April of 1882, after a twenty year career of bank and train robberies and a host of killings, Jesse Woodson James lay dead on his living room floor. Killed by a single bullet fired by a would-be new gang member, Bob Ford for a reward offered by the governor of Missouri. On that day, a chapter of the old west came to a close.

First, Jesse was buried in the yard of the old James farm where his mother could keep an eye on the grave. She was worried that grave-robbers would steal the body to put on display around the country in a traveling exhibit. This was a common practice at the time. After his mother's death, Jesse's remains were dug up and placed in a new coffin and re-buried at the cemetery in Kearney, Missouri. Other than the legend that Jesse had established, his remains would be forgotten about for the next 113-years.

In 1951 a man named J. Frank Dalton became famous briefly by claiming to be the notorious Jesse James. His story was that Charley Bigalow, an outlaw and friend of Jesse's was actually killed in 1882 by Jesse himself and, since they looked so much alike, Jesse used Bigalow's body in his place to get away from the reward on his head. So Dalton claimed that the whole Jesse James 1882 killing was fabricated and he was still alive in 1951 at the age of 104 years old.
Dalton had many people believing him as he had several of the same wounds as Jesse had gotten in his lifetime. Plus, many said Dalton would not have known a lot of the "private" stories that he spoke about if he weren't the real Jesse James.

At the turn of the 20th century, around 30-years after Jesse's death, there were no less that 100 men claiming to be him. These people would be paid a few dollars a week by a show promoter and would travel around the country talking about the "good old days" and maybe giving shooting matches. Many drifted away after a short time and was never heard from again. J. Frank Dalton didn't drift away. He died! Actually, he died shortly after making his claim. His family asked the court to allow him to legally change his name to Jesse James. After showing a few documents that were said to be signed by old James gang members, the court actually allowed it. Dalton was buried under a monument proclaiming him as the original Jesse James.

The actual James family always wanted to refute Dalton's claim to fame. But how? So the matter laid in two graves with the same name. In 1995, after getting the courts involved, a group was allowed to open the original Jesse James' grave in Kearney. They wanted to try a relatively new method of identifying called DNA. This would finally lay to rest the fact if Jesse was buried in that grave or someone else. But would there be enough DNA to test? When Jesse's first grave was opened to move the remains from the James farm, the original coffin fell apart spilling a few bones and some hair back into the grave. These artifacts were retrieved and kept by the family then was given with the farm to the Friends of the James Farm, the organization that maintains the property. Asked if they would give part of the hair to the lab for DNA testing, they refused. There isn't very much hair and they didn't want to lose any of it since the sample that would have been tested would be destroyed. So the only other way was to retrieve the remains from the cemetery and hope for the best.

Jesse's hair. Recovered from the original grave at the James farm

On Feb. 23, 1995 the results of the DNA testing was announced. It was 99.7% positive that the remains in the grave at Kearney are, in fact, those of the outlaw, Jesse James.

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~jessejames/JJDNA.html

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~jessejames/starrs.html

Jesse's remains were placed in yet another coffin and re-buried in the same grave at a funeral service on Oct. 28, 1995. This man had two funerals and three burials. That has to be some sort of record.

So, J. Frank Dalton, or whatever his real name was, is buried in a grave with the wrong name. He now becomes an unknown since he never wanted to reveal his true name. I will remember him as J. Frank Dalton. Maybe he should have claimed to be a member of another famous outlaw band, the Dalton Brothers. I guess he just wanted to be Jesse James. Sorry, Mr. Dalton, we don't always get what we want. However, the actual James family has. They know now, and can prove it, that the bones laying in Jesse's grave ARE his.

Exhumation Order for Jesse James' body to be dug up

Opening Jesse's Grave, 1995 ~

Recovering Artifacts ~

When Jesse's grave was opened researchers found something strange. By the arraignment of Jesse's skeleton, he was not laying face up. He was actually laying face down. At first they couldn't figure it out. Why would they have put the coffin in the ground up-side-down. Was there some sort of strange custom that they did? Were those who originally buried the coffin a James enemy? Or was it a mere accident? After checking newspapers for that time in history it was discovered that on the day of the cemetery burial, the weather was terrible. It had rained for days and the cemetery must have been soaked. They must have dug the grave in the mud and when it was time to lower the coffin into the grave, with the family and other mourners gone by then, the workers probably lost control of the coffin, it fell into the hole and landed up-side-down. Not willing to crawl into the grave in all that mud and water to right it, and just wanting to go home themselves, they probably simply filled the grave in. They no doubt thought that no one would ever open the grave again so why worry about it?

.36 Caliber Bullet Found In Grave ~

The same type of bullet that Jesse was said to have carried in his chest from an early wound. And the type of gun that would have fired it

Jesse's Skull ~

The skull has the same type of wound that killed Jesse

Jesse's Teeth ~

The Tie Tack ~

In the death photo of Jesse, he wears a small square tie tack in his tie. The same size and shape tack was found in the grave.

Dead Jesse ~

Jesse In Coffin ~

Jesse's wife, Zee, and his children lived in relative poverty after his death. Jesse would never had allowed this to happen if he had been alive.

Jesse's Children - Jesse E. James, Mary James Barr