Background
He was born in Nashville, Tennessee during the height of Jesse James" career as an outlaw. His mother was Zerelda, Jesse James" wife and his first cousin. James was named after his father and Major John Newman Edwards.
He went by the name of Tim Edwards in his youth to conceal his relationship to his father.
After his father"s death, James and his family lived in Kansas City and were taken under the wing of Thomas T. Crittenden, Junior., the son of Governor Thomas Theodore Crittenden, who had signed what would become the death warrant of the outlaw Jesse James.