Hi Vance.

I know this is old stuff - but, Jesse James was a distant cousin of my maternal grandmother. I have read a lot about him but find so many discrepancies on his life and deeds.

Can you shed any light on this for me? The reason I am curious is that my grandson now knows about "cousin Jesse" and is not sure what to believe. In one sense, like I felt when I was a child, he is proud of the relation and in another he is rather shocked. I remember, as a kid, my siblings and I all fought to see who would be Jesse in our games of pretend.

Jesse James has been glamorized. No matter how glamorous they make Jesse James, make no mistake about it, he was a thief and he was a killer.

He was involved in crime long before his mother was hurt and his step brother or cousin or whoeverhe was to Jesse that was killed by the railroad people by accident so dont think for a minute that he turned to crime and against the railroad after that happened, no he was deep in it prior to that.

He even rode with Quantrill's Raiders for a while as well long before the incident at his farmhouse. I am gathering info for an article on Jesse James now.

Wow! That should be a good article. Thanks, Vance.

Wow, Phyllis, it's interesting to know you have that connection with Jesse James. I can see why your sibling and you were fighting over who would be Jesse.

From all the documentary I have watched on history channel on Jesse James, unfortunately, like Vance said, he was no saint although famous. My understanding is that many of his heroic accounts are simply glamourized.

I look forward to Vance's article.

I guess that is true, Cara. Some things, like childhood heroes, fade away with time. My grandson is going thru the same feeling we went thru as kids and someday, he too, will realize that not all ancestors were heroes.

My grandson has a mentor (his teacher of two years) who has an ancestor that was one of the Dalton brothers. So, they discuss this once in awhile and grandson is learning I hope that ol'Jesse was not such a good guy. At least he is not obsessed with it like we were as kids. It was such a big deal back then when it was so glamorized. Grandson is smarter than we were.

It is wonderful that your grandson is learning a part of his heritage and has a good mentor at school. Even though our ancestors might not all be heros, it is still important to honor the heritage. I still think it's awesome your family has that connection as Jesse James was an important part of the American history.

Thanks for your kind words, Cara. Heritage and the knowledge of our ancestors is important. The good thing to know is that Jesse's whole family was not bad - he was just a bad seed. My grandson will learn the difference between pride in infamous ancestors and pride in the goodness of ancestors. It is good that he is interested in his heritage.

Interesting! I'm related to the man who shot Billy the Kid on my mom's dad's side of the family. The Garrett family.

Billy the Kid is another interesting character but also very deadly. His death is shrouded in mystery too. Did Pat Garret kill him or he did he die of old age in the 1950's?

Billy The Kid is dead?