The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1892-03-01
JESSE JAMES BRAIN.
Secretly Removed in a Very Skill
full Manner.
How tho Doctors Outwlttcd the Dead
Dcspcrado's Watchful Mother
and Loft No Traces OF
Their Work.

i "a great many things have been
2&wr'tten about Jesse james, and at
8tiincs 1t has seemed to me as if the pa-
%pcrs were taxing their readers severely
3with their tirclcsS efforts to preserve u
&strained interest in the career of the
&great ihighway'nan," said IL prominent
&citi.en OF northwest Missouri to n st.
#Louis Glohc-Dcmocrat reporter the
3other day. "A certain little post-orbt
= incident has never found its way into
4 the press, however, and the reason, no
3doubt, is that it has been kept IN invio-
Il late secret among the few who were
#givcn an opportunity to know about it,
81 Tor fear of bringing trouble on those
4 who were responsible for it. The facts
i are simply these: While Mrs. Samucls,
\ the mother of Jesse james, was watch
ing like lynx every incident connect
i ed with the arrangements for convey
4 ing the dead desperate from st. Joseph
d the day after his death to her farm
near kcarney, where he was to be bur-
led, number of cntcrprising physi-
clans quietly removed his brain and put
! it in Il jar of alcohol, in which condition
4 it is now exhibited, labeled or unla-
bclcd, ut one of the St. Joseph medical
s colleges.
A AS soon as heard of the shooting of
Jesse James, continued the narrator,
Il boarded train and went to St.
] Joseph. The excitement was some
thing remarkable. The town was full
! of witnesses, officers and idcrs from
4 Kansas City, Omaha ant from towns
two hundred and three hundred miles
4 away, all bent on seeing the great
highwayman and the house in which he
was shot. One of the first persons on
hand was Mrs. Samucls, Jcsse's mother.
You know she is Il woman from whom
j the boys Inherited much OF their
aggrcssivcncss. She is Il general in
] petticoats. Nothing escapes her and
she is everywhere at the same time.
The sheriff from Kansas City, think
his name WAS Timbcrlal,c-was to her
special object Of aversion, and il was
probably due to this antipathy, which
to II certain extent compelled her to rely
with more confidence upon the st.
Joseph authorities, that the doctors
owed their golden opportunity TO per-
form the operation that sent the high
wayman brainlcss to his grave.
Kansas City was green with envy that
st. Joseph should have obtained the
notoricty of Jesse James fatal taking
OFF, and Timbcrlallc was anxious to
save rs rauch for his town rs he could
by giving orders To have the body sent
there for Identification, so us to make
business for the Kansas City hotels and
draw crowds of curious people from st.
Joseph. Mrs. Samuels did not quite
see 1t in that light, nor did she COM
prchend Undertakes motive. TO her
his arbitrary orders appeared in the light
OF a malignant persecution of her son
even after death, and she set herself to
watch and thwart him at every turn.
The st. Joseph authorities were lust rs
anxious to prolonS the attending scenes
to their full capacity of profit in their
\ own town, and for this reason naturally
acted in complete accord and sympathy
with the anguishcd old lady. While she
was watching the movements of the
Kansas City crowd toguard against sur
priscs the chief of police of st. Joseph
had her permission to prepare the body
for removal. One thing, however, that
\ the old lady was particularly set on
was that no post-mortem examination
should be made, and this the police au
thoritics promised in good faith. Just
than | can say, but there in Il Jar on a
shelf, in glass Office case was the
bandits brain, the spot where the bull
let had entered being easily distinguish
able by the suffusion of blood
The doctor who pointed it out TO me
was personal friend" the gentleman
went on, land he laughed slyly when
asked him how he had accomplished it.
lie invited me to go with him where
Jesse lay dead in his coffin, and as |
looked at his face / endeavorcd to dis
cover the marks of the scapcl, but in
3 vain. When we were out of the room.
asked him how the bxain was re-
moved. without leaving a trace of the
knife, and he then told me that the
scalp had been cut across the back part
of the head and drawn forward over
the brow, leaving the skull exposed to
the action of the saw. The top of the
skull was carefully sawed and the
brain was removed. The scalp was
, then drawn back into its place over the
cap of the skull, and when Mrs. Sam
uels next gazed upon the pale face of
her son his appearance was not altered
in the least, but his brain was in n
glass jar. That is now nearly ten
years ago. never again heard INV
friend, the doctor, refer to the matter,
nor has any other person ever spoken
of it to me, which shows how jealousy
[ the secret has been kept"
Papai Punishment of an Archbishop.
The pope has sentenced to degrade
L