Jesse's Starr

[Drm50]

I ran across this one while looking for more Viila articles. This
Starr is suppose to have belonged to Jessie, not documented.
Found buried in a jar near were he operated at Joplin. If this is
his it would be a hard one to fake. 46 tacks in grips is a bit much
even for Jesse. I've got boxes of this stuff. Been cutting it out
of magazines since I was big enough to read.

 

[ISCS Yoda]

I have never read that Jesse James used a Starr. I know he used a Schofield and in the Civil War he used a Colt .36 caliber Navy. He also used a Colt SAA that recently sold for a great deal of money.

That Starr is posed in front of a wanted poster but it is almost certainly not Jesse James's personal firearm. It just made a nice photograph, but that's all.

Back in my cowboy action shooting days I was into a lot of Old West history and read a great deal about the guns of well known gunmen of the period. Someone well known, name escapes me presently, used a Starr, and it has been used in fiction, but I am fairly certain one was not used by Jesse James.

You would need a great deal of provenance to convince anyone that the gun posed in front of the poster belonged to Jesse James.

Oh, and one more thing - that picture can be found on the Internet. I have seen it and never supposed it to be anything but a cool, posed shot. I'll see if I can find it again.

 

[Drm50]

I have never read that Jesse James used a Starr. I know he used a Schofield and in the Civil War he used a Colt .36 caliber Navy. He also used a Colt SAA that recently sold for a great deal of money.

That Starr is posed in front of a wanted poster but it is almost certainly not Jesse James's personal firearm. It just made a nice photograph, but that's all.

Back in my cowboy action shooting days I was into a lot of Old West history and read a great deal about the guns of well known gunmen of the period. Someone well known, name escapes me
presently, used a Starr, and it has been used in fiction, but I am fairly certain one was not used by Jesse James.

You would need a great deal of provenance to convince anyone that the gun posed in front of the poster belonged to Jesse James.
Oh, and one more thing - that picture can be found on the Internet. I have seen it and never supposed it to be anything but a cool, posed shot. I'll see if I can find it again.

This is out of a 1960 True magazine. If you read caption under it
This gun was found buried and is not documented as owned by
Jesse, only that he was supposed owner. I've done a lot of reading on historical figures and the only certain thing in most
cases is uncertainity. The experts argue with each other on this
stuff. I'm not a expert and don't care to argue over something
that can't be documented. These Outlaws and Lawmen all had
used several guns during their time. To be able to document
these is almost impossible. One thing that is not publicized much,
guns were expensive, every guy was not running around with
a Colt and Winchester. You can believe guns were policed up off
victims and used or sold. The Hollywood, leaving guns laying in
the dirt is a myth.

 

[ISCS Yoda]

I found it. I had to find it!

(c) Daily Mail
(c) Bettman/CORBIS

Jesse James' Colt .45 revolver expected to fetch $1m at auction 130 years after outlaw's assassination | Daily Mail Online

The gun for sale in that article is JJ's .45 Colt SAA. The gun in the picture where he is quite young is a Colt Navy and I imagine the other two guns are .36 caliber Navy revolvers as well. Jesse COULD HAVE owned a Starr, they were around, but there is no evidence that he did so.

 

[ISCS Yoda]

No argument Drm50! I understand totally. Making Jesse James the "supposed" owner of anything makes it of great historical interest and any documentation makes it worth a fortune. That's the game being played by the people who found that old gun and TRUE is just reporting it as is, without comment. Understood.

 

[lawandorder]

If you ever care to see it and the Pancho one also travel to the small town of Berryville in North Arkansas and visit the Saunders Museum.

 

[jag312]

I believe Jesse James' mother had a business of selling guns to tourists as belonging to her son.

 

[ISCS Yoda]

I believe Jesse James' mother had a business of selling guns to tourists as belonging to her son.

She sold rocks off his grave, too, as I recall. She would replenish them from time to time.

I recall a story that said that while he was a sportswriter for a NY newspaper Bat Masterson used to sell the gun that he shot so-and-so with (I forget who) as a routine thing.