Legends and Lies - Jesse James

[Wild Bill]

The big problem with this series is familiar to blog users. The producer is none other than Bill O'Reilly, up to his usual non-historical tricks in narration. Jesse is not going to Northfields because of "arrogance." He is going because the main bank in town is owned by the Ames family one of whom is General Ben Butler's son-in-law, just up from being the Carpetbagger governor of Mississippi, barely escaping with his own life. Further, Jess's mother is not just Mutilated but lost her arm, which is shown in a sling as if merely broken, in the Pinkerton detective raid on the James' farm. The incendiary device is actually a bomb, denied by the Pinkerton's until recently when the company's own now-opened records showed what was really used. The shootout story was botched and left out that the gang's guide, Bill Chadwell, was killed leaving the other loose in a strange land. The shooting of Jesse was also a mess. This is typical of the Killing Series the first of which concerned Lincoln. And so it goes. I shudder whenever I hear of O'Reilly brag he was a history teacher.