the prime motive which actuated george shepherd in shooting jesse james has never been suspicioned by more than one man, and acting upon suggestions made by that single person, the writer verified the theory. it is true that the rewards, amounting to nearly one hundred thousand dollars, for the apprehension or dead body of jesse james, were a strong temptation, and it certainly had its influence with shepherd, but there was a stronger motive.
directly after the war ike flannery, a nephew of george shepherd, reached the age of manhood and came into possession of five thousand dollars, a sum[pg 110] he had inherited from the estate of his deceased father. ike was somewhat wayward and was well acquainted with the james boys and the guerrillas. jesse james and jim anderson, a brother of the notorious bill, knew of ike flannery's inheritance, and they induced him to buckle on his pistols, take his money and go with them upon a pretended expedition. near glasgow, missouri, the three stopped at the house of a friend where there were three girls, the men of the house being away on business. after eating dinner the three started away, but they had been gone only a few moments when the report of two pistol shots was heard and jim anderson came riding back to the house where they had dined, and told the girls that his party had been fired on by the militia, and that flannery had been killed. jesse james and anderson rode away while the girls notified some of the neighbors, and when the body of flannery was found in the road, there were two bullet holes in the head and the five thousand dollars were missing. shepherd did not learn all the circumstances connected with flannery's death until sometime afterward, but when he was told how anderson and jesse james acted, he was convinced that they murdered his nephew and plundered his dead body.
it was more than one year after this tragic occurrence before shepherd met either of the murderers. he was in sherman, texas, when jim anderson[pg 111] came up to him with a cordial greeting, little suspecting the terrible result of that meeting. the two drank together and appeared on the best of terms until the hour of eleven o'clock at night. the saloon was closing and the darkness without was most uninviting. shepherd asked anderson to accompany him over to the court-house yard as he wanted to talk secretly concerning a certain transaction.
when the two reached the yard, and about them was nothing but sombre shadow and the quiet of sleep, cautiously, yet determinedly, shepherd drew from its sheath a long, bright, deadly knife, which gathered on its blade and focused the light unseen before, and then made ready for a horrible deed. anderson had never thought of danger until the keen edge of the terrible weapon was at his throat.
said shepherd: "you murdered ike flannery and robbed his body of five thousand dollars. i have determined to avenge his death, and to accomplish my purpose i brought you here. what have you got to say?"
anderson had killed many men and he knew how to die. there was no begging, no denying, only a realization of what he could not avert; and he accepted fate with a stoicism worthy of a religious fanatic. before receiving the fatal stroke, however, he told shepherd that jesse james was the one who proposed the murder and robbery of young [pg 112]flannery, and that each fired a fatal shot and then divided the stolen money. when this admission escaped his lips, shepherd sprang upon him like a tiger, drew the glittering blade of the terrible knife across his throat, and the spirit of the murderer and robber took its flight into the realms of the unknown.
on the following morning a dead body with a ghastly gash in the throat, from which the blood had poured until it dyed the grass a yard in diameter, was found and identified as that of jim anderson. dehart, an old-time guerrilla, was in sherman at the time of the murder, and was known to have a grudge against the murdered man, so suspicion attached to him so strongly that he had to leave texas. no one ever suspected shepherd of the murder, but his own confessions to the writer are given in this account of anderson's execution.
shepherd has longed for an opportunity to kill jesse james, but the surroundings, even during a long association, were never sufficiently favorable. the opportunity was exceedingly unfavorable at short creek, but revenge and the promise of such an immense reward nerved him to the undertaking.
