10 Celebrities Who Were Murdered By Their Own Fans

In life, Jesse James was a ruthless killer whose robberies after the Civil War were glamorized by the pro-southern newspapers. In death, he's still a ruthless killer whose actions are glamorized by movies. The only thing everyone agrees on is that his killer, Robert Ford, was a coward. Ford, a member of the James gang, shot Jesse James in the back in exchange for the reward money and a pardon.

When Robert Ford was born in 1862, Jesse James was 14. Two years later, James would join up with Confederate guerrillas and spend the rest of the war murdering Union soldiers and pro-Union settlers in Missouri. James would take up banditry after the war. His actions would be glamorized by the newspapers of former Confederate officer John Newman Edwards. The James-Younger gang would become equally celebrated and reviled in a nation where pre-Civil War divisions still ran strong.

Robert Ford and his brother Charles would join the James Gang in 1881. James' original gang had been whittled down by arrests, deaths, and retirements. In Robert Ford, Jesse James found an eager young recruit. At the time, James was the most wanted man in America. In 1882, Ford shot James in the back in exchange for the $10,000 bounty (around $300,000 in today's dollars). Ford himself would be shot dead 10 years later.