History UsefulNotes / JesseJames

* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'': In "Showdown With Rance [=McGrew=]", Rance [=McGrew=] is an arrogant actor with way too much creative control who stars in a Western show where he never loses and outlaws like Jesse James are weaklings and cowards. He abruptly finds himself in the real Wild West where Jesse James says he and his fellow outlaws are displeased with how they are portrayed on his show. He challenges Rance to a duel with real guns, and Rance quickly folds and begs for mercy. Rance finds himself back in the present, but Jesse James is now his agent who revises the show so that the outlaws are tougher.

Not to be confused with country singer Music/JessieJames. Or [[Anime/PokemonTheSeries Team Rocket]], of whom were named after the outlaw. Or the porn actor who goes by the same name.

Jesse and his elder brother, Frank, fought as guerrillas with the bushwacking Quantrill's Raiders during the UsefulNotes/AmericanCivilWar. In sharp contrast to the later myth of the James as poor farmers and soldiers turning to war, the James family were relatively well-off. They had a substantial farm growing hemp and tobacco before the Civil War, and they owned seven slaves. The Younger Family (Cole, Jim, Bob and John), future allies and compatriots of James' gang were in fact descendants of the richest slaveowning family in Jackson County, Missouri. The James and Younger family served alongside the notorious William Quantrill and [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Bloody Bill Anderson]] in several guerrilla wars in Kansas and Missouri against the Jayhawkers, anti-slavery militants from Kansas. They were involved in the Lawrence and Centralia Massacres in particular.

His criminal fame took off after Anti-Reconstruction newspaper editorials claimed that Jesse and Frank wanted revenge for the appropriation of their family and neighbors' farms by investors who wanted to build a railroad there. Their robberies sabotaged railroad constructions and they robbed banks where the investors kept their money. Even during his life, the James and Younger gangs were seen as {{folk hero}}es and {{living legend}}s, which elevated Jesse James as a Myth/RobinHood character, who rebelled against the government and gave his stolen goods to the poor. While it's true that in only two train hold-ups passengers were robbed since James typically limited himself to the express safe in the baggage car, the gang always kept the money to themselves. They also killed civilians and took medicine intended for the poor and needy.

An attempt to rob a bank in Northfield, Minnesota in 1876 [[BewareTheNiceOnes was met with whole bunch of gunfire]] and the Youngers were arrested. Jesse and Frank managed to escape and kept hidden for three years. In 1879 they started a new gang robbing banks and trains. In 1882 the 34-year-old Jesse was murdered by one of his own gang members, Robert Ford.

* Music/WoodyGuthrie wrote a song about him, "Jesse James", later covered by Music/ThePogues on ''Run, Sodomy & the Lash'' and by Music/BruceSpringsteen on ''The Seeger Sessions''.

%%* BadassBeard: He had a five o' clock shadow stubble beard.

* ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'': Jessie and James take their names from him. In Japan, they were respectively named after UsefulNotes/MiyamotoMusashi and UsefulNotes/SasakiKojiro instead.

Not to be confused with country singer Music/JessieJames. Or [[Anime/{{Pokemon}} Team Rocket]], of whom were named after the outlaw. Or the porn actor who goes by the same name.

* ''VideoGame/GunfighterTheLegendOfJesseJames'' is a LightGunGame where players assume the role of Jesse to take down a corrupt sheriff.

* Jesse James is one of the eponymous outlaws to appear in Film/TheThreeStooges feature film ''The Outlaws is Coming''.

* ''Gunfighter: The Legend of Jesse James'' is a LightGunGame where players assume the role of Jesse to take down a corrupt sheriff.

* Country singer-songwriter Paul Kennerly wrote a very star-studded concept album based on James' life, featuring Music/JohnnyCash, Charlie Daniels, Emmylou Harris and Levon Helm, with comics artist Creator/HowardChaykin drawing the cover art.

* He and Frank James appear alongside UsefulNotes/BillyTheKid in ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' episode ''Treehouse Of Horror XIII''.

* ''Series/TheBradyBunch'': In the episode "[[Recap/TheBradyBunchS4E17BobbysHero Bobby's Hero]]", Bobby becomes so fascinated with Jesse James that he brings a toy gun to school and makes his teachers and parents very concerned. Finally, Jethroe Collins, the (fictional) son of one of James's victims, tells Bobby how his father was gunned down by James, and Bobby's subsequent OpinionChangingDream makes him change his mind. For such a light-hearted [[TheSeventies 1970s]] sitcom, it's one of the few Hollywood productions that depicted James accurately as the horrifying AxCrazy killer. While Collins was a fictional character, the story he tells is pulled from historical accounts of James's murders.

* James appears in two episodes of ''Series/ThePinkertons'': The pilot, where he participates in the very first TrainJob, and "Frontier Desperados", where he helps the future Belle Starr kidnap her husband (and becomes her lover as well).

* ''Film/TheGreatNorthfieldMinnesotaRaid'', a 1972 Western.

* ''Series/TheBradyBunch'': In the episode "[[Recap/TheBradyBunchS4E17BobbysHero Bobby's Hero]]", Bobby becomes so fascinated with Jesse James that he brings a toy gun to school and makes his teachers and parents very concerned. Finally, Jethroe Collins, the son of one of James's victims and noted biographer, tells Bobby how his father was gunned down by James, and Bobby's subsequent OpinionChangingDream makes him change his mind. For such a light-hearted [[TheSeventies 1970s]] sitcom, it's one of the few Hollywood productions that depicted James accurately as the AxCrazy killer.

* ''Series/TheBradyBunch'': In the episode "[[Recap/TheBradyBunchS4E17BobbysHero Bobby's Hero]]", Bobby becomes so fascinated with Jesse James that he brings a toy gun to school and makes his teachers and parents very concerned. Eventually an OpinionChangingDream makes him change his mind.