Jesse James: Last rebel of the Civil War, by T J Stiles

A desperado in love with his own reputation

Woody Guthrie once wrote two near-identical ballads. The first was about the 19th-century outlaw Jesse James, the second about another outlaw, Jesus Christ. They were written a good half century after James, a murderous desperado from Missouri, died at the hands of a fellow gang-member for a $10,000 reward.

That Guthrie could swing from one to the other with such ease reveals just how much of a folk hero this merciless killer had remained. Guthrie was the latest in a long line of memorialisers. Even during his short lifetime – he died at 36 – Jesse James had become the stuff of legends.

How much truth was there in these tales? And who was James anyway? A latter-day Robin Hood or the "social bandit" that Eric Hobsbawm called him in Bandits, his famous book? TJ Stiles's painstaking biography, the first substantial study in 40 years, pieces together the jigsaw of his life and embeds his deeds in the history and politics of Missouri before, during and after the Civil War.

James was born in Clay County in 1846. His father was a Baptist minister and a firm believer in slavery – the family owned several slaves. His mother, Zerelda, was a terrible influence. No matter what he and his brothers did, or whom they killed, they were still her darling, untouchable sons.

Missouri itself was on the cusp between the secessionist South and Unionist North. By 16 Jesse was a "bushwhacker"; he and his brother Frank travelled with one of many gangs who roamed the land to bring murder and mayhem to Unionist sympathisers and their families. He was engaged in the dirty, messy and awkward business of killing his neighbours. When the Confederacy lost the war, Jesse continued to fight the good fight by waging war on the Unionist authorities.

Jesse and Frank were very different. Frank loved Shakespeare, anonymity and a certain amount of peace; Jesse never fell out of love with his own reputation and wanted to keep shooting to the bitter end. "Shoot or be shot" was his unspoken motto. He also wanted to be regarded as a conquering hero of the old values. When he robbed a train, he occasionally left a press release behind. An avid reader of newspapers, he was forever firing off badly expressed letters to editors that brimmed over with myth-making, self-justification and self-praise.

The James brothers remained invincible for over a decade. Towards the end, they became careless and swaggering – and Jesse was betrayed. What of Frank? He was tried and pardoned. The judge admired his dignity and sobriety. Moral: if you're an outlaw pleading for your life, it always helps to have read Shakespeare.

This book is an engrossing read. The only thing that Stiles is not very good at is making a gunfight in a bank come alive: he is always pulling together just one source too many. However, he wasn't born with the gifts of a first-rate novelist, but those of an excellent and illuminating historian.