Legends of the Old West - JESSE JAMES | Introduction

Episode Date: November 4, 2018

Jesse James might be the most legendary outlaw who ever lived. He robbed banks, trains and stagecoaches from Missouri to West Virginia and Alabama to Minnesota. He achieved unparalleled fame and it ul...timately led to his downfall. This is a five-part series beginning November 11, 2018 on the life and career of Jesse James. For more details, visit www.blackbarrelmedia.com Jesse James theme song by The Mighty Orq Music from Pond5.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Starting point is 00:00:55 Visit amex.ca slash yamex. Benefits vary by card. Other conditions apply. The town of Cord in Iowa appeared deserted. Its streets were empty. Its businesses were quiet. Four men rode through town, noting the unusual scene. Maybe they were unnerved at the unnatural calm. Maybe they thought it was a trap. Or maybe they knew exactly what was going on.
Starting point is 00:01:37 Missouri politician Henry Clay Dean was in town to give a speech. He was a celebrated public speaker. Mark Twain called him a speech. He was a celebrated public speaker. Mark Twain called him a volcano. His thunderous speaking style was punctuated by loud eruptions and emphatic gestures. Today, June 3rd, 1871, the townspeople packed themselves into the Methodist church to hear Dean talk. They crowded into the churchyard and stood outside the windows to listen to him explain why they should give money to bring the railroad to Wayne County, Iowa. So while the residents of Cordon listened to Henry Clay Dean, the four men who had just ridden into town strolled into the Okabok Brothers Bank.
Starting point is 00:02:22 They found exactly one employee inside, a lone cashier who was left to watch the place while the others were away. The four men easily convinced the cashier to give them the $6,000 that was in the safe. They walked back outside, got on their horses, and then rode toward the Methodist church. Henry Clay Dean was not accustomed to being interrupted, so when the four men on horseback rode up to his congregation, he was irritated. One of them shouted that they had just robbed the bank, and the man shook a sack in front of the crowd in defiance. Dean dismissed the man as a heckler and went back to his speech. The crowd returned its attention to the speaker
Starting point is 00:03:02 and ignored the horseman. The horseman, surely laughing to themselves, rode out of Corridon and out of Iowa and back down into Missouri. When Dean finished his speech, the audience wandered back into town and discovered the frightened cashier in the bank. It had been robbed. The men on horseback were not joking. It had been robbed. The men on horseback were not joking. Dean said later he was sure the man he had dismissed as a heckler was Frank James. He was right. The four men were Frank and Jesse James, Cole Younger, and Clell Miller. It was the seventh robbery attributed to the James Gang in the last five years. Their fame and notoriety was growing. They were becoming champions of a southern cause that was desperate for heroes in the aftermath of the Civil War.
Starting point is 00:03:58 They were celebrated and romanticized and mythologized in their own time, by people in the South anyway. But like a failed rocket, they shot high into the air and then came crashing down. As time passed, and they grew more reckless and violent, support for their illegal actions slipped away. They waged a five-year war with the Pinkerton Detective Agency that claimed life and limb, and the beginning of the end came on an August day in a small town in Minnesota. After that, nothing was the same. This is the story of Frank and Jesse James, their cousins the Youngers, and the people who flew in and out of their orbit. It's the story of the South during the Reconstruction era, and the rise of the
Starting point is 00:04:45 American outlaw as we know him today. I'm your host, Chris Wimmer, and this is a five-part series on the most famous outlaw that ever lived. With a new theme song by the Mighty Orc, this is the Legends of the Old West podcast, Season 3, Jesse James. This season, we're proud to partner with the Cowboy Lifestyle Network. You can now find links to our show on their website, cowboylifestylenetwork.com,
Starting point is 00:05:21 and their social media channels. That's GoCLN on Facebook, at Cowboy Lifestyle on Twitter, and at Cowboy Lifestyle Network on Instagram. Cowboy Lifestyle Network is a one-stop shop for rodeo news and stories about fashion, art, music, Native American culture, and all things Western. Check them out, and we'll see you right back here next week for the story of Jesse James. Take it back, can't take it back
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