The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford Page #8
He imagined himself in a coffin.
He considered possibilities...
...and everything wonderful
that could come true.
He's not gonna kill us.
Yeah, he is.
Well, I'll stay awake so he can't.
You're imagining things.
Ain't gonna be no Platte City.
Go to sleep, Charley.
Morning.
Charley.
Bob, how much did you want to eat?
I'm feeling sort of peculiar.
Why is it you're looking so interested?
You think it's intelligent
to go out like that...
...so all creation can see your guns?
Hi.
Come on, let's go see
what your mama's doing.
Timmy, get that door, would you?
- Well, you lost your shoe, sweetheart.
- Yeah, I did.
That's gonna be a problem.
They don't sell those one at a time.
We lost a shoe, Mama.
Will you put that up for Daddy,
would you?
- What you doing, you lose a shoe?
- Yeah.
It's only meant to go on top,
to complement.
Yeah, I know. Sometimes, I...
Bob, everything's getting cold!
- Where's Mary?
- She's outside, darling.
Mary?
What do you think goes on
in that noggin of his?
Nothing.
I was talking about his mind, not yours.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, I get it.
Well, hello now.
"The arrest and confession
of Dick Liddil."
You don't say so.
That's very strange.
Says here Dick surrendered
three weeks ago.
You must have been
right in the neighborhood.
Well, apparently, they kept it a secret.
If I get to Kansas City soon,
You two ready?
I will be, by noon.
There is a ship
She sails the sea
She's loaded deep
As deep can be
But not as deep
As the love I'm in
I know not if I sink or swim
The water is wide
I can't cross o'er
And neither have I wings to fly
Give me a boat
That can carry two
Both shall row
My love and I
For love is gentle
And love is kind
Sweetest flower
When first it's new
But love grows old
And waxes cold
And fades away
Like the morning dew
There is a ship
She sails the sea
I guess I'll take my guns off...
...for fear the neighbors might spy them.
Don't that picture look dusty?
What have...? What have you done?
Jesse.
Jesse?
Jesse? Jesse?
Jesse!
No!
No. Jess...
Come back. Oh, come back.
Oh, Jesse! No!
Oh, Bob. Have you done this?!
I swear to God I didn't.
It was an accident, Zee.
Come on. Pistol went off accidentally.
Put my name.
Why, what'd you do? I shot him.
Thank you all very much.
The resulting prints
sold for 2 dollars apiece...
...and were the models for the lithographed
covers on a number of magazines.
Soon a thousand strangers were making
spellbound pilgrimages to the cottage...
...or were venerating the iced remains
in Seidenfaden's cooling room.
The man who offered 30,000 dollars for
the body of President Garfield's assassin...
...sent a telegram to City Marshal
...for the body
...so that he could go around the country
with it...
...or at least sell it to P.T. Barnum
for his Greatest Show on Earth.
Another photograph was taken
of the renowned American bandit...
...nestled in his bed of ice.
And it was this shot that was most
available in sundries and apothecaries...
...to be viewed in a stereoscope
alongside the sphinx...
...the Taj Mahal,
and the catacombs of Rome.
Hello, here!
"The arrest and confession
of Dick Liddil."
Young man, I thought you told me
you didn't know Dick had surrendered.
You mean he did? I didn't know.
But I knew I had not fooled him.
And he knew, as well as I, in that moment
that I intended to bring him to justice.
But he would not kill me
in the presence of his wife and children.
And so he was smiling
to throw me off-guard.
Well, it's all right, anyway, Bob.
It was widely felt that
Bob possessed some acting talent...
...and Charley, not a jot.
That picture's awful dusty.
Charley was only expected
not to slouch or mutter...
...and to transport his sicknesses
to the alley before letting them go.
And that's...
By October of 1883, Bob Ford
could be identified correctly...
...by more citizens than could
the president of the United States.
He was as renowned at 20 as Jesse was
after 14 years of grand larceny.
You won't get your hooks into me.
That's right. That's right.
Sit next to your boyfriend. Jezebel.
Charley was increasingly superstitious...
...increasingly subject
to the advice of soothsayers...
...who promised to cure his miseries
with pipe smoke and poultices.
You been spending too much time
with Gypsies, Charley.
Sh*t.
The picture's awful dusty.
Something began to change
in Charley's stage portrayal of Jesse.
His gait seemed more practiced.
His voice was spookily similar
to the man's.
was analogous...
...to a script Jesse might have originated.
He began to look at his younger brother
with spite...
...as if he suspected that
in some future performance...
to a live cartridge in Robert Ford's gun.
Murderer!
Cur!
Coward!
You wanna investigate my courage?
Do you?
Find out! Find out!
Nobody.
Coward!
By his own approximation, Bob
assassinated Jesse James over 800 times.
He suspected no one in history
had ever so often or so publicly...
...recapitulated an act of betrayal.
Bob always challenged
the allegations of cowardice...
...but Charley seemed
to agree with them.
He spoke of Mrs. Zee James
as certain priests might the Madonna...
...and composed long soul-describing letters
to her...
...begging her forgiveness...
...none of which he mailed.
Charley Ford became all that his countrymen
wanted an assassin of Jesse James to be.
Jesse James was a man
Who killed many men
And he stole from the rich
And he gave to the poor
He had a hand
And a heart and a brain
Well, Jesse had a wife
To mourn for his life
Three children
They were brave
Who shot Mr. Howard
Has laid Jesse James in his grave
It was Robert Ford
I wonder how does he feel
For he ate at Jesse's bread
And he slept in Jesse's bed
And he laid poor Jesse in his grave
Well, Jesse had a wife
To mourn for his life
Three children
They were brave
Who shot Mr. Howard
Has laid poor Jesse in his grave
I'm Robert Ford.
It was two children, not three.
Hey.
You get yourself home, son, okay?
Come on. Get out of here.
Get out of my place.
He thought, at his angriest...
...about visiting the kin
of Jesse's slaughtered victims:
Mrs. William Westfall in Plattsburg...
...the Wymore family in Clay County...
...perhaps even Mrs. Joseph Heywood
in Northfield, Minnesota.
and give his name as Robert Ford...
...the man who killed Jesse James.
He imagined they would
be grateful to him.
It was only with Dorothy Evans
that Bob spoke revealingly or plainly...
...and it was with her that he spoke of
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Submitted on August 05, 2018
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"The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" Scripts.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 18 Nov. 2024. <https://www.scripts.com/script/the_assassination_of_jesse_james_by_the_coward_robert_ford_3182>.
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