J. Frank Dalton - The Mt. Olivet Cemetery Exhumation (July 17-19, 1995)

The Mt. Olivet Cemetery Exhumation (July 17-19, 1995)

In recent years there have been a few attempts to resolve these historical mysteries and to finally get to the real truth of the matter. Unfortunately, none of these attempts have produced any evidence which can definitively resolve the issues being debated by the contending parties.

For example, on July 17-19, 1995, James E. Starrs (David B. Weaver Research Professor of Law and Professor of Forensic Science, at George Washington University Law School) supervised the exhumation of Jesse James' purported grave in Mt. Olivet Cemetery at Kearney, Clay County, Missouri. The primary conclusion the Starrs exhumation team came to in their report was (quoting from page 175 of the report): "There is no scientific basis whatsoever for doubting that the exhumed remains are those of Jesse James."

However, critics of the exhumation (most notably Betty Dorsett Duke) claim that the DNA samples obtained and tested by Starrs' exhumation team did not actually originate from the remains exhumed from the gravesite. Duke and many other critics of this exhumation have pointed out that, according to the canons of forensic science, the "chain of custody" of the actual remains which yielded the DNA samples tested by the Starrs team was not precisely known at the time of the exhumation, and, moreover, that the "chain of custody" of those remains cannot now be precisely determined or reconstructed through further investigation. Consequently, the critics of the exhumation believe that the primary conclusion the Starrs team published in their report (quoted above) cannot be relied on with any degree of confidence. Going even further, in view of all the evidence which has emerged (since the time of the exhumation) which contradicts the basic conclusion of the Starrs exhumation team, many critics of the exhumation now believe that the primary conclusion of the Starrs exhumation team (as quoted above) is simply false.