But Jesse was the one who went down rabbit holes again and again.
Born in 1847 in part of Missouri known, because of it's Southern leanings, as 'Little Dixie' Jesse and his siblings grew up in a politically confused area when Civil War loomed. Families split along Union/Confederate lines and feuding erupted with militias from both sides roaming the state. Jesse's father became a victim of one such militia and Jesse was, according to legend, whipped by a Unionist militia.
This fired further rebellion in a teenage Jesse and he joined a violent bushwhacker gang led by the notorious 'Bloody Bill' Anderson which waged the Civil war on State lines, a Civil War within a Civil War. In the photo of bushwhacker Jesse below he is aged seventeen or eighteen.
After Anderson's death and the end of the Civil War Jesse and brother Frank joined forces with the Younger Brothers and set out on a series of bank and train robberies which brought national fame whilst presenting himself as a respectable family man.
Down the rabbit hole of outlawry and banditry lies the truth about Jesse James. Was he just a bank robber, in it for the easy money or was he driven by ideological beliefs to continue the Civil War by other means?
Jesse famously died when he straightened a picture on the wall of his home and was shot dead by Robert Ford.
T.J Stiles is your guide down the various Jesse James rabbit holes in a gripping and enlightening biography which goes further in unravelling the multi-faceted persona of Jesse James than any other.
Take the ISBN 9780099521174 to your local bookshop and enjoy the read.
Another rabbit hole soon..
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