• Offers evidence from Jesse James’s secret encoded diaries

• Examines Jesse James’s close ties with other notorious outlaws, such as Johnny Ringo, Jesse Evans, and Billy the Kid

• Shows how Jesse James was related, by blood or marriage, to powerful people in law enforcement and politics, including the elite families behind the Copperheads and the Knights of the Golden Circle organizations

Jesse James and many other Old West outlaws were much more than just wild cowboys. As author Daniel Duke--the great-great-grandson of Jesse James--reveals, James and other infamous outlaws were part of a larger organization, centuries old, that has affected U.S. history from the small, rural streets of early America to the highest levels of the nation’s government, with continuing influence to this day.

Drawing on his great-great-grandfather’s secret diaries, Duke unravels the hidden history of the Wild West to expose the outlaws, politicians, and secret societies who were pulling strings behind the scenes. He examines Jesse James’s close ties with other notorious outlaws, such as Johnny Ringo, Jesse Evans, and Billy the Kid, and demonstrates not only how James faked his death and lived out his life under an alias, but how Billy the Kid did the same. He also details how both Jesse James and Billy the Kid continued their work for the nameless organization after their faked deaths.

Exploring how Jesse James was related, by blood or marriage, to powerful people in law enforcement and politics, Duke details James’s connections to the Baylor family, who founded Baylor University in Waco, Texas, and other elite families who were instrumental in founding and leading the Copperheads and the Knights of the Golden Circle organizations before, during, and after the Civil War. The author shows how Jesse James was connected to former U.S. presidents Lyndon Baines Johnson and Harry S. Truman as well as LBJ’s man in the shadows, Texas mob figure Billie Sol Estes.

Exposing the secret agenda behind the outlaw gangs of the Wild West, Duke also reveals the stealthy war between the secret organization and its opposition that has been waged in the shadows for centuries.

Daniel J. Duke, the great-great-grandson of Jesse James, grew up surrounded by stories of lost outlaw treasures. For more than two decades he has researched the mysteries involving his family. The author of Jesse James and the Lost Templar Treasure and coauthor of The Mysterious Life and Faked Death of Jesse James, he lives in Texas.

An Introduction

ONE
Jesse James--The Traditional Story

TWO
Billy the Kid--The Traditional Story

THREE
In Cahoots

FOUR
Outlaws with a Higher Purpose

FIVE
New Faces in an Old Photograph

SIX
Family Ties

SEVEN
With Faith Comes Power

EIGHT
Buried Treasure

NINE
Modern Reach of an Old West Outlaw

TEN
Furthering the Light of Freedom and Liberty

APPENDIX
Connections That Paved the Way

Notes

Index