Is Jesse James really in that Missouri grave. (original) (raw)

DUBLIN, Tex. Feb. 24 � (UP)

Contradicting the old saloon-day refrain Uncle Bill Goodwin, 77, former peace officer and boyhood playmate of the James brothers, claims that Jesse James posed as his own slayer and collected the bounty which had been placed on his head.

"It's all a mistake," said Goodwin. "What really happened was that when Jesse found Bob was plotting to kill him, Jesse killed Bob and sold Ford's body to the law, claiming it was that of Jesse James."

After that the outlaw lived as a peaceable citizen under the name of the man he killed, the aging Goodwin declared.

"How do I know?" Goodwin anticipated the inevitable question. "I saw Jesse and talked to him in Brownwood long after 'his' funeral was held. He was a prosperous and respected business man at Brownwood."

According to the version of his former playmate Jesse James died with his boots off in a linened bed at Brownwood in 1898.

Goodwin is positive of the identity of the famous desperado:

"Frank James, his brother, was with me at the time. We went to Brownwood for the very purpose of seeing Jesse. Besides, when I was a kid back in Clay County, Missouri, I played with Frank and Jesse."

A Robin Hood code of ethics was one of the virtues seen by Goodwin in the most publicized highwaymen who ever held up a Southwestern stagecoach.

He recalled how the James brothers, touched by sight of a Weatherford widow's tears, inquired the cause of her sorrow and learned that a mortgage was to be foreclosed because she was unable to meet a $600 payment.

Jesse, according to Goodwin, gave the widow money to pay the mortgage when the sheriff called, then lay in wait and robbed the officer.

"How do I know?" asked Uncle Bill. "Well I was somewhere there abouts."

Goodwin has lived here 50 years, acting as marshal of the town through the 90's. During the Civil War his father was shot to death by Missouri bushwhackers. Goodwin set out to find the slayer.

Was he successful? He prefers not to say, but he is no longer on the hunt.

�

Murray Montgomery
Lone Star Diary October 3, 2007 Column