Jesse James was a legend in his own time throughout the Dakota Territory. Born in Missouri, he was sixteen when he joined the Confederate guerilla band of Bloody Bill Anderson. After the war, Jesse and his older brother Frank felt humiliated by the Union victory. They organized a gang and carried out bank robberies. Jesse craved attention. He began writing his own press releases and leaving them in the gang’s wake. He used newspapers to build his reputation as a Robin Hood, helping Missourians he thought were being crushed by the North. He said, “We are not thieves. We are bold robbers.”