Life and Adventures of Frank and Jesse James: The Infamous Western Outlaws

This story describes the life and adventures of the American's most famous bandits that were a model for hundreds of westerns, books and movies. The book accounts for Frank and Jessy's most famous cases, such as the Russellville Bank robbery, the Gallatin Bank tragedy, the first attempts to arrest the boys, a series of train robberies, and the robbery of the Huntington Bank in Virginia followed by their rides to Mexico. Besides the account of their historically recorded events, the author gives many exciting insights into their personal lives, like finding love, marrying, and attempting to leave a peaceful life after the Civil War. In this book, the guys are portrayed as cruel criminals and fearless adventure seekers and opportunists.

Joseph A. Dacus was an American journalist and writer, covering important post-Civil War events, like the 1877 St. Louis general strike, temperance movement called Battling With the Demon, and the description of crimes and lives of Frank and Jesse James. He started his career working for the Missouri Republican newspaper as an editor. He also contributed to other newspapers and tried to write popular novels like Idle Wild, motivation books like Guide to Success, poems, statistical works, and serial stories. His life was as varied as his literary tastes. In five years, he managed to work as a Baptist preacher, farmer, school teacher, grocer, cotton factor, journalist, poet, orator, book agent, an engineer at flatboat, and a sawmill superintendent.