[2][3] Charley Ford was introduced to Jesse and Frank James by Wood Hite and joined the gang in 1881 at the same time as his brother.

[4] By the spring of 1882 Jesse James had moved with his family to a house in St. Joseph, Missouri, and invited the Fords to live there with him.

He recruited Bob and Charley to help with a planned robbery of another bank in nearby Platte City, Missouri.

[5] Afterwards, the Fords capitalized on their notoriety by re-enacting James' murder on stage as part of a touring show.

[6] Two years later, after a period of deep depression following James' death, terminal illness from tuberculosis, and a debilitating morphine addiction, Charles Ford died by suicide on May 6, 1884.