EXHUMATION OF JESSE JAMES STIRS CONTROVERSY

This is the marker for Ed O'Kelley in Patton Cemetery, who is actually buried in a pauper's grave in Oklahoma City, Okla. There were attempts to find his actual grave, but they were unsucessful.

Late last year the Signal did a story on Jesse James and how he is, by way of the man who murdered his murderer, a part of Patton's history.

Lately, the question on a lot of people's minds is: Is it really Jesse James buried in that grave in Kearney?

The controversy came back to life when a team of researchers recently dug up the bones of the man who most say belong to Jesse James, the notorious outlaw and bank robber.

Using his DNA and DNA from known descendants, researchers are in the process in determining whether or not it is, in fact, Jesse James.

Some people feel that James faked his own death and even was the father of more children. There are several people that claim to be descendants of those children.

These people and others claim James lived to the ripe old age of 107 and is buried in northwestern Missouri.

John Knowles of Patton is convinced it is Jesse James in that grave site. Knowles is the great-grandnephew of Ed O'Kelley, the man who murdered Bob Ford.

Bob Ford was the renegade member of the Jesse James gang and is the man who supposedly murdered Jesse James for the $10,000 reward money in 1882.

"I don't understand the thinking that Jesse James would fake his own death," Knowles said. "I think that is him in the grave. I've never heard any different."

And Knowles in somewhat in a position to know. His daughter, Judith Ries of St. Louis, has written a book entitled "Ed O'Kelley: The Man Who Murdered Jesse James' Murderer."

The book is the story of Ed O'Kelley, who grew up in Patton, and maybe even rode with the James gang for a period.

It tells the whole story of how O'Kelley came to be known as the man who murdered Jesse James' murderer.

Jesse James murdered

The story begins for us with a 35-year-old Jesse James, who has a price on his head and is running from the law. James was calling himself Thomas Howard.

He was standing on a chair, hanging a picture in his home in St. Joseph. Bob Ford was visiting Jesse, and since Ford had ridden with James and his gang, he was one of the last people Jesse James would suspect would shoot him.

But Ford needed money, and apparently the $10,000 was more important than his loyalty to Jesse James.

So most people agree that Ford did kill James, and even George Starr, the man who is leading the project that has dug up Jesse James' bones believes that the bones are James'.

Knowles and his family acknowledge the possibility that Ed O'Kelley, who grew up in Patton, was also a member of the Jesse James gang and murdered Ford because Ford killed James 10 years before.

Apparently, O'Kelley had a deep admiration and respect for Jesse James.

The murder of Bob Ford: the man who murdered Jesse James

In the early 1890s, both Ford and O'Kelley had ended up in the Old West mining town of Creede, Colo.

Ford was a saloon owner who was infamous as the man who killed Jesse James. He was not liked and was known for bullying people around and causing trouble. Ed O'Kelley seemed to harbor an intense hatred for Ford.

Ries believes it is because Ford killed O'Kelley's hero.

On June 2, 1892, Ford and O'Kelley who had several ill-mannered meetings before, got into an argument in Ford's saloon. The newspapers never established the reason for the argument.

Six days later, O'Kelley shot and killed Ford with a sawed-off shotgun blast to his head, nearly decapitating him.

O'Kelley didn't even run. He walked out of the saloon and into the sheriff, who had come to see who had gotten shot.

O'Kelley served 20 years for the murder of Bob Ford and was released. O'Kelley was free for only two years before he was killed in a gun fight with law officers in Oklahoma City, Okla.

O'Kelley was buried in a pauper's grave near Oklahoma City.

Ries made attempts to locate his grave, but was unsuccessful. However, she did put up a memorial marker in Patton Cemetery to remember the man who shot the man who shot Jesse James.

Descendants of the O'Kelleys still live in Patton today. Ries said in doing her book, the older generation were still hesitant to talk about Ed O'Kelley. Her family has always been good, honest citizens and she said the older generation still feels the shame of his ill deed, over 90 years after his death.

And to the question of who lies in that grave in Kearney?

If it is not Jesse James in that grave then who is it? Who did Bob Ford kill, if anyone? If Ford didn't kill James, then why did O'Kelley kill Ford?

Knowles says he admits he would be disappointed if those are not Jesse James' bones.

But, as Knowles said, life will go on if they are not.