Long, detailed biography of the Missouri outlaw. His family was fairly well off and owned slaves before the Civil War. His father, a preacher, died in California and his stern mother took over the family. When the war began, Jesse’s older brother Frank fought locally. When Jesse was 16, he joined also, becoming a bushwhacker in the notorious bands of Quantrill and Bloody Bill Anderson. After the war, he drifted around the state with the remains of these gangs.

When reconstruction was implemented, Missouri was split into three parties: Radical Republicans who wanted to give the vote to Blacks and keep ex-Confederates out of government; Union Democrats who were loyal but against the Republicans; and ex-Confederates who wanted back the power they lost. This confrontation peaked in 1870 when Jesse rose to prominence in a series of bank and train robberies and murders. Those authorities, including the Pinkertons, who tried to stop him ran into difficulties because the many ex-Confederates in the state harbored the outlaws, seeing them as a continuation of the cause. A newspaper reporter, John Newman Edwards, made James into a champion and martyr for the cause. This made him known throughout the country.

When reconstruction ended with the surrender of the government to the ex-Confederates and the putting-down of the Blacks, there was no longer a cause for Jesse to fight for, but he kept on. The first stage of James’ career ended in 1876 when he attempted to rob the bank in Northfield, Minnesota with Frank, the three Younger brothers and three other men. The townspeople fought back. Two of the men were killed outright. The three Youngers were captured soon after and another man was killed. Only Jesse and Frank escaped, both injured. The brothers went into hiding in Tennessee, posing as farmers and traders for three years. Both married and started families.

Jesse got restless, however, and began robbing again. His old gang was gone, and his new partners were younger men who hadn’t fought in the war. They began to quarrel with each other. Two of them, brothers Charley and Bob Ford, made a deal to kill Jesse in exchange for amnesty. Bob shot Jesse dead in Jesse’s house in St. Joseph, Missouri on April 3, 1882 (exactly 123 years before the day I finished reading the book!).

Stiles’ writing was somewhat ponderous, going into extreme detail not only about James but about the political and economic conditions in Missouri throughout Jesse’s life. But the book gave me what I wanted, understanding and knowledge about Jesse James. Stiles makes a compelling argument that James was no Robin Hood as he has been portrayed but was simply a thug who managed to survive because his neighbors who harbored him saw him as fighting for the Lost Cause of the Civil War. Jesse, no dummy, exploited this feeling and played it up with the help of Edwards.