolutely crazy okay uh so we're gonna go ahead and get back out into the wind here and jump in the jeep and head down the road to the the final resting place of jesse james [Music] [Laughter] now after the death of jesse james his wife and kids were pretty much left destitute this guy who had robbed so many trains and banks and everything really had no money to his name so so his wife ended up having to sell off almost all of their belongings and a lot of his stuff uh in order to make ends meet for her and the kids and photographers were selling pictures of jesse james's corpse as souvenirs and as we mentioned in a previous video he was originally buried out on the old home place but was later exhumed and moved out to this location right here at mount olivet cemetery in kearney i'm out here looking for jesse james's grave and i happen to come across this one for richard sims jr who was a veteran of the revolutionary war and then i guess came out to missouri and passed away in 1850 wasn't expecting to find a revolutionary war veterans grave but that is pretty cool [Music] now in a previous episode of history traveler we talked about an incident that occurred at the home of jessie and frank's mother where the pinkerton detective agency showed up and threw a bomb through their window that ended up killing their half-brother well here's the grave of archie p samuel it says killed by a bomb january 26 1875 here is the grave of frank and jesse's mother zarelda samuel who was injured in that same blast and lost an arm and next to her lies the one of the most notorious outlaws in american history jesse james so if you look at his grave marker here says jesse w born september 5th 1847 assassinated april 3rd 1882 and then they have his military marker here as well jesse w james taylor squad todd's company quantrill's regiment csa and then it has his date of birth and his date of death so yeah there's the uh the grave of jesse james uh we'll be careful that that we're not you know celebrating uh jesse james i know that he was kind of celebrated by people some people during his time but this was a guy who was a a brutal man and committed some some really terrible atrocities but anyway here's the grave of jesse james all right got one more that we're gonna go take a look at here [Music] after the death of jesse james uh things didn't go so great for the ford brothers they tried uh you know taking a a tour where they reenacted the assassination of jesse james it played well in some places and really really bad in others charlie ended up committing suicide a couple years after by shooting himself in the chest and robert ford um tried to earn a living like posing for pictures and branding himself as the man who killed jesse james turned out uh people weren't too fond of the fact that he had uh basically shot a guy in cowardice in the in the back of the head uh so he ended up moving west and was in creed colorado where he had set up a saloon and a guy by the name of ed o'malley walked in one day and had a double barrel shotgun walked up to ford and said hello bob and then unloaded both barrels on him and killed robert ford and he is buried right here in richmond missouri all right well here is the final resting place of the man who shot jesse james and dang that is a pretty simple headstone and then down here you can see it says bob ford born december 8 1841 died june 8 1892 the man who shot jesse james huh [Music] all right well there you go there is the final resting place of bob ford i don't think things really turned out the way that bob uh really hoped that they would turn out uh but whenever you befriend a guy and are planning to do a robbery with him and then uh well shoot the guy in the back of the head whenever he's unarmed uh you can't be surprised whenever people are going to view that as an extreme act of cowardice uh but anyway kind of kind of a sad ending for for for both figures but anyway had an interesting day today being able to go around look at the place where jesse james was assassinated and then be able to visit these graves and learn a little bit more about one of the most notorious outlaws in us history [Music] we are constantly exploring and learning new things on this channel so if you found value in this video be sure to subscribe and click the notification bell to catch all of the new content when it comes out and be sure to check the links in the description for more content and opportunities from our partners [Music]

Channel: The History Underground

Views: 928,832

Keywords: history, history underground, history traveler, jesse james, jesse james documentary, jesse james outlaw, james gang, jesse james grave, jesse james outlaw grave, quantrill's raiders, bloody bill anderson, missouri, missouri travel, missouri things to do, jesse james home, jesse james west, bank robbery, frank james, first bank robbery, jesse james house, jesse james missouri

Id: ISe27LUYXLs

Length: 21min 29sec (1289 seconds)

Published: Sun May 22 2022