Jesse James House & Museum

St. Joseph, Missouri

Robert (Bob) Ford, a member of Jesse James's gang, shot and killed the outlaw in this house on April 3, 1882, in St. Joseph, Missouri, for the reward of ten thousand dollars offered by the governor. Jesse was 34 years old at the time of his death. He had assumed the name of Tom Howard, and his wife and two children lived with him.

The house displays artifacts from the James home as well as information about his time in his life. Because of some controversy, in 1995, a forensic scientist exhumed Jesse's body to do DNA tests. The results revealed a 99.7 % certainty that the body was Jesse James's. Apparently, he had two bullet wounds, one in the right lung and one behind his right ear.

Jesse James was born September 5, 1847, in Clay County Missouri. He married his cousin, Zee on April 24, 1874, and they had two children to survive until adulthood. Jesse Edward James was born in 1875 and became a lawyer in Kansas City, Missouri.  Susan was born in 1879 and married Henry Barr. Twin sons died as infants.

In the house, a frame marks a bullet hole that entered the wall. Souvenir seekers have made the hole larger in the years before the museum took over. My husband and I toured the home on our trip out West in June to attend a book fair in Deadwood and do research for upcoming novels. Jesse has already entered one of my novels, Transplanted to Red Clay. Who knows? He might find his way into another one after this.

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