to be consistent with James's historical record, and mitochondrial DNA analysis performed on the remains were found to match two matrilineal relatives of the historic outlaw, leaving "no scientific basis for doubting" that it was indeed the outlaw Jesse James whose remains had been transferred to Mt. Olivet in 1902 from the gravesite on the James family farm where he had been buried in 1882. This conformed with an earlier handwriting analysis performed in 1986, which concluded that examples of Dalton's handwriting did not match that found in an 1880 letter written by Jesse James. Beginning in 1996, amateur historian Bud Hardcastle, with the support of 3 sons of James descendant Jesse Cole James, began a push to exhume the Granbury, Texas, grave belonging to Dalton to allow for DNA testing of the remains. The 3 James brothers believed that J. Frank Dalton was their grandfather, and that he was also the real Jesse James. An initial petition to the Hood County, Texas, court was declined that year, but a subsequent request was approved in 2000. During the exhumation, which occurred on May 30, 2000, the investigative team found two coffins at the grave site (a large steel vault, and a wooden casket), and since the exhumation order was restricted to one coffin, that closest to the tombstone (the steel vault) was removed for study. However, when the contents of the steel vault were examined, they proved to be the remains of a one-armed Granbury resident named William Henry Holland, leaving the question of Dalton's genetic identity unanswered. References 1951 deaths 19th-century American people 20th-century American people Impostors Hoaxes in the United States 1940s hoaxes American centenarians Men centenarians Jesse James