Who was Jesse James?

1 ANSWERS

1. GiGi
   

   Jesse Woodson James (September 5, 1847 – April 3, 1882) was an American outlaw in the state of Missouri and the most famous member of the James-Younger Gang. Already a grand celebrity when he was alive, he became a legendary figure of the Wild West after his death. Recent scholars place him in the context of regional insurgencies of ex-Confederates following the American Civil War rather than a manifestation of frontier lawlessness or economic justice.
   
   The James brothers, Frank and Jesse, were Confederate guerrillas during the Civil War, during which they were accused of participating in atrocities committed against Union soldiers. After the war, as members of one or another gang, they perpetrated many bank robberies which often resulted in the murder of bank employees or bystanders. They also waylaid stagecoaches and trains.
   
   Although James has often been mythically portrayed, even prior to his death, as a kind of Robin Hood, robbing from the rich and giving to the poor, this is incorrect. His robberies enriched only him and his gang.

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