
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, June 29, 1995                   TAG: 9506290091
SECTION: NATL/INTL                    PAGE: C-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: KELLY GARBUS KANSAS CITY STAR
DATELINE: LIBERTY, MO.                                  LENGTH: Medium

SCIENTISTS WANT TO EXHUME BODY OF JESSE JAMES

RESEARCHERS HOPE digging up the outlaw's bones will end the controversy surrounding his death.

A group of scientists and anthropologists wants to exhume what are believed to be the remains of Jesse James in hopes of putting to rest questions surrounding the death and identity of the celebrated outlaw.

A petition recently filed in Clay County Circuit Court seeks to exhume James' remains buried in Mount Olivet Cemetery near Kearney, Mo.

Project leader James E. Starrs, a forensic scientist at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., said he decided to undertake the project after talking with several historians about disputes surrounding James. Starrs has a team of 14 scientists to assist in the investigation.

Fueling the inquiry are numerous accounts over the years of individuals who claimed to be James.

Noted James historian Phillip Steele of Springdale, Ark., also thinks the exhumation will settle the hundreds of inquiries he gets yearly from people claiming to be related to the Civil War-era criminal.

``The most popular thing in the country right now is to be a descendant of Jesse James,'' Steele said. ``I probably get 500 to 600 letters a year from people seeking to prove a relation to Jesse James because their grandmother says they were.''

Steele, president of the 250-member James Younger Society based in Liberty, said if the court approves the petition, the results of DNA testing would prove invaluable.

``Then all these stories their grandmothers told them can be proven by getting a blood test,'' Steele said.

Six James descendants have signed consent forms for the exhumation, according to a letter Starrs wrote to Clay County prosecutor Mike Reardon. In addition, two other descendants have agreed to provide blood samples for DNA testing.

``I think Jesse's great-grandson, James Ross of California, believes he has to put to rest once and for all, by solid and scientific means, those spurious claims that it is not Jesse James in the ground,'' Starrs said.

by CNB