Edward Taylor stands in front of the old Southern Bank of Kentucky building allegedly robbed in 1868 by the Jesse James gang at Main and Sixth Streets in downtown Russellville. Taylor portrays the infamous bank robber every year for reenactments of the event. Photo by Clinton Lewis

Edward Taylor is proud he can help keep the legend of outlaw Jesse James alive in southcentral Kentucky. The retired stone quarry worker almost always wears tall boots and a black cowboy hat. His black Chevy pickup truck boasts the name Jesse James in white letters high across the windshield. Taylor rides a horse named for the famous outlaw he says hes kin to on his mothers side. And he mounts his trusty steed on a custom-made black saddle that says WANTED. DEAD OR ALIVE. JESSE JAMES. REWARD $5,000.Im a cowboy, Taylor said from his 34-acre Plainview farm in Logan County. All my life, Ive ridden my horse to town and through town…. Everybody knows me as Jesse James. But Taylors not an outlaw, he assures. The 48-year-old grandfather of four only pretends to be the bad guy for special occasions, such as the annual re-enactment of the 1868 James-gang robbery of the old Southern Deposit Bank, now the home of attorney J. Gran Clark, in downtown Russellville. Several books, including Jesse James, which was published in 1910 by I & M Ottenheimer, verify James participation in the robbery. The loose gold on the counter was swept off by Jesse, according to the book. But some historians contend James didnt take part in the robbery that is believed to have included his older brother, Frank James, and famous outlaw Cole Younger. The Authentic Life of Jesse James, a 1953 book by Carl W. Breihan, says Jesse James wrote a letter saying he was at a home several miles away at the time of the robbery. While Taylor isnt sure which account he believes, he still thrives on the idea of Jesse James being in Logan County. I guess you could say Im a history buff who researches the life of Jesse James, he said. Since the late 1800s, Jesse James has been a legend in this part of the state. Some in Logan County think Jesse James shot a hole in the fish that still adorns the weather vane on top of the Logan County Courthouse, Taylor said. The James gang allegedly robbed a stagecoach near Mammoth Cave in 1880, according to a May 16, 1937, Louisville Courier-Journal article. They also robbed the Bank of Columbia, killing cashier, R.A.C. Martin on a beautiful day at the end of April, 1872, a Courier-Journal article said. Taylor said its often hard to separate fact from fiction about such events because so many accounts of Jesse James life have turned up through the years. Sometimes youll read something and think, hmmm, he said. Local lore has it that Jesse James and his gang hid out in Lost River Cave in Bowling Green after the robbery at the Southern Deposit Bank, said Steven ONan, a tour guide at Lost River Cave and Valley. A lot of places say Jesse James hid out in their cave, ONan told a tour group. But we have some proof. A Bowling Green physicians wife once said Jesse James came to her home after the Russellville robbery and forced her husband to go to Lost River Cave to treat an injured member of the James gang, ONan said. As ONan steered a tour boat through the dark cave Monday, he pointed out passages where James may have hidden while detectives waited outside to catch him. You can see there are lots of places where he could have hidden, ONan said. Without the dam we have now, the water in here would have been just a couple of inches deep in places, and it would have been so dark they never would have found him. He could have crawled back into one of these passageways, turned off his lantern and waited. It is believed Jesse James escaped from Lost River Cave through an obscure passage, ONan said. He was never caught. At one time, when Lost River Cave served as a nightclub, from the 1930s to the 1960s, wax figures of the James gang were mounted on a ledge in the cave to draw visitors, according to ONan. Those in charge of the club also had writings about the James gang broadly displayed on a wall to attract a crowd, ONan said. Jesse James had ties to southcentral Kentucky through his father, who was once a minister in Logan County but moved the family to Missouri before Jesse James was born, according to a 1968 article in the Russell Springs Times Journal. The local ties found the James brothers in the area time and again, records indicate. Wealthy Adairville resident George Hite, an uncle by marriage to Jesse and Frank James, often hosted the outlaws, according to several books, including James D. Horans 1949 book, Desperate Men. But things werent always peaceful among the kin even after Jesse James died. After Jesse James was shot in the back of the head and killed by fellow gang member Bob Ford in 1882, Hite and his wife, Sarah E. Hite, filed a libel suit against The Courier-Journal because they thought the paper defamed Sarah Hite by saying shed had a liaison with Jesse James. The Hites lost the suit because the jury decided Sarah Hite had a bad reputation, the paper said. Olmstead resident John Q. Hite said his grandfather, Joseph Hunter Hite, was a cousin to the James boys and often saw the pair when they came to Adairville to visit their uncle. He said he remembers after they robbed the Gallatin bank and he played in the money on a bed, John Q. Hite said. They were grown and he was quite a bit younger than they were. He said they were really mean. Joseph Hunter Hite told tales of the James boys riding through the woods and shooting at each other for practice, John Q. Hite said. The outlaws also once killed a man and fed him to the hogs, John Q. Hite was told. Based on family stories, John Q. Hite said he believes Jesse James was a true outlaw. Taylor doesnt agree. Id say he only killed when it meant his liberty and his life, Taylor said. Opinions may be altered and old stories shattered after DNA tests are completed. Tests are set to be done on the body of a man who allegedly assumed the name J. Frank Dalton and claimed to be Jesse James until his death in Texas in 1951.Taylor thinks the body could be that of Jesse James because some accounts say he faked his death and even eulogized himself at the funeral of a dead man thought to be him so he could live a peaceful life without being hassled by the law. John Q. Hite tends to think Jesse James has been resting in peace since Bob Ford shot him in 1882.Its possible (that the man theyre performing DNA testing on is Jesse James), he said. But my grandfather sort of agreed that (Jesse James) was shot.