PART 3. HUNTSVILLE, HOME, PARDON, AND BEYOND
Jesse spent the next two years in the infamous Walker Unit at Huntsville, Texas’ State Prison. This historic prison had been in operation since 1849. It had…a reputation. The following is Jesse’s official prison record, his “service record.”
BY SEPTEMBER, 1939, AFTER 18 MONTHS, JESSE WAS HOME FOR HIS GOOD BEHAVIOR
James family members never spoke of Jesse Gs’ time at the Walker Unit that I ever heard or that Mom or Dad ever shared. I knew from the general history of the Walker Unit, that it was, to be kind, a tough place. The only comments I ever heard about grandpa’s time there was from my mom, June Pike James, Jesse G’s Daughter-in-law. She told me that Jesse on his return home, Jesse seemed to all who knew him, to be “a changed man.” I think that speaks volumes at many levels.
Changed in what way? He spent more time at home. All the race horses, teams of work horses and mules had been sold to neighbors or to Mr. Gurinsky’s Horse and Mule Sales barn at San Antonio’s Union Stockyards from whence they had come. That left only 2-3 saddle horses for the family. Grandma Clara McCoy James, his wife, had a few laying hens for eggs and one turkey for upcoming Thanksgiving. There were no fruit trees, cows, fighting chickens or ducks on the place. It was a time of and a place of…quiet.
JESSE MUST HAVE ENJOYED THE GETTING BACK TO NORMAL EVERY DAY WORK,
WITH HOPE OF A PARDON
Both of my grandfathers, mom’s and dad’s, were enumerated twice in one census year. It happens. Jesse was in McMullen County when one census taker stopped by the Witherspoon Ranch where he was working and was back in Somerset a day later when a different enumerator stopped by his home at Bexar Community. Here’s the records:
- The 1940 U. S. Census enumerated on May 6-7 in J. Pct. #3 of McMullen County records that Jesse, age 42, was working as a “pumper” in the “oil industry.”
- On May 8, 1940, Jesse is enumerated with his family at Bexar, J. Pct. #5, Jessie James age 42 is listed with wife Clara, children Jesse, Jr, Thelma, and Kenneth. Jessie/Jesse’s occupation is also listed as a “pumper” in the “oil industry.
JESSE GARFIELD JAMES’ FULL PARDON 1941
On, January 20, 1941, Texas Governor W. Lee O’Daniel granted “a full pardon and restoration of citizenship” to #87527.
The Pardon reads:
To All Whom These Presents Shall Come:
Jessie James, No. 87527, was convicted in the District Court of Bexar County, Texas on May 25, 1937, he was sentenced two years’ confinement in the State Penitentiary for Receiving and Concealing stolen property in one case. On October 24, 1938, by Proclamation No. 31772, he was granted a Conditional Pardon.
In a report dated January 15, 1941, the Board of Pardons and Paroles recommends that this man be granted a full pardon and restoration of citizenship. The prison record indicates he was discharged on December 4, 1939. He has filed an affidavit, dated December 3, 1940, in which he certifies that no charges, legal or moral, are pending against him in any state or Federal Court and that he has a clear record.
The District judge, District Attorney, Chairman of the Bexar County Parole Board, and other members of the Parole Board, together with other citizens of Bexar County stating that he has resided in Bexar County since his return and his conduct has been proper. __eting upon and because of the recommendation of the Board of Pardons and Paroles.
Now, therefore, I, W. Lee O’Daniel, Governor of the State of Texas, by the virtue of he authority vested in the Constitution and laws of this State, upon the recommendations hereinabove cited and for the reasons set out and now on file in the Office of the Secretary of State, do hereby grant unto the said JESSIE JAMES
FULL PARDON AND RESTORATION OF CITIZENSHIP
including competency to testify in all courts, together with full rights of suffrage and all benefits and obligations attendant therewith.
W. Lee O’Daniel
Governor of Texas
Jesse’s children after late 1942 at the James Home on FM 2790 at Bexar. Left to Right:
Calvin John Wilhelm and new wife Thelma Patricia James Wilhelm, John Kenneth James (in rear) Jesse Columbus James with new wife June Edith Pike James (who was now the Principal at an East Bexar County school). Another note: When I was 3-5 years old I got to stay with Grandmother Clara for a few days at a time in this ol’ house. I remember it and the adventures I had there, still.
JESSE’S PEACE DID NOT LAST, 14 September 1942
Mom, June Pike James, told me before she passed away in 2008, that several teachers told her in the Spring of 1942, that the Superintendent had spoken to the two James children, Thelma and Jesse C. (my dad). Both now Somerset High School Seniors. He spoke to them in his office individually and behind closed doors. Then the Superintendent had driven Jesse G’s daughter, Thelma. home in his car. She said it was the “talk of the faculty.” Why???
She also told me back in 2007, that someone had told the Superintendent, “Never let Jesse James know you met with his daughter behind closed doors and drove her home in your car.”
On September 14, 1942, in the afternoon, Jesse G. rode over, on his horse, to see a couple of neighbors.
Another point Mom brought up in 2007. I had asked her if Jesse G. ever carried a pistol. She said in the Summer of 1942, after she quit teaching and married Jesse C. who had graduated and signed up for Navy service, she got to be around Jesse G. for the first time for a few weeks. She said he carried a small pocket knife in his pant’s watch pocket. It was a tiny one about 2 inches long that he cleaned his fingernails with. That was it. Hmmmm. About 10 years later, I got to wandering though old newspapers, and…..
I FOUND A SAN ANTONIO NEWPAPER WHO TOLD A STORY OF WHAT HAD HAPPENED
Thank you GenealogyBank.com for having so many excellent regional newspapers like La Prensa. And, yes, those are my handwritten transcriptions of the article that appeared in La Prensa.
Somerset Resident is Accused of Homicide
According to his declarations, he acted in self defense in the killing of an individual
George Leonard, prominent Somerset landowner and President of the school board in his community, was accused of homicide last Tuesday in Justice of the Peace Bat Corrigan’s court, in connection with the death of Jesse James, 42 years old, also of Somerset.
James was shot Monday evening, receiving two bullets in his side after an altercation in front of Antonio Ferro who resides 1 ½ miles West of Somerset.
Leonard voluntarily turned himself in to the Sheriff’s deputies and was released on bond of $2500, through mediation of his attorney M. L. Roark.
Roark described the shooting as “a perfect case of self defense.”
Leonard, described the tragedy saying that he had been in his car at the Ferro house to offer certain work at the Somerset school. He said that James, and former guard at the Bexar County Jail when ex- sheriff West was administrator, arrived on horseback.
A scuffle started between the two and when James tried to remove the car forcefully, Leonard believed that he (Jesse) was armed and shot in self defense.
Ferro also declared at the sheriff’s office, affirming that Leonard had stopped by his house in order to offer work at the school, and that when the first fight started at his house and then he heard two or three shots. He added that the darkness did not permit him seeing the exact details of the tragedy, and that when he returned to the place where it happened, James was on the ground.
JESSE G’s DEATH CERTIFICATE
Back in the late 1970s, when I had Dad, Jesse C. James, drive me around to show me where events in his life happened, I asked and he showed me the home where my Grandpa Jesse was shot. ( It was on the southeast corner on Benton City Road where it joins Briggs Road. That house is gone now but the trees that shaded is are still there.
Dad also said Jesse G. made it home where he died. That was all Dad ever said about these events.
