From the records of the Knights of the Golden Circle

They drew a circle and shut us out.

In vain, they thought they=d won by rout

But men of God, with wit to win.

Drew a larger circle and shut them in.

For some reason, and this will become obvious as this story goes on.  Historians never really got it straight that there were more than one Jesse and Frank James. This was in spite of the fact that many a robberies were executed on the very same day many hundreds of miles apart, by the so called  “James Gang”.

The truth is that there were actually two  “Jesse James” operating during and after the Civil War, who were about the same age and did in some respects did look somewhat alike, but hardly any one really knew what the real Jesse Woodson James look like as it was.  You see they were really cousins, their respective fathers being brothers, and coincidently both had brother’s named Frank. It might also be add at this time that both sets of Jesse and Frank James employed doubles, to create a further diversion.  That makes a total of at least 4 sets of Jesse and Frank James’ robbing, harassing and pillaging at any given moment in  time.

It was a fact the “James Gangs” had done a lot more damage to the Wall Street Bankers, their European allies, and unscrupulous Railroad magnates than the history books of today insinuate.  It no wonder that the powers that be offered such a high price for their heads.

The two famous Jesses there-by worked out a very complex plan to stage a public death hoax that would legally retire the name of Jesse James, not only in Missouri but also everywhere else in these here United States and in especially in Europe, where the story was a sensation

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Well,  the best laid plans of mice and men unraveled at the last minute.  It seems that Jesse Robert James from Missouri became laid up with a broken leg and the plans had to be altered at the very last minute. This caused the planned hoax to go haywire and as a result was very crudely executed compared to the sophisticated plan they had started out with in the beginning.

At that same time it seems that there was a very bad hombre by the name of Charlie Bigelow, his brothers, and a gang of thugs working together doing many very bad crimes in and around the area of  St. Joseph, Missouri.  They were ignorantly executing these ruthless crimes in the name of the infamous “James Gang”.

The word was out in the Confederate Underground that this band of criminals had to be dealt with.  It wasn’t unusual considering the profession of the people involved, that any one group or individual might use an alias, especially of a reputed bad guy or ruthless gang of criminals.

Just the mention of the word “Jesse James “ would start many a brave man trembling in his boots. But these dishonorable backstabbers chose the wrong name to associate themselves with and it was not long that this act caught up with them.  The members of the KGC assigned to deal with the Bigelow Gang caught up with them in St. Joseph Missouri on April 3, 1882.

Before this Jesse made several arrangements with his old childhood friend and attorney Thomas T. Crittenden, soon to be Governor of Missouri. It was said that   thru the organizations funding he was elected the Governor of Missouri.  The plan was that the Governor would offer a reward for the capture of Jesse James for ten thousand  ( $10,000 ), dead or alive, preferably dead.  This was to set the stage for the so called well plan hoax.

The scoundrel Charlie Bigelow was living at the time in a house on Lafayette St. in St. Joseph Missouri, under the alias “Thomas C. Howard”.  Unawares that his neighbors were KGC spies and feeling quite safe, he started to leave his guard down.  It was determined that the time was now!!!

It was reported to J.W.J. on the morning of 1 April, 1882, April fools day no less, that Charlie Bigelow, his brothers John and Bert were living together at the time and laying low after pulling some fairly big jobs while working together with the real James gang.  The problem was that the Bigelow brothers were also finding it necessary to pull a few jobs for themselves, on the side so to speak.  KGC spy Elmer Johnson reported that the brothers had the habit of going down to the barn every morning together around 8 a.m. to relieve themselves.  So, on Monday morning April the 3^rd of 1882 the real Jesse Woodson James, Frank James, ex-slave John Trammel, Lucky Johnson, the jockey’s Bob and Charlie Ford in addition to Jesse’s uncle Bud Dalton the brother of Lewis Dalton of the famous Dalton Gang and a old trusted friend Gen. J.O. Shelby where all laying in wait near the old barn at Lafayette St.

As the Bigelow brothers emerged from the house and approached the old barn two shots rang out and John and Bert lay dead in their tracks. Jesse came around the barn and confronted Charlie Bigelow who was armed with a gun and a pitchfork.  Shoots rang out as Bigelow got off the first one, which slammed into Jesse steel vest, ricocheted and penetrated his right shoulder.  Jesse who was knocked down by the blast was lying injured on the floor unloading his pistols in his left hand into the body of Charles Bigelow, killing him dead.  It was said that over forty shoots were fired that day.

It was determined that Bob Ford, who claimed he never shot anyone in his life would take credit for the staged cowardly murder of Jesse Woodson James in reality Charlie Bigelow and collect the reward.  It was an act that Bob Ford would live to regret all of his life, as it eventually was the cause of his Missouri cousin

A.B. Ford’s historical but mistaken death at the hand of the coward named O’Kelly, in a bar at Creed, Colorado.  Charlie Bigelow's wife Zerelda was intimidated at risk and threat of death to substantiate the murder of Jesse at the hand of Bib Ford.  So goes the story of the untimely death of the famous Jesse Woodson James.

Thereafter the legend grew and the story went on as planned and from this point forward it was said that the “dirty little coward” who killed mister Howard, laid poor Jesse in his grave.

Rest In Peace and the rest is history.  A distorted history that is and unfortunately no one did in fact rest in peace.  Not for very long.

More later.

Cosmowolff