The Man Who Shot Jesse James

South Brunswick, NJ: A. S. Barnes and Company, 1979. Presumed First Edition, First printing. Hardcover. Very good/Good. 302, [2] pages. Illustrations. Bibliography. DJ has some wear and soiling. Carl W. Breihan (born St. Louis, MO February 3, 1916; died March 3, 1998) was an American historian and writer. He specialized in Civil War historiography. Breihan published nearly a dozen books and also served on the St. Louis City Council. Robert Ford was an outlaw who shot Jesse James in the back of the head on April 3, 1882. He was born in Ray County, Missouri. His older brother, Charles, had joined the James gang around 1881 with Bob Ford joining later. Ford had already conducted secret talks with Governor Thomas T. Crittenden about capturing or killing Jesse James. He and his brother wanted to collect the $10,000 bounty that Crittenden had offered in his proclamation. In May of 1884, Charles Ford committed suicide. Bob Ford posed for pictures, trying to earn a living off of his reputation of being "the man who killed Jesse James." In 1892 he was killed in a tent saloon in Creede, Colorado. The violent history of the Ford brothers-members of James' gang-is told in depth in this gripping story of frontier lawlessness, wild tempers, and quick guns. Chiefly concerns Bob Ford, the young man who tried to live out his obsession to destroy Jesse James and become a hero for doing it. Like Jesse and Frank James and the Youngers, the Ford Brothers came from solid stock and were farmers and backwoodsmen of the Show-Me State. And like Jesse, Bob was mischievous and downright mean at times; Charley, like Frank James, was more reserved, quiet more of a peacemaker. Their childhood days reflect these attributes in many ways. Even today many of the backwoods people speak of Jesse and Frank in tones of almost reverence.