At last, and it seemed an hour, he folded it up carefully and returned it to me. “Good news today, Tommy?” “No, boy, no good news. Bad news, awful news, terrible news.” He spoke in an awed voice, a voice that carried reverence. “Terrible news⁠—Jesse James has been murdered, murdered in cold blood and by a traitor.”

He fell silent and spoke to me no more that day. Later he told me many things about Jesse James. He worshiped him, and like many other good people of Missouri firmly believed that neither of the James boys ever fired a shot except in defense of their rights.