Amager Bryghus Jesse James

Amager Bryghus – Jesse James: Folk hero and modern day Robin Hood, or cold blooded killer and terrorist? The opinions about Jesse James are many, but maybe the truth is that he was all of these things. Born in 1847 as part of Missouri known as Little Dixie, it was set solidly apart from the South and therefore held strong sympathies for the Confederate cause. In 1861 the Civil War raged in Missouri. Backwater pro-slavery militias fought Northern anti-slavery militias, and brutal guerrilla raids were tearing the state apart, with both sides committing horrible atrocities. At the age of only 16, Jesse joined Bloody Bill Anderson’s guerrillas. From 6 September 1864 the gang raided Centralia, Missouri, dragging 24 unarmed Union soldiers from a train and killing them. A force of Union infantry men in pursuit of the gang was later ambushed leading to another 120 slain Union soldiers. Jesse alone reportedly killing 17 of them. With the Civil War finally over many former Confederate militia men turned to outlawry, and so did James and his older brother Frank, joining in the James-Younger Gang. A spree of brutal and bloody bank robberies followed, with Jesse justifying many of his actions with his hatred of the Union and the industrial North. Local media in many cases glorified Jesse’s often sadistic killings painting a picture of him as some Southern Robin Hood. There is, however, no evidence that the gang ever shared its loot. If anything many outside of the South came to hate him. And on April 3rd, 1882, the Ford brothers, both members of the James gang, visited Jesse in his home. They had gathered to plan the next robbery. As Jesse got up from a chair to dust and adjust a picture on the wall, he heard the sound of a pistol being cocked behind him. He turned, but a bullet penetrated Jesse’s skull just below the right ear. Jesse James had died at the age of 34.