Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, July 8, 1995 TAG: 9507100075
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: KANSAS CITY STAR
DATELINE: LIBERTY, MO. LENGTH: Medium
Jesse James - or whoever is buried in his grave - will rise again.
Following a perfunctory 40-minute hearing Thursday afternoon, a Clay County judge gave the go-ahead for a team of scientists to exhume the remains in a grave in Mount Olivet Cemetery near Kearney, Mo.
The exhumation will take place on or before July 31, and the remains must be returned to the grave by Oct. 31.
``My team is in readiness,'' said the project's leader, James Starrs, a forensic scientist at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. ``They are available as soon as the middle of July.''
The university and a private foundation called Scientific Sleuthing will pay for the investigation, Starrs said. The Discovery Channel announced after the hearing Thursday that Starrs had given the cable network exclusive rights to film the exhumation.
Nobody came forward during the court hearing in opposition.
Scientists and descendants of the outlaw want to use DNA tests to settle a long-standing dispute about whether the man shot to death April 4, 1882, in St. Joseph, Mo., was James.
``There's a significant historical mystery that needs to be resolved,'' Starrs testified. ``Is it truly Jesse James or not?''
Those who think the outlaw is buried in Mount Olivet say Bob Ford fatally shot James while James was standing on a chair straightening a picture.
Others contend that James was not killed that day, but went on to father more children. Historians say hundreds of people claim to be his descendants.
Starrs testified he had written consent for the exhumation from 17 James descendants. One relative had reservations about disturbing the grave monument, Starrs said, but did not object to the exhumation.
Robert Jackson, whose great-grandmother, Susan James, was the sister of Jesse James, said he and his nephew, Mark Nikkel, both from Oklahoma City, would give blood to see if their DNA matches that of the corpse in Mount Olivet Cemetery.
``I'm pretty sure that's old Uncle Jesse buried there,'' Jackson said.
He said he was puzzled by people's eagerness to link themselves with James.
``I don't understand why they would,'' Jackson said. ``He's a bank robber. I guess infamy is better than nothing.''
by CNB