J. Frank Dalton
| J. Frank Dalton | |
|---|---|
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| Born | March 8, 1848 Goliad, Goliad County, Texas |
| Died | August 15, 1951 (aged 103) Granbury, Hood County, Texas |
| Known for | claimed to be Jesse James |
John Frank Dalton (March 8, 1848 – August 15, 1951) was a man who, in the last few years (1948-1951) of his long life, publicly claimed to be the famous outlaw Jesse James. However, most professional historians believe that Dalton was merely a Jesse James impostor, and that the real Jesse James was killed by Robert "Bob" Ford on April 3, 1882, in Jesse's rented home at 1318 Lafayette Street in St. Joseph, Missouri.
With the death of Jesse James in 1882, and the subsequent death of his wife Julia Ellen Groshon during childbirth in 1886, J. Frank Dalton abandoned his children and began roaming the countryside. In the 1930s and 1940s he appeared in Independence County, Arkansas, telling tales of being Jesse James, and on other occasions he told tales of being the famous Western lawman John Franklin "Frank" Dalton (June 8, 1859 - November 27, 1887), thus earning himself a meal. By the 1940s he was in Oklahoma and Texas, where his uncle lived and he had relatives. It was in Texas that he first claimed he was the same Frank Dalton who historians believe had been killed in 1887. When it was proved that he wasn't the original Frank Dalton (1859-1887), in April, 1948 - in Lawton, Oklahom - he took up being Jesse James instead.
Dalton was allegedly 100 years old at the time of his first public appearance as Jesse James - at Lawton, Oklahoma in April–May, 1948. Like the real Jesse James, Dalton apparently had been a pro-Confederate guerrilla in Missouri during the Civil War. However, Dalton's account of himself as Jesse James did not hold up under questioning from Jesse James' surviving relatives.
Nevertheless, several people of note, such as journalist/novelist Robert Ruark, were convinced that J. Frank Dalton was the famous outlaw Jesse Woodson James. To many people's surprise, Dalton did appear to have many of the unique body marks/body features which the real Jesse James was rumored to have. These body features included: seven bullet wounds, a rope burn around his neck, a collapsed lung, a damaged fingertip, and severely burned feet.
On September 5, 1949, Rudi Turilli and Lester B. Dill (the general manager and owner, respectively, of Meramec Caverns, near Stanton, Missouri) hosted a reunion at Meramec Caverns for Dalton and his last-remaining old-time friends, in celebration of Dalton's/Jesse James' supposed 102nd birthday.
J. Frank Dalton died on August 15, 1951, in Granbury, Texas, and his death certificate was recorded with the name of the man he claimed to be. His gravestone in Granbury Cemetery also has that claimed identity recorded on it.
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Wikipedia