Around 1902, an older gentleman tore tickets at a St. Louis burlesque theater, calmly making small talk. He was Alexander Franklin James, brother of Jesse James and one of the most wanted outlaws in American history. This deep dive traces how a Shakespeare-loving farm boy who wanted to be a schoolteacher became a guerrilla fighter and bank robber.

Radicalized when Union militia tortured his stepfather, Frank rode with Quantrill through the Lawrence Massacre, joined the James-Younger Gang, survived the disastrous Northfield raid, and after Jesse's 1882 killing surrendered to Missouri's governor, was acquitted at trial, and spent decades monetizing his own infamy.

• How the torture of Dr. Reuben Samuel pushed him from parole into the brush
• The 1876 Northfield, Minnesota raid that destroyed the gang
• His theatrical surr ...