News-Democrat and Leader from Russellville, Kentucky • 8

News Democrat Leader Monday November 15 1993 Page 8 Conclusion of the series Jesse James will always remain part man part myth Grade A Heartland Turkey UY ONE GET ONE I 3 UAL OR LESSER VALUE REE 69 Lb $199 Martha White lour 69 Refreshing Coke 99 USDA GRADE A 69 Stk tU SuOMunf of a High ashion Photo Session Buy One Get One Presented by Copyright 1993 The Kroger Co Session ee $2495 I) I I 1 PRE PAY SPECIAL ONLY 4M (ranumstussnuTum DOUBLE MANUACTURERS' COUPONS 600 Limit See Store or Details Only One You Only One Kroger note: The following in formation about the tracking of Jesse James in Kentucky was pro vided by the ilson Club Histori cal Society The article was pub lished in the April 1993 issue and was written by Joe Nickell PhJ) a former professional investigator His article tells about his investi gation of the James brothers' Ken tucky ties and reputed exploits in cluding their alleged involvement in the robbery of the Russellville bank BUY ONE GET ONE EQUAL Glamour (5 LB BAG) PLAIN OR SEL RISING NEW CROP Sweet Potatoes the James legend One was Bards town's Stephen oster Hotel where it was alleged that "Jesse and his brother rank once escaped the dogged detective Yankee Bligh (as DG Bligh was nicknamed) by rid ing their horses through the lobby" The other was the home of AD "Donnie" Pence at Samuels Depot Pence was a Missourian who served with the Jameses in Quan tril's band before settling in Nelson County and becoming sheriff It is said of the Jameses that whenever they were in Nelson County Pqncc "looked out for their interests" In fact the Pence home held a pe culiar artifact of the James Mythol ogy As an elderly lady once ex plained: ather went over one time to go hunting and there was a strange man there and Mr Pence said "Do you know who this is? ather of course said "No" He (12 CT PKGS) SELECTED VARIETIES KROGER Brown Serve Rolls 191 Hopkinsville St Russellville KY 42276 Makes Great Christmas 726 6652 (4 LB BAG) RED GOLDEN ROME OR Granny Smith Apples So did Jesse's uncle George Hite who stated that the pair "came and stopped at my house after Much later it was said that goods from the holdup including the gold watch of Judge RH Roundtree of Lebanon Ky and di amond rings belonging to the judge's daughter Lizzie were found in Jesse's possession at his death Only one other Kentucky rob bery has been seriously attributed to the Jameses that of a Muhlen berg County mine In the summer of 1881 three men held up the of fice of the John Dovey Coal mine at the town of Mercer As fate would have it delivery of the pay rolls receipts had been delayed and all the bandits got for their trouble was $13 Although one writer labeled the holdup "the last known James rob bery in Kentucky" proof of the brothers' involvement is lacking In fact in the spring of 1881 Jesse had left Tennessee with his wife and his two children for Kan sas City (where he used the alias JT Jackson) They remained there until November of that year rank who had lived near Jesse in Tennessee from 1876 to 1881 had also left the state before the Dovey mine was robbed visiting the Kentucky home of his uncle George Hite and arriving in Texas before the beginning of sum mer He did not return to Kentucky until September where he again stayed with the Hites (this time to await news of his wife's efforts in negotiating his surrender) Young Bob ord assassinated Jesse James on April 3 1882 ord a new member of the James gang had been in contact with Missouri Governor Crittenden and planned to kill Jesse at the first opportunity for the reward money On that fate ful Monday morning Bob and his brother Charles found themselves with Jesse alias Howard in his St Joseph Missouri home Back By Popular Demand in Russellville Of 2 days Only November 1 8 and 1 9 Kroger Extra Large Or Large Eggs WITH POP UP TIMER Kroger Grade A people in time of crisis ancient warriors have announced that Jesse James lives in their emaciated frames" Such impostors at least 1 7 by one count "revealed" they were the Missouri outlaw They did not neglect Kentucky As journalist Joe Creason observed: During the late 1920s and 1930s various Jesse James pretenders showed up in Kentucky usually as an afterfea ture at tent shows or a price these pretenders would tell that he was the real Jesse and that he had entered into an elaborate plot with ord to have him shoot a total stranger wearing James's clothing thus enabling him (the real Jesse) to escape the sheriffs marshals and detectives hounding his trail The best known of the Jesse James claimants was a man going by the name of Jrank Dalton Al though his story was riddled with holes and handwriting compari sons proved he was not Dal ton nevertheless managed to con vince many people otherwise before his death in Texas in 1951 or example one Elliott County Ky man in his 90s who had be come convinced he had fed the James gang in Sandy Hook in 1875 (supposedly after they had robbed a bank at Huntington WV) trav eled to Missouri in 1950 to identify Jesse "That's the man" elderly Kentuckians said of the other elder ly man "He is Jesse James!" Other often unlikely locales in Kentucky claim the Jameses If we qualify his statement with the word "alleged" we can agree with Joe Creason that indeed "James hide outs are strung from Pike to Pulaski and from Logan to Warren counties" Another writer refers to the reputed "thousand places where rank James and Jesse James had been seen and it wasn't only Ken tucky it extended all the way to lorida and New York There was hardly a cave they hadn't hidden in" However to those who would have the desperados hiding out in caves rank James reportedly countered "We never went into any place we couldn't leave by the back door" Still standing near Adairville is "the Hite place" home of rank and Jesse's uncle George Hite and his sons Robert Woodson and Clarence These cousins of the Jam eses were members of their gang for whom the house was "a regular halting (George Hite had married the James brother's aunt Nancy sister to their father Robert James! Two Nelson Countv landmarks book any legends or folk talcsT Jesse removed his guns and laid totn razed in ivw also partook ot tncm aside as ne stepped upon a chair to dust a picture Bob ord seized the opportunity to draw his own pistol and shoot Jesse in the back of the head killing him in stantly But doubt that the dead man real ly was Jesse James arose immedi ately Some people believed a hoax was in the making and they persist ed in their belief even after count less witnesses positively identified him basing their opinions on per sonal knowledge of his feature as well as on characteristic wounds (including two scars on the right side of the chest) The corpse matched Jesse in another signifi cant respect: the tip of the middle finger on the left hand was missing However even a positive identi fication by a jury did not quell the undercurrent of doubt and scarcely had a year passed than a farmer in Clay County Missouri claimed he had seen Jesse James Not unlike Elvis Presley sightings of our own day or the earlier resur rections of John Wilkes Booth and others Jesse's "reappearances" rep resent the popular imagination's propensity to mythologize Eventually men claiming to be the "real" Jesse began to come for ward olklorist Richard Dorson observes "In the tradition of the Returning Hero who reappears af ter his alleged death to defend his 36 CT CALIORNIA Crisp irm Celery ADVERTISED ITEM POLICY Each of these items is required to be readily available for Bale in each Kroger Store except aa specifically noted id thia ad If we do run out of an advertised item we will offer you your choice of a comparable Item when available reflecting the same savings or a raincheck which will entitle you to purchase the advertised item at the advertised price within 30 days Only one vendor coupon will be accepted per item LIMIT ONE MANUACTURERS' COUPON PER ITEM PURCHASED QUANTITY RIGHTS RESERVED NONE SOLD TO DEALERS This Ad Effective Thru Saturday Nov 20 1993 in Bowling Green said "Well it's Jesse James" So they had a real pleasant day Jesse James took off his diamond rings and said "If there are any holdups today Ill be blamed for them" So he just wrote on the window pane the date and everything and signed his name After the Pence house was de molished the windowpane was traced to a lorida resident where it was found in good condition and photographed (It bears the dates 18 1881" and "Septem ber 9" no year together with the name "Jesse However a lone skeptic insisted he could find an additional "couple of hundred window panes engraved by Jesse" in various Missouri locales" Other James artifacts proliferat ed As the aforementioned skeptic observed for example "It would take a freight car to carry their pis tols around with the names carved on the butts" Bullet holes attribut ed to their guns also proliferate the most credible being the one in the wall of the Russellville bank among others several pockmark murals in an upstairs room of Bardstown's Talbott Tavern where a plaque informs that "legend has it" they were caused by "the James brothers and their boisterous com panions" Then there arc the photo graphs "said to be" of the notorious outlaws or their family members together with no fewer than three gold watches reported as having fallen from Jesse's pocket when he was killed inally there arc the pebbles from his grave that his mother sold to souvenir hunters for a quarter each "According to com mon report" stales William Settle "the supply was frequently replen ished from a nearby creek bed" Probably due in part to Jesse's cowardly murder and rank James's respectability of later years (he sur rendered vaulted several legal hur dles and earned a modest living working at a variety of jobs) it was Jesse who became the primary fo cus of much of the legend making As Richard Dorson comments: our hundred and fifty dime novels and half a dozen Hollywcxxl mo vies celebrated the fictional feaLs of Jesse but the folklorist notes the ballads and legends that kept Jesse's fame alive in oral tradition Countless talcs reshaped Jesse into a romantic outlaw In his valuable book "Jesse James Was My Neigh bor" (1949) Homer Croy sets down dozens of such stories and identifies the speakers Yet he de clares "I am not putting in this failing tn iWArniiA ihni 'b unit uiwv wuiu ui iiiuuui narratives near me unmistakable imprint of folklore They invariably portray Jesse as kind and generous intrepid and un canny and they contain most im probable incidents In his role as humanitarian Jesse saves a black boy from a mob releases a cap tured Union soldier who had come home to sec his mother refuses to rob a preacher and gives a poor widow $800 to pay off a skinflint mortgage holder whom Jesse promptly robs as soon as the widow pays him Reinforced by Hollywood as pects of the Jesse James legend in cluding the Robin Hood tradition seem too entrenched to succumb to negative forces Even one author who attempted to portray the Mis souri outlaw as "a cold blooded murdered" conceded: "The real Jesse James will always remain nart man part myth" 2 Liter NR Btl resh Turkey ALL SIZES Our abulous Package Offen More ComparelComplete Make Over and Hairstyling by Top ProfessionalsProfessional Photography Session with Creative Lighting and Softening for an Almost lawless Look 7 Wardrobe Changes Lots to Choose rom 25 Pose Selection un for Men Women and Children Call Today for Appointment! 46 6652 Available In Order or Our Employees To Spend Thanksgivings With Their amilies We will Close At 3:00 pm on Thursday nov zo ana Ke upen At 7:00 am On riday Nnv Mlwe enu Your Thanksg Correction The Thank You ad for Alan Neal Auburn Council man appearing in the Thursday November 1 1 edition of Btmnrnrf Leader was paid for by Alan Neal 574 Sunset Dr Auburn Ky 42206 We regret any inconvenience this may have caused (l LB PKG) HOT MILD OR SAGE arm Pork Sausage' REE (18 OZ BOX) SELECTED VARIETIES SUPERMOIST Betty Crocker Cake Mix 3 S1 I Bl'iifcO 1 rryj 1 a Os 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