Robert Ford - Jesse James Killer Robert Ford - Jesse James' Killer Best known as the "dirty little cowardï¿½ that killed Jesse James , Robert Newton Ford, was born January 31, 1862 in Ray County, Missouri , one of seven children of James Thomas Ford and Mary Ann Bruin. The wiry young boy became enamored of the daring exploits of Jesse James and finally got a chance to meet him in 1880. He and his older brother, Charles , began to hang on to the outer fringes of the James Gang . By this time, the ranks of the outlaw gang members had been diminished due to deaths, captures, and men simply moving on to other endeavors. So, when the two brothers wanted to join the gang, Jesse let them; however, neither played a very large role. Charles allegedly participated in the Blue Cut robbery near Glendale, Missouri on September 7, 1881. It was to be the last train robbery of the James Gang , netting the six members some $3,000 in cash and jewelry taken from the passengers. Also participating in the robbery were Frank and Jesse James , Dick Liddel , and brothers, Clarence and Wood Hite .

Of Robert Fordï¿½s participation in any of the James Gang robberies, there is no record and he was thought to be mostly a "hanger-on," doing odd jobs and maybe holding the horses while the others perpetrated the crime. A few months later, in November, 1881, Jesse moved his wife and family to St. Joseph , Missouri , renting a house in the name of J.D. Howard. Acting as a member of the respected community, Jesse had plans of taking up a straight and narrow life. However, he wanted to pull off one last bank robbery of a bank in Platte County, Missouri , in hopes of making enough money to retire and become a gentleman farmer. But, the State of Missouri had had enough and about this same time, Missouri Governor Thomas Crittendon put up a reward of $10,000 for any information leading to the capture of Frank or Jesse James . In January 1882, two James Gang members -- Wood Hite and Dick Liddel , on the run from the law, took refuge in the home of Martha Bolton, Bob Ford's widowed sister. One day at breakfast, Hite and Liddel began to argue while Ford sat by watching.

The dispute soon accelerated with the feuding pair drawing their guns. The sound of four rapid shots from Hite's gun soon echoed through the room, one of which struck Liddel in the leg. Falling to the floor, Dick returned the fire, hitting Hite in the arm. In the meantime, Bob Ford drew his own gun and, being Liddel's close friend, fired one shot, hitting Hite in the head. Collapsing to the floor, Wood Hite died just a few minutes later. Ford then wrapped the corpse in a blanket, carried it outside and placing it on a mule, took it into the woods, where he buried Hite in a shallow, unmarked grave. This killing, coupled with Ford's greed and desire for notoriety, would be a death sentence for Jesse James . When word of the shooting reached authorities, Ford was arrested, but when he informed detectives that he had access to the much-wanted Jesse James , he was released. Next, Ford secretly met with Missouri Governor Thomas T. Crittenden, who told him that if he killed the notorious outlaw , he would receive a full pardon for the Hite murder as well as the killing of James , and also receive the reward money.

Ford agreed to perform the deed and next met with the Sheriff of Clay County, where the two formulated a plan to get Jesse James . By March of 1882, a number of the James Gang members began to turn themselves in, leaving Jesse with little left to plan a bank robbery with other than Charlie and Bob Ford. Though he instinctively distrusted Robert Ford, he followed through and on the morning of April 3, 1882, he was having breakfast with the Ford brothers in his home. Afterwards, the men went to the parlor, where Jesse outlined his plans for the robbery of the Platte City, Missouri Bank. When Jesse noticed that a framed needlepoint picture, done by his mother, was hanging crookedly on the wall, he stood on a chair to adjust the picture. Suddenly he heard the sound of Bob Ford cocked pistol and turned just slightly. Bob then shot Jesse just below the right ear and Jesse toppled to the floor dead. Jesse was 34 years old.

Robert Ford: The Man Who Shot Jesse James – Civil War Saga 3 Comments on Robert Ford: The Man Who Shot Jesse James Robert Newton Ford was an outlaw from Missouri born on January 31, 1862. Like many young Missouri men of his time, he grew up admiring the Civil War record and exploits of the famous bandit, Jesse James , a fellow Missouri native. Robert, who went by the nickname Bob, and his older brother Charles, finally got the chance to meet Jesse when they befriended him in 1880 while he was recruiting new members for his gang. The James-Younger gang had disbanded in 1876 after a botched robbery and James was in need of new recruits. Although he allowed Charles and Robert to join, neither brother played a large role in the gang. Charles did help Jesse rob a train in Glendale in September of 1881 but there are no records of Robert participating in any robberies.

Robert Ford posing with the gun that killed Jesse James, circa 1882-1892 Two of the gang members, Wood Hite, a cousin of Jesse James, and a friend of Ford’s named Dick Liddil, were on the run from the law in December of 1881 and taking refuge at the house of Robert Ford’s sister when an argument between Hite and Liddil got out of hand. The men took shots at each before Ford stepped in and shot Hite in the head, killing him instantly. Fearing James would kill him and Liddil for murdering his cousin, Ford buried him in a shallow grave in the woods. In January of 1882, Sheriff James Timberlake detained Ford and question him about Hite’s death. When authorities discovered he was a member of James’ gang, they offered to strike a deal. According to Ford, on January 12, Governor Crittenden offered Ford a pardon for the murder and a $10,000 reward for the capture of either Jesse James or his brother Frank, dead or alive. Greedy and desperate to avoid prison, Ford agreed.

On January 24, Liddil surrendered to Timberlake and confessed to his role in Hite’s murder. His confession was later reprinted in the book The Trial of Frank James for Murder: With Confessions from Dick Liddil and Clarence Hite: “…Next morning, I came down to breakfast, and Wood Hite, who had come from Kentucky three or four days before, was there, and Bob Ford came down a fw minutes afterward. When Wood Hite first came in he spoke to me, and I told him I did not want him to speak to me, as he had accused me of stealing $100 at the divide in the Blue Cut robbery. I told him he lied; he said he could prove it (his accusation) by Mrs. Bolton, and I wanted him to prove it. He then denied ever saying anything of the kind. I told him he did say it, and we both commenced drawing our pistols. We fired about the same time. He shot me through the right leg between the knee and the hip, and I shot him through the right arm. He fired four times at me and I five times at him, and then I snapped another barrel at him.

I drew my other pistol when he commenced falling. Bob Ford fired one shot at him. I did not know this until afterward, when he (Bob) exhibited the empty chamber. The wound that killed Hite was through the head. It struck him about two inches above the right eye and came out in front of and a little above the left ear. Bob claimed that his shot was the fatal one. Hite lived 15 or 20 minutes, but did not speak. We carried him upstairs, and that night of Dec. 4, Cap and Bob dug a grave in the woods about a half a mile from the house and buried him. My leg was too sore to help. We did not use a coffin…On the night of Thursday, the twenty-ninth of December, Jesse and Charlie Ford came down to Mrs. Bolton’s, where I had been since being wounded and tried to get me to go with them. They claimed to have come from Nebraska. I declined to go. I mistrusted Jesse wanted to kill me and so left. This was on Saturday night, December 31, 1881. Jesse and Charlie left the next night for the old lady’s I was told.

This was the last time I ever saw him, and I have never seen Charlie Ford since. After the raid on Mrs. Bolton’s house early in January, 1882, I concluded to surrender.” Due to fears that Jesse James would kill him if he discovered he had killed Hite, Ford kept his arrest, as well as Liddil’s, a secret from James to prevent arousing suspicion. Charles Ford Knowing what a quick draw James was, the Ford brothers knew they had to wait for a moment when James took his gun belt off in order to shoot him. This moment came when James sat down to read the paper the morning of April 3, 1882 at his home in St. Joseph’s and he noticed an article about Liddil’s arrest for Hite’s murder. Although James never said so, the Ford brothers worried that James was suspicious of them for not reporting the murder or arrest to him and decided it was time to act. James’s son, Jesse James Jr, later recounted the events of that day in his book “Jesse James, My Father, The First and Only True Story of His Adventures Ever Written”: “Father had not the slightest suspicion that the Fords meant to harm him.

This is proven by the fact that after breakfast that morning father took off his belt and revolvers and threw them upon the bed and threw his coat over them. He did this because it was a very warm morning, and the belt and revolvers were tiresome to carry. Another reason was that it was necessary to have the doors and windows open, and father thought that people passing the house might be suspicious if they saw him armed. After my father put the revolvers upon the bed he noticed that a picture on the wall was hanging awry. He placed a chair beneath the picture and stood upon it to straighten it and then he started to brush the dust from it. Standing thus, his back was turned to the Ford boys, who were in the room. This was the opportunity the Fords had been waiting for. It was the very first time they had seen him unarmed since they knew him. Bob Ford drew his revolver, aim’ed it at the back of my father’s head and cocked it. Father heard the click of the hammer and made a movement as if to turn around. But before he could do so Ford pulled the trigger and father fell backward dead.

The Fords ran out and across the back yard fence, and went down town and surrendered to the authorities, telling that they had shot and killed Jesse James. Years afterward the Fords, who found themselves despised of all men because of this murder, denied that they shot my father for the reward, but that they learned that Jesse James suspected them of treachery and meant to kill them, and they shot him for self protection. That this story was absolutely false is proven by the fact that immediately after the murder Charlie Ford sent the following telegram to the Governor of Missouri: ‘I have got my man.’ Charlie Ford practically admitted in my presence and hearing that he killed my father for the reward. That conversation was held under the following circumstances: Nearly three years after the murder, when I was nine years old, I was in Kansas City with my grandmother. We were walking up Main street. I had hold of my grandmother’s hand. Suddenly I saw and recognized Charlie Ford coming down the street toward us. I knew him the instant I saw him, and I was very much excited.

I said to my grandmother: ‘Here comes the man who killed my father.’ It was the first time my grandmother had seen him since that day he was at her home with father, ten days before the murder. The sight of him made her weak and she sat down on a box in front of a shoe store. Ford saw her and went to walk past with his head turned the other way, but she called to him: ‘You don’t know me, Charlie?’ He stopped and said: ‘Yes, I know you. You are Mrs. Samuels.’ ‘Yes, and you killed my brave boy; you murdered him for money. I ought to kill you,’ she said to him. He threw up both his hands in front of his face and answered: ‘Mrs. Samuels, don’t say that. If you only knew what I am suffering, you wouldn’t talk to me that way.’ ‘And what have you made me and mine suffer?’ she said. ‘Mrs. Samuels, I have been in the blackest hell of remorse ever since it was done. But I didn’t kill him. It was Bob did it,’ Ford said. ‘Yes, and you knew Bob intended to do it when you brought him to my house.

You ate bread under my roof with blackest murder in your heart, and murder for money, too. There will come a day of terrible reckoning for you.’ I heard Charlie Ford tell my grandmother in that talk that he did not know that Bob intended to kill my father till they got to St. Joseph, and then Bob told him if he did not consent to it, he would kill him along with Jesse. Ford repeated over and over again, that he was suffering the worst agonies of remorse. The perspiration streamed down his face and there were tears in his eyes. He begged my grandmother to forgive him and she said: ‘If God can forgive you, I will.’ My grandmother asked him what he did with the $10,000 he got for murdering my father, and he replied: ‘Mrs. Samuels, before God, we never got but a few hundred dollars of that reward.’ I watched Charlie Ford closely while he was talking. I was only nine years old but I understood it all. I said nothing until he had gone on down the street.

Then I said to my grandmother: ‘If ever I grow to be a man I’m going to kill him.’ My grandmother said to me: ‘You’ll never live long enough my son; God will never let an onery man like that live until then.'” James was buried in the front yard of his parent’s farm in Kearney, where his mother could protect his grave from being desecrated, and marked it with a tombstone that read “Jesse W. James, Died April 3, 1882, Aged 34 years, 6 months, 28 days, Murdered by a traitor and a coward whose name is not worthy to appear here.” Years later, James’ body was moved and buried with his wife in nearby Mount Olivet Cemetery. Several newspapers applauded the Ford brothers for their actions while others criticized them for the manner in which they killed James. According to the book “Son of a Bandit: Jesse James and the Leeds Gang,” The Kansas City Times wrote: “The general sentiment of the inner heart of all manner of men is that nothing in the recorded life of Jesse James equaled the infamy of the manner and mode” in which he had been killed.

Yet other newspapers, such as Rolla New Era, dismissed the uproar about the way he was killed and celebrated his death with a headline that read: “Jesse James, the Notorious Bandit Who Has Disgraced Missouri By His Lawless Acts At Last Dead!” Jesse James post-mortem The public and press also attacked Crittenden for his alleged role in James’ death, spreading rumors that he had offered money to anyone who would kill James. Confederate veteran Major John Newman Edwards, who had written about James in his book “Noted Guerrillas,” accused Crittenden of hiring a “band of cutthroats and highwaymen to murder him [James] for money.” On April 17, 1882, the New York Times reported that the Ford brothers were charged with the murder of Jesse James, plead guilty, were sentenced to be hanged and then pardoned by Crittenden all on the same day. According to records for the Missouri General Assembly, Robert Ford was then indicted for the murder of Wood Hite on May 13, 1882. On October 26, he was tried and acquitted.

The brothers tried to continue on with their lives afterwards but their reputation as murderers combined with life on the run from Jesse’s brother Frank, who was trying to kill them, made life unbearable. Charles Ford committed suicide in 1884. Robert attempted to earn a living off of his notoriety by posing for photos with the gun he used to kill James and starred in a play titled the “Outlaws of Missouri” where he recounted the day of the murder. In 1889, a man attempted to kill Robert Ford at a casino in Kansas City. Ford described the event to the New York Times: “One man made himself particularly obnoxious to me. He referred in an insulting manner to the Jesse James affair, but I took no notice of him, preferring to escape a row if I could. He continued to abuse me all the evening and I continued to take no notice of him. Early this morning. After I had been sitting at the table all night, I felt cramped and uncomfortable and leaned back in my chair.

As I did so I threw my head back, and at that instant my abuser drew a knife from his pocket, held my head back by my hair, and was about to draw the knife across my throat when my friend warded off the blow. The knife cut through the collar my collar and grazed my neck, inflicting a slight wound. I was unarmed, or I would have shot him on the spot. As it was he took to his heels and escaped.” A few years later, Ford opened a tent saloon in Creede, Colorado in June of 1892. On June 8th, a man by the name of Edward O’Kelley, a possible member of a gang Ford had quarreled with, walked into the saloon with a sawed off shotgun, said “Hello Bob” and shot Ford in the chest, killing him instantly. Ford was buried in Colorado but his body was later moved to Richmond City Cemetery in Missouri. His headstone, which accidentally lists his birthday as 1841, reads: “Bob Ford, Dec.

8 1841 – June 8, 1892, The Man Who Shot Jesse James.” Robert Ford’s grave PBS.Org: The Death of Jesse James: New York Times; Bob Ford’s Narrow Escape; December 1889: New York Times; The Ford Brother’s Indicted, Plead Guilty, Sentenced to Be Hanged, And Pardoned All In One Day; April 17 1882: New York Times; Jesse James Murderers; April 18 1882: “Journal of the House of Representatives of the Thirty Second General Assembly of the State of Missouri “; Missouri General Assembly; 1883 “Son of a Bandit: Jesse James and the Leeds Gang”; Ralph A. Monaco; 2012 “The Trial of Frank James for Murder: With The Confessions of Dick Liddil and Clarence Hite”; Frank James, James Andrew Liddil, Clarence B. Hite; 1898 “Frank and Jesse James: The Story Behind the Legend”; Ted P.

Yeatman; 2003 The State Historical Society of Missouri; Famous Missourians; Robert Ford (1860-1892): “Jesse James, My Father, The First and Only True Story of His Adventures Ever Written”; Jesse James Jr; 1906 “Jesse James Was His Name”; William A. Settle Share this: Robert Ford (Character) - Biography biography from Hell's Crossroads (1957) The content of this page was created by users. It has not been screened or verified by IMDb staff. Warning! This character biography may contain plot spoilers. Visit our Character Biography Help to learn more. Character Biography History Discuss Robert "Bob" Ford is a character based upon the real-life criminal who shot and killed the real-life outlaw and folk hero Jesse James. Ford has been portrayed most recently in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford . 7. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007) History The real Robert Ford lived from 1860-1892. Born in Missouri he became part of the tattered band of outlaws led by Jesse James.

Originally composed of Jesse and Frank James and the three Younger brothers (Bob, Cole, and Jim), among others, the James-Younger gang made many successful, vicious bank and train robberies during the period of 1866 - 1876. After the bold and ultimately disastrous Northfield Minnesota raid, wherein the Younger brothers were all wounded and captured, Jesse and Frank James needed more men. They first enlisted Charley Ford, Robert's older brother, to join their ranks. They later allowed Robert Ford, who idolized Jesse James, to come aboard as well. But Charley and Robert had secretly made a bargain with the governor of Missouri, Thomas T. Crittenden, to kill Jesse James and secure the reward money on the criminal's head and their amnesty. On Palm Sunday on April 3rd, 1882 Charley and Robert were at the Jameses house. When Jesse doffed his coat and his gun holsters, something he never did, and climbed on a chair to dust a picture, Robert Ford shot him in the back of the head. Robert Ford found himself both a celebrity and a villain. Vilified as the "dirty little coward who shot Mr.

Howard" in a popular song he received amnesty from the governor but not the public. Ford re-eanacted the murder on the New York stage, with his brother Charley portraying Jesse, for many years. He was eventually shot by another man in Colarado, Ed O'Kelley, largely because the assassin wanted to be known as the man who shot the man who shot Jesse James. Jesse James (1939)In the 1939 film, with Tyrone Power as Jesse James, Robert Ford is played by John Carradine . Robert is a sweating, thin rail of man. He is portrayed as having been in the James gang much earlier than history would dictate, before the Northfield raid. Even before the aborted robbery Robert is seen as planning to kill Jesse, nearly doing so when he finds that the rest of the gang, disgusted at Jesse's increasingly erratic behavoir, have left him. He doesn't however, and does not reappear until the end of the film. Jesse is through with outlawry and planning to move to California with his wife, Zee, when he's visited by Robert and Charley Ford( Charles Tannen ). They claim that Jesse's brother Frank has sent them.

Frank wants him to pull one more job. Jesse turns them down flat but get tempted by the lure of easy money and the chance to go the coast with some liquidity. Jesse goes outside to help his son who is being bullied by the neighbor boys. They're playing Jesse James with the other boys, shooting his son with imaginary guns, and telling him he's dead. The stark tableau changes Jesse's heart. He goes back in to tell Bob that he's not going in for the last job and he sees them outside with his best wishes. He goes to remove a picture from the wall, "God Bless Our Home," when Robert Ford sneaks back into the room. He raises a quavering hand and shoots Jesse in the back, then the chest, killing him. The Return of Frank James (1940)In director Fritz Lang 's film Frank James ( Henry Fonda ) is working a farm and living under the alias of Ben Woodson when he hears that Robert Ford ( John Carradine ) and Charley Ford ( Charles Tannen ), found guilty of the murder of his brother, Jesse, are pardoned by the governor a half-hour later. Frank fishes his gun out of the granary bin to settle the score.

Meanwhile Bob and Charlie find that they're pariahs in town. They enter a saloon, decked out in fine new clothes, and Bob offers to buy drinks but he has no takers. Major Cobb ( Henry Hull ), the editor of the Liberty Weekly Gazette and former friend and defender of Jesse, sees the Fords in the bar. He upbraids them as rats and warns them that, though Frank is rumored to be dead, "Those James boys have a mighty peculiar way of showing up." This unnerves Bob who says to Runyon, the railroad detective who supposedly put the Fords up to the murder, that he's going out west immediately. Frank comes into town and Cobb tells him that the Fords are gone. Frank visits Jesse's grave which says, "Loving Remembrance, Jesse W. James, Died April 3, 1882, Aged 34 years, 6 months, 28 Days. Murdered by a traitor and coward whose name is not worthy to appear here." Frank is detrmined to catch the murderers but realizes he needs money.

He breaks into the local express office, followed by Tom Grayson, ( Jackie Cooper ), the son of one of his old gang members, tagging along behind him. Grayson's gun accidentally goes off alerting the locals to the robbery. The townsfolk begin to fire into the express office, killing a clerk who is lying on the floor. Frank and Tom escape through the roof. Frank and Tom head out west to Colorado. They meet a pretty cub reporter ( Gene Tierney ) and feed her a story about Frank meeting his demise in Mexico. Bob and Charlie Ford come to town, re-enacting the shooting of Jesse James. In the play Frank and Jesse are the villains and attack a pretty farm girl to get the family safebox. Bob and Charlie Ford enter and a shoot-out commences, with Jesse falling to the floor. Frank is watching from an opera box and can stand no more. He rises from his seat just as Bob Ford puts his arm around the pretty farm girl. Bob finally sees Frank and shrinks back in terror. He grabs an oil lamp and throws it into Frank's box. Flames fill the opera box as Bob makes his escape.

Frank leaps from the box in pursuit A cross-country chase ensues with Bob and Charlie just ahead of Frank and Tom. Bob whips his horse mercilessly. Charlie is thrown from his horse, as is Frank. Frank and Charlie shoot at one another until Charlie loses his footing and falls to his death in a canyon below. When Frank hears that an innocent farm-hand, Pinky, has been charged as an accomplice to the express robbery and is going to hang for the death of the clerk, Frank returns to Liberty to exhonerate him and go to trial in his stead. Cobb represents Frank in court and gets acquitted playing mostly on the southern sympathies of the jury. Bob Ford smugly waits at the back of the court for what he presumes will be a guilty verdict. When Frank is freed Bob realizes that the now-free man is coming after him. He runs outside only to exchange gunfire with Tom. Both men are mortally wounded but Bob hides out in a local livery, where Frank finds his brother's killer dead on the floor. The True Story of Jesse James (1957)In director Nicholas Ray's The True Story of Jesse James Robert Ford is a moody dandy who appears near the end of picture.

Robert ( Carl Thayler ) is laconic and shiftless while his brother Charlie ( Frank Gorshin ) says little. As Jesse reaches to remove a picture, "Hard Work Spells Success," from the wall, Robert shoots him in the back. Ford runs down the street boasting that he has shot Jesse James. After Jesse's death and Frank James admits he'll probably turn himself in to the authoritites, a minstrel sings the song that would help solidify Robert Ford's place in the pantheon of great traitors as "the dirty little coward, who shot Mr. Howard, that laid poor Jesse in his grave." The Long Riders (1980)In director Walter Hill 's The Long Riders Charlie Ford ( Christopher Guest ) and his little brother Bob ( Nicholas Guest ) are unshaven bumpkins who try to impress Jesse James ( James Keach ), Frank ( Stacy Keach ), and Cole Younger ( David Carradine ) at Jesse's wedding reception. After Charlie and Bob lie, poorly, about their exploits, they are dismissed by the gang. Later, we see Jesse, Zee, and the Fords at a peaceful Sunday dinner in James's house.

The Fords bring up another job, the Platte City bank, but Jesse tells them not to talk about business at the table. Bob and Charley see Jesse's guns still in the holsters that hang on the coat-rack and begin to work up their nerve. Jesse absent-mindedly notices a plaque that reads "God Bless Our Home" that is crooked on the wall. As he straightens it Bob shoots him in the back. Frank & Jesse (1994) Allan Pinkerton ( William Atherton ) plays a much more active role in Frank & Jesse . On-board a train that Jesse ( Rob Lowe ) and Frank James ( Bill Paxton ) rob Pinkerton, having confronted the entire gang shoots the last man departing the train, Charlie Ford ( Alexis Arquette ), and captures him. After years of unsuccessful attempts to aprehend Jesse Pinkerton releases Charlie Ford from prison and he rejoins the gang. Jesse wants to have a big score and proposes they hit the bank in Northfield, Minnesota. Because Charlie has alerted Pinkerton about their plans the raid is a disaster. The Youngers are shot numerous times, with Jim Younger dying in town. Cole, Bob, Jesse and Frank escape but Bob is mortally wounded.

Frank announces he's done and he's moving to Texas to start a new life. Jesse admits he can't stop in his outlaw ways. Pinkerton is pleased with the results of Northfield, which he credits to the advance information from Charlie Ford. But he also gives Charlie an ultimatum: Bring Jesse and Frank in and they get amnesty and the reward money. Fail to do so and they swing from the gallows. It's 1882 and Charlie and his quiet brother, Robert ( Jim Flowers ), visit Jesse at suppertime. They tell Jesse they've seen Frank in Alabama. Jesse, knowing where Frank lives, calls them liars, throws his steak knife into Charlie's chest and hits Bob with a candelabra. The commotion causes Zee, who is upstairs with their son, to call down to Jesse to ask what is the matter. Jesse, his traitorous visitors bested quickly runs up the flight to see his wife tucking his son into bed. He goes back down and asks the Fords who sent them. When they tell him that Pinkerton sent them, to get he and Frank, but that Pinkerton would probably stop if he only got Jesse, Jesse has an idea.

With tears in his eyes he lays his gun in front of Bob Ford and goes to straighten a "God Bless Our Home" picture on the wall. Bob picks up the gun but goes to leave. Charlie stops him and goads him. In almost a Messianic manner Jesse waits for his execution. Bob Ford reluctantly shoots him in the back four times. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007) In The Asssassination Jesse James ( Brad Pitt ) is a world-weary man at the end of a long career. He is both smitten by his celebrity and desperately trying to shake himself loose from it. The film starts on Sept. 5, 1881, just prior to the Blue Cut Train Robbery, the James gang's last train heist. The Younger brothers are all in jail so they have to make do with inexperienced locals who are used to smaller, meaner work and who yearn to have an association with a real life celebrity. One of these locals is 19-year-old Robert, or Bob ( Casey Affleck ), a shrinking, mumbling toady who has grown up reading the Jesse James mythology. Indeed he even has a box full of dime novels about Jesse.

Robert, the brother of a standing member Charley Ford ( Sam Rockwell ), is a stark example of how far the fortunes of the gang have fallen. Frank James ( Sam Shepard ), is unnerved by the new recruits to the gang, and tells Robert he doesn't have the ingredients to be an outlaw. In an act of prescience Frank quits Jesse and outlawry and disappears back East. In the aftermath of the robbery the remaining members of the James gang hold out in a remote cabin in the Ozarks. Jesse gets increasingly moody and paranoid. He visits former associates and proves himself to be descending into a kind of psychopathic, even suicidal spiral. Jesse tries to return to his domestic life with his wife, Zee (( Mary-Louise Parker ), and their children, but he keeps reminders of his infamous past hanging around like mementos, including Robert. He both needs and needles Bob, asking him the pointed question, "You want to be like me, or you want to be me?" Jesse seems to be inviting Bob to dispatch him, allowing him to get close, tolerating his irritating sycophantic ways and presenting him with new firearms.

Robert, meanwhile, is tired of his rough treatment by his former idol and greedily eyeing the reward money posted for the capture of Jesse. He even demands an audience with Governor Chittenden ( James Carvill ) and, in an audacious move for a public official, the governor assents to be a party of the assassination by agreeing to give Robert clemency and the reward money to kill James. Robert shoots Jesse, out of fear, out of greed, out of rejection, and expects to be branded a hero. He is, perversely, branded the coward of the title. He remains in the shadow of Jesse James, reenacting his role as Jesse's Judas for a Wild West show in New York (with Charley playing the role of Jesse). Robert is doomed to relive his act until he is shot to death by the same kind of fame-seeking nobody as him. Page last updated by keithsim , 9 years ago Robert Ford: The Man Who Shot Jesse James a Coward or Opportunist? - Guns.com Guns.com Tweet It’s a hard thing killing a man, but what about killing a famous man who is idolized even for his misdeeds?

That was the fate that awaited Bob Ford after his dispatching of Jesse James. The name Jesse James is synonymous with the term outlaw, considered an American Robin Hood who robbed banks, stagecoaches and really anything else he could think of, in reality Jesse gave the money only to himself and his gang. Jesse’s gang had several ups and downs, but the worst was when it was nearly wiped out after a failed robbery in Northfield, Minnesota. Even Jesse’s brother Frank decided to give up his life of crime and settled in Virginia. Jesse was left to try and find some new compatriots to renew his life of crime. Enter Charles and Robert Ford. Charles Ford supposedly took part in the very last train robbery staged by Jesse and his gang at the Blue Cut in Missouri. Robert really took no part in that robbery, or any other crime for that matter, his job was to be Jesse’s errand boy and horse holder. His menial tasks were a tough pill to swallow for someone who idolized Jesse James and who ended up basically playing second fiddle. Jesse was thinking about giving up his life of crime and settling down, but the Governor of Missouri posted a $10,000 reward for the capture of the famous outlaw.

Events that would set Jesse’s fate in motion started when in January of 1882 Robert “Wood” Hite , who was Jesse’s first cousin and another gang member Dick Lidell took up residence in Bob Ford’s sisters home. A widower, Lidell and Hite soon began to argue over the affections of Ford’s sister. Guns were soon drawn and shots exchanged with Lidell being struck in the leg and Hite in the arm. Bob Ford got involved and shot “Wood” Hite in the head, killing him. Hite’s body was taken out in the woods and buried. Bob Ford had just killed the cousin of the man he idolized, what would Jesse do when he found out? Bob Ford, now in fear for his life over the killing of “Wood” Hite in addition to the huge reward, decided to kill Jesse James. On April 3, 1882 after having breakfast with Charles and Robert Ford, Jesse noticed a needlepoint picture on the wall that was hanging askew. Jesse stood up on a chair when a shot from Robert Ford’s revolver rang out and struck Jesse under the right ear; he was dead before he hit the floor.

No attempt was made to cover up the shooting and Robert was pardoned for the death of “Wood” Hite and Jesse James, but only saw a very small part of the reward money. Both he and his brother were hated for killing Jesse James, a scourge on their reputations that would plague both men until the end of their days. The Ford brothers took their fame on the road, reenacting the shooting of Jesse James, but neither was warmly received. Both were heckled mercilessly on stage at every performance. Charles suffered from tuberculosis and a morphine addiction, not to mention the rumor that Frank James was coming to hunt the Ford brothers down. On May 6, 1884 Charles Ford shot himself. Ironically Frank had no intentions of pursuing his brother’s killers. Robert Ford had no intention of going out as quietly, he drifted on to Las Vegas, New Mexico and then on to Creede, Colorado where he opened a dance hall which burned to the ground six days later along with the rest of Creede’s business district. A few days later Robert Ford opened up a bar in a makeshift tent.

On June 8, 1892 while Robert Ford was in his canvas saloon a man named Edward O’Kelley walked in with a sawed off side by side shotgun. Ford had his back turned and heard “Hello Bob.” O’Kelley gave Ford the chance that was never afforded Jesse James, he allowed Ford to turn around. O’Kelley emptied both barrels into Robert Ford, killing him instantly. There was always speculation over why O’Kelley killed Robert Ford, some say for Jesse’s death, some because O’Kelley was just bad tempered and there’s even a theory that notorious Colorado conman, Soapy Smith , planted the seed in O’Kelley’s head that killing Ford would afford him a certain amount of celebrity. No one will ever know for sure. Edward O’Kelley was tried and convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison. He was later pardoned after ten years, but could not stay out of trouble and was shot and killed by a police officer in Oklahoma City in 1904. Robert Ford to this day is looked upon as the coward who killed Jesse James, but was he really any different than so many others trying to survive in the murky morality of the old west?

John Wesley Hardin was shot from behind and there have been many who have questioned how Pat Garrett killed Billy the Kid . Was Robert Ford so much different, or was it because he killed someone who despite his crimes was beloved especially on his own turf? One thing for sure is that the death of Jesse James hung around the neck of Robert Ford until his unfortunate run in with a double load of buckshot in Creede, Colorado. 7 Things You May Not Know About Jesse James - History Lists History Lists December 8, 2014 By Elizabeth Nix Share this: 7 Things You May Not Know About Jesse James Author 7 Things You May Not Know About Jesse James URL Google On December 7, 1869, 22-year-old Jesse James robbed the Daviess County Savings Association bank in Gallatin, Missouri, and killed the cashier. The crime, while far from James’ first act of violence, led him to be labeled an outlaw for the first time in newspapers and prompted the state’s governor to offer rewards for the capture of James and his older brother, Frank, who was believed to have taken part in the holdup.

Over the next dozen years, until his death in 1882, Jesse James would become one of America’s most famous bandits, sticking up banks, stage coaches and trains. Check out seven fascinating facts about the legendary lawbreaker. Jesse James was a preacher’s son Frank and Jesse James' mother, Zerelda (Credit: The Print Collector/Getty Images) Born in Clay County, Missouri, on September 5, 1847, Jesse Woodson James was the son of Kentucky native Zerelda Cole James and her husband, Robert James, a Baptist minister and slave-owning hemp farmer who assisted in founding William Jewell College in Liberty, Missouri. In 1850, Robert James traveled to California to preach in the gold mining camps; however, not long after arriving he became sick and died. Zerelda and her children—Jesse, his brother and future partner-in-crime, Frank, and younger sister, Susan—were plunged into perilous financial straits. In 1852, Zerelda married a wealthy, older man and moved in with him, but he disliked the James children so they were made to live with another family.

Zerelda soon left the marriage and returned to her first husband’s farm with her children. When she wed for a third time, in 1855, her husband, with whom she would have four more children, moved onto the farm. After Frank and Jesse grew up to become outlaws, Zerelda, who was known as iron-willed, remained their staunch supporter. He was a Confederate guerilla in the U.S. Civil War. Jesse and Frank James, c. 1872 During the Civil War, Missouri, a border state, was home to guerilla fighting initiated by forces on both sides of the conflict. Frank James fought with the pro-secession Missouri State Guard at the start of the war then joined a band of Confederate guerillas, also known as bushwhackers, who carried out attacks against Union sympathizers in the region. In May 1863, while at his family’s farm, a teenage Jesse was ambushed and his stepfather hung from a tree (he survived) by Union militiamen seeking the whereabouts of Frank and his fellow insurgents.

That August, Frank took part in a raid spearheaded by guerilla leader William Quantrill on the abolitionist town of Lawrence, Kansas, during which some 200 men and boys were killed and numerous buildings were destroyed. By age 16, Jesse followed in Frank’s footsteps and became a marauding bushwhacker. He and his brother joined a gang led by William “Bloody Bill” Anderson and participated in a number of violent incidents, including a September 1864 raid on Centralia, Missouri. In that raid, at least 20 unarmed Union soldiers were forced from a train and executed by the guerillas, who then slaughtered more than 100 federal troops trying to hunt them down. The guerillas viciously mutilated many of their victims’ corpses. In May 1865, a month after Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s surrender at Appomattox Court House, Jesse was shot in the chest during a skirmish with Union troops near Lexington, Missouri.

After being nursed back to health by his cousin Zerelda “Zee” Mimms (whom he would wed in 1874 and later have two children), Jesse eventually banded with his brother and other former Confederate guerillas to rob banks, stagecoaches and trains. James wasn’t a Wild West Robin Hood. During the 1869 bank robbery in Gallatin, the incident that first brought Jesse public notice as an outlaw, he shot and killed the bank’s cashier in an act of revenge, thinking the man was Samuel Cox, commander of the pro-Union militia troops who had murdered guerilla leader Bloody Bill Anderson in October 1864. (In fact, the slain cashier turned out not to be Cox.) After the deadly heist, an influential pro-Confederate newspaper editor in Missouri, John Newman Edwards, befriended Jesse and went on to promote the former bushwhacker as a hero and defiant Southern patriot of the Reconstruction era. James himself wrote letters to newspapers in which he defended his actions.

Through his articles and editorials, Edwards was responsible for helping to create the image of Jesse James as a Robin Hood figure who robbed the rich to give to the poor, an image that historians say is a myth. James and his cohorts eluded the Pinkertons. Allen Pinkerton (left) with President Abraham Lincoln and a Union general during the Civil War After Jesse and Frank robbed a train at Gads Hill, Missouri, in January 1874, the Pinkerton’s National Detective Agency was called in to hunt them down. Founded in Chicago in 1850 by Allan Pinkerton, a Scottish immigrant who had served as the first full-time detective on the Windy City’s police force, the private agency was experienced in capturing train robbers. In March 1874, after the agency took on the case of the James gang, a Pinkerton detective searching for Jesse and Frank in Missouri wound up dead, while a Pinkerton agent who pursued the brothers’ fellow gang members Cole and Robert Younger in another part of the state also was killed.

Catching the James brothers became a personal mission for Allan Pinkerton, an abolitionist who had aided slaves on the Underground Railroad, uncovered a plot to assassinate President-elect Abraham Lincoln and gathered military intelligence for the federal government during the Civil War. Shortly after midnight on January 25, 1875, a group of Pinkerton agents, acting on a tip that Jesse and Frank were at their mother’s farm (in fact, they were no longer there) carried out a raid on the place. The agents threw an incendiary device into the farmhouse, setting off an explosion that fatally wounded Jesse and Frank’s 8-year-old half-brother and caused their mother, Zerelda, to lose part of her arm. Following the raid, public support for Jesse and Frank increased, and the Missouri state legislature even came close to passing a bill offering the men amnesty. The James brothers also launched an intimidation campaign against their perceived enemies near Zerelda’s farm and in April of that year one of their mother’s neighbors, a former Union militiaman who had assisted the Pinkerton agents in preparing for the raid, was shot to death. Allan Pinkerton never pursued his hunt for Jesse and Frank any further.

His gang was defeated trying to rob a Minnesota bank. On the afternoon of September 7, 1876, Jesse and Frank James, along with Cole, Jim and Robert Younger and three other associates, tried to rob the First National Bank of Northfield, Minnesota. The gang targeted the bank after learning that Adelbert Ames, a former Union general and Republican governor of Reconstruction-era Mississippi, had recently moved to Northfield. Ames, along with his father-in-law Benjamin Butler, also a former Union general and Radical Republican politician, was rumored to have deposited $75,000 in the bank. During the attempted robbery, three members of the gang went inside and demanded the cashier open the safe, but he refused. Meanwhile, after townspeople outside got wind that a holdup was taking place, they engaged in a shootout with the gang members who’d been stationed on the street. In the end, the bank cashier was killed by the outlaws as was a passerby, while two bandits were shot to death by townsfolk before the rest of the gang fled. Two weeks later, following a gunfight near Madelia, Minnesota, the Younger brothers were captured and another gang member was killed.

(Afterward, the Youngers were sentenced to life in prison; Robert Younger died behind bars in 1889, while his siblings were paroled in 1901.) The James brothers, who had split off from the Youngers before the Madelia gunfight and were the only gang members not caught or killed following the failed robbery, laid low for the next few years, living in Tennessee under assumed names. However, in 1879, Jesse recruited a new set of criminal associates and embarked on a fresh crime spree. James was murdered at 34. Robert Ford (Credit: The Print Collector/Getty Images) Rather than dying in a hail of gunfire while robbing a bank or train, the legendary Jesse James was brought down while dusting a picture on the wall of his rented home in St. Joseph, Missouri, on April 3, 1882. His wife and two children were in another room at the time. James’ assassin, who shot him in the back of the head, was Bob Ford, a new recruit into his gang. Also in on the shooting was Bob’s older brother Charley, a James gang member.

Earlier that year, Bob Ford had arranged with the governor of Missouri to take down Jesse in exchange for a reward. After the Fords announced to authorities they’d killed the infamous outlaw, they were convicted of murder and sentenced to hang; however, the governor quickly pardoned them. The public was transfixed by James’ murder and the Fords soon began reenacting the event in a traveling show. Charley Ford committed suicide in 1884 while Bob Ford was shot to death in 1894 in a Creede, Colorado, saloon. His remains were exhumed. James' family farm in Clay County, Missouri Following James’ passing, there was lingering speculation he’d faked his own death and someone else was buried in his grave. Over the years, several different men claimed to be Jesse James. In 1995, scientists seeking to resolve the question of who was buried in James’ grave exhumed his supposed remains from Mt. Olivet Cemetery in Kearney, Missouri; the remains had been transferred there in 1902 from the original burial site on the James family farm.

After conducting DNA testing, the researchers concluded the exhumed remains were almost certainly those of the 19th century outlaw. Tags On This Day: Jesse James Killed by Robert Ford On This Day: Jesse James Killed by Robert Ford April 03, 2011 06:00 AM by findingDulcinea Staff On April 3, 1882, notorious outlaw Jesse James was shot in the back by Robert Ford, who had been offered $10,000 by the governor of Missouri for James’ capture. Jesse James Assassinated In the decades following the Civil War, Confederate veteran Jesse James became the West’s most notorious outlaw as he robbed banks, stagecoaches and trains with his brother Frank and the James-Younger gang. The gang’s reign of terror came to an end in 1876 , when a botched bank robbery in Northfield, Minn., left all members except for the Jesse and Frank James dead or in prison. The James brothers fled to Tennessee, where Frank settled down with his family; Jesse, on the other hand, craved the notoriety that came with being an outlaw.

In 1879, he returned to Missouri and formed a new gang , which pulled off robberies in and around the state. James faced two key problems, though: the public had become less tolerant of outlaws and his new gang members were not as competent or as loyal to him as the James-Younger members had been. Following an 1881 robbery in which the James gang killed a conductor, Missouri Gov. Thomas Crittenden, who made a campaign promise to stop James, raised money from railroad executives and put out a $10,000 reward for his capture . On Jan. 12, 1882, Crittenden reached out to Bob Ford, the brother of James gang member Charlie Ford, and offered him a reward and pardon for capturing James. Ford accepted the deal, which, contrary to popular belief, did not call for James to be captured “dead or alive.” On April 3, 1882, Bob and Charlie Ford had breakfast with James at a house in St. Joseph, Mo. As James removed his holster and turned to dust off some pictures on the wall, the Ford brothers drew their guns.

“Hearing the click of a weapon being cocked, [James] started to turn his head, and then the report of Bob’s six-shooter reverberated through the house,” writes Ted P. Yeatman in Wild West magazine. “Charlie didn’t even bother to fire but lowered his gun as the man fell to the floor, with a bullet in his skull.” In a letter to Crittenden, Robert Ford contends that James knew Ford was going to betray him . James removed his holster, Ford believed, to give the impression that everything was normal. Ford wrote: “As he stood there, unarmed, with his back to me, it came to me suddenly, ‘Now or never is your chance. If you don’t get him now he’ll get you tonight.’ Without further thought or a moment’s delay I pulled my revolver and leveled it as I sat. He heard the hammer click as I cocked it with my thumb and started to turn as I pulled the trigger.

The ball struck him just behind the ear and he fell like a log, dead.” PubMed (Journal of Forensic Sciences): Mitochondrial DNA analysis of the presumptive remains of Jesse James The outlaw’s murder created a national sensation, and rumors circulated that James had switched his clothing with a dead man’s and fled. James had evaded capture for years before the shooting, and there had been earlier false reports of his death . In the 1940s, J. Frank Dalton, a Texas man thought to be over 100 years old, claimed to be the real Jesse James . Though he was very knowledgeable about James’ life, he did not know several important details that the real James would certainly know. It is possible that Dalton may have been part of James’ posse at one point. In 1995, the body believed to be James’ was exhumed and tested by forensic scientists, who found that the corpse’s DNA matched the DNA of two of James’ descendants . Though it is impossible to prove conclusively (the body could be an unrelated man with identical mtDNA sequences), it is almost certain that the body is indeed James.

Jesse James shot in the back - Apr 03, 1882 - HISTORY.com Jesse James shot in the back Share this: Jesse James shot in the back Author Jesse James shot in the back URL Publisher A+E Networks Jesse James, one of America’s most notorious outlaws, is shot to death by Robert Ford, a member of his gang who hoped to collect the bounty on Jesse’s head. Jesse James, born in Clay County, Missouri, in 1847, joined a Confederate guerrilla band led by William Quantrill at the age of 15. Quantrill’s guerrillas, which included several future members of the James Gang, terrorized Kansas and Missouri during the Civil War and in August 1863 massacred civilians during a brutal raid on Lawrence, Kansas, an abolitionist town. After the war’s end in 1865, Jesse, his brother Frank, and brothers Cole, James, and Robert Younger decided to team up and use their military raiding skills for armed robbery. In February 1866, 18-year-old Jesse planned their first target: a bank in Liberty, Missouri.

On February 13, Frank James led a group of about a dozen men, including Cole Younger and other former Confederate guerrillas, in the first recorded daylight bank robbery in the United States. They left the bank with $60,000 in gold and silver coins, paper money, and government securities. Jesse did not participate in the actual robbery, but he later became the leader of the James Gang, which was eventually reduced to the core unit of James, his brother, and the three Younger brothers. During the next 16 years, the James Gang became America’s most notorious outlaws, robbing banks, trains, stagecoaches, stores, and individuals of a total of about $300,000. The beginning of their downfall came in 1876, when, after killing two people and failing to secure any money in an attempted bank robbery at Northfield, Minnesota, the Younger brothers and several other key members of their gang were captured. The James brothers escaped and did not rob another train until 1880, the same year that Missouri Governor Thomas Crittenden offered a reward for the capture of the James brothers, dead or alive.

James Gang member Robert Ford chose the former, and on April 3, 1882, he shot Jesse James dead. Frank James subsequently surrendered and in trials was twice acquitted, eventually dying of old age on his farm near Excelsior Springs, Missouri. Related Videos Robert Ford Robert Ford Location of death: Creede, CO Cause of death: Murder Remains: Buried, Richmond City Cemetery, Richmond, MO Gender: Male Nationality: United States Executive summary: Shot and killed Jesse James As a young man, Robert Ford idolized the often exaggerated and romanticized outlaw Jesse James , and Ford eventually met and befriended James, even earning an invitation to join the James Gang. Beginning in 1879, Ford and his brother Charlie participated at least two train robberies with the James Gang, including one in which two of the victims were killed. More often, though, the gang rode without Ford, leaving him to tend their spare horses. When Missouri Governor Thomas Crittenden posted a $10,000 bounty on James, dead or alive, the Ford brothers decided that their loyalties were to the money, not the gang.

On 3 April 1882, Charlie and Robert Ford had breakfast with James in his house and, when James turned his back, Robert Ford shot him in the head. Instead of being paid the bounty, however, the brothers were charged with first degree murder, found guilty, and sentenced to hang before being pardoned by the Governor. Ford spent the rest of his life dogged by his own reputation for cowardice, and hounded by constant rumors that friends of James would have vengeance. The rumors are probably what drove Charlie Ford to suicide. Robert Ford went on to own a saloon in Creede, Colorado -- where he was himself shot in the back by one Ed O'Kelley. Ford's killer, who gained some fame as "the man who shot the man who shot Jesse James", spent eight years in prison for his crime, and soon after his release he was shot dead in Oklahoma City. Father: James Thomas Ford SEE IT: Photo of Jesse James with man who killed him - NY Daily News SEE IT: Photo of Jesse James with man who betrayed and killed him authenticated SEE IT: Photo of Jesse James with man who killed him Robert Ford and Jesse James in tintype taken sometime before James' death in 1882.

Ford betrayed and shot James, and was later shot dead himself. (Courtesy Sandy Mills) Jesse James' wedding portrait taken before his marriage in 1874. (ASSOCIATED PRESS) NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Friday, October 2, 2015, 3:33 PM A distant relative of Jesse James owns a rare photo of the notorious outlaw — who is pictured with the man who would betray and murder him. Sandy Mills has been in possession of the 19th century photo of James and Robert Ford since 2003, but recently had the tintype authenticated by top forensic artist Lois Gibson. Mills, a resident of Washington state, was given the photo of the legendary Missouri outlaw by her grandmother a few years before her death. It was her grandmother's wish that Mills sell the photo to provide a better future for herself and her family. "It's been a wonderful family heirloom," Mills told the Daily News on Friday. "Why have it wrapped up in a hanky?" Gibson told The News that having other photos of James to compare this one to was crucial in getting it validated. She also credited Mills and her family for keeping the 130-year-old picture in tip-top shape.

"One thing that can go wrong is it can be severely damaged," Gibson said. "However, this photo is completely pristine. This Jesse James one has been cared for, very well." Mills had not had much luck in her attempts to sell the photo over the years, but is hoping that Gibson's affirmation can change that. "The World's Most Successful Forensic Artist," according to Guinness, issued her report about the tintype earlier this week. Gibson had previously authenticated a photo of a young Billy the Kid . "Not only is she the best at what she does, she actually cares about people," Mills said of Gibson. "She's a really cool lady." Ford's betrayal occurred in 1882 when he fatally shot the 34-year-old James to collect a reward. Ford was later gunned down at the age of 30.

Question: Whom did Robert Ford shoot dead in 1882?
Answer: Jesse James