After the tragic Northfield, Minnesota
robbery, in which several members of their gang are killed, the
outlaw James brothers split up and Frank disappears to the Missouri
countryside. There, using the name Ben Woodsen, he farms the land
with his friends, Pinky and Clem, the son of one of the gang
members.
One day, Frank learns that his brother Jesse has been shot
in the back by one of the Ford brothers, who have been sentenced to
hang for their crime. Frank is resolved to let the law deal with the
Fords until he reads that they have been pardoned and awarded money
for their cowardly crime. Determined to exact justice for the murder
of his brother, Frank rides after the Fords, who hastily depart for
the West. To fund his crusade, Frank robs the railroad express
office, rationalizing that it was railroad money that killed his
brother. Frank's plans go awry, however, when Clem appears and
insists that he join Frank. In the chaos, the watchman is killed and
Frank is accused of the murder.
In retaliation, McCoy, the head of
the railroad, offers a reward for Frank, and his henchman, George Runyan, follows the Ford boys West, knowing that Frank will not be
far behind. In Denver, Frank and Clem fabricate the story of Frank's
demise, which is picked up by aspiring young newspaper reporter
Eleanor Stone and printed in her father's paper.
Meanwhile, Frank
tracks down the Fords and in a frantic pursuit, Charlie Ford falls
from a cliff and dies. While Frank is out of town, Runyan appears
and identifies Ben Woodsen as Frank James. After eluding Runyan,
Frank is about to ride after Bob Ford when Eleanor informs him that
Pinky has been arrested for the freight office robbery and sentenced
to hang. Torn between avenging his brother's murder and returning to
Missouri to save his friend, Frank's conscience wins out and he
rides to Missouri, where he is arrested and put on trial for murder. Frank's old friend, Major Rufus Todd, the town newspaper editor,
defends him by casting the trial in terms of a war between the
railroad and the farmers, the North and the South. Just as the jury,
composed of Southern farmers, finds Frank innocent, Bob Ford appears
and runs from the courtroom. In his flight, he kills Clem, but the
boy fatally wounds Ford. With his brother's death avenged, Frank
begins life anew.
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