History has remembered Jesse James as one of the most famous outlaws of the Wild West. A former Confederate guerrilla who robbed banks, stagecoaches, and trains and died at the hands of a murderer. His son Jesse E. James Jr. had a less glamorous life. Jesse Jr. tried to live down his father's violent legacy by becoming a businessman and attorney before becoming a caretaker of his father's story.
By Allan R. Ellenberger
James Edwards James Jr. was born on August 31, 1875, in Nashville, Tennessee. His parents were Jesse Woodson James and his wife Zerelda Mimms. Jesse Sr. was considered one of the most notorious fugitives in America when his youngest son was born. The family had been forced to live under an alias and Jesse Jr. grew up knowing only the names of "Tim Edwards" or "Tim Howard." Howard was the alias Jesse Sr. went by those last few years he spent hiding from the law. After his parents started using their real name again "Tim" stuck as Jesse Jr.'s nickname with everyone he knew.
His childhood was forever marked by the events of April 3, 1882, at the family home in St. Joseph, Missouri. Jesse Jr. was seven years old and inside the house with his mother and sister when his father was killed. He was shot in the back of the head by Robert Ford, a member of the James gang who had betrayed his boss by conspiring with lawmen to collect the reward for turning in the infamous outlaw. The murder instantly made Ford a free man but robbed young Jesse Jr. of a father who would live in the shadow of his violent legacy.
Forced to mature quickly, Jesse Jr. sought practical ways to support himself and his family. As a young man in Kansas City he opened a cigar and tobacco stand in the lobby of the Jackson County Courthouse, a modest enterprise that reportedly attracted a wide variety of patrons. Local lore later claimed that among his customers was a young courthouse employee who would someday become President of the United States—Harry S. Truman.
The James legacy still elicited both interest and distrust during these formative years. Jesse Jr. became involved in one of the more lurid scandals in 1898 when he was arrested and charged with robbing a Missouri Pacific train. The case drew widespread publicity because of his notorious parentage. At trial the following year, however, the charges collapsed and he was acquitted, leaving the episode as one more strange chapter in the long public drama surrounding the James family.
In 1900 Jesse Jr. attempted to set the record straight about his father’s life and reputation by publishing a memoir titled Jesse James, My Father. The book offered a son’s perspective on the infamous outlaw and helped shape public perceptions of Jesse James for decades afterward.
That same year marked an important personal milestone. On January 2, 1900, Jesse married Stella Frances McGowan in Kansas City. The ceremony took place in the parlor of his mother’s home because Zerelda James was too ill to attend a church wedding. / The couple would go on to raise four daughters—Lucille Martha, Josephine Frances, Jessie Estelle, and Ethel Rose—forming a stable family life that contrasted sharply with the violent history associated with the James name. Tragically, Jesse’s mother died only eleven months after the wedding, closing another chapter of the original James family.
Meanwhile Jesse Jr. continued his efforts to build a respectable professional career. While operating the courthouse cigar stand he began studying law, eventually enrolling at the Kansas City School of Law. After graduating in 1907 he sold the cigar business and opened a law office in Kansas City, embarking on what would become a quarter-century legal career.
Despite his efforts at respectability, the Jesse James legend dragged him back into the spotlight. In 1920 filmmakers contacted him about dramatizing his father's life for the silver screen. Jesse Jr. consented to consult on the productions and to be filmed himself. The resulting films, Jesse James Under the Black Flag and Jesse James as the Outlaw, starred him acting as his father in recreations of the outlaw's escapades.
The venture proved disastrous. Jesse Jr., who had been convinced to invest his own funds and those of friends, lost his entire investment when the movies flopped. Wanting to repay his friends who had trusted him with their money, he supposedly lost his own home paying back their investments. Jesse Jr.'s life was profoundly affected by the humiliation and embarrassment. He quit practicing law for a while, and reportedly had what was referred to as a nervous breakdown. Jesse Jr. returned to work but seemed deeply scarred by the experience. Seeking new opportunities, Jesse Jr. moved to California around the mid-1920s.
In 1926 he relocated to Los Angeles, where he resumed the practice of law and lived quietly for many years. At one point he also operated a small restaurant known as the “Jesse James Inn,” another attempt to convert the famous family name into a legitimate enterprise.
Despite periodic publicity generated by the enduring fascination with his father’s legend, Jesse Jr. largely avoided the limelight during his later years. Newspaper reports from the late 1940s noted that he and his wife had withdrawn into relative seclusion in Long Beach and Los Angeles, weary of persistent rumors and impostors claiming to be the resurrected outlaw Jesse James.
Jesse E. James Jr. passed away on March 26, 1951, at age seventy-five following a long illness. His official cause of death was coronary arteriosclerosis. He lived in Los Angeles for around twenty-five years. He had lived in Los Angeles for approximately twenty-five years and died at his home at 4124 West Slauson Avenue.
Funeral services were held soon after. He was buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Eventide, Map 1, Lot 3231), where numerous other celebrities are buried.
Ultimately Jesse E. James Jr.'s life had come full circle—from the young boy cowering behind the dresser as his father's killers shot him to death, to funeral services as an accomplished lawyer, author, part-time actor, and even keeper of the Jesse James name though he didn't always want that responsibility. Jesse tried to live his life apart from his father's legacy, but you couldn't talk about Jesse James without telling the story of Jesse's quiet, driven son.
Jesse E. James Jr. with his daughters, Jessie Estelle James (left) and Frances James Ross (right).
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