Life and adventures of Frank and Jesse James, the noted western outlawsDacus, J. A. (Joseph A.)
History
Life and adventures of Frank and Jesse James, the noted western outlaws
Dacus, J. A. (Joseph A.)
Brigands and robbers; James, Frank, 1844-1915; James, Jesse, 1847-1882
The last letter, to an individual, which we here present, is
vouched for as being in the handwriting of Jesse James, by Marshal
James Liggett. It was written to George W. Shepherd about two weeks
after the Glendale train robbery. In this, as in the other notes
given above, we have revised the orthography, without correcting
the grammatical errors. The letter is without date, and runs as
follows:
FRIEND GEORGE:
I can't wait for you here. I want you to meet me on Rogues
Island, and we will talk about that business we spoke of. I
would wait for you, but the boys wants to leave here. Don't
fail to come, and if we don't buy them cattle, I will come back
with you. Come to the place where we met going south that time,
and stay in that neighborhood until I find you.
Your friend,
J.
On many occasions Jesse has written, or caused to be written,
exculpatory letters for publication in the public journals. We
present a few of these as specimens of Jesse's epistolary style,
and because of the interesting character of their allusions to his
own conduct. It will be observed that the dates of outrages on
banks and railways, are wrong in several instances, as given in
these letters. For instance:
The following communication appeared in the Nashville (Tenn.)
_Banner_, of July 10th, 1875:
RAY TOWN, MO., July 5th, 1875.
GENTLEMEN:
As my attention has been called, recently, to the notice of
several sensational pieces copied from the Nashville _Union
and American_, stating that the Jameses and Youngers are in
Kentucky, I ask space in your valuable paper to say a few
words in my defence. I would treat these reports with silent
contempt, but I have many friends in Kentucky and Nashville
that I wish to know that these reports are false and without
foundation. I have never been out of Missouri since the Amnesty
Bill was introduced into the Missouri Legislature, last March,
asking for pardon for the James and Younger Boys. I am in
constant communication with Governor Hardin, Sheriff Groom,
of Clay county, Mo., and several other honorable county and
state officials, and there are hundreds of persons in Missouri
who will swear that I have not been in Kentucky. There are
desperadoes roving round in Kentucky, and it is probably very
important for the officials of Kentucky to be vigilant. If a
robbery is committed in Kentucky to-day, detective Bligh, of
Louisville, would telegraph all over the United States that
the James and Younger Boys did it, just as he did when the
Columbia, Kentucky, bank was robbed, April 29th, 1872. Old
Bly, the Sherman bummer, who is keeping up all the sensational
reports in Kentucky, and if the truth was known, I am satisfied
some of the informers are concerned in many robberies charged
to the James and Younger Boys for ten years. The radical
papers in Missouri and other states have charged nearly every
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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