JESSE JAMES'S BURIED GOLD
THE LONGEST LIST OF THE LONGEST
STUFF AT THE LONGEST DOMAIN NAME AT LONG LAST
Jesse Woodson James
Jesse Woodson James was a
notorious American outlaw of the 19th century, ironically son of a Baptist
minister, Reverend Robert James. Born on September 5, 1847 in Kearney, Missouri,
Jesse James had to see his father die when he was eight and his mother Zerelda
marry again twice, before his life was definitely altered by the outbreak of the
American Civil War.
Missouri was divided between Unionists and Southern
sympathizers when Frank James, Jesse's older brother, left home to fight for the
rebel cause in 1861, before he went outlaw. In 1864, Jesse James joined Frank as
a "bushwhacker" fighting under such commanders as "Bloody Bill" Anderson, and
killing Unionist sympathizers when he was only 16 years old.
Frank and Jesse grew up fearless and developing skills with horses, shooting,
and what it was called "the fine art of disappearing in the woods", knowing
perfectly well their surrounding countryside, including all the roads, deer
trails, and river crossings. Over time, this knowledge was not only useful to
their robberies but to make bigger the legend of Jesse James' buried gold.
After being involved in several massacres, wounded
near the end of the Civil War and getting his family banished from the state of
Missouri by Union authorities, Jesse James and his brother joined their old
friend in outlawry, robbing countless banks.
Jesse gained fame by himself after robbing the Daviess County Savings
Association in Gallatin, Missouri in 1869, and shortly after claimed as the
American Robin Hood after his train robberies and techniques described by
contemporary newspapers.
Eventually, Jesse and Frank married and moved to
Nashville trying to live peacefully under other names, but Jesse returned to
crime in 1879 with a new gang. Jesse James was killed on April 3, 1882, after
secret negotiations of the Ford brothers with the Missouri governor, who put up
a $10,000 reward for each of the James brother, dead or alive around the legal
limit on state-offered rewards.
After his death, rumors of Jesse James's survival proliferated and later were
associated to a buried chest of gold. Some people believe he lived in Guthrie,
Oklahoma, as late as 1948, while others are convinced he lived in Granbury,
Texas, until 1951 when he died at the age of 103. Although Jesse James' body
buried in Missouri was exhumed in 1995 after a court order was granted.
DNA analysis gave a 99.7% match to Jesse James
death in 1882, but Frank James could not identify the body of his brother a few
hours after Jesse James's death. The mystery of the gold equally remains
unknown. Some legend situate Jesse James' gold in Devil's Canyon in southwest
Oklahoma but others claim it is buried near Paragould in northeastern Arkansas.
The Constitution Tribune of Arkansas told a story revealing a buried treasure
which bandit Jesse James was said to have buried. That chronicle in February 28,
1940 was used as reference 13 years later, the Dixon Evening Telegraph, reported
seven digger farmers in the Black river near Paragould charging $1 a person to
watch the treasure hunting operation. Gold still not found.
Page Sponsored By:
Facts Jokes N Fun
