Disputed Remains Of Jesse James Being Exhumed

Tuesday, May 30th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

(Granbury, Texas-AP) - The hefty headstone engraved with the name of Jesse James was moved so a backhoe operator could begin exhumation of the disputed remains Tuesday morning. The man lived as J. Frank Dalton. But shortly after his death, the grave was marked as James'. The quiet Granbury, Texas cemetery is filled with television crews as exhumation continues at the request of an Oklahoma historian and two of James' descendants. Purcell, Oklahoma amateur historian, Bud Hardcastle, says years of research and conversation with James family members resulted in exhumation. He says everything they did over the years led them to this grave, not to Missouri. DNA testing on Dalton's remains will be conducted by David Glenn Smith who is a professor of anthropology at the University of California at Davis. The testing is expected to take up to three months.