On the warm night of July 21, 1873, the Jesse James Gang committed the world's first robbery of a moving train in Adair, Iowa, a small town in the western part of the state. During that robbery, the outlaw encountered the author's great grandfather, Levi Clay, who managed to slip away in the darkness for help. This book is the result of a 22-year search by the author, and is organized around the thesis that we are all more or less the sum total of our ancestors. Extensive Clay and James ancestral background information is incorporated with the events.