JESSE JAMES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 95, 24 April 1939, Page 5

JESSE JAMES.

DEATH OF OUTLAW. "INSIDE STORY" TOLD. PIAN FOR CAPTURE FAILEDThe "Inside etory' , of the Plans to «apTSre iTesse and ?™nk James how th i ninim were upset by the killing 01 ftSieto revealed here for the first time by a' life-long resident of Claj'County. SSL*?, iff *?XS t^T"£ C ? 4 John W. Shouse, flfty-slx years ago, and kept secret throughout those years. I I By THOMAS RILEY SHOUSE. KANSAS CITY, March 20. At five o'clock on Thursday afternoon, October 5 1882, there walked into the S£S Governo'r Thomas T. <™tenden, «t Jefferson City, a man about 38 yeare Jw a little bald and with three bullet wounds in hie mouth, which was partly hTdenby a moustache. H^, was rather •nft-sDoken, cool and calm, end yet per haps the quickest and deadlieet man in the Btate in a personal encounter. He paused at the door of the office irlancine at every man there, before mS toward the governor's desk. When only a few feet from the gover*S, and addressed him as f °"Govemor, I am Frank James-1. surrender my arme to you. I amoved the loads from them. , They have not been out of my possession since 1864 I now zive them to you 1 deliver myself to you and the law. With that, the visitor, who was accompanied to the governor s office Majo/John N. Edwards, unbuckled h» belt containing a Remington 44 and 42 cartridges, and handed it to Governo Crittenden. This was th« surrender ol the last man of the James gang Jem James having been killed April 3, 1882 "'Fif'ty-Tix 1 ' years hare passed sinct Frank Jamee surrendered and Jessi James was killed. It is now becoming difficult to keep fiction from becoming facts. When fiction and facts are mixed, then you have a legend.

A 56-Year Old Secret. Fifty-six years ie a long time to keep a secret, a secret kept in my own family all these years, and I doubt if there is anyone alive to-day outside my father s family who knew that my father conceived the plan that finally resulted in breaking up the Jamee gang. I Before father died, he drew up a Kief written record to.be released by me when, in my judgment, it was proper, in the interest of the safety of our family and the cause of history, that it be made public. Mv father, John W. Shouse, was horn September 12, 1825, in Franklin County, Kentucky, and came to Missouri in 18i7 with his father.

Hβ lived on a farm a little over a mile east of the home of the .Tames boys. The. James family came from Logan County, Kentucky, in the early 1840's. Frank was born January 1«f 1843, and Jesse September 5, 1847, three miles north-east of Kearney, Mo., on their mother's farm. When Jesse was about three years old his father, the Kev. Robert James, a Baptist minister, left for California at the time of the I great gold rush, and died there soon I after hie arrival.

Jesse attended the district school an< worked on the farm until he was l< years old. Frank enlisted in the South em army at the beginning of the Civi War When the Federal soldiers canw searching for Frank, they took Jesse mt and whipped him, in order to fore* dm to tell where Frank wae. This was n 1863. A year later, in the summei »f 1864, Jesse "took to the brush, u )ther words, joined the bushwhackers. A few years before the death of mj rather, September 7, 1919, he told m< ;he details of the plan he had conceivec ;o capture Jeese James alive. ather and all other neighbours ol th< Tames boys felt a deep sense of grati iude to them and all other guenllai ind bushwhackers in local relation t< ;he Civil War, for it wae this band oi nen that arose to defend the peopl< >f Clay and Jackson counties from th< tyranny and oppression of the unbridlec 'red-legs" from Kaneas, who mad< Tequent raids on Missouri border coun ties for the purpose of murder an< jlunder. However, the continuously outrageous conduct of the guerillas in he 1870'e had changed public sentiment miong many of their most loyal friends ind former supporters. It was thie ihanged attitude that finally led my.

father to evolve a plan to capture Jesse James.

During the time the band was active they had robbed fourteen banks, seven railroad trains, one fair ground treasury, and many stage coaches. For some unknown reason, Jesse had decided to kill Jim Cummings, one of his' neighbours and liis associate. In the fall of 1881,« Jeese and Dick Liddle gave Cumminge a hot chase from some point in Arkansas, up through Missouri, to William Ford's farm. William Ford was a brother-in-law of Jim Cummings. William Ford was not at home when Jesse and Dick Liddle arrived at his place, so they took Samuel (the 15-year-old son of William) out and tortured him until near death, trying to force him to tell where hie uncle, Jim Cummings, might be found. Cumminge had left a short time before they arrived. This was a fatal mistake by Jesse, for it made an enemy of the Fords and laid the foundation for breaking up the James band.

Father Sees a Way. My father learned of this act of Jesse James,' and saw an opening for the execution of hie plan. He arranged with William Wysong, who was a near neighbour of William Ford, to see Ford, nd, if possible, interest him in the plan. Vyeorig reported in a few days that oth Bill Ford and Bob Ford, a nephew f Bill's, were willing to co-operate. ifter this agreement, it was nearly a lonth before they could locate Jesse ames. It was a strange break of fate hat caused Jesse to reveal his hiding lace. Charles Ftfrd, a brother of Bob's, had een living with Jesse James in St. oseph since November 3, but no ne of my father's plotters knew it. eese and Charley Ford were planning o rob a bank at Platte City and needed elp, as all the rest of the gang were ither dead or in prison, except Frank ames, who was etill in hiding. Jesse aeked Charley whom they light get to help do the job. Charley eplied that he thought Bob might be idueed to help, if they could see him. txrived at Bill Ford's in the night, they ailed Bob out, and stated their bueiees. Bob agreed to go with them. It was more than a week before the pportunity came, and it was when eese James threw his gune on the bed, nd got up on a chair to arrange a rfcture on the wall, that the fatal ehot van fired. i