Robert Ford

Robert Newton Ford (January 31, 1862 – June 8, 1892) was an American outlaw who killed fellow outlaw Jesse James on April 3, 1882.

He and his brother Charley, both members of the James–Younger Gang under James's leadership, went on to perform paid re-enactments of the killing at publicity events.

Ford would spend his later years operating multiple saloons and dance halls in the West.

Ten years after James's death, Ford was himself the victim of a fatal shot to the neck by Edward Capehart O'Kelley in Creede, Colorado, dying at only 30 years old.

While initially buried in Creede, his remains were later exhumed and reinterred in his hometown of Richmond, Missouri.

Robert Ford was born in 1862 in Ray County, Missouri, to James Thomas and Mary Bruin Ford as the youngest of seven siblings.

As a young man, Ford came to admire Jesse James for his Civil War record and criminal exploits, eventually getting to meet him in 1880 at the age of 18.

Ford's brother Charley is believed to have taken part in the James–Younger Gang's Blue Cut train robbery in Jackson County, west of Glendale, Missouri (renamed Selsa and now part of Independence), on September 7, 1881.

In November 1881, after the train robbery, James moved his family to St. Joseph, Missouri, and intended to give up crime.

The James gang had been greatly reduced in numbers by that time; some had fled the gang in fear of prosecution, and many of the original members were either dead or in prison after a botched bank robbery in Northfield, Minnesota.

After the train robbery, James' brother Frank James had also decided to retire from crime and moved East, settling in Lynchburg, Virginia.

By the spring of 1882, with his gang depleted by arrests, deaths and defections, James thought that he could trust only the Ford brothers.

Charles had been out on raids with James before, but Robert was an eager new recruit.

The Fords resided in St. Joseph with the James family, where Jesse went by the alias Thomas Howard.

Hoping to keep the gang alive, James invited the Fords to take part in the robbery of the Platte City Bank in Missouri, but the brothers had already decided not to participate; rather, they intended to collect the $10,000 bounty placed on James by Governor Thomas T. Crittenden.

In January 1882, Robert Ford and gang member Dick Liddil had surrendered to Sheriff James Timberlake at their sister Martha Bolton's residence in Ray County.

They were brought into a meeting with Crittenden, as they had been around James' cousin Wood Hite the day Hite was murdered.

Crittenden promised Ford a full pardon if he would kill James, who was by then the most wanted criminal in the US.

Crittenden had made capturing the James brothers his top priority; in his inaugural address he declared that no political motives could be allowed to keep them from justice.

Barred by law from offering a sufficiently large reward, he had turned to the railroad and express corporations to put up a $5,000 bounty for the delivery of each of them and an additional $5,000 for the conviction of either of them.

Living with the James family, the Fords became part of the daily routine, and James's wife cooked for them.

They were nervous and bored, looking for opportunity, and feeling restless.

The confession of Liddil to participating in Hite's murder made the news, and pressure began to build around James.

On April 3, 1882, after eating breakfast, the Fords and James went into the living room before travelling to Platte City.

By reading the daily newspaper, James had just learned of gang member Liddil's confession for participating in Hite's murder and grew increasingly suspicious of the Fords for never reporting this matter to him.

According to Robert Ford, it became clear to him that James had realized they were there to betray him.

However, instead of scolding the Fords, James walked across the living room to lay his revolvers on a sofa.

He turned around and noticed a dusty picture above the mantel, and stood on a chair to clean it.

Robert Ford drew his weapon and shot James in the back of the head.

After the killing, the Fords wired Crittenden to claim their reward.

They surrendered themselves to legal authorities but were dismayed to be charged with first degree murder.

In one day, the Ford brothers were indicted, pleaded guilty, and sentenced to death by hanging, but two hours later Crittenden granted them a full pardon.

Public opinion turned against the Fords for betraying their gang leader, and Robert was seen as a coward and traitor for killing James.

This sentiment clashed with the general public opinion at the time of James's death that it had been time for James To be stopped by any means.

For a period, Robert earned money by posing for photographs as "the man who killed Jesse James" in dime museums.

He also appeared on stage with his brother Charles, reenacting the murder in a touring stage show.

Charles, terminally ill with tuberculosis and addicted to morphine, died by suicide on May 4, 1884.

Soon afterward, Robert Ford and Dick Liddil relocated to Las Vegas, New Mexico, where they opened a saloon.

According to legend, Ford had a shooting contest with Jose Chavez y Chavez, a comrade-in-arms of Billy the Kid's during the Lincoln County War.

Ford lost the contest and left town.