ST. LOUIS GLOBE-DEMOCRAT, Nov. 7, 1879 

* Zerelda Samuel interview 
* Mother of Jesse & Frank James 
* Notorious Missouri outlaws 

 The top of pg. 2 has column heads: "RIDDLED BY RANGERS" "A Pitched Battle in Which Two Robbers Were Killed" "The Aged Mother of the James Boys Interviews". The interview with Jesse James' mother takes almost a full column.
Eight pages, slightly irregular at the spine, very nice condition.

Background: The November 1879 media campaign by Zerelda Samuel—mother of the notorious outlaws Frank and Jesse James—holds profound historical significance as a masterclass in early American public relations manipulation, weaponized to transform violent train robbers into romanticized folk heroes. Occurring in the immediate wake of the gang's brazen September 1879 Glendale train robbery and rampant rumors of Jesse's death, Zerelda strategically utilized national press interviews to wage a fierce counter-offensive against the state, aggressively painting her sons as pious, persecuted victims of corporate railroad greed and corrupt government overreach. By leveraging her own tragic status—specifically invoking the 1875 Pinkerton raid that killed her young son and cost her an arm—she masterfully tapped into deep-seated, post-Civil War agrarian resentment among white Southerners and Missourians. This targeted PR blitz successfully radicalized local sympathy, creating a protective "wall of silence" that stymied law enforcement for years and permanently codified the enduring, mythological "Robin Hood" archetype of the James-Younger gang in American cultural history.