Jesse James Was One of His Names

[clientproj]

Supposedly, one of Jesse's aliases was W.J. Moffat who owned a rack track on Long Island, I suspect that is Long Island, New York. Additionally, he possibly married a german woman from Brentwood, Long Island, New York. I have contacted a few race horse museums in New York and they have never heared of W.J. Moffat. Does anyone have any information on this subject?

 

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[Gypsy Heart]

I dont think so. I have quite a bit of history on Jesse James and dont think he was Moffat.
His brother,Alexander Franklin James, worked at a race track in Missouri for awhile. What years are you looking at
There were lots of people after Jesse's death in 1882 ,who swore they were Jesse James....

 

[elkman13]

OPB (Oregon Public Brodcasting) just had a good story about James and his different gangs. The Governor paid 10K to have him shot or captured. Then pardoned the outlaw that did it.

 

[Gypsy Heart]

OPB (Oregon Public Brodcasting) just had a good story about James and his different gangs. The Governor paid 10K to have him shot or captured. Then pardoned the outlaw that did it.

Correct ...it was his no good cowardly friend Bob Ford, the fame seeking lily livered coward who shot him in the back with Jesse's wife and children present.

James' epitaph, selected by his mother, read: IN LOVING MEMORY OF MY BELOVED SON, MURDERED BY A TRAITOR AND COWARD WHOSE NAME IS NOT WORTHY TO APPEAR HERE.
The Ford brothers attempted to collect the reward. Instead, they were charged with murder. They were sentenced to hang, but were pardoned by Governor Tom Crittenden.
Two years later Charles Ford committed suicide and Bob Ford, the "dirty little coward who shot Mr. Howard, and laid poor Jesse in his grave," was himself killed in a bar room brawl in Creede, Colorado, in 1892.

 

[clientproj]

Well, gpysy, I guess their is much confusion on my part. If you believe the book written by Del Schrader with Jesse James III, Jesse's death was a ruse. He lived well into his 80's and died sometime I believe in 1951. Additionally, it says he was a 33rd degree mason, a member of the Knights of Pythias, Old Fellows, Elks and the Knights of the Golden Circle (KGC).

 

[Gypsy Heart]

Here is where we will disagree. Thousands of articles and books have been written ,on the life of Jesse James...some fact ,some fantasy. So each of us? just has to? believe what we want based on our own research .

I personally believe that Jesse James would never leave his wife,children,mother and family.
And just out of curiousity, who do you think was? shot that day by Bob Ford? Bigelow?? From all known photos, it certainly resembles Jesse.And what , that wasnt Jesses wife either that resembled her either.

Plus the that Jesse's own child went on to write a book later in life. But no one mentions that one, because its based on facts.

Yes I did read the Del Schrader book....and had a good long laugh. Did you notice when reading it , that Mr Schrader disputed a large amount of historical facts, without providing any proof to back up any of his theories...

Mr Schrader states that Jesse James took the name Dalton, his mothers maiden name.....which it was not, it was Cole.They had cousins by the name of Dalton. Frank Dalton who went on to say he was jesse for many years made many many false claims and was known to be a fantastic liar.For instance, when asked if Jesse?s mother Zerelda Cole married Reverend Robert James in Kentucky, Dalton replied that his mother was from Dalton, Georgia, and her maiden name was Mollie Dalton and his father was Major George S. James

I think Schrader took alot of his theories about Jesse from a book written by Henry J Walker. In 1949, Walker met with J. Frank Dalton in Meramec Caverns, Missouri, and conducted a series of interviews, later writing a book in 1961, which he titled Jesse James "The Outlaw. This too was also filled with alot of unproven guesses. He even got the color of Jesse's eyes wrong.

Anyway...this could go on forever. As I stated above, we each have to learn by our own research and fact sorting.
Best of luck on your search.

 

[alec]

One thing you need to keep in mind when referencing Schrader's book is that he got a lot (most) of his information from "Jesse Lee James III". The funny thing is there wasn't any Jesse Lee James I or II. This individual was actually named Orvus Lee Howk and he legally changed his name later to Jesse Lee James III to get publicity and to sell alleged information about the KGC and treasure to people and scam them out of money. The information Howk supplied to Schrader and others was mostly BS. He may have believed some of it himself because he spent a lot of time with J. Frank Dalton because he thought his was JJ and he was trying to con him out of information about treasures. J. Frank Dalton was conning Howk to get him to run him all over the country so he could tell everybody he was JJ. They made a great pair.

It's my understanding that at one time while writing the book Schrader tried to stop becuase he was running into information he himself didn't believe and didn't want to put in the book however because of a contract he had, he had to finish the book with Howk.

Both Howk and Dalton died very poor so it's very unlikely either had any real information concerning buried or hidden treasures. As you are finding out, the internet makes it a lot easier to research the information in the Schrader book and draw your own conclusions. Most people who are not blinded by the thought of huge treasures will see the discrepancies in the book and take it for what it's worth.