The last thing I expected during the Defeat of Jesse James Days in September of 2005 was to be singing karaoke with a descendant of the infamous outlaw himself. But that is what happened at Northfield’s Froggy Bottoms River Pub that year. James R. Ross of California, the great-grandson of Jesse James, had been invited to be in the parade which climaxes the annual five-day celebration of the defeat of the James-Younger gang’s bank robbery attempt on Sept. 7, 1876.
For two successive evenings, including the Thursday karaoke night, Ross made Froggy Bottoms his watering hole. Chip DeMann, leader of the raid re-enactors, introduced Ross to me. Ross was pleased to see his favorite scotch on the menu and, after fortifying himself with it, decided to try out karaoke for the first time. He enthusiastically joined Mary Casey and me at the microphone to sing It Had to be You, Singing in the Rain and Swanee.
Ross was on the other side of the law from his great-grandfather, having served as a judge of the Orange County Superior Court in California from 1983 until his retirement in 1995. (He was, however, once criticized for selling from his chambers copies of a book that he had written about his notorious ancestor. Not quite like bank robbing.) As a youth, Ross told me he had spent a lot of time with his grandfather, Jesse Edwards James, who was only six years old when his outlaw father, Jesse Woodson James, was killed in Missouri on April 3, 1882, by a gang member seeking reward money.
During his Northfield visit, Ross toured a newly opened exhibit on the 1876 raid and said he was impressed at the depth of knowledge displayed. He remarked that he was glad that the citizens of Northfield had missed Jesse when they fired upon retreating gang members, killing two of them.
Ross described himself as a “cowboy wannabe” and wore cowboy hat and boots throughout his stay, happily showing off his equestrian skills by riding a horse with the James-Younger gang in the concluding parade.
Ross died of a heart attack on March 5, 2007, at the age of 80 in Fullerton, California.
