manysthenight
many's the night
a dedicated fan blog to the assassination of jesse james by the coward robert ford (2007) and the book by the same name by ron hansen (1983)
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Jesse James Haunted Farm
It is said that the James farm in Kearney, Missouri where the notorious outlaw Jesse James grew up is haunted. Jesse James’ parents moved from Kentucky to Kearney in 1842.
His father was a Baptist minister who wanted his boys to be well educated. However, in a trip to the California gold fields he died leaving his sons without a father, Jesse was just 3 years old.
His mother, Zerelda lived on this farm for the rest of her life, through three marriages and eight children.
During the Civil War in 1863 the James’ farm was brutally attacked by Union soldiers. Shortly afterward Jesse age 16 and his older brother Frank became Confederate guerilla soldiers, riding with William Quantrill and Bloody Bill Anderson.
Quantrill’s Raiders as they later became known operated out of Missouri. They ambushed Union patrols and supply convoys. They seized the mail and occasionally struck towns on the Kansas-Missouri border. Their main focus though was against the local pro-Union civilians, which they tried to drive out of the territory.
After the Civil War the James brothers, Jesse and Frank now officially outlaws started to attack trains, banks and stagecoaches that were controlled by the Northern side which bought brutal control to the Missouri legislation.
From 1860 to 1882, the James gang was the most feared band of outlaws in America. Responsible for 20 bank and train robberies they murdered countless individuals that stood in their way. They stole an estimated $200,000. Despite their ruthlessness they became folk heroes to some. They literally became legends in their own time.
The local citizens of Kearney kept quiet when they were home on the farm during this period of time. Clay county where the farm is located was in a part of Missouri called Little Dixie, the entire state was 75% southern sympathizers. Both Jesse and Frank were devoted husbands and fathers who spent a lot of time with their families. They were not modern Robin Hoods though, for they kept the money they stole.
In 1869 the gang robbed a bank in Gallatin, Missouri. Jesse shot the banker through the heart feeling he was responsible for the callous murder of Bloody Bill Anderson. The James gang lost some public favor after this. Local newspapers started to call for the capture of this blood thirty gang.
Frustrated at how the locals protected them, Governor Crittenden had the railroad place an enormous price on the James brother’s heads. Pinkerton detectives hired by several bankers raided the James farm in 1875 thinking the older brothers were there. They threw a bomb in the window killing Jesse and Frank’s younger half-brother, Archie as their mother watched. She lost part of her right arm and hand during this struggle.
In one bank robbery several members of the gang were killed. After this the Youngers, a part of their gang were sent to prison for 25 years.
In 1882 the brothers planned one last robbery with Charley and Bob Ford. They did not know these brothers intended to betray them for the large price on their heads.
On the morning they were to commit this robbery Jesse ate breakfast with the Ford’s, placed his gun on one of the farmhouse beds and stopped to straighten a picture that hung on the wall. Bob Ford shot Jesse in the back of the head. He died instantly and was buried in the side yard of the James’ farmhouse. His remains were later moved to the family plot at Mount Olivet Cemetery in Kearney.
The locals did not appreciate what the Ford brothers had done. Bob Ford who was pardoned by Governor Crittenden was driven out of Missouri known as the coward who had shot Jesse. He traveled around in a Wild West show ironically about the James gang. He was shot and killed in Creede, Colorado in 1892. His older brother Charley stayed in Missouri but was shunned. He committed suicide ten years after his brother was murdered.
Frank James gave himself up after Jesse was killed. He was tried several times but there never was enough evidence to convict him. He lived peacefully for the rest of his life at the farm. In later years he charged tourists money to give them a tour of the place.
The James farm and house have been considered haunted for over 100 years. Located off James Road in Kearney, Missouri the farm is a museum today. Employees at this farm still report odd occurrences. After the museum closes for the night many have spotted lights going on and off in the farmhouse. Others report that doors have slammed shut in front of them without cause.
Several witnesses have reported hearing horse hooves stomping outside on foggy nights. When investigated nothing has been found. Others have reported hearing whispered conversations inside the house when no one is there. Some have even heard the bomb going off or cries and gunshots as if a Civil War battle is happening outside. Many staff at the museum today will not go into the house alone. They state that they feel an unnatural intense presence in the home that scares them.
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Where Jesse James Was Killed
St. Joseph, Missouri
Jesse James lived in lots of houses over his 34 years, as he spent lots of time running from the law. Most of those houses are forgotten and yet his last home, known simply as the Jesse James Home, has become a bona fide tourist attraction. Not because people want to see the house. People want to see the bullet hole.
The bullet hole was made at roughly the same moment that Jesse James was shot in the back of the head by one of his supposed friends, Bob Ford. This happened on April 3, 1882. The bullet that made the hole also took a shortcut through Jesse’s head, which makes it a celebrity death hole and a thing is worth visiting. For over 50 years tourists were even allowed to touch the hole. That was a bad idea, as the hole is now a fist-sized blob, enlarged by generations of groping fingers.
The hole is high off of the floor and is protected from further picking by a rectangle of glass that’s been screwed into the wall. Over it hangs a framed needlepoint, God Bless Our Home, which Jesse was either straightening or feather-dusting when he was shot. This troubles some fans of the Wild West. The manager of the house, Gary Chilcote, is diplomatic during the tour but made his feelings clear to us off-camera. Jesse may have been straightening but he was definitely not dusting. A painting of the Murder Moment hangs next to the hole, with no feather duster in it.
In 1995, fans of the bullet hole received shocking news. Jesse James was dug out of his grave to prove that he really did die in 1882 and not in 1951, as others have claimed. DNA extracted from a tooth found in the grave proved with 99.7 percent certainty that it was Jesse. But the grave also yielded an unexpected discovery. Jesse’s skull had no exit wound for the bullet! So what made the bullet hole? The theory now is that it was made by a bullet fired by Charley Ford, Bob’s brother, who was also in the house on that fatal day and evidently was also blasting away at Jesse’s head.
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i may be a bob x jesse shipper and utterly obsessed with them, but charley is also a precious gem i adore and sam rockwell is astonishingly good in this role
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007), dir. Andrew Dominik
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The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007), dir. Andrew Dominik
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“I Look at my red hands and my mean face… and I wonder ‘bout that man that’s gone so wrong”
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same, always
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This just makes me have a lot of emotions, okay?
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The score for The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford is absolutely brilliant.
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Finishing The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford by Ron Hansen, offers a nice reminder that there is nothing stopping you from dying alone in squalor. Or shot in the back.
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The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
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don't mix children with your fandoms, folks!
#oc#my memes#historical memes#jesse james#assassination of jesse james#the assassination of jesse james by the coward robert ford#taojj#old west#outlaws#baby names
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i would definitely argue it's brad's best performance, and ofc casey is off the charts excellent
I still have an old collection of DVDs which I viddy now and then. And this is in the collection.
My brother described this movie as ‘like a dream’. And I agree. With the hypnotic soundtrack and the sense of other worldliness with this group of men in the wilderness of America. Alongside the myth, or icon, of Jesse James.
Who was basically a serial killer and nothing else.
But I think the best performance in the film is that of Casey Affleck’s. He is so deluded by his icon … in the form of this horrible man that he’s suddenly close to. And he plays it with a boyish, starstruck voice in each of the scenes. It is quite an interesting portrait of obsession and jealousy. If you agree?
You have to give it to Brad Pitt as well. Even though he’s not one of my favourite actors, he certainly does well here. You could argue it’s one of his finest performances.
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