Tall Tales and Half Truths of Billy the Kid by John LeMay

Author:John LeMay [LeMay, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781626199965
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: History Press, The
Published: 2015-06-29T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 7

DID BILLY THE KID KNOW JESSE JAMES?

Old desperados never die; they do not even fade away. They arise from their ashes, full of strength and stories.

—C.L. Sonnichsen, Alias Billy the Kid

Of Billy the Kid and Jesse James, it’s difficult to say which is the more famous of the two outlaws. Both were contemporaries, and legend says they met during their real lives—and for certain in their fake lives thereafter through their decrepit doppelgangers, J. Frank Dalton and Brushy Bill Roberts.

The historical Jesse James had more than a few similarities to Billy the Kid, starting with his slight stature of five feet nine inches and weight of 135 pounds. Like the Kid, despite being an outlaw, many claimed he was really a Robin Hood–like figure who stole from the rich and gave to the poor. He was said to love a good practical joke. One of his more comical exploits included interrupting a political speech after just committing a bank robbery to inform the crowd of the act and suggest that they go untie the poor souls inside because, as he put it, “We’ve got to be going.” James also once left a note for the police at the scene of a train robbery, asking that it please be printed in the paper “as is” rather than being grossly exaggerated by the police or a reporter.

The James brothers rode with Quantrill’s raiders during the Civil War, and it’s possible they knew Captain Joseph C. Lea, the future “Father of Roswell” and a political enemy of the Kid’s. While the Kid was really just a cattle rustler, James was in the big leagues, carrying out numerous bank, stagecoach and train robberies. Some of the thefts netted the outlaws upward of $60,000.

James was shot and killed not long after his contemporary Billy the Kid on April 3, 1882. Coincidentally, the July 30, 1881 obituary for Billy the Kid in the Kansas City Journal quipped, “Here in Missouri is needed just some such man as Pat Garrett. He who will follow the James boys and their companions in crime to their den and shoot them down without mercy.” And indeed, James was shot in his den in the back by “the coward” Robert Ford, a recent addition to James’s gang. To keep vandals from digging up Jesse’s grave (perhaps the family was aware of accounts of Billy’s corpse in Fort Sumner), the outlaw was buried right outside his mother’s front door seven feet under. Twenty years later, his body was moved to the Mount Olivet Cemetery. When his grave was exhumed, his skull tumbled from his casket, proving, if nothing else, that no vandals had stolen any bones. Like Billy’s death, conspiracies surfaced questioning whether the outlaw was really dead or just faking death. A local paper reported right away that there were rumors James was still alive and it was an impostor who had been shot in a coverup involving the entire James family. And like Billy, James had more than one impostor.

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