James Jenkins was a professional criminal having a long history of highway robberies and murders. It was reported that he had killed eight white men and ten Indians throughout Missouri, Texas, Iowa, and California. While living in Napa, California, Jenkins became acquainted with Patrick O’Brien, in order to establish a sexual liaison with O’Brien’s wife. Mrs. O’Brien, a lusty, attractive woman with a strong will, goaded Jenkins into murdering her husband, or so he later said, although Jenkins’ willingness to murder needed no encouragement. Jenkins got drunk, marched in O’Brien’s home, and shot him, but he was caught almost immediately and quickly confessed. Mrs. O’Brien denied having anything to do with the murder and was released. Jenkins was convicted and sentenced to death. Before he was hanged, Jenkins lamented his sloppy habits and the fact that he had gotten drunk, believing that if he had been meticulous in his killing of O’Brien, he never would have been caught. His last words on the scaffold were: “That whiskey that I drank the morning before I shot O’Brien was what caused me to do it when I did, and in so careless a matter.” To learn more about Jenkins and other bad guys in the Gold Country read Outlaws Tales of California. For more information visit www.chrisenss.com.
Outlaw James Jenkins
