Jesse James was an American bank robber, and outlaw. He was also the leading member of the James-Younger gang. James, already being famous during his lifetime, became a legendary figure in the wild west after his death.
Jesse was born on September 5, 1846, in Kearney, Missouri. From an early childhood, him, and his brother Frank were well educated, also being part of a very prestigious family. His father, Robert James, was a baptist minister who married Zerelda Cole James, which later on moved their family to Kentucky, Missouri in the summer of 1842. Shortly after moving, union soldiers brutally attacked Jesse, and hung his father, which thankfully survived, but lived with mental problems the rest of his life. For this reason, and other harsh treatment the two brothers received, they joined the Confederate army at only 16. This began him, and his brothers life of crime.
After joining the Confederates, they began to rebel against the harsh postwar civil legislation, and take the law into their own hands. They started to rob trains, stagecoaches, and even banks that the North owned. This started the career of the James-Younger gang.
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They were responsible for more than 20 robberies, and murders of many individuals who stood in their way. They were even estimated to have stole around $200,000. One robbery Jesse was apart of was the Gallatin, Missouri bank robbery. Jesse went inside to change a $100 bill, but quickly shot the dealer in the heart. Jesse thought this dealer was the reason one of his close gang members died. The local newspaper, and people around town called this act bloodthirsty, and vicious, and later on caused so much attention that they were asking for the capture of the James-Younger gang members. From this point onward, every member of the gang had a price tag on them, whether they were dead, or