Jesse James -- A Typical Boy

Dime novels of the day sometimes described Jesse James as a devil-child who tortured small animals and beat and bullied his schoolmates. What follows is an excerpt from a 1937 W.P.A. interview with James B. McGuire, who claimed to have known Jesse as a boy. The full interview is filled with inaccuracies, but the brief swimming hole incident --expanded and fictionalized in The Jesse James Scrapbook-- seems to show that Jesse, though having a temper, was not much different from other boys.

"Yes, I knew Frank and Jesse James. Now don't misunderstand me. I never was with them in their meanderings or maraudings, but we were raised in the same community as young fellows, they were pretty good boys... We all went to grammar school together...

"We had a favorite swimming hole in the Missouri River and it became a favorite spot for us on hot summer days. It was a favorite trick of Frank's to throw mud on Jesse when he came out of the water. One day Jesse had taken about enough of it, and he rushed at Frank and told him he'd kill him if he didn't stop his teasings...

"The real turning point in shaping the destiny of the James brothers came when one day their stepfather, a man named Benders (sic), was hung by a mob in the orchard at this home. He was accused of harboring desperadoes..."

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