Dr. Allan Thompson, who was once Jack London's doctor, lived a piece up the road from the James family, and he tells me Jesse was born in 1987, the son of a Baptist minister and a mother who found it neccessary to marry three times, her last husband being a kindly man, Dr. Reuben Samuel.

Dr. Thompson says Confederate money wasn't worth a Chines whisker, and, with the shame of having lost the war to a lot of no-good bluecoats, it was easy for a Missourian to saddle up, ride out, and do harm to anything Republican, whether it was a train, stagecoach, or a bank. Jesse, being no exeption, found a democratic folowing in brother Frank,Clell Miller, Jim Poole, George White, and a host of other staunch hearts, including the Younger cousins - some 17 men ready for anything at all in what was considered a continuation of the border states war. They were to peg up a quarter of a million dollars in train and bank robberies, consummating this record in 17 years of gunslinging.