Jesse James In A Box of Staggering Contradictions

 June 18, 2023

   I absolutely love finding old photographs, especially if they show unique clothing styles, random, dangling weapons and bizarre hat choices. Here is a good example.

A Rare Quantrill's Raiders Photo

Bill Bassham on right, unidentified on left. from the Wilbur Zink collection

How Do We Make History More Popular?

   Spoke to members of my tribe last night, at a gathering of the Prescott Western History Foundation crew. Gave my talk in the Sam Hill Warehouse, about the epidemic failure of history appreciation and how to overcome it. Cliff Notes version: Tell better stories!

Preaching to The Choir

This is not to say, the telling of true history is easy.

Down The Rat Hole of History

   In virtually all history, there are so many contradictions, so many opposing views, so many interpretations of all of the above, that it's hard to get at even small, tiny truths, much less THE truth. A case in point.

Daily Whip Out:

"Jesse James In A Box, Within A Box, of
Staggering Contradictions"

   Here's a sad truth about the search for facts and the truth. I could have sworn the quote, below, is from Richard Avedon, but when I Googled it, the only two references that confirm it, are from my blog. Ha!

"There is no history. There is no truth. There is only the way the story is told."

—Richard Avedon

The Stars & Bars vs. Quantrill's Flag? Frank James Humorless?

 June 17, 2023

   Frank James allegedly quoted Shakespeare at odd times during his violent career, prompting a fellow gang member to comment, "What good is Shakespeare at a time like this?" Or, words to that effect.

Daily Whip Out: "Frank James Seriously"

   And, according to a noted newspaperman, Frank was a bit humor challenged. John Newman Edwards, rode out to the James family farm north of Kearney, Missouri, and interviewed the brothers and captured the differences between them, in a St. Louis Dispatch article, published on November 22, 1873:

“Jesse laughs at everything—Frank at nothing at all. Jesse is light-hearted, reckless, devil-may-care—Frank sober, sedate, a dangerous man always in ambush in the midst of society. Jesse knows there is a price upon his head and discusses the whys and wherefores of it—Frank knows it too, but it chafes him sorely and arouses all the tiger that is in his heart. Neither will be taken alive. Killed—that may be."

  One of the fascinating discoveries I have found from doing Jesse James and the Civil War, is that the contentious Stars & Bars—the ubiquitous Confederate flag in all those Civil War movies we grew up on—was not used by the partisan rangers in Missouri, which begs the question: did the Bushwhackers carry any flags?

Daily Whip Outs: "Jesse & The Stars & Bars"

  Thanks to Paul Hoylen for turning me on to a history site called Kansapedia, an arm of the Kansas State Historical Society, where I found this interesting item:

   "Just after midnight on September 7, 1862, the town of Olathe, Kansas, was overrun by Confederate guerrillas.

   "In the hours before dawn the raiders killed several men and looted businesses and private homes. This flag apparently was carried by one of the raiders and dropped in the public square.

A Quantrill Battle Flag?

(and more importantly,

is that a fist, or a bad tree?)

   "The flag's existence raises many questions. Quantrill is not known to have carried any sort of flag; this is supported by some of his men in post-war accounts. Claims that he carried a black flag with the misspelled name 'Quantrell' in red originated in popular writings of the 1880s and have no basis in fact.

   "The flag's small size—just seven by 13 inches—also is unusual. One possible reason for the flag's small size is offered in Alan Sumrall's Battle Flags of Texans in the Confederacy, which cites a flag from the First Texas Infantry Regiment at approximately the same dimensions. It is referred to as a 'streamer' flag, placed on the staff above the regimental flag. But if Quantrill carried no large flag, a companion 'streamer' flag would not seem to be justified.

   "Another explanation may be found in the traditional use of "Bible" flags by both northern and southern families. These textiles were placed in the large family Bibles of the time to mark passages of scripture. Perhaps one of the raiders carried the flag as a keepsake, only to lose it in Olathe."

—Kansapedia

   To read the entire entry, go here:

A Quantrill Battle Flag?

"I have been under the impression that during the Civil War the stars and bars were, uniquely, the battle flag of the Army of Northern Virginia and it was only after the war that it became ubiquitous. To fly the actual national flag of the CSA would still be an act of rebellion but the battle flag while, as you put it, contentious, wasn't outright rebellion. It has been my impression that Quantrill's Raiders and the other 'Partisan Rangers' fought under their unit banners and only adopted the Stars & Bars flag after the war."

—W. Fleetwood

The Many Moods of Jesse James And The Curse of A Blank Piece of Paper

 June 16, 2023

   There are two things I love to do as it relates to my work. One is, I love the loosey-goosey (pushing paint with only a vague goal in mind), and two, I love to go in the opposite direction from what I originally thought I would do. Case in point, proof in the pudding, or, if you want to get all technical: exhibit A.

Something I Had Not Considered Until Now

"Do you also plan to include artwork portraying Jesse's other traits? The practical joker, (Jesse laughed at everything, Frank at nothing at all), the family man, the depressed church goer (he prayed fervently and out loud), the man suffering with health issues?"

—Michelle Pollard

   You mean, like this?

Daily Whip Outs:

"The Many Moods of Jesse James"

   The wonderful offshoot of these whip outs, to me, is that I didn't care if they were anatomically correct or designed well. I just, literally whipped them out. Very loosey-goosey (excessively relaxed), and this dovetails into another daily exercise that has saved my bacon, so to speak. 

Saved By The Bell

   One of the things that has saved me from a life of despair is this simple edict: "write every day, without hope, without despair." That and the discipline of writing a blog every day (and you thought I did this for the grins) sustains me from the curse of looking at a blank piece of paper and giving up all hope. That's why the following quote just kills me. And apparently it killed him.

"My perfect day is sitting in a room with some blank paper. That's heaven. That's gold and anything else is just a waste of time."

—Cormac McCarthy (1933-2023)

The Flag Burner

 June 15, 2023

   On a suggestion from Paul Hoylen I decided to incorporate a certain, contentious flag into the mix for the Jesse James cover marathon search. After all, Jesse James did fight under the stars and bars.

Daily Whip Out: "The Flag Burner"

Those boys burned it down, for sure. Perhaps we put it a little more formally.

Daily Whip Out: "One Cocky Son of The South"

   Eventually, he became quite paranoid, and with good reason, because paranoia strikes deep.

Daily Whip Out: "Paranoid Jesse"

   Into your heart it will creep.

"Starts when you're always afraid, step out of line, the men will come and take you away."

—Buffalo Springfield, "For What It's Worth"

Spoiled Scoundrels And Pukes Galore!

 June 14, 2023

   Thanks to Mark Lee Gardner for recommending a very good book on the partisan warfare in Missouri: "Inside War: The Guerrilla Conflict During The American Civil War" by Michael Fellman. The author does a masterful job describing in gritty detail the breakdown of society—and humanity—both in Missouri and Kansas in the lead up to the war. One aspect I had never heard of before, is the border ruffians referred to as "pukes."

Daily Whip Out: "Jesse The Puke"

"Missouri Pukes were feared by their northern neighbors as dirt-wallowing, elemental brutes, suspended in a comatose state between bouts of primitive violence."

—Michael Fellman

   The first thing you have to realize in the Jesse James story is that he was not a cowboy. Almost all the movies and the legion of outlaw stories about him want to clothe him in outlaw cowboy garb with a big ol' hat. He was everything and anything but that. Although you know me, I can't resist a big ol' hat (see above!). But the truth is in most of the surviving photograph Jesse appears to prefer a modest style hat, sort of a Missouri farmer meets a riverboat gambler, pork pie job.

Daily Whip Out: "Jesse In Darkness"

One more for the road:

Daily Whip Out: "Lightning Jesse James"

  Just got word that a History Channel gig I was up for passed on my participation. Here's a good friend's take on it.

"I have usually had nothing but ill-timed or bad luck with Hollywood types.  Their attitudes usually also are like a bunch of malcreados!  or sin verguenzas!"

—Lynda Sanchez

The Spanish words malcreados and sin verguenzas roughly translates as spoiled scoundrels. Lynda translates it to mean "Impolite or ill-mannered brats without shame, wanting to manipulate and to hell with the truth." Amen.

ZZ Jesse James Meets The Outlaw Josey Wales

 June 13, 2023

   I'm still wrestling with how to graphically portray the real Jesse James, with his legend looming over him. I did these three roughs and then realized something. That isn't Jesse James, that's Billy F. Gibbons!

Daily Whip Outs: "The Legend Looms"

   Nicholas Yannuzzi quips this should be titled "ZZ Jesse." Ha. Good one.

The Honorable Billy F. Gibbons

The Birth of A Bushwhacker

May 25, 1863

   Frank James and a rag tag group of Missouri Bushwhackers stop at his mother's farm north of Kearny and then move on north to a grove of trees not far from the homestead and began to play poker on a blanket, over the goods they have purloined from their Union foes.

   Frank James' little brother, Jesse, age 15 is in the field tending to a crop of tobacco along with a male slave. Jesse does not hear the approach of militiamen, who sneak up on him and quickly catch him up by the throat, and dragging him back to the house. Jesse sees that the entire yard is swarming with armed civilians under the banner of the Clinton County Provisionals and the Clay County Unionists commanded by Captain Garth's Company I. These are not federal troops but local militia, responding to the call of Bushwhackers stealing their property and goods, like thieves drunk on impunity.

   And lest you think I was unaware of a certain movie poster, while doing my sketches of Jesse The Legend, above, well, fear not.

"I guess we all died a little in that damned war."

—Josie Wales

   Thanks to Paul Hoylen for the tidbits, above and below.

How Young Were They?

Some historians estimate that some 100,000 Union soldiers were boys under 15 years old and about 20 percent of all Civil War soldiers were under 18.

A Confederate Boy Soldier

(colorized by Gary M. Wilcox, New River Graphics)

"The search for truth and knowledge is one of the finest attributes of man, though it often is most loudly voiced by those who strive for it the least."

—Albert Einstein

A Cactusland Hand, Jesse James The Legend & The Cattletrack Blues

 June 12, 2023

   It was three years ago last May we were ravaged by the Ocotillo Fire that swept through our neighborhood and took out this budding saguaro. As it slowly decomposed, I began to notice the fingers of a hand. Do you see it?

The Cactusland Hand

 

   Still noodling Jesse James artwork for the cover of the book. As I told Dan The Man, I want to emphasize how innocent the boy was in the beginning. And, even when he was a full blown Bushwhacker and is alleged to have shot dead the Union commander at the Battle of Centralia, he looked like this! Just a kid!

Daily Whip Out:

"The Youngest Bushwhacker"

   And, then during the seventies he breaks out, along with his brother Frank, as a bank and train robber, and then, with his assassination he becomes something even bigger, perhaps the most famous American outlaw in the world. I need to get that idea across on the cover. How did he go from one thing to the other? I know it's somewhere in between these two poles:

Daily Whip Out:

"Jesse James Before The Storm"

And here. . .

Daily Whip Out:

"The Legendary Outlaw Jesse James"

Music to My Ears

  One of the things I enjoy about my kids is talking about their music. Deena and Tommy are very eclectic but, fortunately, their tastes do not fall far from the rock 'n' roll tree.

The Cattletrack Three Chord Blues

   Some things are better left unsaid.

"I ain't gonna hang no picture, I ain't gonna hang no picture frame, I might look like Robert Ford, but I feel just like a Jesse James."

—Bob Dylan, "Outlaw Blues"

Birth of A bushwhacker

 June 10, 2023

   Had a belated birthday brunch with my honey at this guy's old ranchito: Lon's at the Hermosa Inn in Paradise Valley. That would be Lon Megargee, a legendary artist from my neck of the woods. Lon is famous for "The Cowboy's Dream" and the Stetson logo, "To The Last Drop." He had a studio in Cave Creek a stone's throw from mine. 

Lon Megargee on his horse "Coyote"

circa 1902, on the T.T. Ranch near New River, Arizona

  Spent all day yesterday trying to get an angle into the heart and soul of Jesse Woodson James. At heart I think he was a good boy—a minister's son—who had a wild streak, like most minister's sons. In the end, the butchery and the bad influence got to him and swallowed him whole.

Daily Whip Out:

"The Birth of A Bushwhacker #1"

   I think that red background is a tad too botchy and strong. So I toned it down and added a hint of flames to the preacher kid's head.

Daily Whip Out: "Jesse In Red #2"

"I meant to behave, but there were too many other options."

—Jesse James

Bill Tilghman's Hat, Bird Noises And Radio Clowns Like Me

 June 9, 2023

   Let's take care of some correspondence:

The Bill Tilghman Look

"Hi bob, I sure enjoy your stories on the Old West. I was born and raised on a cattle ranch, so being a cowboy and the old west is right up my alley. You ran a picture of Kevin Jarre and another man when you were on the set of 'Tombstone.' I would like to know where that man got his hat. Kettle curl brim and round top. What a great looking hat! Thank you for your time and keep up the good work."

—Jay Branch

Jeff Morey and Kevin Jarre

on the set of "Tombstone" June of 1993

"It has been almost 35 years since I obtained that particular hat.  Since I don’t have it anymore, I can only go by my rapidly failing memory.  As I recall, Tom Hirt, of Penrose, Colorado made up that hat for me.  I would advise Jay to send a copy of that photo of 'another man' to Tom and see if he confirms having made it up for me way, way back when fuzz was still fresh on the peach.  Perhaps Hirt keeps records of who he’s made hats for over the years.  I think I purchased that hat in the late 1980s or early 1990s.  I was trying to get a kind of Bill Tilghman look."

—Jeff Morey

Lawman Bill Tilghman

(1854 —1924)

It Takes One to Know One

"Snide remark on Rush Limbaugh; my guess is 75% of your subscribers love him. I hope you don’t become the Bud Lite of the western genre. Is there really any need to expose your intolerance for other points of view?"

—Anonymous

Mocking All Points of Views

   Okay, I vaguely compared the esteemed clown Emmett Kelly to Rush Limbaugh in yesterday's blog post, because when it comes to Morning Drive and Radio Wars I have some shared history with Rush and when I noted he is not that dissimilar to Emmett Kelly, I am speaking with some experience as a radio clown myself. See below.

A KSLX radio promotional postcard

From One Clown to Another

   I meant no disrespect to Rush specifically, but truthfully, there is a lot of profound similarities between Rush and Howard Stern and Tom Brokaw for that matter. All of us have made bird noises to get paid. This latter—and right on—metaphor is not mine. The master spy author John Le Carre dislikes book tours and interviews — he calls them “making bird noises.” Amen.

Emmett Kelly Preeminent Clown

A circus performer who created "Weary Willy" based on the hobos of the Great Depression.

"Writers are a little below clowns and a little above trained seals."

—John Steinbeck

One Doomed Bushwhacker From The Show Me State

 June 8, 2023

   The isolation on a farm can sometimes be unsettling to city folk. The remoteness can be both a blessing and a curse. And so it was for the widow James and her family in May of 1863, when Union militia (not uniformed troops but neighbors and locals joined together to capture partisan guerrillas and remove and eradicate what they saw as traitors and slave holders).

   These Union militia men had it on multiple good accounts that Frank James was riding with a group of partisan bushwhackers who had been raiding and killing in the area. They descended on the James farm and accosted a young Jesse (age 15), who was working in the field with one of the family slaves. By one account, they beat him up and brought him back to the farm house where they questioned Jesse's step-father Rueben Samuel, who claimed ignorance about Frank's whereabouts. One of the militia men produced a rope and threw one end over a tree branch and the men hoisted Samuel into the air while his wife, Zerelda screamed bloody murder at them. Broken by the trauma, Samuel gave up the location of Frank and his cohorts, who were, in fact a short distance to the north of the farm playing poker on a blanket divvying up their stolen plunder. Armed with the location, the Union Militiamen quickly attacked and killed two rebels and then, in a running fight, engaged them again, and killed three more.

Daily Whip Out: "Jesse James Teenager"

      Of course, the James family was guilty as hell, but wronged all the same.

The Dye Is Cast

   In short, this incident turned Jesse Woodson James from a partisan bystander to an active guerrilla and it is a change that scarred and branded him until his death almost twenty years later.

Daily Whip Out:

"The Doomed Bushwhacker"

   Ironically, and certainly a coincidence, today is Bushwhacker Days in Nevada, Missouri (yes, the town in Missouri is named Nevada). Here is a link to how it all began.

The History of Bushwhacker Days

An Uneasy Peace

   After the war, things went halfway back to normal. Unfortunately for the populace of Missouri, the other half of the equation took a long time to heal.

The Hall of Famous Missourians

   In the Missouri state capitol building at Jefferson City there is on display a series of busts that depict prominent Missourians honored for their achievements and contributions to the state. Of course President Harry Truman is prominent among the 44 or so, busts. Also, Emmett Kelly (famous clown) is in there, as is Rush Limbaugh (same), Walt Disney, Mark Twain, Stan Musial and Laura Ingalls Wilder. But, there is no bust of Jesse James. In fact, the only mention of Jesse and his infamous crew in the entire state capitol rotunda is this timeline entry on a wall panel of one of the side room displays.

A Lonely Mention In A Massive Setting

   According to my guide, Mark Lee Gardner, this is partly because Jesse gave the state a stigma it took a long time to live down.

The Robber State

   A few men, Governor Crittendon among them, decided to clean up the "robber state" stigma that lingered after the war. It took them a while but they accomplished their goal.

For a time, Saint Joe had the highest per capita income in the United States. The residents cashed in on their position in the country the jumping off point, the shipping point to the booming West.

Why Is Missouri Called The "Show Me" State?

   There are several supposed reasons, all of them seem a tad thin to me. 

   One claim states that Missouri miners who worked in Leadville, Colorado during that state's miner strike in the early 1900s needed a lot of instruction. The result was conversations that started with statements like, "That man is from Missouri — you'll have to show him."

   In that context it is not the most flattering of state slogans. This one makes a little more sense, although some believe the congressman was merely adding to the first anecdote. 

“I come from a state that raises corn and cotton and cockleburs and Democrats, and frothy eloquence neither convinces nor satisfies me. I am from Missouri. You have got to show me.”

—Missouri Congressman Willard Duncan Vandiver, referring to another congressional speaker who he did not concur with, in 1899

More Teenage Bushwhackers & The Mothers Who Raised Them

 June 6, 2023

   Still way out in the weeds trying to find the heart and soul of the Missouri Bushwhackers. Still pushing for that damaged sepia look. This guy is probably too old, Maybe even 25!

Daily Whip Out: "The Bushwhacker"

The Bushwhacker's Mother

   Also noodling sketches for a proper take on Zerelda Cole James, who stood near six feet tall.

Daily Whip Out: "A Tall Drink of Water"

I am awe struck by the carnage.

"The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheaply, we esteem too lightly; 'tis dearness only that gives everything its value."
—Thomas Paine
   But, when it comes to war brutality and what it does to young men—from the Civil War to D-Day—I don't think anyone has said it better than this.

"The real problem is what to do with the problem solvers after the problems are solved."
—Gay Talese

Uno Is The One & The Boy Killers of The Civil War

 June 5, 2023

   The Triple B Ranch is home to the "Hello, Bob" coffee mug, the copper cowboy hat ashtray and the dog who loves to photo bomb any and every photo shoot.

"Hey, pay attention to me."

One of these is available at bobbozebellart.com

The Boy Killers of The Civil War

Emotions and fear were considered as signs of weakness and inadequacy which was punishable by death under the Khmer Rouge regime, and their child soldiers killed perhaps 3 million of their own people.

They were brutal and without remorse. It is shocking to our sensibilities but the near past has served as an echo down thru the ages.

"When you read about the child soldiers in Africa it has a lot of parables to the trauma of those Missouri boys. A few years ago there was a boxer Kassim "the Dream" who was kidnapped at 6 years old and forced to be a soldier in the Ugandan army. Years after he escaped and was a professional boxer in the U.S. he was interviewed and ask to describe his experience- he described a time they tied and tortured a man. When they asked him how it felt, he sat in contemplation and said, 'It was fun.' Chilling stuff."

—Bradley Ross

   So, it makes some sense that the Clay County, Missouri farm boys who brutalized the countryside during the Civil War with their lethal warfare, would make some sense, historically.

Daily Whip Out:

"The Boy Killers of The Civil War"

"You're going to learn that one of the most brutal things in the world is your average nineteen-year-old American boy." 

—Philip Caputo, A Rumor of War 

Dopplegangers Galore vs. Photographic Fibbing

 June 4, 2023

   My curator, Amy Dunn, spied this in an antique store last week and wondered if I had time traveled.

BBB Doppleganger?

BBB Actual

   Too bad that vest is so historically wrong. Actually, now that I look at it, the Hippy-Dippy shirt collar from Eclipse Clothing Store on Fourth Ave. in Tucson, circa 1978, is glaringly wrong as well.

   Oh, well. The vacant look is pretty timeless.

"I don't know who said 'pictures don't lie.' It couldn't have been a photographer."

—Linda Palmer

A Woman Named Bush & The Trap That Bagged Bloody Bill

 June 3, 2023

   During the Civil War, the Clay County, Missouri branch of the Bushwhackers called their fearless leader the "Old Man." Bloody Bill Anderson was all of 23 (some claim 24 but, still). Many of his troops were mere teenagers, like Jesse James who was only 16. As T.J. Stiles points out in his stalwart book, the most dangerous of the male species is an American boy 17 to 19 years-old. 

Daily Whip Out: "Old Man Bloody Bill"

How Dangerous Were These Youngsters?

   They caught two troopers on the road, cut their throats ear to ear and then scalped them, tying the bloody scraps to their saddles. "Drunk on blood," as someone described them, they crushed faces with rifle butts, carved noses off, sliced off ears, or sawed off heads and switched their bodies for comic effect. One of them pulled the trousers off one of their victims and then cut off his penis and shoved it in the dead man's mouth. The teenager, Jesse James, had matriculated and completed his education in this culture of atrocity.

Daily Whip Out:

"Lightning Raids Produce Lightning Strikes"

   On March 2, 1864, Bloody Bill married Bush Smith, a woman from Sherman, Texas.

Bloody Bill's Old Lady

Daily Whip Out: "Bush Smith"

(her full name was Mary Erwin Bush Smith

and some called her "Molly")

   The Trap That Bagged Bloody Bill

   After the massacres at Centralia, Missouri, the Federalists gave chase and then they got a lucky break. On October 26, 1864, At Richmond, a woman came into their camp and asked to speak to the commander, Lt. Col. Samuel P. Cox. The woman told him the guerillas were camped in the timber just west of the village of Albany. Early on the morning of the 27th Cox moved out with his men and set up a trap. Setting up in a grove of trees on the edge of Albany, Cox sent out a decoy patrol to attack Anderson's encampment, then turn tail and bring them back to the trees, which is exactly what Anderson and his men did, mounting up and giving chase. With Anderson and another rider in the lead, the Union soldiers opened up and as Bloody Bill broke through the lines, he suddenly slumped forward and fell from his horse.

Confederate Partisan Rangers

Memorial near Albany, Missouri

  The King of Terror in Missouri was dead, shot behind the left ear he died almost instantly. They rounded up his horse with two fresh scalps still swinging from the bridle and carried Bill back to Richmond where they rounded up a photographer to show off their bloody booty.

   

The Map of The Trap

   Yesterday's quote bears repeating because it is a premonition for another trap just down the road in Saint Joseph, Missouri. It would take 16 years but Jesse James would end up just like his leader, Bloody Bill, with a bullet behind his ear.

"You spit in the sky, it comes back."

—Old Vaquero Saying

Bloody Bill's Bloody Run

 June 2, 2023

   I have covered some bad ones in my time, most notably, John Wesley Hardin and Geronimo, but I have to say, those auspicious and creative killing machines could not really hold a candle to this demonic, scalping psychopath.

Daily Whip Out:

"Bloody Bill Takes The Cake"

   The atrocities he committed on his own and then with his bushwhacking comrades, which included Frank and Jesse James, is too heinous and awful to report here, or, in the book, for that matter. Suffice to say, the dude got what he deserved.

Bloody Bill's Bloody Death

   Those details and his girlfriend "Bush" tomorrow.

"Spit in the sky and it comes back."

—Old Vaquero Saying

Campfire Kilers & Smoke Filled Doom

 June 1, 2023

   Out on the frontier border country a jury of your peers just might be around a campfire.

Daily Whip Out: "Los Jurados"

(The Jurors)

   Meanwhile, found this faded photo of "Mrs. Jesse James" in my files while looking for something else. Intriguing, yes?

   Okay, back to the campfires where we meet this guy.

Daily Whip Out: "A Campfire Killer"

   I was actually thinking of these bad boy Bushwhackers:

L to R: Archie Clements, Dave Pool

& another Border Ruffian

Casual Killers & Egregious Scallawags 

   I have been taking a deep dive into the Jesse James world and it is pretty brutal and bad. And, by bad, I mean, shockingly brutal. So much worse than I remembered from previous glancing articles about the legendary outlaw and where he came from.

   As T. J. Stiles puts it, in his masterful "Jesse James: Last Rebel of the Civil War," "Missouri's war was small-scale, intensely personal, and intensely vicious." The Bushwhackers saw their victims as "traitors and heretics who deserved the worst kind of fate." They also believed "a man must murder for respect."

   Stiles goes on to describe this guerrilla insurrection as a "movable kingdom of terror," that created a culture of atrocity, because most of the combatants ceased to think of their enemies as "human beings."

   Of course, the Border Ruffians had defenders, some of them quite eloquent: the Missouri journalist John Newman Edwards described the Bushwhackers as, "men driven to desperation by the unceasing persecution of Federals and militia, they had been outlawed and hunted. . .They accepted the black flag as an emblem, because it suited their ideas of murder—and having no hope themselves, they left none to their victims."

   But, here is the depressing part.

"Perhaps nothing destroys a political system more quickly and efficiently than paranoia. The situation can be grave enough when one party to a quarrel believes the worst of the other, when it pictures its opponents as conspirators. But when both sides see the other as ruthless, treacherous, and unwilling to abide by the rules, then all room for compromise disappears."

—T. J. Stiles describing the border situation in pre Civil War Missouri, but also nailing our current political predicament

"Some people say you shouldn't bang your head against a wall. Tell that to the woodpecker."

—Jack Handey