Robert Ford

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Robert Newton Ford
Robert Ford with the weapon he used to kill Jesse James, undated.
Born	January 31, 1862(1862-01-31) Ray County, Missouri, USA
Died	June 8, 1892 (aged 30) Creede, Colorado, USA

Robert Newton "Bob" Ford (January 31, 1862 – June 8, 1892) was a Ray County, Missouri born American outlaw best known for killing his gang leader Jesse James in 1882. Ford was shot to death by Edward O'Kelley in his tent saloon with a shotgun blast to the front upper body. ^[1] He was buried in Creede, later reburied at Richmond Cemetery in Ray County, with "The man that shot Jesse James" inscribed on his grave marker.^[2]

Early years

Robert Ford was born in Ray County, Missouri, to James Thomas Ford and his wife Mary Bruin. As a young man, he became an admirer of Jesse James for his war record and his celebrated criminal exploits. In 1880 he finally met James. Ford's brother Charles is believed to have taken part in the James gang's Blue Cut train robbery^[3] in Jackson County near Glendale, Missouri (now part of Independence), on September 7, 1881.^[4]

Joining the Gang

In November 1881, James moved his family to St. Joseph, Missouri. He intended to give up crime, but first wanted to stage one last robbery at Blue Cut, Missouri. The James gang had been greatly reduced in number by that time. Some had fled the gang in fear of prosecution, and many of the original members were either dead or in prison after a botched robbery (the Northfield, Minnesota, raid) in Northfield, Minnesota. After the train robbery, Frank James decided to retire from crime, settling in Lynchburg, Virginia.^[5]

By the spring of 1882, with his gang depleted by arrests, deaths, and defections, James thought that he could only trust the Ford brothers.^[6] Charles had been out on raids with James before, but Bob was an eager new recruit. The Fords resided in St. Joseph with the James family, where Jesse went by the alias of Thomas Howard. The Ford brothers passed themselves off as Bob and Charles Johnson, Howard's cousins.^{[citation needed]}

Hoping to keep the gang alive, James invited the Fords to take part in the robbery of the Platte City Bank, but the brothers had already decided not to take part in the robbery in order to collect the $10,000 bounty placed on James by Missouri Governor Thomas T. Crittenden. Robert Ford had been brought into a meeting with Crittenden for being in the presence of Jesse James' cousin Wood Hite the day Hite was murdered. As a result, Crittenden promised Ford a full pardon if he would also kill Jesse James,^{[citation needed]} who was by then the most wanted criminal in America. Crittenden had made capture of the James brothers his top priority; in his inaugural address he declared that no political motives could be allowed to keep them from justice. Barred by law from offering a sufficiently large reward, he had turned to the railroad and express corporations to put up a $5,000 bounty for each of them. President Ulysses S. Grant had also wanted James to be captured. ^[7]

Assassinating Jesse James

Jesse James's home in St. Joseph, where he was shot

On April 3, 1882, after eating breakfast, the Fords and James went into the living room in preparation for the trip to Platte City. James had just learned of gang member Dick Liddil's confession for participating in Hite's murder while reading the daily newspaper, and grew increasingly suspicious of the Fords for never reporting this matter to him. According to Robert Ford, it became clear to him that James had realized they were there to betray him. However, instead of scolding the Fords, James walked across the living room to lay his revolvers on a sofa. He then turned around and noticed a dusty picture above the mantle, and stood on a chair in order to clean it. Robert Ford then drew his weapon, and shot the unarmed Jesse James in the back of the head.^[8][9] James' wife Zerelda Mimms ran into the room and screamed, "You've killed him." Robert Ford's immediate response was, "I swear to God I didn't." After the assassination, the Fords wired Crittenden to claim their reward. They turned themselves in to the law, but were dismayed to find that they were charged with first degree murder. In one day, the Ford brothers were indicted, pleaded guilty, and sentenced to death by hanging, but two hours later Crittenden granted them a full pardon.^[10] Despite the deal that was made with Crittenden, the Ford brothers received only a fraction of the money they were originally promised. ^[11]

Letter to Governor Thomas Crittenden

Ford wrote a letter to Crittenden, telling his version of how he killed Jesse James (April 1882):^[12]

On the morning of April 3, Jesse and I went downtown, as usual, before breakfast, for the papers. We got to the house about eight o'clock and sat down in the front room. Jess was sitting with his back to me, reading the St. Louis Republican. I picked up the [Kansas City] Times, and the first thing I saw in big headlines was the story about Dick Liddil's surrender. Just then Mrs. James came in and said breakfast was ready. Beside me was a chair with a shawl on it, and as quick as a flash I lifted it and shoved the paper under. Jess couldn't have seen me, but he got up, walked over to the chair, picked up the shawl and threw it on the bed, and taking the paper, went out to the kitchen. I felt that the jig was up, but I followed and sat down at the table opposite Jess.

Mrs. James poured out the coffee and then sat down at one end of the table. Jesse spread the paper on the table in front of him and began to look over the headlines. All at once Jess said: "Hello, here. The surrender of Dick Liddil." And he looked across at me with a glare in his eyes.

"Young man, I thought you told me you didn't know that Dick Liddil had surrendered," he said.

I told him I didn't know it.

"'Well," he said, "it's very strange. He surrendered three weeks ago and you was right there in the neighborhood. It looks fishy."

He continued to glare at me, and I got up and went into the front room. In a minute I heard Jess push his chair back and walk to the door. He came in smiling, and said pleasantly: "Well, Bob, it's all right, anyway."

Instantly his real purpose flashed upon my mind. I knew I had not fooled him. He was too sharp for that. He knew at that moment as well as I did that I was there to betray him. But he was not going to kill me in the presence of his wife and children. He walked over to the bed, and deliberately unbuckled his belt, with four revolvers in it, and threw it on the bed. It was the first time in my life I had seen him without that belt on, and I knew that he threw it off to further quiet any suspicions I might have.

He seemed to want to busy himself with something to make an impression on my mind that he had forgotten the incident at the breakfast table, and said: "That picture is awful dusty." There wasn't a speck of dust that I could see on the picture, but he stood a chair beneath it and then got upon it and began to dust the picture on the wall.

As he stood there, unarmed, with his back to me, it came to me suddenly, 'Now or never is your chance. If you don't get him now he'll get you tonight.' Without further thought or a moment's delay I pulled my revolver and leveled it as I sat. He heard the hammer click as I cocked it with my thumb and started to turn as I pulled the trigger. The ball struck him just behind the ear and he fell like a log, dead.

Later years

Bob Ford earned his living by posing for photographs as "the man who killed Jesse James" in dime museums.^[13] He also appeared on stage with his brother, reenacting the murder in a touring stage show,^[7] but his performance was not well received. Bob's brother Charley, terminally ill with tuberculosis and addicted to morphine, committed suicide on May 4, 1884.^[14] Soon afterward, Bob Ford and Dick Liddil relocated to Las Vegas, New Mexico where they opened a saloon. ^[15] By early 1885, Bob Ford had become a Las Vegas city policeman.^{[citation needed]} According to legend, Ford, unpopular with his constituents, was eventually goaded into a shooting contest with Jose Chavez y Chavez, a comrade-in-arms of Billy the Kid during the Lincoln County War. Ford shot and missed at a coin on a signpost, while Chavez hit his target. Ford claimed the match had been unfair, and Chavez promptly challenged him to a duel. Ford declined and immediately left town.^[16]

On December 26, 1889 Ford survived an assassination attempt in Kansas City, Kansas when an assailant tried to slit his throat.^[17]

Within a few years, Robert Ford had settled in Colorado, where he opened a saloon-gambling house in Walsenberg. When silver was found in Creede, Ford closed his saloon and opened one there.^[18]

On the eve of Easter 1892, Ford and gunman Joe Palmer, a member of the Soapy Smith gang, were drinking in the local saloons and proceeded to shoot out windows and street lamps along Creede's Main Street. With the help of friends and business partners of Smith, they were soon allowed to return. Ford purchased a lot and on May 29, 1892, opened Ford's Exchange, said to have been a dance hall.^[19] Six days later, the entire business district, including Ford's Exchange, burned to the ground in a major fire. Ford opened a tent saloon until he could rebuild.

Assassination

Edward O'Kelley

Three days after the fire, on June 8, 1892, Edward O'Kelley entered Ford's tent saloon with a shotgun. According to witnesses, Ford's back was turned. O'Kelley said, "Hello, Bob." As Ford turned to see who it was, O'Kelley fired both barrels, killing Ford instantly. O'Kelley became "the man who killed the man who killed Jesse James." O'Kelley's sentence was commuted because of a medical condition, and he was released on October 3, 1902.^[20] O'Kelley was killed on January 13, 1904 while trying to shoot a policeman.

Ford was buried in Creede, but later was exhumed and reburied in Richmond, Ray County, Missouri, at Richmond Cemetery.^[2]

Cultural depictions

Films

• In the 1939 film Jesse James, Ford is played by John Carradine.
• In the 1940 film The Return of Frank James, a highly fictionalized film about Frank James hunting down Bob and Charley Ford. The film, directed by Fritz Lang, is a sequel to Jesse James, which also features the Fords. John Carradine reprised his role.
• In the 1949 film I Shot Jesse James, directed by Samuel Fuller, Ford is portrayed by John Ireland.
• In the 1957 film Hell's Crossroads, Robert Vaughn plays Bob Ford.
• In the 1980 film The Long Riders, Nicholas and Christopher Guest play Bob and Charley Ford.
• In the 1995 film Frank & Jesse, Jim Flowers plays Bob Ford.
• In the 2006 TV movie The Plot to Kill: Jesse James, and the 2007 TV movie Jesse James: American Outlaw (both produced by The History Channel), Ford is portrayed by James Horton.
• In the 2007 film The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, based on the historical-fiction novel by Ron Hansen, Ford is played by Casey Affleck, who was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. The film is considered as one of the most historically accurate portrayals of Jesse James and Robert Ford, even by James' descendants, who found both performances more realistic and true to history than the dozens that came before them.^[21]

Television series

• In 1960, Charles Aidman guest starred in Season 1 Episode 10 of the TV series Shotgun Slade titled "Bob Ford."

Literature

• In Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle's 1976 novel Inferno, Ford is depicted as being in Hell as a traitor.
• In an episode of Little House on the Prairie, Ford is portrayed as a student at Walnut Grove School.

Music

• In the Bob Dylan song "Outlaw Blues", Dylan alludes to Ford with the lines, "I ain't gonna hang no picture/Ain't gonna hang no picture frame/Well I might look like a Robert Ford/But I feel just like a Jesse James."
• The 1975 Elton John song "I Feel Like a Bullet (In the Gun of Robert Ford)" refers to a betrayal in a romantic relationship that is metaphorically likened to Jesse James' assassin.
• In the Warren Zevon song "Frank and Jesse James," Ford is mentioned in the lyrics "Robert Ford, a gunman/In exchange for his parole/Took the life of James the outlaw/Which he snuck up on and stole."

See also

• James-Younger Gang
• Jesse James
• Charley Ford
• Dick Liddil
• Wood Hite

External links

• Ford on Legends of America
• Official website for the Family of Jesse James: Stray Leaves, A James Family in America Since 1650
• Robert Ford and his Colorado saloon with photos from the U.S. National Archives and Library of Congress

Further Reading

• Ries, Judith. Ed O'Kelley: The Man Who Murdered Jesse James' Murderer. St. Louis, Mo.: Patches Publication. 1994
• Yeatman, Ted. Frank and Jesse James Nashville: Cumberland House, 2001.

References