The Top 5 Most Notorious Outlaws: Jesse James, Billy the Kid, John Dillinger, and Bonnie & Clyde
Table of Contents
The Top 5 Most Notorious Outlaws: Jesse James, Billy the Kid, John Dillinger, and Bonnie & Clyde
About Charles River Editors
Introduction
Jesse James
Chapter 1: Early Years
Chapter 2: Bleeding Kansas and the Civil War
Chapter 3: A Bushwhacker Becomes a Bank Robber
Chapter 4: The James-Younger Gang
Chapter 5: Northfield and the End of the James-Younger Gang
Chapter 6: Final Years
Chapter 7: Jesse James Lives On
Bibliography
Billy the Kid
Chapter 1: Henry McCarty’s Early Years
Chapter 2: Henry McCarty on the Run
Chapter 3: William H. Bonney Enters the Lincoln County War
Chapter 4: The End of the Lincoln County War
Chapter 5: Criminal Indictments against William H. Bonney
Chapter 6: The Death of Billy the Kid
Chapter 7: Billy the Kid’s Life After Death
Bibliography
John Dillinger
Chapter 1: The Times
Chapter 2: The Boy
Chapter 3: The Inmate
Chapter 4: The Outlaw
Chapter 5: The Legend
Chapter 6: The Impact
Bibliography
Bonnie & Clyde
Chapter 1: A Girl Named Bonnie
Chapter 2: A Boy Named Clyde
Chapter 3: The Couple
Chapter 4: The Barrow Gang
Chapter 5: Celebrities
Chapter 6: The Manhunt
Chapter 7: Public Reaction
Chapter 8: The Inevitable
Chapter 9: The Legend of Bonnie and Clyde
The Trail’s End
Suicide Sal
Bibliography
The Top 5 Most Notorious Outlaws: Jesse James, Billy the Kid, John Dillinger, and Bonnie & Clyde
By Charles River Editors
About Charles River Editors
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Introduction
Jesse James (1847-1882)
“There is a hell of excitement in this part of the country.” – Jesse James
The Wild West has made legends out of many men after their deaths, but like Wild Bill Hickok, Jesse James was a celebrity during his life. However, while Hickok was (mostly) a lawman, Jesse James was and remains the most famous outlaw of the Wild West, with both his life of crime and his death remaining pop culture fixtures.
James and his notorious older brother Frank were Confederate bushwhackers in the lawless region of Missouri during the Civil War. Despite being a teenager, James was severely wounded twice during the war, including being shot in the chest, but that would hardly slow him down after the war ended. As he recuperated, some of the men he was known to associate with during the war robbed Clay County Savings Bank in Liberty, Missouri in 1866. While it’s still unclear whether James was involved, he was soon conducting his own bank robberies.
Young Jesse became notorious in 1869 after robbing the Daviess County Savings Association in Gallatin, Missouri, during which he murdered the bank cashier in the mistaken belief that the cashier was Union officer Samuel Cox. Despite being officially branded an outlaw, public resentment with government corruption and the banks helped turn James into a celebrated “Robin Hood” type of robber, despite the fact he never actually gave anyone money.
Eventually James, his brother and their infamous gang became the most hunted outlaws in the country, but Jesse would famously be done in by the brother of his most trusted gang members. After Jesse moved in with the Ford brothers, Bob Ford began secretly negotiating turning in the famous outlaw to Missouri Governor Thomas Crittenden. On April 3, 1882, as the gang prepared for another robber, Jesse was famously shot in the back of the head by Bob Ford as he stood on a chair fixing a painting. While conspiracy theories have continued to linger that somehow James was not killed on that day, the Ford brothers would celebrate their participation in his murder, Bob himself would be murdered a few years later, and Jesse James’s legacy had been ensured.
This book chronicles the outlaw’s life, while also analyzing his legacy and the mythology that has enveloped his story, attempting to separate fact from fiction to determine what the notorious robber was really like. Along with pictures of important people, places, and events in his life, you will learn about Jesse James like you never have before.
Billy the Kid (1859-1881)
“I’m not afraid to die like a man fighting, but I would not like to be killed like a dog unarmed.’’ – Billy the Kid
In many ways, the narrative of the Wild West has endured more as legend than reality, and a perfect example of that can be found in the legend of William Henry McCarty Jr., better known as William H. Bonney or “Billy the Kid”. Indeed, separating fact from fiction when it comes to the life of the West’s most famous outlaw is nearly impossible, due in great measure to the fact that the young man himself cultivated the image of a deadly outlaw and legendary gunman himself. Though Billy the Kid may have killed anywhere from 4-9 men in his short life, he was often credited for killing more than 20.
With a wit as quick as his trigger, Billy the Kid had a bullet and a wisecrack for every man he killed, and his notoriety only grew when exaggerated accounts of his actions in Lincoln County eventually earned The Kid a bounty on his head. In December 1880, an ambitious buffalo hunter (and future Sheriff), Pat Garrett, helped track down and capture the famous outlaw, only for Billy the Kid to somehow escape jail shortly before his scheduled execution.
There was plenty of gunplay in the outlaw’s life to help him become a well known if not celebrated figure in the West, but the legendary and controversial nature of his death has also helped him endure. A few months after his escape from jail, Billy the Kid was hunted down by Garrett in New Mexico once again, and it’s still not completely clear whether The Kid was killed by Garrett in self-defense or simply murdered outright.
This book chronicles The Kid’s life, while also analyzing his legacy and the mythology that has enveloped his story, attempting to separate fact from fiction to determine what the frontier legend was really like. Along with pictures of important people, places, and events in his life, you will learn about Billy the Kid like you never have before.
John Dillinger (1903-1934)
“I will be the meanest bastard you ever saw when I get out of here.” – John Dillinger
America has always preferred heroes who weren’t clean cut, an informal ode to the rugged individualism and pioneering spirit that defined the nation in previous centuries. The early 19th century saw the glorification of frontier folk heroes like Davy Crockett and Daniel Boone. After the Civil War, the outlaws of the West were more popular than the marshals, with Jesse James and Billy the Kid finding their way into dime novels. And at the height of the Great Depression in the 1930s, there were the “public enemies”, common criminals and cold blooded murderers elevated to the level of folk heroes by a public frustrated with their own inability to make a living honestly.
Two months after Franklin D. Roosevelt’s inauguration in 1933, a petty thief who had spent almost a decade behind bars for attempted theft and aggravated assault was released from jail. By the end of the year, that man, John Dillinger, would be America’s most famous outlaw: Public Enemy Number One. From the time of his first documented heist in early July 1933, until his dramatic death in late July of the following year, he would capture the nation’s attention and imagination as had no other outlaw since Jesse James.
His exploits were real, and in many cases impressive, but Dillinger’s importance and legacy have always been partly symbolic. The country was in a panic over a supposed crime wave that some historians believe was more perception than reality, but a new breed of criminal targeting the nation’s already vulnerable banks was a potent illustration and metaphor of the way society’s institutions and morals seemed to be coming undone. And in the mind of the public, the outlaws of the 30s were very different from the gangsters of the 20s; they hailed from the farm country of America’s nostalgic past, not the corrupt cities of its unsettled present and scarier future. Much was made of Dillinger’s roots in the farming town of Mooresville, Indiana, even though he came of age in Indianapolis, and was very much a city boy at heart.
Ultimately, the story of Dillinger and the era’s other famous criminals—Bonnie and Clyde, Baby Face Nelson, Pretty Boy Floyd—would largely be seen as a story of America’s fall from grace. Just before Dillinger was released from prison in 1933, a feature article ran entitled “The Farmer Turned Gangster.” America saw in Dillinger what it wanted to see, and even in Dillinger’s lifetime it was nearly impossible to separate myth from reality.
Even still, Dillinger would never have become the mythical figure he became if J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI hadn’t actively marketed him as “Public Enemy Number One,” and if he hadn’t died in a way that was almost scripted for Hollywood. Dillinger’s figure looms so large in American history and popular culture that it’s easy to forget that his starring role in the daily news lasted for less than a year.
This book looks at the life and crime of the famous outlaw, but it also humanizes him and analyzes his lasting legacy. Along with pictures of Dillinger and important people, places, and events in his life, you will learn about the infamous public enemy like you never have before.
Bonnie Parker (1910-1934) and Clyde Barrow (1909-1934)
“You’ve read the story of Jesse James
Of how he lived and died
If you’re still in need of something to read
Here’s the story of Bonnie and Clyde.” – Bonnie Parker, “The Trail’s End”
There was no shortage of well known public enemies like John Dillinger and Baby Face Nelson, but none fascinated the American public as much as Bonnie and Clyde. While the duo and their Barrow Gang were no more murderous than other outlaws of the era, the duo’s romantic relationship and the discovery of photographs at one of their hideouts added a more human dimension to Bonnie and Clyde, even as they were gunning down civilians and cops alike.
When Bonnie and Clyde were finally cornered and killed in a controversial encounter with police, a fate they shared with many other outlaws of the period, their reputations were cemented. In some way though, the sensationalized version of their life on the run is less interesting than reality, which included actual human drama within the gang.
This book looks at the lives and crimes of the famous outlaws, but it also humanizes them and examines their relationship. Along with pictures of Bonnie Parker, Clyde Barrow and important people, places, and events in their lives, you will learn about two of America’s most notorious outlaws like you never have before.
Jesse James
Chapter 1: Early Years
The James family began its long association with Clay County, Missouri in 1842 when Robert Salle James moved there with his wife, Zerelda Cole James. Robert, a 24 year-old student at Georgetown College, a Baptist school in Kentucky, had gone to Clay County to visit his mother-in-law, but he and his new wife took a liking to the area, which reminded them of Kentucky. Robert left Zerelda in the care of his mother-in-law and returned to Kentucky to finish his education, earning a bachelor of arts on June 23, 1843. By all accounts, Robert was well regarded by his classmates.
Robert was also busy starting a family. Zerelda gave birth to Alexander Franklin James on January 10, 1843. Another son, Robert R. James, died shortly after his birth in 1845. And by the time Jesse Woodward James was born on September 5, 1847, Robert was the pastor at New Hope Baptist Church with a growing congregation approaching 100 people. In 1848, Robert earned a master of arts degree from Georgetown College and a year later, he helped found the Baptist college William Jewell in Liberty, Missouri. That was the same year that his daughter, Susan Lavinia, was born. Like many in Missouri, Robert James was also a farmer and a slave owner.
The James Farm in Kearney, where Jesse lived as a child
All of these facts make it surprising that Robert James decided to leave his family and his congregation to follow the gold rush to California in 1850. Theories vary; some say he went to escape the consistent nagging of headstrong Zerelda, while others say he went to preach and save the souls of the prospectors. His brother, Drury James, was there too, so it was also possible he went to visit him. Perhaps he simply wanted to get rich. Whatever the cause, three year old Jesse cried and begged his father not to go.
Robert’s decision was fateful, and his stay out west proved short lived. On August 18, 1850, Robert came down with cholera and died in a gold camp near what is now Placerville, California. Zerelda remarried Benjamin Simms two years later, a man a bit older than her who had little affection for her children. By the time Benjamin died in 1854 after being thrown by a horse, he and Zerelda had already separated.
In 1854, Dr. Rueben Samuel moved to Greenville, Missouri, just three miles from Zerelda’s farm. He opened a medical office in the store owned by William James, Robert’s brother. A year later, on September 26, 1855, Rueben and Zerelda were married. Zerelda requested that Rueben sign a prenuptial agreement, leaving her the six slaves and 200 acres of land should the marriage not last. The marriage did last, and Rueben eventually gave up medicine to work the family tobacco farm.
Zerelda James
Not much is known about the details of Jesse’s childhood. Frank was said to be one that liked to instigate trouble, then stand back and watch. Jesse was not much different from other boys growing up in rural Missouri, finding himself in a scuffle from time to time, but nothing out of the ordinary for the time or place. Both boys went through at least elementary school, and somewhere along the way Frank developed an affinity for the works of William Shakespeare.
Chapter 2: Bleeding Kansas and the Civil War
Even though Jesse hardly knew his father, he inherited Robert’s views on slavery and abolition. Robert James wanted no part of Northerners encroaching on what he viewed as the South’s God-given right to own slaves and conduct business as they saw fit. The mid-19th century was a time of divisiveness in the nation as the United States looked toward westward expansion while having to address the institution of slavery, which threatened to tear the country apart. Missouri was a center of that battle since its application for statehood in 1819, and even though Missouri was admitted to the Union as a slave state, the issue was an extremely volatile one.
As it turned out, Jesse James would grow up during one of the most precarious eras in American history, and ultimately it would help lead him down the path he chose. The issue of whether Missouri would be a free state or slave state had been decided over a generation earlier, but throughout the 1850s, American politicians tried to sort out the nation’s intractable issues. In an attempt to organize the center of North America – Kansas and Nebraska – without offsetting the slave-free balance, Senator Stephen Douglas of Illinois proposed the Kansas-Nebraska Act.
The Kansas-Nebraska
Act eliminated the Missouri Compromise line of 1820, which the Compromise of 1850 had maintained. The Missouri Compromise had stipulated that states north of the boundary line determined in that bill would be free, and that states south of it could have slavery. This was essential to maintaining the balance of slave and free states in the Union. The Kansas-Nebraska Act, however, ignored the line completely and proposed that all new territories be organized by popular sovereignty. Settlers could vote whether they wanted their state to be slave or free.
When popular sovereignty became the standard in Kansas and Nebraska, the primary result was that thousands of zealous pro-slavery and anti-slavery advocates both moved to Kansas to influence the vote, creating a dangerous (and ultimately deadly) mix. Numerous attacks took place between the two sides, and many pro-slavery Missourians organized attacks on Kansas towns just across the border. Living in Clay County, young Jesse grew up in a part of Missouri that was dubbed “Little Dixie” for its pro-Southern sentiments and Southern culture. Jesse was nine years old when the Kansas-Missouri Border War broke out, but for five years he witnessed the bloody violence that accompanied the border war. By the time the Civil War started in 1861, there was little doubt which side Jesse and his brother, Frank, would take.
Jesse was still too young to fight in the unofficial border war, but the best known abolitionist in Bleeding Kansas was a middle aged man named John Brown. A radical abolitionist, Brown organized a small band of like-minded followers and fought with the armed groups of pro-slavery men in Kansas for several months, including a notorious incident known as the Pottawatomie Massacre, in which Brown’s supporters murdered five men. Over 50 people died before John Brown left the territory, which ultimately entered the Union as a free state in 1859.
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