Image Scammer Exposed on YouTube

[Melvin Graf]

I did not produce this video but I'd sure like to shake the hand of the guy/gal who did.  It focuses on a person who produced a degree of chaos here a while back and was subsequently banned.  I see that he's recently reduced the James Family Genealogy Forum on genealogy.com to an advertisement for his misidentified collection just as he tried to do on here.  Having studied many other areas of history, I remain amazed at the number of absolute nutbags, besides the normal honest folks, that Jesse James seems to attract.  Anyway, it's good to see this particular scammer exposed on YouTube. 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHYBkPyT080

 

Mel

[Carolyn A.S. Holmes]

Mrs. Duke says, "Many of the photographs matched. I made arrangements for a forensic artist at the Texas Department of Public Safety in Austin to examine the photos. I needed an expert opinion to lend credibility to my findings. She was very impressed. She had another woman in the photo lab scan a picture of my great-great-grandmother and a picture of Jesse James' mother, Zerelda James Samuel, through a computer that is capable of lifting fingerprints off material.

"The computer proved what I already knew - their dresses were identical in every way.

"The photography supervisor's comment was, 'How many little old ladies that looked just alike, missing an arm and wearing identical dresses, were running around Missouri?'

 

I don't know why the last paragraph strikes me as so comical but one can almost vision someone taking in a gunny sack full of photos and dumping them on a table and saying bring me your sketch atrist. Out of the back room comes a slender little man, moustash, wearing thick bifocals and carring a sketch pad. Yes Mam, how can I be of service to ya.

I can clearly understand the two women at DPS that did not want their names published. Most likely thinking, " If a bucket has a big hole in the bottom, will it hold water?"

 

"The DPS women do not want their names published."

One of the women was away from her office last week and unavailable. The other said: "I couldn't tell Mrs. Duke anything conclusively. She's found a number of coincidences and similarities. I understand why she would believe as she does. The only real encouragement I offered was to suggest that she organize her evidence in a more analytical format - rather than just dumping a bag of materials on a table."

[Fran Bolton]

"The only real encouragement I offered was to suggest that she organize her evidence in a more analytical format - rather than just dumping a bag of materials on a table."

 

Therein lies the problem, there is no evidence to organize in an analytical format.

All the researcher's names who you have mentioned, "Linda Snyder, CC Taylor"  Hedgpeth, Courtney family, Barron family, yourself from years past, and more recent names, Rollie Taylor, myself, and many others, have offered evidence, often in an analytical format. Each and every bit of evidence was turned down, discarded, berated, and/or denied.

What was accepted and embraced, was a family tree recently done by a present researcher, who describes her process of building family trees in this manner: " I add names JUST IN CASE it turns out later that they fit".

http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=AHN&db=ediso...

Fran

[Carolyn A.S. Holmes]

She probably just laughs them off. What else can one do but laugh.

[Chuck Rabas]

Betty is well aware of their activities but stays above the fray.  Knowing her, I believe she doesn't think they're worth even acknowledging.

They have been exposed by enough competent historians that they are considered laughingstocks by the historical community.  The only people they are fooling are themselves and those whose knowledge of history is negligible.

 

 

[Carolyn A.S. Holmes]

That's truly sad on her part. She has a good story without making JLC out to be Jesse James. Seems like she is trying to shove a square peg into a round hole with photos that anyone can look at and agree they are not the same person she claims them to be. Maybe the story works for some but my personal opinion is that the photos blow the story out of the water.

[Fran Bolton]

Jim, would Betty Barr be right to call them her detractors?

Detractor:

To draw or take away; divert:

To reduce the value, importance, or quality of something.

While researchers and family members have erroneously been called detractors who have tried to  point out the value, importance, and quality of the life of James L Courtney who died in TX in 1943, they should be called the opposite:

Aides, allies, assistants, confidants, friends and helpers, who have proven the true identity of JLC. As is the stated goal.

No one has taken away from, diverted, reduced the value/importance/quality of his true identity and family history.

Fran

[Eric James]

The James family already has had the experience of taking claimants to court. The experience is never satisfactory. In the most publicized case, the James family ended up paying for the mental health care of a claimant who was easily proved insane.

Anyone who claims a family relationship to the James that is not true is practicing a form of insanity, because the claimant knows their claim cannot be proved. This same insanity extends to those who make false claims about artifacts and images, when the insanity becomes a question of the degree of insanity being exercised. The more persistent the false claim, the more insanity exists.

Who is willing to underwrite the expense of prosecuting the multitude of insane people who persist in making false claims? The James family certainly isn't, and won't. It's a waste of time, effort, and money, that could be better spent.

The judgement of the insanity of claimants today sits in the court of pubic opinion. Until the insane rule as a majority, the insane and their claims will be marginalized. But even should they die, their insanity will not disappear. That's a false expectation. A new crop will always reappear to fill any void. For too many, it's simply too irresistible an opportunity not to be noticed, even if it comes with the cost of being labeled insane.

[Carolyn A.S. Holmes]

Scammers and crooks make it in Wild West Magazine. Yeah them. Now the photo can really get circulated out there and let the world judge from themselves. Those who are fooled by this claim see me about ocean front property in Arizonia.

[Carolyn A.S. Holmes]

"The Kansas City Journal" (Missouri) Saturday, February 11, 1911

MOTHER OF JAMES BOYS DIES ON TRAIN

Aged Woman Expires on Way to Kansas City from Frank's Farm

HEART DISEASE CAUSE

Will Be Buried by Side of Jesse at Old Home at Kearney, MO

Oklahoma City, Feb. 10. --- Mrs. Zerelda JAMES SAMUEL,
86 years old, mother of Jesse and Frank JAMES, the ex-bandits,
died in the stateroom of a Pullman car of the Frisco train as it
was entering the city limits here this evening. Heart trouble was
the cause of death, being almost instant. Mrs. SAMUEL was
in company with her daughter-in-law, Mrs. Frank JAMES of
Fletcher, Ok.

They were en route to Excelsior Springs, Mo.,
where the aged woman expected to spend the rest of the winter
with her two daughters, before returning to the old JAMES
homestead near Kearney, Mo.

 

 

 Mrs. Sallie NICHOLSON and Mrs. Fannie
HALL, all of Excelsior Springs, Mo. She was the widow of
Dr. SAMUEL, whom she married after the death of her husband,
the father of Jesse and Frank JAMES. She had spent most of her
life on the old homestead at Kearney, Mo.

Mrs. SAMUEL's maiden name was Zerelda COLE, and she was
born in Kentucky. Early in life she was married to Rev. Robert
JAMES, a Baptist minister of good education. In 1850, Rev. Mr.
JAMES went to California with a party of goldseekers and died
shortly after his arrival there, leaving his young wife with three
small children, Alexander Franklin, Jesse Woodson, and Susie,
the latter now the wife of a Texas ranchman.

In 1851, the young widow of 26 was married to a farmer named
SIMMS. He was a widower with children, and the union proved
unhappy, being terminated by separation in less than a year.
Mrs. SIMMS alleged that the chief trouble arose from the fact
that her three children, whom she had always humored and
indulged, gave the stepfather, who was 52 years old, no end
of annoyance.

SIMMS died shortly afterward, and a few years later, Mrs.
SIMMS became the wife of Dr. Reuben SAMUEL, with whom
she lived at the old home place near Kearney for many years.

During the Civil war Mrs. SAMUEL endured many hardships.
Her son, Frank, was being sought by federal soldiers, after a
career in the brush, and threats and violence were resorted to
secure information from the family. In May, 1863, SAMUEL
was taken out and hung by the neck until nearly exhausted
and Jesse, then 16 years of age, who was plowing in the field,
was whipped severely.

A few weeks later, Mr. and Mrs. SAMUEL were arrested and
taken to St. Joseph. Mrs. SAMUEL was accused of feeding
and harboring bushwhackers, but no charge was preferred
against Dr. SAMUEL. Susie JAMES was not arrested. Both
children remained in prison with Mrs. SAMUEL. A few months
later, another child was born, John SAMUEL, a former alderman
of Excelsior Springs.

Dr. SAMUEL was a familiar figure at the JAMES farm to visitors
until his death a few years ago.

Northwest Missouri during Mrs. SAMUEL' early residence was
a hotbed of sectional feelings. Freebooters and plunderers roamed
the country, robbing, slaying, laying waste, with not the slightest
regard for either law or decency. It was in the midst of this law-
lessness that Mrs. SAMUEL made her home. The two sons,
always wild and unmanageable identified themselves with one of
the guerrilla bands, Quantrell's, and left their mother's house.

When the boys returned home at the close of the war, they were
the lions of the day. Everybody in that section supposed that they
had been serving in the Confederate army, and nothing was too
good for them. The sons were very careful to foster this impression,
and were aided by their mother who was very proud of them.

It was this feeling among the people that permitted the JAMES
boys in their later operations to go so long without being either
killed or captured. Their mother believed they were objects of
Northern hatred and did everything in her power to protect them.
In these exploits of the JAMES boys, when they attained a total
of $285,000 by robbing banks in Independence, Lexington,
Richmond, Liberty and Gallatin, Mo., Mrs. SAMUEL lived in
exactly the same style. It always was a mystery to the people
of Clay county what the JAMES boys did with their money.
Their mother never dressed any better and there never was an
acre added to their homestead.

The hanging of WHICHER, a Pinkerton man, sent to capture the
outlaws, which took place in the yard of the JAMES homestead,
led to the death of the youngest son, Archie, and the maiming of
Mrs. SAMUEL, who lost an arm when a dynamite bomb was
exploded in the house.

For twenty years the body of Jesse JAMES, who was killed at
St. Joseph April 3, 1882, by Bob FORD, a treacherous member
of the JAMES gang, was buried in the back yard of the SAMUEL
homestead, near Kearney. The old farm became a mecca for
thousands of curiosity seekers attracted by the glamour of
adventure and the recklessness and lawlessness displayed by
the JAMES boys during the years of their outlawry in the West.
Mrs. SAMUEL made her home in the same cabin, where she had
lived since coming from Kentucky and took much interest in telling
these thousands of sightseers the story of her life and of her
two sons.

The grave where the body of Jesse rested for so many years was
the last point of interest to which the white haired mother took her
visitors. It was her shrine and she guarded it zealously from all
dangers which menaced it. Some of these were real as well as
fancied, for when the outlaw was first buried there, there were
numerous attempts to steal the body. In June, 1902, the body
was removed, and reinterred at Kearney.

Mrs. SAMUEL never lost faith in her two boys, and during the
years that detectives drawn by offers of large rewards scoured
the country for them, she considered that they were hounded
and unjustly treated.

"Will these detectives never let us alone?" she said one day at
the home of her son Frank, then at 3402 Tracy avenue, and as
she spoke she raised the stump of her right arm in the air.

"Look on their work," she continued, "my arm torn off, my little
boy murdered, my son shot, and my husband strung up by the
neck because he would not tell something he did not know. I
am an old woman, and I have suffered enough to make me 100.
I do know that I often pleaded with the boys not to kill anyone,
but the people will believe anything.

"There is a little grave down at Kearney that holds the baby
victim of the detectives. They stole up to my house at midnight,
and set it on fire and threw a hand grenade in at the window. Not
one of the miserable cowards showed his face, but they skulked
in the brush, waiting for their murderous instrument to do its work.
I waked my little boy, and told him the house was on fire and we
must get out, but he begged me to save his old black nurse first.
A few minutes later he lay a mangled corpse, and the villains who
had done the work were fleeing from the scene of their crime."

"The only clew was a revolver dropped by one of them in their flight.
It was marked to show that it belonged to the Pinkertons."

Frank James, now 66 years old, her eldest son, lives on a farm
near Fletcher, Ok. Jesse JAMES, Jr., a grandson, is an attorney
of Kansas City.

No where in this article does it mention a son living in Texas. Did JLC attend the funeral of Zerelda Samuel or Dinah Haun?

[Carolyn A.S. Holmes]

The following is a newspaper article from the Old News from The Kansas City Journal

It helps explain who raised Jesse Edwards James after the death of his father. According to Duke this side of the story doesn't exist. For JLC/JJ never had a son named Jesse Edwards James. Interesting article.

 

August 16, 1907  

NURSED JESSE JAMES

---

GOTTEN BANDIT.

---

Now a Lawyer, Appeared in

Court in Defense of

Former Slave.

Charles Finley, a negro, of 523 Bluff street, who was tried before Justice J. B. Shoemaker yesterday afternoon and bound over to the criminal court on the charge of stabbing Edward Dyer, a member of the fire department at the Fifth and Bluff street station, was reared by Zerelda James-Samuels, was a hostler for Jesse and Frank James, the bandits, in their palmy days, and nursed young Jesse James, the Kansas City lawyer. Young Jesse defended him in the justice court yesterday and would take no fee.

"It's the first time I have been in trouble, since Master Jesse was killed twenty-five years ago in St. Joseph," said Finley last evening. "When I was arrested, I telephoned for Young Jesse, for I done raised that boy from a baby, just as his grandmother had raised me, and he came double quick and took my case. I knew he would not forget me when I got in trouble.

My father and mother were 'Reldie James' slaves long before the war. They lived on a farm near Kearney, Clay county, where I was born during the war. I never was a slave, but Old Misses 'Reldie raised me and my mother gave me to Susan James until I was 21 years of age. When Susan married Mr. Palmer and went to Texas, I went along and worked for them.

"I was back in Kearney pretty soon, though, and lived with 'Reldie. I never could forget that she had treated me like one of her own when I was a baby and that she always put me back of her on the horse when she rode to Liberty or about the farm.

"When Jesse and Frank got to be bad men, they needed someone with them so they took me to care for their horses and run errands. I ran with them most all the time, until Jesse was killed. I was not in St. Joseph that day, but heard all about it pretty soon. I was at home with 'Reldie.

"Old Miss 'Reldie thinks a whole lot of me yet -- she is Mrs. Samuels now, you know -- but she wouldn't do any more for me than would young Jesse or his sister.

"How did I come to leave her? Why, I came down here after Jesse was killed. I have worked for young Jesse a good deal. Then I got married and have a family of my own, so I have to stay here and work."

Charlie is a concreter. He says he makes $2 a day at it, but he doesn't enjoy the work nearly so well as he used to enjoy living on the farm near Kearney and helping " 'Reldie" take care of young Jesse.

"That boy sure was a smart little fellow," Finley says, "but he was powerful mischievous." Son of Noted Highwayman, but  ARREST OF NEGRO REVIVES FOR-

[Gay Mathis]

Carol, Charles Finley is listed on the 1880 Clay Co, TX Prct 2 census living with Allen H. Parmer & wife, Susan L. (James) Parmer listed as servant age 19..

[Carolyn A.S. Holmes]

I found that story very interesting in that he explains a little about the childhood of Jesse Edwards James living on the James farm.