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Frank James

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:NA Estimated At:2,000.00 - 2,500.00 USD
Frank James

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Auction Date:2014 Oct 15 @ 18:00 (UTC-05:00 : EST/CDT)
Location:236 Commercial St., Suite 100, Boston, Massachusetts, 02109, United States
ALS - Autograph Letter Signed
ANS - Autograph Note Signed
AQS - Autograph Quotation Signed
AMQS - Autograph Musical Quotation Signed
DS - Document Signed
FDC - First Day Cover
Inscribed - “Personalized”
ISP - Inscribed Signed Photograph
LS - Letter Signed
SP - Signed Photograph
TLS - Typed Letter Signed
ALS signed “Frank,” one page, lightly-lined, 5.5 x 8.75, December 18, [1883]. Letter to his wife, written while awaiting trial on murder and armed robbery charges. In full: “I have friends here whose society is extremely agreeable to me but it is in the presence of my little family where true happiness only abound. There I can find the true wife into whose heart I can tell my joys my sorrows, what a consolation it is to know she is waiting watching and praying no doubt she has a heavy heart. I am grieved far more than she can possibly be on account of having disappointed her by not writing yesterday. I do hope she saw Mr. Slover so she will then know why I did not write.” The fragile paper has been professionally backed for preservation and encapsulated in a Mylar sleeve. In very good condition, with moderate to heavy uniform toning and a few creases. In September of 1882—five months after his brother Jesse was gunned down by fellow gang member Robert Ford—James turned himself in to Missouri governor Thomas Crittenden in Jefferson City, tired of running and hoping to avoid the same gruesome fate. He was held and put on trial in Gallatin, Missouri, for participating in two murders during a train robbery. However, having reached folk-hero status within the general population, he was acquitted by the jury. James was then charged and acquitted again in Alabama, and finally told that he would not be extradited to any other state if he kept a low profile. A remarkable letter written in the anguish of an uncertain fate.