One of my great-grandfathers was a deputy sheriff for "The Hanging Judge" Isaac Parker in Fort Smith, Arkansas. Here's the mystery: Were criminals tried only before the judge or were there juries present? And was there any real justice in the Old West? Did my great-grandfather shoot from the hip and ask questions later?

My great-grandfather's name was James "Jim" Cole. When Frank James (Jesse's brother) got out of prison and made the lecture circuit, one of the people he stayed with was Jim Cole. My grandfather Elmer Cole was just a kid, but he remembered the visit well. The mystery in our family is what the relationship between the Coles and the James family was. Jesse's mother was a Cole, but we've never been able to find out if there was even a distant connection. Then, too, there's the Younger Gang, led by Cole Younger. My great-grandfather was severely wounded in a shoot-out with the Youngers, but my grandfather always said there really wasn't much difference between the law in those days and the lawless.

If that was so, what about those Wild West jurors?