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"I
was eating an an eatin' house in Quincy, Ill., when I had stuffed
my fill and light my pipe, I found out that one of the men eatin'
there was Jesse James . Was I scared? I wouldn't of eatin' a bite
had I known Jesse was there. He carried two big revolvers on his
hips. His brother Frank was there too. They often came to Quincy.
They always came with horses. They were good judges. The horses
weighed about 1100 lbs. They were built for racing. They had the
prettiest saddles. Silver all over. Both of the men had whiskers.
Jesse had a full beard. Frank had a mustache. They were well dressed.
Had big cowboy hats on. I seen them lots of times. The Ford boys
were there too. They were just as bad as the James boys. This was
in the 60's after the Civil War, and in the 70's.
They were all good sized. Strong. Frank had black hair. Black beard,
that is a goatee. Jesse had full beard, five inches long. They all
had big guns. They wouldn't hurt anybody. They'd ask, "How is it."
And if you tell them you had tough sailing, they would reach in
their pockets and give $40 or $50.
All these boys were a gang. By God, these times were hard. When
these guys wanted money, they went in broad daylight to get their
money. No one would dare shoot when they robbed a bank. Quincy was
a great town for them to hang out. The James boys nearly always
done the bold robbing. The Ford boys done the protecting.
The James boys were liked by the poor and God knows there was plenty
of us and the law made no serious effort to get them.
Ford was bribed and given a big chunk of money to get Jesse. He
shot him the back while he was shaving thru the door."
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