Jesse James was a notorious American outlaw, bank robber, and leader of the James-Younger Gang. Following the American Civil War, he and his brother Frank James led their gang in a series of audacious robberies of banks, stagecoaches, and trains. His criminal activities captured the public's imagination, turning him into a legendary and mythologized figure of the American Old West. James was ultimately shot and killed in his home by Robert Ford, a member of his own gang seeking to collect a state reward.