By Eric Wei
- Jesse James: The Search for the Remains of an Outlaw
- Thomas Jefferson: Sally Hemings Affair
- Anna Anderson: Was She Anastasia Romanov?
Jesse James: The Search for the Remains of an Outlaw
Figure 1: Photo of Jesse James during the
prime of his 16-year outlaw
career.
Jesse Woodson James (Figure 1) launched his 16-year outlaw career after fighting for the Confederates during the Civil War. Jesse James was the first person to pull off a daylight bank robbery in the United States when his gang (the James-Younger Gang) robbed a Liberty, Missouri bank for $60,000. Jesse and his gang became famous for their exploits in robbing banks, trains, and stagecoaches throughout the Wild West. Jesse James was shot in the back of the head and killed by fellow gang member, Bob Ford, while dusting and straightening a picture on the wall of his St. Joseph home in 1882. Ford's motives were to cash in on the $10,000 award on James' head. A funeral for Jesse James took place in 1882 as James was buried at his childhood farm just outside of Kearney, Missouri. However, many people believe that Jesse James did not die that day in 1882 but lived to be 104 and was buried in Gransbury, Texas in 1951. According to Bud Hardcastle (a Jesse James historian and researcher of 20 years), Jesse James faked his own death in 1882 to escape the law. Supposedly, Jesse James went by the name J. Frank Dalton and married several times after staging his death. This allowed him to travel from place to place and stay in hiding. After Dalton died in 1951, a post mortem revealed gunshot wounds and rope burns that were identical to those that were known to be on Jesse James. There were also burn scars on the bottom of his feet that coincided with the torture techniques that the Union soldiers used on James when he was captured during the Civil War. The gravestone in Gransbury, Texas where Dalton was buried reads Jesse Woodson James} and below that, Supposedly killed in 1882.}
Figure 2: Tombstone in the Mount Olivet
Cemetery in Kearney, Missouri,
which holds
the remains from the James
Farm gravesite.
Texas where some believe rests the remains
of the real Jesse James.
People claiming to be descendants of Jesse James from marriages after he was supposedly shot and murdered in 1882 have magnified this controversy. In 1995, a court in Missouri allowed scientists to dig up the grave at the James Farm outside of Kearney, Missouri and use DNA testing to determine if the remains were those of Jesse James. Samples taken from the teeth (due to bone degradation) in the grave were DNA fingerprinted and compared with samples taken from known descendants of Jesse James living in Oklahoma. The scientist found the remains to be those of Jesse James to a 99.7% certainty as a result of their DNA testing. The remains were then moved to the Mount Olivet Cemetery in Kearney, Missouri (Figure 2) and Jesse James was given a full Confederate burial there in 1995. However, Hardcastle and three supposed grandsons of James from Arkansas were not convinced. They claim that the DNA tests from the Missouri grave only proved relation to James' mother's side of the family and could have been any family member. Also, they claim that the tooth of Jesse James that was used in the DNA testing could have been any tooth from the James Farm. Finally, on February 17, 2000, Hardcastle and controversial descendants of James convinced a judge to allow them to excavate the grave in Gransbury, Texas (Figure 3) for DNA testing. On May 30, 2000 they went to excavate the grave marked Jesse Woodson James} but found that they had dug up the wrong grave when the remains in the grave were determined to be those of William Henry Holland. The steel coffin and missing arm were dead giveaways, since Dalton (A.K.A. the supposed Jesse James) was buried in a wood coffin and had both arms when he died. The gravestone marked the wrong grave. Officials reported that souvenir hunters had stolen a series of temporary grave markers after Dalton died in 1951. They believe that the thefts accounted for the excavation mix up. Hardcastle and purported Jesse James descendants are working on a court order to excavate a second grave next to the one they dug up in May 2000. For Hardcastle and his supporters, the 118-year-old controversy continues but most people have accepted the 99.7% certainty of the DNA studies in 1995 as proof that Jesse James died that day in 1882 when he was shot in the back of the head.
Sources: http://www.abcnews.go.com/sections/us/DailyNews/jessejames000701.html
http://www.apbonline.com/crimesolvers/unsolved/2000/04/08/jessejames0408_01.html
http://www.virtualcities.com/ons/tx/y/as/txy60a23.htm
http://www.granburytx.com/docs/truth.html
http://www.foxnews.com/science/053100/jessejames.sml
http://collegian.ksu.edu/issues/v099b/su/n157/city-james-Rumbaugh.html
http://www.rense.com/general/james.htm
Thomas Jefferson: Sally Hemings Affair
Figure 4: Portrait of Thomas Jefferson, author
of the Declaration of
Independence
and 3rd President of the United States of
America.
The scandal began in 1802 when James Callender accused the author of the Declaration of Independence and President of the United States, Thomas Jefferson (Figure 4), of fathering illegitimate children with one of his slaves, Sally Hemings. The scandal grew into a 200 year old controversy between the descendants of Hemings and the descendants of Jefferson and his wife Martha Wayles. The descendants of Sally Hemings claim that Thomas Jefferson fathered 7 children by Sally Hemings while the descendants of Jefferson and Martha Wayles refute that claim. This controversy was further complicated by the revelation that Sally Hemings' father was Thomas Jefferson's father in law. Recently, researchers decided to use genetic testing to end the controversy once and for all. In 1998, the British science journal Nature published the results of Dr. Eugene Foster's DNA study, which concluded that Jefferson was the father of at least one of Sally Hemings children to a probability of less than one percent. The Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation issued a report in January of 2000 concluding that Thomas Jefferson was the father of at least one and maybe all of Hemings' children. However, Jeffersonian supporters still insist that the DNA testing did not prove conclusively that Jefferson was indeed the father of any of Hemings' children.
Let's take a closer look at the details of the genetic testing that was used in Dr. Foster's study. The method used was a series of Y-chromosomal DNA studies; these were used in order to avoid the ambiguity of any possible genetic influence from John Wayles, Sally Hemings' alleged father and Thomas Jefferson's father in law. The Y-chromosomal studies prove only the male relationship, as the Y chromosome is only passed from father to son. The study compared 19 genetic markers on the Y-chromosomes of 14 subjects. The subjects were:
- Five male line descendants from two sons of Field Jefferson. Field Jefferson was Thomas Jefferson's paternal uncle.
- Three male line descendants from three sons of John Carr. John Carr was the grandfather of Peter and Samuel Carr. Both Peter and Samuel were suspected by Jefferson descendants to be the actual father of Hemings' children.
- Five male line descendants from two sons of Thomas Woodson (a son of Sally Hemings).
- One male line descendant from Eston Hemings (a son of Sally Hemings).
Thomas Woodson and Eston Hemings were both children of Sally Hemings, so a Y-chromosomal match between their descendants and those of the Jefferson family line would indicate relation. Thomas Jefferson did not have any male descendants with Martha Wayles and that is why the researchers used male line descendants of his uncle, Field Jefferson. The results of the study clearly showed that no match was found between the descendants of John Carr and those of Sally Hemings, so neither Peter nor Samuel could have been the father of Hemings' children.
The study also showed that the male line descendants of Field Jefferson (Jefferson's uncle) and Eston Hemings (Sally's son) had identical Y-chromosomes according to the 19 genetic markers used in the study. This indicates that -a- Jefferson was the father of Eston Hemings to a probability of less than 1 percent. However, the Y-chromosomes of Thomas Woodson's (Sally's other son) descendants did not match those of Field Jefferson's descendants so the father of Thomas Woodson was not a Jefferson. (See Figure 5) This refutes the claim that Thomas Jefferson fathered all of Sally Hemings' children. DNA analysis of five old Virginia families} was also included in the study in an attempt to sample the local Y chromosome population. None matched the rare Y chromosome of the Jefferson line.
Figure 5. Tree diagram that shows the male line descendants used in Dr. Foster's study.
Many considered Dr. Foster's genetic study to be conclusive evidence that Thomas Jefferson was indeed the father of at least one of Sally Hemings' children. Even the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation acknowledged the results of the study as conclusive evidence. However, others still insist that the study does not prove conclusively that Thomas Jefferson was the father of Eston Hemings, only that a Jefferson was the father. They have speculated that it could have been Thomas Jefferson's brother Randolph Jefferson, who was allegedly visiting Monticello (Jefferson's estate) about the time that Eston was conceived. Others point out that 200 years have passed and the Jefferson Y-chromosome could have entered the Hemings' family line sometime after Thomas Jefferson's death.
Most historians have accepted as fact that Thomas Jefferson did have an affair with Sally Hemings and fathered children with her. At the same time, there will always be historians and doubters who insist that the genetic tests did not prove that Thomas Jefferson was the father of Eston Hemings and refute the claim that an affair occurred at Monticello.
Sources: http://www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/981109/9tom.htm
http://www.people.virginia.edu/~rjh9u/tomsally.html
http://www.angelfire.com/va/TJTruth/
http://www.monticello.org/plantation/hemings_report.html
http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/7970/jefpnotg.htm
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/981109/9tom.htm
Anna Anderson: Was She Anastasia Romanov?
Figure 6: Photo of the Grand Duchess Anastasia Romanov of Russia.
Grand Duchess Anastasia (Figure 6) was born on June 5, 1901 as the youngest child of Tsar Nicholas and Tsarita Alexandra, who were the last Tsar and Tsarita of Russia. The family lived in exile as prisoners during the Russian Revolution after soldiers captured the royal palace. They were being held in Siberia in July of 1918 when Lenin (leader of the Communist Red} Party) ordered the execution of the royal family. The family was awakened at midnight and taken down into the basement where they were told a picture was going to be taken. Instead, eleven Bolshevik soldiers (on the side of the Red} Army) opened fire on the royal family and bayoneted those who survived the bullets until they were certain that the entire family was dead. The bodies were stripped, mutilated with acid, and thrown down a mineshaft. Later, the Bolsheviks, unsatisfied with the original grave, dug up the bodies and buried them deep in a forest in Etakerinburg.
Figure 7: Photo of Anna Anderson (middle) and two supporters.
Since that tragic day, many people have claimed that they were Anastasia Romanov and had miraculously escaped the murder. The most famous of claimant of Anastasia was Anna Anderson (Figure 7). Anna's story began when a woman jumped off a bridge in Berlin in 1920 but was rescued and put in a hospital. Someone recognized} her as the Grand Duchess Tatiana. The woman said that she was not Tatiana, but when she was given a list of the royal family, she crossed out every name except that of the Grand Duchess Anastasia. Different royalty, relatives, friends of the family, and others who knew the royal family met with this woman and were divided. Some claimed that she was indeed Anastasia while others said that she most definitely was not. The woman moved to America and went by the name of Anna Anderson in the 1920's when she gained much fame. She lived the remainder of her life in controversy as she continued to claim that she was Anastasia until 1984 when she died of pneumonia. Before she died Anna Anderson tried to prove she was Anastasia by taking her case to court in 1938 and the case dragged out until 1970 as famous anthropologists, handwriting experts, and forensic experts all testified that Anna Anderson was Anastasia. However, the court was not convinced and ruled that Anna Anderson was not Anastasia.
In 1991, the gravesite of the Romanov family was discovered in Siberia and the remains of the family were excavated. Using genetic tests (comparing extracted DNA with the DNA of living relatives), the bones were identified as those of Tsar Nicholas and his family. However, the bones of Anastasia and her younger brother Alexei were not identified. The missing remains of Anastasia triggered more rumors and controversy that the Grand Duchess had indeed survived the execution in 1918. However, in 1994 when hair samples and tissue samples from a surgery that Anna Anderson had undergone in 1979 were used in DNA tests, the results concluded that she was not a Romanov. Anna Anderson was determined to be a Polish factory worker named Franziska Schanzkowska who had disappeared in 1920. Anna's DNA samples matched a DNA sample from Schanzkowska's great nephew, Karl Maucher.
Countless books and movies have been based on the life story of Anna Anderson. Still some believe that she was the Grand Duchess of Russia and the samples used in the DNA tests were not from Anderson. However, for most of the world, cold science put an end to this hot controversy when the results of the 1994 genetic tests proved without a doubt that Anna Anderson was not Anastasia Romanov.
Sources: http://users.rcn.com/web-czar/anna.htm,
http://www.intlromanovsociety.org/expressions/jgodl.htm
http://www.fr-d-serfes.org/royal/annaanderson.htm
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Aegean/7545/Anastasia.htm
http://www.dana.edu/~dwarman/rkek.htm,
http://www.webspawner.com/users/anastasiar/
http://www.nettaxi.com/citizens/anastasi/
http://members.ee.net/ahartsook/