Robert Ford (Bob)
Correction- the headstone of Bob Ford should read 1861 as the birth date
The following article can be found in Richmond Conservator Newspapers dating January 7, 1892- December 27, 1894 on Microfilm Roll No. 13 at the Ray County Library.
Richmond Conservator
June 9, 1892 (page 3)
BOB FORD SHOT
Yesterday (Wednesday) evening Cap Ford received a telegram from South Creede , Colorado that his brother Bob had been shot. It was understood from dispatch that he had been killed and that he would be sent here for burial. An answer was immediately forwarded to Creede to get full particulars, but up to time of going to press no answer had been received.
A telegram in Kansas City Times this morning gives full particulars of the killing of Ford and from it we glean the following:
Ford had quarreled some months ago with Deputy Sheriff Kelly and yesterday morning the quarrel was renewed in Ford’s dance hall at Creede when Kelly shot him with a shotgun killing him instantly. Ford was standing with his back to Kelly scarcely five feet away. He turned and as he saw who called him his hand went for his six shooter, but he had no chance on earth. Kelly had only to raise his shotgun and let it go. Ford’s hand never reached his revolver.
Richmond Conservator
June 16, 1892
By Cy Warman
BOB FORD’S DEATH
The killing of Bob Ford was not the act of a brave man- it was like the killing of Jesse James; in a well regulated community it would be called a murder. The coroner’s jury made no apology for the killing and the fact that Ford was exonerated murderer does not excuse his slayer. The love of notoriety would tempt a man with a weak mind ballated (unreadable) to commit such a crime as that at which Kelly stands charged. When killers are allowed to go free so easily it is bad for the community- it encourages killing and by and by editor or minister is killed who can and will be spared
Life is buried at both ends and should not be abbreviated in the middle. If the Lord could afford to let Ford live, Kelly should not have put up with it, perhaps the Lord meant to make something of him after a while. Kelly stands charged with murder and should be tried as Ford would have been if Kelly’s gun had failed to fire. 
Richmond Conservator
July 14, 1892 (page 5)
Ed O’Kelly, who killed Bob Ford at Creede a few weeks ago, has been convicted of murder in the second degree and sentenced to Colorado Penitentiary for life.
Richmond Conservator
Thursday, August 18, 1892 (page 1)
BOB FORD
HIS BODY BROUGHT FROM COLORADO TO RICHMOND FOR BURIAL
The body of Bob Ford, who was killed in Creede , Colorado some weeks ago was exhumed and brought to Richmond and buried Tuesday ( August 16, 1892 ) where the remains of a member of his family now rest. At was the request of the deceased made to his mother when he last visited Richmond that should he die she would have his remains brought to Richmond for burial. True to her promise his mother never forsook him under any circumstances of life availed herself of the first opportunity that presented itself and had his remains brought to his old home for burial.
Funeral services were held at the residence Tuesday morning, only a few of the relatives and friends being present. At the conclusion or services the remains were conveyed in the city cemetery and placed in their final resting place and will perhaps not be disturbed again until the final and great summons for all graves to give up their dead.
(Bob Ford was only 20 years old when he shot Jesse James on April 3, 1882 in St. Joseph, Missouri after knowing him only ten days)
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Early years
Robert N. Ford was born in Ray County, Missouri to James Thomas Ford and his wife Mary Bruin. As a young man, he became an admirer of Jesse James for his war record and his daring career in crime. In 1880 he finally managed to meet James. Ford’s brother Charles Ford is believed to have taken part in the James gang’s Blue Cut train robbery near Glendale, Missouri on September 7, 1881.
Assassination of Jesse James
Robert Ford in an undated photograph with the weapon he used to kill Jesse James.
In November 1881, Jesse James moved his family to St. Joseph, Missouri. He intended to give up crime, but first wanted to stage one last robbery.
The James gang by now had been greatly reduced in number. James invited Charles and Robert Ford to take part in the robbery of the Platte City Bank. The Ford brothers passed themselves off in St. Joseph as cousins of James, though they were in fact unrelated. James allowed them to move into his home to keep him better protected.
Unfortunately for James, the Ford brothers had already decided not to take part in the robbery, but to collect the $10,000 bounty placed on James by Missouri Governor Thomas T. Crittenden. Ford had been arrested for killing Wood Hite, another gang member. Governor Crittenden promised him a pardon if he would also kill Jesse James.
On April 3, 1882, after eating breakfast, the Fords and James went into the living room. Before sitting down, James noticed a dusty picture on the wall and stood on a chair to clean it. James was not wearing his guns and Bob Ford took advantage of the opportunity and shot James in the back of the head.
Robert Ford wired the governor to claim his reward. He then turned himself in to the law, but was dismayed to find he was charged with first degree murder. The Ford brothers were tried and convicted. They were sentenced to death by hanging, but within two hours were granted a full pardon by the Governor of Missouri. Ford then received a portion of the reward money.
Ford’s letter to Governor Thomas Crittenden giving his version of how he killed Jessie James (April, 1882)
“On the morning of April 3, Jess and I went downtown, as usual, before breakfast, for the papers. We got to the house about eight o’clock and sat down in the front room. Jess was sitting with his back to me, reading the St. Louis Republican. I picked up the Times, and the first thing I saw in big headlines was the story about Dick Liddil’s surrender. Just then Mrs. James came in and said breakfast was ready. Beside me was a chair with a shawl on it, and as quick as a flash I lifted it and shoved the paper under. Jess couldn’t have seen me, but he got up, walked over to the chair, picked up the shawl and threw it on the bed, and taking the paper, went out to the kitchen. I felt that the jig was up, but I followed and sat down at the table opposite Jess.
Mrs. James poured out the coffee and then sat down at one end of the table. Jesse spread the paper on the table in front of him and began to look over the headlines. All at once Jess said: “Hello, here. The surrender of Dick Liddil.” And he looked across at me with a glare in his eyes.
“Young man, I thought you told me you didn’t know that Dick Liddil had surrendered,” he said.
I told him I didn’t know it.
“‘Well,” he said, “it’s very strange. He surrendered three weeks ago and you was right there in the neighborhood. It looks fishy.”
He continued to glare at me, and I got up and went into the front room. In a minute I heard Jess push his chair back and walk to the door. He came in smiling, and said pleasantly: “Well, Bob, it’s all right, anyway.”
Instantly his real purpose flashed upon my mind. I knew I had not fooled him. He was too sharp for that. He knew at that moment as well as I did that I was there to betray him. But he was not going to kill me in the presence of his wife and children. He walked over to the bed, and deliberately unbuckled his belt, with four revolvers in it, and threw it on the bed. It was the first time in my life I had seen him without that belt on, and I knew that he threw it off to further quiet any suspicions I might have.
He seemed to want to busy himself with something to make an impression on my mind that he had forgotten the incident at the breakfast table, and said: “That picture is awful dusty.” There wasn’t a speck of dust that I could see on the picture, but he stood a chair beneath it and then got upon it and began to dust the picture on the wall.
As he stood there, unarmed, with his back to me, it came to me suddenly, ‘Now or never is your chance. If you don’t get him now he’ll get you tonight.’ Without further thought or a moment’s delay I pulled my revolver and leveled it as I sat. He heard the hammer click as I cocked it with my thumb and started to turn as I pulled the trigger. The ball struck him just behind the ear and he fell like a log, dead.”
Colorado (Walsenburg, Creede and Soapy Smith)
Bob Ford earned his living by posing for photographs as “the man who killed Jesse James” in dime museums. He also appeared on stage, reenacting his killing of Jesse James, but his performance was not well received. Ford later moved to Colorado, where he opened a saloon-gambling house in Walsenburg, Colorado. When silver was found in Creede, Colorado, Ford closed his saloon and opened one there.[1]
On the eve of Easter 1892, Ford and gunman Joe Palmer, a member of the Soapy Smith gang, were drinking in the local saloons and proceeded to shoot out windows and street lamps along Creede’s Main Street. With the help of friends and business partners of Smith, they were soon allowed to return. Ford purchased a lot and on May 29, 1892 opened Ford’s Exchange, said to have been a dance hall.[2] Six days later, on June 5, the entire business district, including Ford’s Exchange, burned to the ground in a major fire. Ford opened a tent saloon until he could rebuild.
Ford’s death
Three days after the fire, on June 8, 1892, Ed O’Kelley entered Ford’s tent saloon with a sawed-off shotgun. According to witnesses, Ford’s back was turned. O’Kelley said, “Hello, Bob.” As Ford turned to see who it was, O’Kelley fired both barrels, killing Ford instantly. O’Kelley became “the man who killed the man who killed Jesse James.” There is speculation that Soapy Smith may have encouraged the shooting.
Kelley
Ford was buried in Creede, but was later exhumed and reburied in Richmond, Missouri.
![[del.icio.us]](http://images.del.icio.us/static/img/delicious.small.gif){kind=small}
Related Posts
Tags: Albany Missouri, Bob Ford, brother bob, conservator, Coward, Cox, creede colorado, cy warman, Hankins, headstone, Jesse james, kansas city times, Old Albany, orrick, ray county, Shelby, six shooter, William T. AndersonRelated posts
Tags: Albany Missouri, Bob Ford, brother bob, conservator, Coward, Cox, creede colorado, cy warman, Hankins, headstone, Jesse james, kansas city times, Old Albany, orrick, ray county, Shelby, six shooter, William T. Anderson
Leave a reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.