Daniel J. Duke - Secret History of the Wild, Wild West: Outlaws, Secret Societies, and the Hidden Agenda of the Elites

For my late mother, mentor, and favorite author, Betty Dorsett Duke.

I would like to express my most profound gratitude to my mother, Betty Dorsett Duke. Many thanks to my father, Joe Duke, for the help and tremendous support provided. And thank you to Teresa F. Duke, my sister. I am also grateful to have such a great literary agent, Fiona Spencer Thomas. A big thank you to my publisher and the team at Inner Traditions Bear & Company. To Matt, thank you for all the help. I want to thank my friend, author and editor Philippa (Lee) Faulks for her support and for pointing me in the right direction.

CONTENTS

AN INTRODUCTION

I n my first book, Jesse James and the Lost Templar Treasure, I wrote of the treasures associated with the Old West outlaw Jesse James. In the second book, The Mysterious Life and Faked Death of Jesse James, which I coauthored with my sister Teresa F. Duke, we unveiled the true history of Jesse James and showed that Jesse James is our great-great-grandfather. Those two books expose the history of the treasures associated with Jesse James and the truth about the events and investigations surrounding his alleged assassination.

This book will show you, dear reader, how Jesse James, the infamous outlaw, had connections with not only several well-known Old West outlaws, such as Billy the Kid, Jesse Evans, and Johnny Ringo, among others, but that he also had connections and was relatedby blood or marriageto people who, once you realize who they are, will very likely shock you.

But there is even more to the story of Jesse Jamess connections. He is also related, again by blood or marriage, to some of the best-known and a few notoriousfamilies of the American West. Families whose names carried a lot of weight in politics, religion, and even a secret society. Some of these families were even instrumental in the formation and leadership of a well-known and popular branch of church in the Bible belt, the Baptist church. The connections between Jesse James and the aforementioned (or hinted at) people and organizations, as well as many of the other Old West outlaws, show that they were much more than just wild cowboys who rode around randomly robbing and shooting people. They were actually organized, and part of something much larger: an organization that seems to have grown, prospered, and affected our national history from the small, rural streets of early America to the highest levels of our nations government up to, at least, the very near present day. And just like any organization, they had their rivals. I invite you to read on to find out how this secret network with powerful and prestigious connections operated in Americas Wild West and beyond. I suspect that you may, after reading this book, view history a bit differently, as it connects long-hidden puzzle pieces to those mysterious aspects of history over which many have pondered the nagging suspicion at their connections.

JESSE JAMES

THE TRADITIONAL STORY

Jesse James is the man who represents every man who ever felt the boot of the Man on his neck.

LAURA JAMES, THE LOVE PIRATE AND THE BANDITS SON

O ver the years, Jesse James has been many things to many people. Jesse James was an outlaw to most, a hero to others; he was a rebel, a killer, a man done wrong by the powers that be, and to some, a terrorist. For better or worse, he has captured the minds of the public around the world. I am the first to admit that Jesse James was no angel, but he was no devil either, unless he had to be. How is it that a man who had been branded an outlaw could have had such a great impact on the minds of people around the globe for well over a century? Perhaps because of the perfect combination of fact and myth that surrounded him, both while he was living and long after his death.

A large part of the publics fascination no doubt has to do with people wanting the whole storythe truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Until they get answers, they wont be satisfied, and neither will we. But the only truth readily available when talking about Jesse James is that the real truth is hard to come by.

Fig. 1.1. Photo of Jesse Woodson James, circa 1864.

The journey to prove that Jesse James is our ancestor has been an exciting one, to say the least. My siblings and I believe that Jesse James is our great-great-grandfather, a fact that our late mother set out to prove prior to her passing. Before digging into the mystery that surrounds Jesse and his network throughout the Wild West, heres the brief, traditionally accepted life of Jesse James.

EARLY YEARS

Jesse Woodson James is said to have been born on September 5, 1847, to Zerelda Elizabeth Cole and Robert Sallee James, an ordained Baptist minister and founder of William Jewell College in Liberty, Missouri. Jesse was the third of four children born to the couple. His older siblings were Alexander Franklin Frank James, the firstborn, and Robert R. James, who died as an infant. Susan Lavenia James was the couples fourth child.

Apparently, shortly after Susans birth, the elder Robert James felt the need to preach to gold miners in California. He left his wife and children in Missouri and, shortly after arriving in California in 1850, he is said to have contracted a disease (stories vary as to exactly what he caught), died, and was buried in an unmarked grave.

In 1852, after Roberts death, Zerelda married a wealthy farmer named Benjamin Simms. Mr. Simms is said to have been a cruel man who didnt like young Frank or Jesse. He died in a horse accident at the start of 1854. No children were born from the short marriage of Benjamin Simms and Zerelda.

Zerelda married, for a third and final time, in 1855, to Dr. Reuben Samuel. Dr. Samuel is said to have been a kind-hearted man and a loving father to Zereldas children, Frank, Jesse, and Susan. Zerelda and Dr. Samuel had four children as well: Sarah Louisa Samuel, John Thomas Samuel, Fanny Quantrill Samuel, and Archie Peyton Samuel.

THE CIVIL WAR YEARS

Well before the official beginning of the American Civil War, tensions had been building along the Kansas and Missouri border between proslavery and antislavery factions. Militias formed on both sides of the border, and skirmishes soon followed. Frank James joined the Confederacy and is said to have fallen ill, which led him to return home to recuperate. During that time, Frank joined a pro-Confederate militia, Quantrills Partisan Rangers, near his family home. A Union militia, looking for Frank, raided the James-Samuel farm. Zerelda related the story to a reporter many years later:

I remember well that morning the soldiers came down across the field. It was planted in flax then. A whole company of them came down through there and trooped into this yard, and over into the field where Jesse and Dr. Samuels were planting corn. They demanded the doctor tell them where the bushwhackers were hiding. You see Frank was four years older than Jesse and had been with Quantrill over a year.... Dr. Samuels, my husband told them he did not know where the bushwhackers were. Then they tied his hands together and drove him to a tree over in the pasture and hanged him three times by the neck. They left him hanging until he was nearly dead and then lowered him down and asked where Frank James was. They left him at last, nearly dead, under the tree. The doctor has not been in his right mind since that very day and he was a smart man.