In January, we stand at the frontier of a new year. Obviously, there's no better month to remember that other mythic uncharted territory, the American frontier of the Old West! In the Western classic The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, a newspaper editor famously says, "This is the West, sir. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend." But that attitude has led to a lot of frontier lore that's just plain loco. We've asked Jeopardy gunfighter Ken Jennings to separate fact from legend--and print only the facts. Let's see if he can clean up this town.
The Debunker: Did Jesse James's Gang Rob from the Rich and Give to the Poor?
In 1882, the famed outlaw Jesse James was shot in the back by one of his gang members, Robert Ford (Brad Pitt and Casey Affleck, if you saw the movie). The shooting was immortalized in the folk song "Jesse James," which takes a strongly pro-Jesse/anti-Ford stance. Robert Ford is dismissed as a "dirty little coward," while Jesse James is lauded because "he stole from the rich and he gave to the poor." "He'd never see a man suffer pain," insists the star-struck balladeer. "He'd never rob a mother or child." The song, covered by everyone from Woody Guthrie to Bruce Springsteen, has cemented in the public mind the notion that Jesse James was a colorful do-gooder. Sure, maybe he was an outlaw, but the noble Robin Hood kind! A likable rascal!
If you have any such illusions about Jesse James's gang, a fun thing to do might be to read up on Quantrill's Raiders, the pro-slavery marauders who raised so much hell in Kansas and Missouri during the 1860s. Frank and Jesse James both rode with Quantrill, and both participated in notorious atrocities, including the bloody Centralia Massacre of 1864, in which unarmed Union troops were killed, scalped and dismembered. The James brothers' taste for bloodshed didn't change after the war, when they joined up with the Younger brothers and took to a life of crime. Innocent bystanders caught bullets in several of their heists.
Did they rob from the rich? Yes, mostly banks, stagecoaches and trains. (Though they occasionally robbed train passengers before riding off, without asking to see anyone's income statements.) But did the James-Younger gang give the proceeds to the poor? Only if, by "the poor," you mean "the James-Younger gang." It's true that Jesse likely saw himself as a noble figure, a defeated Southerner fighting back against the industrialized North. A sympathetic newspaper editor, John Newman Edwards of the Kansas City Times, wrote a series of editorials playing up the gang as folk heroes and modern-day Robin Hoods, but that was all hype. There's no evidence of the James gang sharing a cent of their earnings with widows and orphans. And he sure killed a lot of innocent people, for a guy who'd "never see a man suffer pain." That folk song needs a rewrite. What rhymes with "redneck domestic terrorist"?
Quick Quiz: Another Jesse James, the reality show host of Monster Garage, became notorious in 2010 when what actress filed for divorce from him?
Ken Jennings is the author of six books, most recently his Junior Genius Guides, Because I Said So!, and Maphead. He's also the proud owner of an underwhelming Bag o' Crap. Follow him at ken-jennings.com or on Twitter as @KenJennings.