Although the United States bills itself as a "beacon of the free world," it claims to be both free and democratic. In fact, the security situation in the United States has always been very bad, and from time to time there are two bandits. Moreover, the three views of the United States are very problematic, and in the United States, some historical bandits will even be treated as heroes, and their "glorious deeds" have even been made into some film and television works, which is definitely a distortion of history.
Speaking of the famous gangsters in American history, the most successful is probably Jesse James, whose success is not in what he achieved while he was alive, but in becoming Hollywood's favorite gangster after his death. According to statistics, there are about 50 TV series about Jesse James produced by Hollywood, more than 20 movies, and an art group has filmed a musical for him.
And that's not all, there are even 6 museums with exhibition halls dedicated to him. It can be said that he is a legend, and it is American folklore that has shaped him into a hero. Is Jesse James really as magical as these films?
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > the life of a bandit</h1>
Jesse James was born in Missouri in 1847 during the partition of the United States, and Missouri belonged to the Confederacy, i.e., the territory of the Southern slave owners' camp.
Since Jesse's father was a plantation owner (who grew marijuana) and had a large estate of more than 1 million acres in the area, the family could not have a large number of black slaves. It was for this reason that Jesse's family were all advocates of slavery, which laid the groundwork for his future opposition to the United States Federation.
Fast forward to 1861, and the North and south of the United States finally fought due to the deepening contradictions. Jesse's family was naturally firmly on the side of the Southern slave owners. Jesse's brother, Franklin James, also joined the Southern Guerrillas. This guerrilla group was later incorporated into the local National Guard and later became a regular army in the south.
On August 10 of that year, the first decisive battle broke out between the North and the South, the Battle of Wilson Creek, in which Franklin's unit took part. However, at the most critical time when the battle was in progress, Franklin had to withdraw from the battle because of his thin stomach. But this did not affect the whole family to see him as a hero, but also deeply affected the future life course of his younger brother Jesse.
Infected by his brother, Jesse strongly demanded to join his brother's guerrillas, but unable to withstand his bitter pleading, his brother finally agreed. Since Franklin and Jesse's guerrillas were all loyal fans of slavery in the South, they hated the North so much that they attacked not only the Northern army, but also civilians opposed to the South, and even engaged in house-robbing.
In 1863, the guerrilla group attacked Lawrence City, Kansas, killing about 150 civilians. There is evidence that the Franklin and Jesse brothers also took part in the massacre.
At this time, the war had gradually developed in a direction unfavorable to the South, and due to the perverse behavior of the Southern slave owners' camp, more and more people began to stand up against the South. At the time, a number of people formed a "hoeing" team and began to fight and eliminate tiger-wielding people like Franklin and Jesse.
Jesse's house was also attacked as a result, the older brother Franklin slipped fast and was not caught, and the younger brother Jesse took a slow step and was caught on the spot. The people of the "Hoe Rape" team saw that Jesse was not very old, and thought that he would not have committed too much crime, so they hung him from a tree and beat him up, which was a punishment. However, the people of the "Hoe Rape" team would not have imagined that Jesse would hate the North even more because of this, and he vowed to kill the people who had hanged him. Moreover, he has since become a complete bandit.
< h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > joined the bandits</h1>
In the spring of 1864, the brothers Franklin and Jesse rejoined the Confederate Army and fought in a famous battle. In this battle, the Southern army completely annihilated a regiment of the Northern Federation Army at a small cost, achieving a major victory. This victory greatly boosted the morale of Jesse, who was only seventeen years old.
Although some victories were sometimes achieved, the South still could not turn the tables. In 1865, the Civil War ended and the South was defeated. Some die-hards in the South were not willing to lose and still insisted on fighting, and Franklin and Jesse were among them, but by this time they were already in different teams.
In view of the fact that the remnants of the south are still stirring up trouble, the north has stepped up the clearance operation. Jesse was wounded by a gunshot during a siege by the northern army and had to temporarily withdraw from the battlefield and return home to recuperate. At home, Jesse's eldest cousin takes care of him until he recovers, and during Jesse's injury, the two fall in love and fall in love, and the sweetness of love makes Jesse decide not to participate in the action against the North for the time being.
This good life lasted more than a year before it was forced to end: in 1866, Jesse's old commander in the Southern Army asked him to return immediately and join the torrent of opposition to the Republican Party, but Jesse refused because he did not want to leave his cousin. In desperation, the old man moved out of his brother Franklin, and under Franklin's persuasion, Jesse agreed to make a comeback.
The remnants of the South were no less than they had done before, as evidenced by Jesse's guerrillas and his subsequent actions. It sounds good to be called a guerrilla, and a bad point is to say that it is a bandit. Jesse and his brother Franklin also served as minor leaders in the team.
On February 13 of that year, the brothers led a team to rob a bank in Libotu, in which Jesse also shot and killed a student. It is worth mentioning that this bank was opened by Republicans. Soon after, Franklin and Jesse led another man to rob the prison, burning the guards and robbing their former captive accomplices.
In the days that followed, Franklin and Jesse did everything wrong, looting banks, bars, killing innocent civilians, and even killing a mayor in an attempt to arouse popular discontent with the Republican Party. Missouri and surrounding states and counties have been plagued by their brothers, and people talk about it. Some places even specially prepared money, planning to use it to save their lives when they encountered the brothers when they robbed one day.
On December 17, 1869, Franklin and Jesse robbed another bank in Gallatin. Jesse saw that a cashier looked a lot like an enemy—the Northern Federation soldier who had killed Jesse's old governor Anderson—so he pulled out his revolver and shot him without hesitation. In hindsight, he learned that he had made a mistake, but Jesse was ashamed to say that it was a warning to the enemy. Such indiscriminate killing of innocents provoked the indignation of people of conscience, and the governor of Missouri at the time ordered a reward for the arrest of Jesse and put his portrait in the local newspaper.
Jesse didn't care about the bounty warrant, believing that robbing a bank was no addictive, so he robbed a train in 1873 and stole $3,000 in stolen money. This was a huge amount of money at the time, and it should be noted that there was no paper money in the United States at that time, and one dollar was a gold coin, and the $3,000 at that time was about equivalent to more than sixty thousand dollars today. Jesse's explanation for this was that it was a declaration of war against the federal government.
Jesse's fame was made by repeated robberies, and because Jesse had always been haunted, the federal government could not do anything about him. The Adams Passenger Transport Company, which belonged to the train he robbed, had to turn to private detective Pinkerton in order to recover the loss and ensure the safety of future passenger transportation. Due to the relatively high price tag, Pinkerton agreed to it.
Adams' demand was to get rid of Jesse, and Pinkerton thought it would be necessary to find Jesse's whereabouts first. But when he came and went, he had no clue, and Pinkerton actually did a villainous act: he took someone to Jesse's house and threw a few Molotov cocktails, which not only burned Jesse's house, but also burned Jesse's brother to death. Jesse's mother was also injured. Pinkerton, on the other hand, firmly denied the incident.
Despite Pinkerton's denials, his actions provoked outrage among Southerners. Southern newspapers lashed out at Pinkerton for this, making Jesse even more famous. In retaliation, Jesse decided to rob another bank to create a campaign, this time pointing the finger at the First Bank of the Commonwealth Of States. But the robbery didn't work out, and Jesse's gang, with the exception of his brothers, was either captured or killed.
Frustrated, Jesse was not discouraged, and he formed his own gang and continued to cause trouble for the federal government until 1882.
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > killed a traitor</h1>
Jesse's rampage made the federal government realize that it had to find a way to get rid of him, but it was not easy to get rid of Jesse. If Jesse were really so easy to get rid of, the federal government wouldn't have a headache for more than a decade.
There is a good saying that "the fortress is easiest to break through from within", and there are obviously people of insight within the federal government who recognize this, such as the governor of Missouri at the time, who believed that it was impossible to get rid of Jesse by conventional means, and that another way must be found. Coincidentally, that year (1882), the Missouri state government captured a backbone of Jesse's gang, Robert Ford.
The governor himself interrogated Ford, during which he told Ford that if he helped the federal government get rid of Jesse, he would not only be acquitted, but would also be given a $10,000 bonus. Ford was hungry for this huge bonus and promised to come down.
So Ford incarnated as "Yang Zirong" and re-entered Jesse's criminal gang. Jesse is a vigilant bandit who has always been able to shoot at himself, so Ford has never been able to find a chance.
But the opportunity soon came: on this day, Jesse was preparing for a robbery, and because it was too hot, he untied the belt hanging from the holster and took off his coat. As soon as Jesse turned, Ford pulled out his revolver and fired a shot at the back of Jesse's head, ending the life of a generation of bandits.
After Ford killed Jesse, the state government made good on its promise and paid him the prize money. But a decade later, Ford also died in a shooting.
From 1863 to 1882, as a generation of gangsters in the United States, Jesse traversed the United States for nearly two decades, almost unscathed, but finally died of betrayal, which was somewhat unexpected.