[Dixielandjazz] Bixing on Jesse James

[Jim O'Briant]

Ginny wrote:

> About 75 miles southwest of St. Louis there is a cave known as Meramec 
> Caverns  that charges public admission fees.
> It is by no means one of Missouri's most splendid caves.  
> So to market to tourists, the cave is  advertised on roadside 
> billboards, etc. as a Jesse James hideout.   That marketing 
> device has worked for decades.
 
Several Internet sources seem to confirm that Jesse & Frank James did hide
out in these caves from time to time in the 1870's, but many of these
sources appear to go back to cave publicity as the original source; this
makes them a bit suspect to me.

> .. paternal great-grandfather had a story that he shared a bunk house 
> and ranch hand duties with Jesse James during a period when he was on 
> the lam, that he never knew James true identity. Reportedly a hard 
> worker who got along fine with his bunkmates.

There is an O'Briant family legend that says that Jesse & Frank James and
some of their "gang" visited my great-great grandparents, William and
Elizabeth O'Briant, and William's parents, Zachariah and Elizabeth [Gividen]
O'Briant, on numerous occasions at the O'Briant family farm near Lancaster,
MO. Elizabeth was a first cousin of the James brothers' mother, Zerelda Mims
James; William O'Briant was Frank & Jesse's second cousin. This makes me
their second cousin, four times removed, a fact which is interesting but not
particularly significant.

The most recent biography of Jesse James pretty much reveals him as a
ruthless and violent person, with few if any redeeming qualities.

Jim O'Briant
Gilroy, CA
Tuba & Leader, The Zinfandel Stompers