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Morning News

Mystery of Jesse James' Death Stirs Residents of Grandbury, Texas

Aired May 30, 2000 - 10:19 a.m. ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: The legend of the famed outlaw Jesse James runs deep in tales of the old West, but the truth may rest only a few feet beneath Texas soil. This morning, crews are exhuming the grave of a man that many believe was the real Jesse James. He died nearly 70 years after the bandit was said to be gunned down by a member of his own gang.

Reporter Jeff Crilley of our affiliate KDFW joins us with more.

Jeff, quite the wild West mystery we have going on here.

JEFF CRILLEY, KDFW REPORTER: It really is. It's unbelievable that here we are in the year 2000 unearthing a grave of a man who's been dead for some 50 years now. This debate has been going on for that long. The question is: Did he die as it said in the history books, shot by a member of his own gang back in 1882, or did he live to be an old man and die of natural causes in Granbury, Texas?

Well, the people here in Texas are tired of this debate and they want to solve once and for all this mystery of history.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(voice-over): There are many who believe that Jesse James played a hoax on history; that he faked his own death and that he actually lived to be 103 and died in Grandbury, Texas. This is the grave in Grandbury. It reads: Jesse Woodson James, died August 15, 1951, supposedly killed in 1882.

BUD HARDCASTLE, JESSE JAMES HISTORIAN: In 1948 -- May 19, 1948, the "Lawton Constitution" came out on the front page that Jesse James is still alive.

CRILLEY: Bud Hardcastle is considered by many to be one of the leading Jesse James historians in the country.

(on camera): You're saying Jesse James is buried in Grandbury.

HARDCASTLE: I've been saying that for a long time.

CRILLEY (voice-over): Yes, but what about that 1995 DNA study done in Missouri? That's the one in which they exhumed the official grave and found through DNA testing that the remains belonged to Jesse James. Hardcastle says that study was flawed because it was based on DNA from a tooth that didn't come from the grave.

HARDCASTLE: I think what they proved was that they'd go to no limits to say that that's Jesse up there.

CRILLEY (on camera): There's a lot of people who say he was an outlaw, this happened 100 years ago, what different does it make whether he was buried here or there?

HARDCASTLE: Well, history for one thing. It's going to change a lot of history.

CRILLEY: All those history books kids are reading?

HARDCASTLE: That's right. If we're going to have kids read it, let's have them read it right.

CRILLEY (voice-over): Hardcastle says, when you age a young Jesse James with the help of a computer, you end up with the man buried in Grandbury.

HARDCASTLE: The eyes, nose, ears, mouth all match perfectly. And the chances of it being anybody else would be astronomical.

CRILLEY: Soon they will have their answer: The grave in Grandbury will be exhumed and they'll find out once and for all just where Jesse James is trying to rest in peace.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CRILLEY: And the exhumation process should last most of the day and could go into tomorrow. After that time, they will send the bones off to a lab for DNA testing. I'm told it should be late summer before we have our final results on that. But if the people in Grandbury are correct, Jesse James' greatest crime may be the hoax he played on history -- Daryn.

KAGAN: So Jeff, what's really at stake here? His descendants are giving their DNA too to see if that's a match. I mean, is there money in it for somebody along the way here to have bragging rights that they know where the real Jesse James was buried?

CRILLEY: Well, some people say that there's a good tourism business up in Kearney, Missouri with the Jesse James grave. And the folks in Grandbury wouldn't mind a little tourism if this is declared the official Jesse James grave. But many of his descendants are down here right now and they believe that this is the real deal.

KAGAN: That this is for real. Well, we will have to check in late in the summer and find out where the real Jesse James was buried.

Jeff Crilley from our affiliate KDFW, thanks for that report today.

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