They were, at times, cold-blooded killers, yet they had their moments of kindness. Both Frank and Jesse James loved their wives and children, as well as their brothers and sisters, and they revered their beloved mother Zerelda.
Frank loved quoting Shakespeare and Jesse loved quoting the Bible. Both men were always clean and well-dressed. Their horseflesh was the finest and both were refined and educated well enough that they could pass for well off gentlemen no matter where they lived. From Nashville to Maryland to Kentucky to Kansas City – they lived anonymously among the more genteel of folks and made friends.
Their years as outlaws got bloody at times and yet, not all those robberies and killings could ever truthfully be proven that they committed the acts they were accused of. In fact, Frank James stood trial – twice – and was acquitted on all charges.
Jesse – he was convicted by a jury of two – Charlie and Robert Ford. Bob Ford waited until Jesse removed his gun belt, climbed onto a chair and turned his back before shooting Jesse in the back of the head, with the outlaw's two children and wife in the next room.
William "Bloody Bill" Anderson is another story.
Bloody Bill Anderson is being immortalized in a re-enactment of the Battle of Albany (now Orrick, MO) in which he was killed, around the 150th anniversary of the actual battle – late October of 2014. A local Civil War re-enactor who had two ancestors that rode with Quantrill is organizing the event, which have been highly advertised to the point that local historians have become so enraptured by the re-enactment next year, that they forget the heinous acts that Bloody Bill committed.
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| You decide just who Capt. William "Bloody Bill" Anderson truly was and should he be placed on a pedestal simply because he broke off from Quantrill and led a bunch of youngsters on horrific killing sprees? |
I interviewed the re-enactor over a year ago who stated he was proud of his ancestor's deeds as bushwhackers and that he intended to "channel" Bloody Bill for the proposed re-enactment. Channeling smacks of mystical voodoo mumbo jumbo and could be dangerous considering the person he finds so intriguing. He has grown his hair and beard to resemble Anderson and has the locals so wrapped up in the proposed re-enactment that they have forgotten what is truth and what is fiction.
Following my interview last year with the re-enactor, he refused to allow me to interview him again because he claimed I wrote "unfavorable stories about Bloody Bill that would affect a successful re-enactment." Frankly, how can reporting the facts of history be unfavorable unless the historical person committed "unfavorable" acts – or as in this case – heinous mutilations of his victims?
I simply told the facts.
One thing I've learned as I read my fellow historian's articles, books and journals, is that history seems to be relative. Many don't seem to care whether they write the facts or not. They interpret the facts as they want them to be and sometimes they write their own distorted view ... presenting it as factual.
To this end, it is now difficult to discern what is fact and what is fiction.
I've written glowing accounts of Jesse and Frank James' personalities, heralded their beloved father as the evangelical saint that he most likely was – but I have also written of their own terrible deeds. They cut a swath of death and destruction as bushwhackers and then as outlaws. Innocent men died at their hands as well as some not so innocent men.
When writing about events such as these, one must truly remember to state the facts as you know them and insert your opinion, objective or theory of what or why things happened the way they did. Opinion does not always equal the facts. But you must be clear that it is your opinion you are expressing, not muddy the facts and your opinion to the point where you have your readers sloshing around in a bunch of paragraphs that resemble nothing more than mire and muck.
If you've ever seen the insurance commercial where the guy is outside his townhouse in a big city and on his cell phone paying his bill, while a pretty gal comes out and starts chatting with him, then you know what I mean. The gal, wide-eyed with innocence announces that she's meeting a French model for a date whom she met on the Internet and "he has to be a French model because everything you read on the Internet is true."
No – not everything you read is truth and fact.
It is a fact that Jesse and Frank James did ride with Bloody Bill Anderson, and it is unknown if the James boys ever committed any of the mutilations, scalping and other heinous acts that Anderson was known for.
As I proceed with a new series on the bushwhackers of the Civil War, I intend to expose just what Anderson truly did, his own words about his acts and what those who wish to pay homage to the man have to say and what the descendants of Anderson's victims have to say – there are, after all – two sides to every story.
Consider this prior to jumping into future blogs on Anderson – he was 24 years old when he died. For me to put that in perspective, that's the age of my son. Considering the extreme bushiness of facial hair of the day, one can say with tongue in cheek that Anderson was relatively attractive with dark hair and piercing eyes. He had a difficult life, his father was murdered and sisters imprisoned in a woman's prison in Kansas City that collapsed – some died, some were maimed. He later claimed that his sister's suffering is what drove him to maim and mutilate his victims.
Put into perspective that at age 24 in 1864, Anderson would have been 21 at the start of the war. Involved in pre-war fighting, he was younger than that prior to 1861. Frank James once said that if you wanted to train a bunch of men to fight like the devil himself, to be cold and calculated about it, fierce and savage – then train young ones. He went on to say that most of the bushwhackers were under 25 years of age, many under the age of 20. He elaborated that those young ones had less of a conscience than the older men and they were easy to direct.
He might as well have described Bloody Bill Anderson – hero or fiend?
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