Daniel J. Duke - The Mysterious Life and Faked Death of Jesse James

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

THE MYSTERIOUS LIFE AND FAKED DEATH OF JESSE JAMES

Public fascination with enigmatic and mythical figures from history is often skewed by bias or myth; sometimes the truth is unpleasant and the lies are far more comfortable. Within The Mysterious Life and Faked Death of Jesse James, Daniel and Teresa Duke, the great-great-grandchildren of the famed outlaw, finally put to rest many of the myths and misconceptions. The book is a testimony to the tireless research of their mother, Betty Dorsett Duke, to find out the truth about her ancestor, which was sadly cut short by her untimely death. Daniel and Teresa have continued her legacy, and it is one that sheand Jessewould no doubt be proud of.

PHILIPPA FAULKS, COAUTHOR OF THE MASONIC MAGICIAN

Drawing on more than 20 years of research, Daniel and Teresa Duke expound upon the family lore, Jesses diaries, and legal documents to disprove the misconception that their great-great-grandfather died in 1882 and instead reveal that he lived for another 40 years in Texas under a different name, remaining unapologetic about his outlaw days. They give us the details of Jesses lost years and what about Jesse remains elusive to modern science.

MARK EDDY, COHOST OF NIGHT-LIGHT

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We would like to express our most profound gratitude to our mother, Betty Dorsett Duke. She was courageous, intelligent, honest, professional, and courteous, and never would back down. She lived by an old Texas Ranger quote she loved: No man (or woman) in the wrong can stand up against a fellow (or lady) thats in the right and keeps on a-comin.

We are also grateful to have such a great literary agent, Fiona Spencer Thomas. Many thanks to our father, Joe Duke, for the help and tremendous support provided, and a big thank you to our publisher and the team at Inner Traditions Bear & Company. To M, thank you for all the help!

An Introduction to Whos Who

L ike many outlaws throughout history, the famous and infamous Old West outlaw Jesse James had aliases, and in order to fake his death and live out a peaceful life, he needed a really good alias. It seems that when a person uses an alias, though, life naturally gets much more complicated. He or she has to live by another identity, and in Jesses case, it took years to transition from one life to a new one using the alias James Lafayette Courtney. Jesse used other aliases at different times in his life, but the alias James Lafayette Courtney was the one alias that he stuck with, lived with, and was buried with.

Under this alias Jesse James was a small-town Texas farmer, husband, father, Freemason, and more. You will read much more about Jesse throughout this book, but in order to help keep the story straight and easy to follow, we thought it would be helpful to provide a list of names with short descriptions.

Jesse James had a wife, but that wife wasnt the wife that historians have named. His real wife was not his first cousin as history has stated. When finding out that Jesse faked his death and lived out his life in Texas, some have exclaimed that it was terrible that he abandoned his wife and children in Missouri just so that he could save his own life. What those people were missing was that the wife they thought he had wasnt his wife and the children they believed he had werent his children.

That is but one example of how things can get confusing and have been confused for well over a century in regard to Jesse James and his life, or lives. We would like to note, however, that the confusion created throughout Jesses history worked in his favor, and without it he may not have gotten away with one of the biggest hoaxes in American history.

Some of the more commonly used names along with names historically associated with Jesse James are listed below to help curtail any possible confusion. You may wish to refer back to this list when reading Jesses diary, which forms the appendix of this book, beginning .

We believe Jesse Woodson James and James L. Courtney were one and the same. That said, there was also a real James L. Courtney, and the real James L. Courtney was a neighbor and relative of Jesse James. In our late mothers second book, The Truth about Jesse James, she illustrates how the story becomes further confused because the Courtney family also used aliases and changed their name to Haun. She states:

Theodore Napoleon Haun was really Theodore Napoleon Courtney but changed his name to Haun sometime between 1867 and 1870. He, Theodore Napoleon Haun/Courtney, was allegedly the real James L. Courtneys brother. However, my great-grandfather, known as James L. Courtney in Texas, referred to Theodore Napoleon Haun [in his diary] as his cousin: January 28, 1872: Sunday morning at Barrons & remained there all day & rote 2 leters one to Rat & the other to co[u]sin Theodore & miley was here. [See of this book.]

[The late] genealogist, Carol Holmes has consulted genealogical records and verified that the Courtneys aka Hauns were cousins of Jesse James, which explains why my great-grandfather referred to Theodore Courtney aka Theodore Haun as his cousin instead of his brother Theodore N. Courtney a.k.a. Theodore Napoleon Haun.

Robert Woodson Hite, a.k.a. Wood Hite, a.k.a. Thomas Howard, was a first cousin to Frank and Jesse James through his mother, Nancy Gardiner James. Wood fought with Quantrills Guerillas during the Civil War and is said by many to have participated in at least a few of the James Gangs robberies. None of that is controversial, and it is well documented. What many historians cant agree on is when Wood Hite was killed. Some say Wood was killed in December of 1881, while others claim he was killed in March of 1882. Claiming that Wood was killed in December is favorable for our detractors because they can and have tried to claim that the body would have been too badly decomposed to have been displayed as a recently murdered man in April of 1882, when we believe Wood Hites body was passed off as that of Jesse James. To this day, no one has been able to locate the grave of Wood Hite. That said, it isnt up to us to prove who was killed in April of 1882; our primary focus is to show who wasnt. And Jesse James wasnt killed in 1882.

Another error surrounds the alleged wives of Wood Hite and Jesse James. History has recorded that Jesse James was married to his first cousin Zee Mimms. We believe that is entirely false and that Jesse was actually married to Mary Ellen Barron. Wood Hite, in our opinion, was either married to or living with his first cousin Zee Mimms, and it is our belief that Wood Hite is the father of the two children who were passed off as Jesses children.

Zerelda Amanda Mimms, a.k.a. Zee Mimms, a.k.a. Zee Hite, was Jesse and Frank Jamess first cousin through her mother, Mary James. She was also Wood Hites first cousin. As stated above, it is believed by our family that Zee was married to and had two children with her first cousin Wood Hite and not Jesse James.

Mary Ellen Barron is our maternal great-great-grandmother. Mary Ellen was the daughter of Captain Thomas Hudson Barron and Mary Jane Shelton and the wife of Jesse James, a.k.a. James L. Courtney. She was born October 19, 1854, on Barron Branch at the old Barron residence in Waco before her parents relocated to Blevins, Falls County, Texas. She and our great-great-grandfather married on October 31, 1871. Mary Ellen died on October 21, 1910, and is buried in the Blevins Cemetery.