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Phillips, Jesse JJ fag_DaltonPhillips

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Hatfield and McCoy Feud
Favorites · April 6 2024

· SON OF A GUNMAN: This photo is of Jesse James “J.J.” Phillips (1892-1985), of Pinsonfork, Kentucky. Jesse was the son of lawman Frank “Bad Frank” Phillips and Nancy McCoy Hatfield Phillips, the daughter of Asa Harmon McCoy and former wife of Johnse Hatfield.

Nancy surprisingly married Bad Frank, once considered the nemesis of the Hatfields, after divorcing Johnse Hatfield.

According to feud lore, Jesse’s father once claimed as a teenager to have rode with Jesse James and the James Gang, the outlaw band of Missouri. Thus, in homage to the restless bandit, Bad Frank named his son Jesse James Phillips.

***
In 1888, Bad Frank, 26, became a Pike County special deputy at the height of the Hatfield-McCoy troubles.

Besides arresting a number of Hatfields and associates - after he and his men illegally crossed the Tug River from Eastern Kentucky into Southern West Virginia - Bad Frank and his posse surprised Uncle Jim Vance and Cap Hatfield, while the two were hunting along Thacker Mountain.

A firefight ensued and, during the conflict, Uncle Jim was severely wounded (Cap barely escaped the scene on foot to get help). At one point, Bad Frank got off from his horse, pulled his six-shooter from his belt and walked to Vance, who was slumped over in pain. He aimed his revolver at Uncle Jim’s head and squeezed the trigger.

A deafening shot rang out and echoed through the hill country as Uncle Jim died instantly.

***
After the Hatfield-McCoy feud period, Bad Frank served as a government agent for a period of time. Finally leaving that position, he spent his remaining years working in various law enforcement roles, as a hired gun, and occasionally riding as a posse member or bounty hunter.

After his last official excursion in early July 1898, Frank returned from a law assignment in the Mountain State, riding back to Pike County with a young traveling companion, Ransom Bray.

Soon after returning to Eastern Kentucky, the two men, Frank and Ransom, got into a drunken argument at a nearby saloon. A violent altercation ensued.

Bad Frank, 36, was shot by Ransom in the leg (hips). Frank hobbled over to his horse and road home to recover, but inflammation soon set in.

According to a 1982 feature by Williamson Daily News Journalist Charlotte Sanders, Jesse (J.J.) James Phillips had clear recollections of the day his father was shot, although he was only six years old at the time. He said his father was “shot through the hips” by Ranson Bray.

Jesse further recalled that his mother, Nancy, was going to take all the children up the hollow to a neighbor’s house when the doctor finally arrived to tend to Bad Frank’s terrible wound.

Jesse said he didn’t continue on with his mother once the physician arrived. Instead, he stayed behind and spied through a window as his father’s entire leg was being amputated. After his leg was removed, Bad Frank, who was terribly ill, lingered for a dozen more days. He died on July 13, 1898.

The body of the gunslinger was ultimately entombed at a location in Phelps, KY, in a place called Phillips Branch, now named the Frank Phillips Cemetery. A small hand-cut gravestone marker was positioned where his leg was buried separately.

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