Robert Ford

Robert Newton Ford (December 8, 1861 – 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 Gang under James's leadership, went on to perform paid re-enactments of the killing at publicity events. Ford went on to operate various saloons and dance halls in the West, before being killed – at age 30 – by Edward Capehart O'Kelley in Creede, Colorado.

Early years

Robert Ford was born in 1861 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.

Joining the gang

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.