Kansas City, Mo. ? Like the outlaw himself, photographs of Jesse James are hard to catch.

Museum officials in Kearney and St. Joseph say people are always bringing in old photos they think – hope – are of James, and they usually leave disappointed.

Joyce Harris is the latest to ride into town. The Raymore, Mo., woman recently arrived with five photographs that she believes show Jesse, brother Frank, their sister and Jesse’s wife, Zerelda, in individual poses.

Unlike most hopefuls, Harris also brought a story that makes some museum workers think she could be right.

An author of a book on James says she has the wrong man.

George Warfel, the man most often touted as the expert on Jesse James’ face because he has painted it so many times, has fallen ill and could not comment.

If the photos are authentic, James enthusiasts agree the discovery would be a major find in the history of the Clay County farm boy who became America’s best-known outlaw of the 19th century. Only a few photographs of James exist, and some of those may not be authentic.

Harris’ photos – measuring about 2-by-3 inches – were shot with the “tintype” process used in the post-Civil War era, when James and his gang became folk heroes to many by robbing banks and trains. Revenue stamps on the back of the photos indicate they were taken in 1868. The stamps were the government’s way of raising money in the days before sales tax.

Also, the seal of the photography studio – T.S. Neely and Sons of Muncie, Ind. – on the back of the photos could help the case for authenticity. Photographers of the era were known to travel around, so it’s unknown where the photos were taken.

Fashion and furniture also fit the time.

According to Harris, the pictures had been kept for years in an old box of family mementos that had been stored over decades in attics, basements, garages and old sheds.

Her father’s side of the family was named “White,” and a man by that name was known to have ridden with the James gang.

Her family, too, has a connection to William Quantrill’s band of guerrillas, whom Jesse and Frank James rode with.

Also, at a family get-together when Harris was 10 or so, the adults were looking through a pile of photos and postcards when her father called her over. He held up a photo.

“Look here,” he told her, “that’s Jesse James.”

“Who’s that?” she responded.

“Famous outlaw … friend of the family,” he answered.

But the memory of that day faded over the years, and the box stayed tucked away. Her grandmother nearly tossed it when she was moved into a nursing home in the early 1970s. But her father took it, and the box moved with him several times until three years ago, when Harris took over proprietorship.

Now 55, Harris had always liked looking at the colorful postcards, which served not only as a history lesson but provided a rich vein of family gossip.

A few weeks ago, Harris was looking at the contents of the box when her son, John Harris, 28, who had just returned from the Navy, noticed the photographs.

“I know that face – that’s Jesse James,” he said.

That’s when the memory from the earlier family reunion came back to her.

She soon was on the Internet, comparing her photos with those on Jesse James Web sites, and she came away nearly convinced.

She then took the photos – and her story – to the Patee House Museum in St. Joseph that focuses on James and the Pony Express.

Kimberly Davis, the museum’s deputy director who examined the photos, said they are “very convincing.”

Phillip Steele, a James expert who co-wrote a book called The Many Faces of Jesse James, however, thinks the photos are not of James.

A problem could be that the photos show the middle finger of James’ left hand intact. Supposedly, the future outlaw shot off the tip of the finger while playing with a gun when he was a boy.

Gary Chilcote, Patee House director, said the image could have been reversed during the processing, so the hand shown actually could be James’ right hand.

Chilcote added, too, that the Gothic-style chair Jesse is standing by is seemingly identical to a set from the James home in St. Joseph.

He told Harris that the museum would love to have the photos on display.

Perhaps, Harris said.

“I want to put them in a museum, but my husband says, ‘Find out what they’re worth,’ ” she said.

Carolyn Brennecka, interpreter at James Farm Museum in Kearney, has the answer to that.

“Whatever somebody will pay,” she said Thursday. If real, of course.

She hasn’t seen the photos, so she can’t render an opinion about their authenticity. But she has seen lots that weren’t.

“People bring them in here all the time, and once in a while, a real one will surface,” Brennecka said.

A great while. In the 10 years she has worked there, how many authentic photos of Jesse James have come in?

One, she said.