Inspired By the Recent Film,

The Assassination of Jesse James

Music:  Elton John’s, I Feel Like a Bullet

It was the morning of April 3^rd

In Saint Joseph, Missouri, in 1882

Robert Ford had murder on his mind

He would kill before the day was through

He was staying at the home of his friend

But he had made a secret pact with the law

And soon he shot his good friend in the back

He had just killed old Jesse James, the Outlaw

Robert Ford believed he would now become a hero

But he was convicted and quickly sentenced to death

Unbelievably, the Governor of Missouri issued a pardon

And the saga of this assassination, was far from over yet

Robert Ford began recreating this murder on stage

In towns all across the nation people flocked to see

How one friend had so devilishly betrayed another

These Shoot Him in the Back portrayals were not free

But one’s misdeeds usually don’t go unpunished

Some ten years later in a small hamlet in Colorado

Someone else came to town, yearning to be famous

Gunning down Robert Ford with a shotgun he did go

Ford’s killer, a man named Edward O’Kelley

Was quickly sentenced to life imprisonment

But his sentence was also eventually commuted

And now, off to Oklahoma City, O’Kelley went

But Ed O’Kelley just couldn’t stay out of trouble

He was eventually shot dead, by a policeman one day

He, too, had longed for fame and fortune, for killing Ford

And all he found, was an old Oklahoma City pauper’s grave

Murder amongst our friends, enemies, and strangers

All done to receive monetary reward and historic fame

It amazes how easily we humans will take another’s life

And thus ends the epic Saga of The Outlaw, Jesse James

“I'm as low as a paid assassin is,

You know I'm cold as a hired sword;

You make me feel like a bullet honey,

In the gun of that coward, Robert Ford.”

©2008, Mr. Ed