The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford Page #9

things he didn't know he knew.

He told her that he had no real memory

of the shooting and its aftermath.

He could remember lifting the gun

that Jesse had given him...

...and then it was Good Friday and he was

reading about the funeral proceedings...

...as if they'd happened a long time ago.

Why did you kill him?

Well, he was gonna kill me.

So you were scared

and that's the only reason?

Yeah.

And the reward money.

Do you want me to change the subject?

You know what I expected?

Applause.

I was only 20 years old then.

I couldn't see how it would look to people.

I was surprised by what happened.

They didn't applaud.

He was ashamed of his boasting...

...his pretensions of courage

and ruthlessness.

He was sorry about his cold-bloodedness,

his dispassion...

...his inability to express

what he now believed was the case:

That he truly regretted killing Jesse...

...that he missed the man

as much as anybody...

...and wished his murder

hadn't been necessary.

Even as he circulated his saloon...

...he knew that the smiles disappeared

when he passed by.

He received so many menacing letters...

...that he could read them

without any reaction except curiosity.

He kept to his apartment all day,

flipping over playing cards...

...looking at his destiny

in every king and jack.

Edward O'Kelly came up from Bachelor

at 1 p.m. on the 8th.

He had no grand scheme, no strategy...

...no agreement with higher authorities...

...nothing beyond

a vague longing for glory...

...and a generalized wish

for revenge against Robert Ford.

- How'd it go last night?

- Not so bad.

The other one.

Edward O'Kelly would be ordered

to serve a life sentence...

...in the Colorado Penitentiary

for second-degree murder.

Over 7000 signatures

would eventually be gathered...

...on a petition asking for

O'Kelly's release...

...and in 1902, Governor James B. Orman

would pardon the man.

You shouldn't be wearing that stickpin

again there, Bob. Opals are unlucky.

My luck's not very good as it is. I don't

think an opal's gonna change that much.

I hear you.

There would be no eulogies for Bob...

...no photographs of his body

would be sold in sundries stores...

...no people would crowd the streets

in the rain to see his funeral cortege...

...no biographies would be written

about him...

...no children named after him.

No one would ever pay 25 cents

to stand in the rooms he grew up in.

Hello, Bob.

The shotgun would ignite,

and Ella Mae would scream...

...but Robert Ford would only lay

on the floor and look at the ceiling...

...the light going out of his eyes...

...before he could find the right words.

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