J. Frank Dalton

John Frank Dalton (March 8, 1848  – August 15, 1951)^[1] was an American impostor and centenarian who drew notice late in life by successively claiming to be two long-dead famous Western historical figures, lawman Frank Dalton and outlaw Jesse Woodson James.

The true genealogy of J. Frank Dalton remains obscure, and his name - which is identical to the full name of Deputy U.S. Marshal Frank Dalton (John Franklin "Frank" Dalton) (1859-1887) - was perhaps just an alias that he used.^[2] Edward Ellsworth "Ed" Bartholomew (1914-2003), a rare book dealer and Old West historian based in Houston, Texas, related that Dalton was using the nickname "the Kid" when he and Dalton first met at a 1933 Corpus Christi old-timers' convention. Bartholomew said he remembered at least one local newspaper drawing the possible connection between Dalton and Billy the Kid. Bartholomew also said that Dalton was going by the name "Dolby" at that time.^[3] In a history of the Crittenden family published in 1936, a man who referred to himself as "Frank Dalton" contributed a 20-page account about the James-Younger Gang and the death of Jesse James. In his account Dalton claims he was present at Jesse James' murder scene, where reporters, law enforcement officers, and locals had gathered, and where Bob Ford confessed to James' murder.^[4] In his account Dalton questions the accepted historical narrative surrounding James' murder.^[5] Dalton says he is aware of others' efforts to pose as James.^[6] No evidence has ever been presented that the author of this account - Frank Dalton - was a different person than J. Frank Dalton.

In the late 1930s and early 1940s, J. Frank Dalton attracted considerable attention by telling tales of being Deputy U.S. Marshal Frank Dalton (1859–1887). However, after historians confronted him with evidence showing he could not be the same man as Deputy U.S. Marshal Frank Dalton, starting in April 1948 in Lawton, Oklahoma he began claiming to be the famous outlaw Jesse Woodson James (1847–1882) instead.

J. Frank Dalton was allegedly over 100 years old at the time of his first public appearance as Jesse Woodson James, which occurred at Lawton, Oklahoma on May 22, 1948. Previously at Lawton, Dalton had stated in an affidavit (dated April 24, 1948) that, among other things, he was the famous outlaw Jesse Woodson James, and that he had been a member of Quantrill's guerrillas during the Civil War. Though several people of note - such as journalist/novelist Robert Ruark - at the time of Dalton's claims in the late 1940s were initially sympathetic to his claims, the majority of those people ended up being sceptical or outright non-believers after extensive investigation by researchers had failed to verify most of Dalton's claims. Additionally, most historians believe that DNA evidence obtained during an exhumation conducted in 1995 supports the traditional historical account of the murder of Jesse James on April 3, 1882. However, the validity of this DNA evidence has been heavily disputed by Betty Gail Dorsett Duke (1947-2015), who argues in several books^[7] that her paternal great-grandfather James Lafayette Courtney (1846-1943), rather than J. Frank Dalton, was actually Jesse James.

While a resident of the Roper Hotel in Marble Falls, Texas^[8] in the early 1940s, J. Frank Dalton claimed to be the famous lawman of the Old West named J. (John) Franklin "Frank" Dalton (1859-1887), who from 1884 until his death in 1887 had served as Deputy U.S. Marshal for the Western District of Arkansas, which had jurisdiction over the Oklahoma Territory (aka the Indian Territory) and was administered out of Fort Smith, Arkansas.^[9] Dalton had also made such claims while living previously in Independence County, Arkansas. However, contrary to J. Frank Dalton's claims, historians have shown it is an indisputable fact that Deputy U.S. Marshal Frank Dalton was shot and killed in the line of duty on November 27, 1887, in a gun battle with members of the Smith-Dixon Gang.^[10][11]

The book titled Jesse James Was One of His Names (1975) by Del Schrader and Jesse James III (Orvus Lee Howk) sets forth evidence that in reality there were 2 men named Jesse James who became confused with each other in historical records, and also 2 men named Frank James who likewise were confused with each other in historical records. Upon reading these allegations in the book, questions immediately arise in the mind of the reader, such as: "Does this scenario depict reality, or is the scenario merely a depiction of an "imagined reality" which only exists either as a figment of someone's overactive imagination, or possibly as a misinterpretation/mischaracterization of real historical data? Also, if the scenario accurately describes real historical persons and data, why was the truth hidden or obscured for so long, and if there actually was/is a plot to keep these and associated truths hidden, who exactly was/is behind this plot? None of these questions, to date, have ever received answers which would satisfy objective researchers, historians, and genealogists. In the book, the 2 Jesse Jameses are referred to by the terms the "Missouri Jesse" and the "Kentucky Jesse". According to the authors, the "Missouri Jesse" was the Jesse James born on September 5, 1847 and whose parents - allegedly - were the Rev. Robert Sallee James (1818-1850) and Zerelda Elizabeth Cole (1825-1911). The authors of the book argue that this Jesse's name was actually Jesse Robert James, not Jesse Woodson James. How and why this person's name was changed in the historical/genealogical records from Jesse Robert James to Jesse Woodson James are fundamental, important issues which - disappointingly - are not adequately addressed or answered in Jesse James Was One of His Names. The authors claim that J. Frank Dalton's real name was Jesse Woodson James (aka the "Kentucky Jesse"), that he was born on April 17, 1844 somewhere in Kentucky, and that the "Missouri" and "Kentucky" Jesses were both members of the James-Younger Gang of outlaws.

According to Henry James Walker (1908-1970) in his book Jesse James 'The Outlaw' (1961), Jesse Woodson James (alias J. Frank Dalton) was born on March 8, 1848, not on April 17, 1844 as claimed by Schrader and Howk. Walker also claims that Jesse James and Frank James were only half-brothers - having the same mother (Zerelda Elizabeth Cole James) but not the same father - and that the man known as Jesse Woodson James (supposedly the same person as J. Frank Dalton) was a cousin of Frank James, but not a cousin of the man Schrader and Howk refer to as Jesse Robert James.^[12]

From the point of view of Walker, Schrader and Howk, when J. Frank Dalton claimed in his affidavit (dated April 24, 1948) that he was Jesse Woodson James, he wasn't lying, because he really was one of the two Jesses - namely, Jesse Woodson James (the "Kentucky Jesse"). However, according to the viewpoints of the aforementioned authors, Dalton did lie when he claimed in the affidavit to be the same person as the man Schrader and Howk refer to as Jesse Robert James (the "Missouri" Jesse). In the affidavit Dalton claims that his identity and true name is "Jesse Woodson James" - which was true according to Walker, Schrader and Howk - but Dalton also states other information in the affidavit which contradicts many of the contentions Walker, Schrader and Howk held to be true about Jesse Woodson James (alias J. Frank Dalton). The irony of this scenario is that if J. Frank Dalton's real name was Jesse Woodson James, as Walker, Schrader and Howk all assert, then Dalton in this affidavit wasn't lying about his true identity or his true name, but he was lying about various other statements he made in the affidavit, such as the identity of his parents, his place and date of birth, etc. For example, Walker states that Jesse Woodson James (alias J. Frank Dalton) was born on March 8, 1848 (not on September 5, 1847 as Dalton claims in the affidavit), and Schrader and Howk state that Jesse Woodson James was born on April 17, 1844 (not on September 5, 1847 as Dalton claims in the affidavit), and that he was born in Kentucky, whereas Dalton claims in the affidavit that he was born in Clay County, Missouri. Therefore, the statements made by Dalton in the affidavit about his parentage, place and date of birth, etc. - if actually false - still brand him as an imposter from the points of view of Walker, Schrader and Howk, because despite accurately referring to himself as "Jesse Woodson James" in the affidavit, by virtue of the other statements he made in the affidavit he was effectively posing as the "Missouri Jesse" (Jesse Robert James, according to Schrader and Howk), when in reality he was actually the "Kentucky Jesse".

This apparent multi-layered, complex ruse orchestrated by Dalton on April 24, 1948 becomes more understandable when it is realized that most historians, as well as the public at large, knew virtually nothing about this "2 Jesse Jameses" scenario until 13 years later (in 1961) (10 years after the death of Dalton in 1951), when much of the evidence which helps people to better comprehend/explain Dalton's ruse was first published by Henry James Walker in his book Jesse James 'The Outlaw' (1961). On April 24, 1948, when Dalton claimed he was really the same person as the famous outlaw Jesse James - born on September 5, 1847 in Clay County, Missouri, according to the account accepted by most historians - in order for his claim to have any chance at all of being accepted by historians, genealogists, as well as by the general public - there was only 1 historically known/recognized person (not 1 of 2 or more such persons) named Jesse James he could claim to be: The world-famous outlaw Jesse James who historians claim had been born on September 5, 1847 (and who, supposedly, was named Jesse Woodson James). Accordingly, in his affidavit that's the only "Jesse James" Dalton could claim to be.

Much of the controversial information provided in Walker's book Jesse James 'The Outlaw' (1961) was "borrowed" by Schrader and Howk (without them giving any credit to Walker as the source of the information) for inclusion in Jesse James Was One of His Names (1975). However, contrary to many of the claims found in these 2 books, the question arises: If Dalton was really the "Kentucky Jesse", why did Dalton frequently state in various publications that he was born on March 8, 1848 in Goliad, Goliad County, Texas rather than on April 17, 1844 somewhere in Kentucky? These discrepancies, as well as many others, raise the liklihood that even if there really were 2 different Jesse Jameses, arguably J. Frank Dalton was not either one of them. Also, the evidence available suggests that neither Orvus Lee Howk nor Del Schrader knew for sure that J. Frank Dalton was really the "Kentucky Jesse". In various letters Howk wrote to different persons throughout his life, he often wavered in his opinion about who J. Frank Dalton really was. Nevertheless, for some reason Schrader and Howk decided that the idea that Dalton and the "Kentucky Jesse" were the same person was the narrative they would present to the readers of Jesse James Was One of His Names. However, many well-informed and discerning readers of Jesse James Was One of His Names have found this primary narrative presented in the book to be questionable and/or unconvincing.

Therefore, another dilemma arises: In the event that Dalton - in reality - was neither the "Missouri Jesse" nor the "Kentucky Jesse", but, nevertheless, if it is actually true that neither of the 2 Jesses were the victim of murder on April 3, 1882 in St. Joseph, Missouri, then what actually happened to the REAL Missouri and Kentucky Jesses after the event of the murder hoax? There are real mysteries here that have never been solved. It appears that the Confederate secret society known as the KGC (Knights of the Golden Circle) was one group that was interested in solving these mysteries. One possibility is that J. Frank Dalton really was a member of the KGC, and that he was more or less an investigator or undercover detective, who the KGC had tasked with - among other things - the mission of finding out the truth about the 2 Jesses, especially the truth about who Jesse Woodson James (the "Kentucky Jesse") really was. This may explain why Dalton had in his possession several (possibly as many as 10-15) large scrapbooks of rare and obscure information about the James-Younger Gang and their associates and activities. Dalton had assembled these scrapbooks over the course of many years, presumably as an important part of his mission as an undercover KGC detective/enforcer, in search of the truth about Jesse Robert James, Jesse Woodson James (assuming that he himself was not actually Jesse Woodson James), etc. Upon Dalton's death in 1951, Howk took possession of these scrapbooks. When Howk hired Del Schrader in 1971/1972 to write Jesse James Was One of His Names, he lent these scrapbooks to Schrader to serve as reference/source material for the book.

It's also possible that if J. Frank Dalton actually was an undercover detective/enforcer in the employ of the KGC, that in order to execute his secret mission more effectively he started posing (in the 1880s or 1890s) as Jesse James himself - a tactic known to be used sometimes by undercover detectives, double agents, etc. - in order to be in a position to more easily discover/uncover information about the various Missouri Jesse/Kentucky Jesse mysteries. Dalton posing as Jesse James is not such an outlandish idea, considering the fact that very few people knew what Jesse James really looked like, since he often concealed his true appearance with different disguises. If Dalton was indeed serving in the capacity of an undercover KGC detective/enforcer, even though his investigations yielded a huge amount of rare/obscure information (as evidenced by the 10-15 scrapbooks of information he had accumulated over the years), it appears that in the end he never actually got to the bottom of these mysteries - or, if he did, for his own reasons he had kept the deepest depths of his discoveries private, secret, and completely out of the public domain. Considering that Howk was in communication with Dalton for at least 12 years (1939-1951), but that Howk still was unsure about Dalton's true identity (based on statements Howk made in his letters about Dalton's true identity), those facts may be construed as evidence that Dalton - if he did get to the bottom of the Jesse James/Frank James mysteries - kept his discoveries private and that he had never revealed to Howk what he had discovered in that regard. On the other hand, the fact that Dalton never imparted to Howk a definitive answer to the Jesse James/Frank James mysteries, may also be interpreted to mean that Dalton himself had failed to penetrate to the core of these mysteries. It may be wondered why - especially if the latter case was the true state of affairs - instead of admitting Dalton's possible failure in solving these mysteries - Walker (in Jesse James 'The Outlaw' ) and Schrader and Howk (in Jesse James Was One of His Names) all resort to, and promote, what in truth may only be a tentative and preliminary "compromise/fallback" narrative: The idea that J. Frank Dalton and Jesse Woodson James (the "Kentucky Jesse") were the same person - a narrative which remains unproven to this day, due to the lack of definitive information on this subject.

So far as is known, the "Missouri Jesse/Kentucky Jesse" narrative was first presented to the public in a book titled Jesse James 'The Outlaw' (Des Moines, Iowa: Wallace-Homestead Company, 1961), by Henry James Walker (April 5, 1908 - April 5, 1970). Since Walker's book Jesse James 'The Outlaw' (1961) pre-dated Schrader and Howk's book Jesse James Was One of His Names (1975) by 14 years, it's highly likely - almost certain - that Schrader and Howk found Walker's Missouri Jesse/Kentucky Jesse narrative/theory to be credible and/or at least highly useful for their purposes, and that they adopted it (as well as much other information) from Walker's book as the framework for their "J. Frank Dalton = Jesse Woodson James = the 'Kentucky Jesse'" narrative in Jesse James Was One of His Names, adding their own elaborate "spin" on the information sourced from Walker's book as well. Important statements by Walker, found in his book Jesse James 'The Outlaw' (1961), are as follows:

(1) "The imposter killed was Charles Bigelow, born in Bigelow, Missouri, an outlaw who rode with the 'Thad [should be: Shad (?)] Gang' of robbers prior to his association with the James boys. Bigelow's adopting of the identity of Jesse James eventually sealed his fate and cost him his life."^[13]

(2) "According to The Border Outlaws (1880) [copyright 1880, 1st edition published in 1881] by J. W. Buell [James William Buel (1849-1920)], Jesse and Frank [James] are only half-brothers, having the same mother. The [real] father of [the] Jesse James [born on September 5, 1847] was [not Robert Sallee James, but rather] a physician in Clay County, Missouri. . . . George Shepherd [George Washington Shepherd (1840-1917), sometimes misspelled "Shepard" or "Sheppard"] asserted that this half-brother relationship of Jesse and Frank [James] was common knowledge among their Confederate friends and neighbors."^[14] The actual statement made by Buel in The Border Outlaws is as follows: " . . . It is asserted, by those who know them best, that Jesse and Frank are only half-brothers, having the same mother, but that Jesse's father is a physician in Clay county. What truth there is in this report the writer [J. W. Buel] does not assume the responsibility of confirming, giving it only as the assertion of many prominent men of Clay county. On one occasion, so George Shepherd relates, while Jesse and Frank were dining with their mother, with Shepherd as their guest, a dispute arose over a trivial matter, in which the brothers became very angry and drew their pistols. . . . In the row Frank told Jesse that he knew they were not brothers, to which assertion neither Jesse nor Mrs. Samuel made any reply."^[15]

(3) "George Shepherd was the James family's trusted friend, as well as a member with them [Jesse and Frank James] in the Guerillas under Quantrill."^[16]

(4) Jesse's dark brown eyes were a revealing point and clue. Both Zerelda and Robert James had bright-blue eyes, as did most of the James ancestry. . . . So when Jesse was born with brown eyes, this seemed to bear out the gossip of the neighbors, that Zerelda had another man in the house when her preacher husband was away from home attending to his ministerial duties."^[17] Additionally, J. W. Buel in his The Border Outlaws states the following: " . . . Jesse James . . . has brown eyes, dark hair and is of a nervous temperament. . . . the first joint of the middle-finger on his left hand is missing."^[18]

(5) "What the law officers including the Pinkertons did not know, was that the James boys had a cousin named Jesse James who drifted in and out of Clay County, Missouri, but seldom showed up at the James home. He looked very much like Jesse, . . . was about the same size and height, and had an injured index finger and a scar on his left cheek. However, this Jesse had blue eyes, and the other Jesse James' eyes were dark brown. As a matter of fact, although both Jesse and Frank called him a cousin, this blue-eyed Jesse James was a cousin of Frank not Jesse. He, the cousin [of Frank James], told Mr. Buell in the late 1870s that he was born March 8, 1848. . . . When he [this cousin] came to Clay County he stayed at various homes in the neighborhood, and one of his favorite stopping places was the farm home of Argile Taylor [Argyle Taylor (July 22, 1824 - December 2, 1901) - Moved from Tennessee to a farm in Missouri in 1871] who lived on a farm four miles south of Smithville, Missouri. . . . He [This cousin of Frank James] was of English and Irish extraction, belonged to several of the Protestant lodges, secret and otherwise. He was widely known wherever he went, but not always known by one name, as he had several aliases: Jim Wilson, Dr. Bedicheck, Jesse James, and others. This cousin Jesse of Frank's was christened Jesse Woodson; and when they rode with Quantrill the boys gave the dark-eyed half-brother of Frank the nickname of Dingus, and so the real Jesse Woodson James was known to most of Quantrill's group as Jesse Woodson, and the dark-eyed Jesse was known as 'Jesse Dingus'."^[19]

(6) " I [James Russell Davis (October 1 or 13, 1840 - March 12, 1950) of Nashville, Tennessee] was the one who planned the killing of this man [Charles] Bigelow in my friend Jesse's place. . . . He [Charles Bigelow] may have had an alias, but this was the name we knew him as. He was a bold and reckless fellow. He rode with the Jameses and took part in some of their robberies, and later he went on his own and told people he was Jesse James. . . . as we knew the banks he robbed, we chose those bankers to identify the dead man in St. Joseph after the killing. . . . I gave the Governor [Thomas T. Crittenden, Governor of Missouri] a list of robberies Bigelow had pulled off, so he would know who to call in to identify the body. . . . [In Walker's interview of James Russell Davis on September 5, 1949, Davis stated]: J. Frank Dalton and Jesse Woodson James are the same man. As a matter of fact, I have met him several times lately, and we had talks concerning some of our business connections between us. . . . Last fall being 1948, I [James Russell Davis] made the rounds visiting a few spots where we still have gold money buried, and I found that we have, all told, close to $500,000 in gold, and approximately an equal value in diamonds still secure. I reported this to Jesse."^[20]

(7) "[James Russell Davis] confided to me [Henry James Walker] that it was he who had called Jesse James' mother into a private room and instructed her to pretend the dead man was her son Jesse."^[21]

(8) [On April 10, 1950, James Russell Davis was the chief witness - giving 41 pages of testimony - in a Missouri Circuit Court trial in which J. Frank Dalton unsuccessfully attempted to legally change his name from J. Frank Dalton to the name Jesse Woodson James - 32nd Circuit Court Trial #10935 in Franklin, Missouri, presided over by Circuit Court Judge Ransom Albert Breuer, Sr. (1870-1961)] "On the witness stand, Davis told that he knew Charles Bigelow sixteen years prior to his [Bigelow's] death in St. Joseph, in 1882. [Davis testified that] he [Bigelow] rode the last lap of the Pony Express for Russell Majors from St. Joe to San Francisco. He [Davis] denied that Bigelow ever rode with Quantrill's Guerillas, and stated that he did know that Bigelow rode with the 'Shad Gang'."^[22]

Ever since publication of Jesse James Was One of His Names (1975) by Del Schrader^[23] and Jesse James III (Orvus Lee Howk), controversy has raged about who J. Frank Dalton really was. The book claims that J. Frank Dalton was, in reality, the same person as the famous outlaw known as Jesse Woodson James, and that on April 3, 1882 in St. Joseph, Missouri, a murder hoax was committed whereby a man known as Charlie Bigelow (rather than Jesse James) was the actual murder victim. Some researchers believe that at the time of the murder, Charlie Bigelow was going by the alias "Thomas Howard", and that Jesse James himself had never used that alias. According to Jesse James Was One of His Names, shortly after the murder hoax Jesse James left the United States, and on his return several months later started using the alias Frank Dalton and/or J. Frank Dalton, among over 70 other aliases. However, if the real Jesse James escaped being murdered on April 3, 1882, there appear to be 3 possibilities other than the claim that Jesse James and J. Frank Dalton actually were the same person: (1) J. Frank Dalton was a person who had agreed with Jesse James to pose as the latter - possibly beginning as early as sometime in the mid-1880s - in order to satisfy the curiosity of those who didn't believe that Jesse James had been murdered by Bob Ford on April 3, 1882. Since the real Jesse James often used disguises and aliases, and the vast majority of the public (including the police authorities) therefore didn't know what he really looked like, the chances were high that this type of ruse would be successful. (2) Jesse James survived the murder hoax of April 3, 1882, faded quietly into obscurity and died later at some date and place unknown to the public. J. Frank Dalton somehow knew these facts and started posing as Jesse James without the real Jesse James' permission. In this 2nd scenario, even if it came to the attention of the real Jesse James that J. Frank Dalton was impersonating him without his express permission, the real Jesse James probably wouldn't have tried to stop Dalton in this ruse, because if people believed that Dalton was Jesse it would allow the real Jesse James to remain undetected and free. (3) It's possible that the real Jesse James escaped being murdered on April 3, 1882, but that he died sometime between 1882-1890, and that Dalton knew Jesse's real date of death and didn't start impersonating him until Jesse had actually died.

After Dalton emerged as Jesse James at Lawton, Oklahoma in 1948, and during the time he was residing at Meramec Caverns, several old-timers who visited him in those places signed affidavits stating that he was the same person they had known as Jesse Woodson James in the late 1800s and early 1900s, subsequent to the date (April 3, 1882) when Jesse James had supposedly been murdered. The testimony of these people only admits of 2 possibilities: (1) Dalton really was Jesse Woodson James (2) Dalton had been impersonating the real Jesse James since at least the 1890s, otherwise in the late 1940s these people wouldn't have testified in affidavits that they recognized him (J. Frank Dalton) as the same man they had been introduced to in the 1890s and early 1900s as the famous, then still-living outlaw Jesse Woodson James. Although the main contention of Jesse James Was One of His Names (1975) is that J. Frank Dalton and Jesse Woodson James were the same person, in opposition to that idea stands all the information that exists about Dalton which contradicts the accepted historical facts about the life of Jesse Woodson James. Much of the information Dalton provided about himself (and/or which has been reported about him by others) is not historically or genealogically conclusive, and most investigators who have looked seriously into these issues believe that J. Frank Dalton and Jesse Woodson James were not the same person. Nevertheless, it still has never been proven that Jesse Woodson James and J. Frank Dalton were not the same person. However, a conclusion that can be drawn from the evidence, is that if J. Frank Dalton was only a Jesse James imposter, very likely he was a Jesse James imposter as early as the mid-or-late 1880s — far earlier than the late 1940s when he "emerged" as Jesse James at Lawton, Oklahoma.

In a letter (dated November 30, 1889) written by Calamity Jane^[24] to Captain James "Jim" O'Neil, Calamity Jane stated the following:

" . . . I met up with Jessie James not long ago. He is quite a character - you know he was [supposedly] killed in '82. His mother swore that the body that was in the coffin was his but it was another man they called either Tracy or Lynch. He [the murder victim] was a cousin of Wild Bill [Hickok].^[25] He [Jesse James] is passing under the name of Dalton but he couldn't fool me I knew all the Daltons and he sure ain't one of them. He told me he promised his gang and his mother that if he lived to be a hundred he would confess . . . To make it strange Jessie sang at his own funeral. Poor devil he can't cod me - not even with a long hair and a billy goat's wad of hair on his chin. I expect he will start preachin. He is smart maybe he can do it. . . . "^[26]

In 1948 Orvus Lee Howk^[27] (1905-1984) started helping Dalton craft a new identity for himself as Old West outlaw Jesse Woodson James. Howk, who later referred to himself variously as Jesse Lee James, Jesse James III, and/or Jesse Lee James III - and who falsely claimed at different times to be either Dalton's grandson or nephew - was one of several persons who temporarily served as both a promoter and caretaker of Dalton in the 1947-1951 time period. However, unlike Dalton's other promoters, Howk had already been in contact with Dalton since about 1939, according to bookseller Ed Bartholomew. In treasure-hunting and secret society circles, Dalton had the reputation of having been, at one time, comptroller of a Confederate secret society known as the KGC (Knights of the Golden Circle). As KGC comptroller, Dalton was reputed to have maps of the locations where large gold caches had been buried by the KGC during the American Civil War (1861-1865). It is believed that Howk, who among many other things was an avid treasure-hunter, heard the rumors about Dalton and first contacted him about 1939, initially for the purpose of learning as much as possible about these supposedly still-existing and in-tact KGC treasure caches.

It was well-known to everyone who had read Dalton's account in The Crittenden Memoirs that he claimed that on April 3, 1882 he had been contacted by police authorities, who requested him to travel to St. Joseph, Missouri in order to identify a murder victim. In his account, Dalton states that he made the trip to St. Joseph, and that he had definitively identified the murder victim as Jesse Woodson James.

Nevertheless, in 1948 at Lawton, Oklahoma - 12 years after his very clear and adamant account of Jesse James' murder had been published in The Crittenden Memoirs (1936) - Dalton (with support and coaching from Howk) started claiming that the murder victim had not really been Jesse Woodson James, but a Pinkerton detective named Charlie Bigelow who had been posing as Jesse James and committing robberies in Jesse's name, and that he himself (J. Frank Dalton) was actually Jesse Woodson James. William John James (1856 - December 24, 1947), a Jesse James imposter who appeared in the early-to-mid 1930s, had also claimed that a man named Charlie Bigelow was the real murder victim in St. Joseph, Missouri on April 3, 1882, so it's likely that Dalton had just conveniently "inherited" this part of the story from W. J. James.^[28]

Signing himself as J. Frank Dalton, on April 24, 1948 Dalton executed an affidavit recounting the details of the historical Jesse James' birth and claimed to be the famous outlaw. The affidavit was published, with additional historical information about Jesse James and Dalton's claim, in the May 19, 1948 issue of The Lawton Constitution newspaper. Additionally, Howk and Dalton had come into possession of 7 or 8 affidavits (and other documents) that William John James had procured from various residents of Excelsior Springs, Missouri when he had posed there as Jesse Woodson James in 1931 and 1932. Dalton used these documents to bolster his claim that he - not William John James - was really the outlaw Jesse Woodson James.^[29]

On May 22, 1948, Dalton made two public appearances in Lawton's business district, giving speeches at each location. Dalton posed as Jesse James in front of the crowds and spoke about what life was like in the days of the Old West.^[30] This fed into not infrequent claims that Jesse James had faked his 1882 death and then adopted an alias.^[31] Jesse James expert Homer Croy (1883-1965) went to Lawton and found Dalton unable to answer many questions the authentic James should have known, but Orvus Lee Howk continued to promote Dalton as Jesse James nevertheless.^[32]

On learning of Dalton's claim to be Jesse Woodson James, Rudolph Oswald "Rudy" Turilli (1919-1972), the manager of Meramec Caverns near Stanton, Missouri, arranged to bring Dalton to the caverns. Dalton lodged in a private cabin on the cavern grounds for about 18 months and the two of them launched a major publicity campaign promoting Dalton as Jesse James.

In June 1949, Dalton was interviewed at the caverns by journalist Robert C. Ruark, who then published a 3-article newspaper account of this interview in the Tampa Morning Tribune (issues of July 7 and July 9, 1949) and the Tampa Sunday Tribune (issue of July 10, 1949). Ruark's account eventually was published in various other newspapers across the country. Dalton, claiming to be 102 years old, told Ruark that the man shot and killed in 1882 and identified as Jesse James was actually a similar-looking houseguest of James named Charlie Bigelow, who Dalton claimed was an underground Pinkerton detective who Jesse wanted to kill because he (Bigelow) was committing robberies, posing as Jesse. Dalton related that after Bigelow's murder, he fled to Kansas City, Memphis, New Orleans and Florida, then to Brazil, and later to Mexico. He claimed to have eventually returned to Oklahoma, where he was elected to the territorial legislature under the name J. Frank Dalton before relocating to Texas.^[33] Dalton's account of himself as Jesse James did not hold up under questioning from James' surviving relatives.^[34] A debate between supporter Ruark and critic Croy was broadcast nationally by CBS.^[35] Ruark, originally a supporter of Dalton, later expressed disbelief in Dalton's claims.

On September 5, 1949, Rudy Turilli, along with cavern owner Lester B. Dill, hosted what was claimed to be a 102nd birthday party for Dalton (as Jesse James). Attendees at the party included several people of note, some of whom claimed to have been close associates of Dalton in the past. Turilli had been able to locate these people thanks to information provided by Dalton. These alleged associates and/or acquaintances of Dalton included Colonel James Russell Davis^[36] (1840-1950) of Nashville, who claimed to be Cole Younger, John Trammell^[37] (aka "Sam Skates") (1838-1956), a black man from Guthrie, Oklahoma, who claimed to have served as the James Gang's cook for about 20 years (and who at the time of the party was allegedly 111 years old), and Alphonso Jackson "Al" Jennings^[38] (1863-1961), who at one time had been an attorney in Oklahoma Territory but who, among other criminal acts, had also robbed trains in Oklahoma in 1897.^[39][40] During the party Trammell positively identified J. Frank Dalton as Jesse James. The next day Dalton posed for a photograph with another Old West pretender, Brushy Bill Roberts, who claimed to be Billy the Kid, and the two offered mutual support for each other's claims.^[41]

J. Frank Dalton died in Granbury, Texas on August 15, 1951, and was buried in Granbury Cemetery on August 19, 1951 under the name Jesse Woodson James. A post-mortem examination was said to have found several of the distinguishing body marks/features that the real Jesse James was rumored to have had, including numerous bullet wounds, a rope burn around his neck, a damaged fingertip, and severely burned feet.^[42][43][44] This claim differs from earlier reports that showed Dalton's finger injury was to the wrong finger, and that he had no evident chest wounds, which Howk explained by claiming skin grafts had been performed.^[45] Dalton's death certificate was recorded with the name of the man he claimed to be, Jesse Woodson James,^[46] the name also appearing on a gravestone erected at his burial site in Granbury Cemetery in 1983.^[47][48]

In 1966 Rudy Turilli offered a $10,000 reward for anyone who could prove that Dalton was not James. After the daughter-in-law (Stella Frances James,^[49] wife of Jesse Edwards James^[50]) and grandchildren of the real Jesse James presented their evidence, it ended in a court case in which they were ruled to have satisfied the burden of proof, and Turilli was ordered to pay the reward. The decision was upheld on appeal, but Turilli died in 1972, never paying.^[51][52]

The gravesite historically attributed to Jesse James at the Mount Olivet Cemetery in Kearney, Clay County, Missouri, was exhumed over a 3-day period (July 17-19, 1995) by a team of investigators headed by James Edward Starrs (1930-2021).^[53][54] Jesse's remains had originally been buried on April 6, 1882 in the front yard of the James family farm. Most (but not all) of his remains were exhumed from that gravesite on June 29, 1902^[55] and were transferred to Mount Olivet Cemetery. According to an article co-authored by Starrs titled "Mitochondrial DNA Analysis of the Presumptive Remains of Jesse James" (Journal of Forensic Sciences, Vol. 46, No. 1, January 2001, pp. 173-176),^[56] the remains in the exhumed grave at Mount Olivet Cemetery were examined and were found to be consistent with James' historical record. According to this article, Mitochondrial DNA extracted from the remains was found to match the Mitochondrial DNA of 2 matrilineal descendants of Jesse James,^[57] leaving "no scientific basis whatsoever for doubting" that the remains exhumed from the Mount Olivet Cemetery were indeed the remains of the outlaw Jesse James. This conclusion supported evidence obtained from a handwriting analysis performed in 1986 by Howard "Bear" Chandler (1924-2014) and Duayne Dillon (1929-2015) (of Questioned Documents Examiner Associates, Little Rock, Arkansas), which claimed that examples of Dalton's handwriting did not match the handwriting found in a letter dated April 16, 1880 written by Jesse James.^[47] Several persons - most notably Betty Gail Dorsett Duke (1947-2015) - dispute the conclusions arrived at in the Journal of Forensic Sciences article referred to above. Duke provided evidence that the tooth from which the DNA was extracted for forensic analysis did not originate from Jesse James' gravesite in Mount Olivet Cemetery, and that therefore the exhumation conducted in 1995 at Mount Olivet Cemetery has definitely not proven that Jesse Woodson James is the person who is buried in the exhumed gravesite.^[58] Duke also claims that the letter dated April 16, 1880 has not been proven to have been written by Jesse James, and she suggests that it might have actually been written by John Newman Edwards (1839-1889) - an author, pro-Confederate journalist, newspaper editor, co-founder in 1868 of the Kansas City Times newspaper, and a very close friend of Jesse's - who often composed letters, signed them "Jesse James", and published them in newspapers.^[59]

Beginning in 1996, amateur historian Ellis Eugene "Bud" Hardcastle^[60](1939-2024), with the support of 3 sons of James descendant Jesse Cole James (1882-1964), began a push to exhume the Granbury, Texas, grave belonging to Dalton to allow for DNA testing of the remains. The 3 James brothers (Jessie Quanah "Tubby" James, Sr., Burleigh Dale James, and Charles A. James, now all deceased) believed that J. Frank Dalton was their grandfather, and that he was also the real Jesse James. An initial petition to the Hood County, Texas, court was declined that year (1996), but a subsequent request in 2000 was approved.^[61][62][63] During the exhumation, which occurred on May 30, 2000, the investigative team found two coffins at the grave site (a large steel vault, and a wooden casket), and since the exhumation order was restricted to one coffin, that closest to the tombstone (the steel vault) was removed for study. However, when the contents of the steel vault were examined, they proved to be the remains of a one-armed Granbury resident named William Henry Holland (1882-1927), leaving the question of Dalton's genetic identity unanswered.^[64][65]