Born: September 5, 1847
Died: April 3, 1882
AKA: “Dingus,” J. D. Howard

Together with his brother Frank, Jesse James made a career out of robbing banks and trains. Although he was a ruthless killer, he was also a religious family man. Even before he was murdered by a gang-member turned-traitor, the legend of Jesse James was larger than life.

A preacher’s son

Zerelda Cole was just sixteen when she left a Catholic convent to marry Robert James, a well-educated Baptist minister. The couple left Kentucky in the early 1840s to try their luck at running a small farm in Clay County, Missouri, about twenty miles northwest of Kansas City. The couple’s first son, Alexander Franklin James, was born in 1843. Nearly five years later, on September 5, 1847, Jesse Woodson James was born.

Robert James left his family to join the California gold rush. Jesse, who...