If popular culture is to be believed, Jesse James was as close to an American Robin Hood as they come. A popular song about him in 1920s Arkansas went, “Jesse James was a lad who killed many a man / He robbed the Glendale train / He stole from the rich and he gave to the poor / He’d a hand and a heart and a brain.” Like Robin Hood, his vigilante redistribution of wealth, particularly after he killed a bank clerk during a robbery, incensed the authorities, who set a bounty on his head. Unfortunately for James, his Band of Merry Men was less honorable. One shot him dead for the reward.

On this day, April 3, in 1882, Jesse James was shot in the back of his head while hanging pictures at his home in St. Joseph, Missouri. His assassin was his close friend, confidant, and bodyguard, Robert Ford. Ford had negotiated with Missouri governor Thomas Crittendon to bring Jesse James to justice.

Today, a small monument stands at 1318 Lafayette Street in St. Joseph, the exact spot of James’ assassination. To the North, he was an outlaw and a killer, but to the South, he represented a resistance against the brutalities and discrimination of the Union Militia. Every successful crime committed by Jesse James was cheered on by the former Confederate States as revenge against the humiliations of the North.