"strange inheritance," and remember, you can't take it with you. ♪ >> a freaky forest that scrapes the sky. >> that's a redwood? >> it's several redwood trees. >> mysterious, incredible. believe it or not. >> you might see something like this in "lord of the rings" or "game of thrones." >> this is natural? >> of course. mother nature can only do this. >> but when life and limb's at risk...omeone could have gotten hurt.verybody in it. >> ...can they work without a net? >> that gives you the direction of where it's gonna fall... hopefully. >> the stress that you go through, the mayhem, the sleepless nights -- we have to do it. that's part of the fun. ♪ [ door creaks ] [ wind howls ] [ thunder rumbles ]

[ bird caws ] ♪ >> i'm jamie colby on the pacific coast highway in northern california, just south of the oregon border. i'm here to meet a man whose strange inheritance has deep roots and came with a towering dilemma. >> my name is john thompson. i inherited a place of unique natural beauty. next thing i knew, it threatened to come crashing down on me. >> i'm jamie. >> welcome to the trees of mystery. >> john leads me past a giant statue of paul bunyan and into a stunning rainforest, which looks like something out of a tall tale. it's filled with sky-high coast redwoods, spruces and firs some 20 feet wide and 300 feet tall. >> nearly as tall as the statue of liberty. >> like a skyscraper. redwoods like these are among the oldest living things on earth. >> as much as 3,000 years old. >> it takes my breath away.

but take a closer look. there's something bizarre about these ancient giants. on the base of this one is a mangled mess the size of a bus. what's going on here? >> the spruce trees are growing over a log that fell 1,000 years >> s ago.us in the tangled tree. whatever it is, it's weird. >> and if we stand here too long, they will grow on us, too, so we need to keep moving. >> [ laughs ] further down is another contorted oddity -- the elephant tree, and then the upside-down tree, which grows horizontally before shooting up to the sky. everywhere you look, there's something amazing to see on this trail.his freakish root structure of the fallen giant, a redwood that toppled over more than a millennium ago. they are mysterious. let's find more. >> okay. >> john says the seed of this family-owned attraction was planted during world war ii when

his father, ray thompson, is serving with the snoopers, a special squadron of secret, radar-equipped b-24 bombers. >> he hopped all over the south pacific. they were extremely effective at night attacks on japaneseipping. >> at the end of the war, ray returns home to his wife and young son in san francisco. >> when he came back, he wanted to get away from everything. >> did he have a bad experience that left him shell-shocked? >> i really believe so. it certainly affected him when he came back. >> ray sees a newspaper ad offering that much-desired change of scenery -- a remote forest called trees of mystery is for sale way up north in the redwoods near klamath. ray visits and hikes down a trail called the kingdom of trees. he's mesmerized by the unusual growth, like this one that looks like a giant candelabra. that's a redwood? >> it's several redwood trees. this is this arrival mechanism

in this tree, and it fell down, and then its limbs turned into trees. >> wait.so, you're saying that t of a tree comes down, it reinvents itself as a tree? >> yes. isn't that amazing? >> it is amazing. >> these trees are very hard to kill. >> it's really spectacular. then there's this anomaly -- three giant redwoods reaching up to the sky in perfect symmetry, called the trinity tree. >> and this is where you get to hug the tree, and take a look up this tree because it goes all the way to heaven. >> hi, tree. >> they do.o be hugged. >> further down is the cathedral tree, made up of nine towering redwoods. >> maybe 800 years ago, a very large tree stood in the middle here. and it fell down, and the burls around the stump sprouted and grew into trees, forming a natural cathedral. >> this is natural?urse. mother nature can only do this. >> she can also do this -- the towering inferno, a redwood struck by lightning and consumed from the inside by fire.

ray's most awed by the aptly named family tree. the 400-year-old sitka spruce is actually multiple living trees in one. somehow, some way, several branches have sprouted into whole trees. >> a huge, beautiful structure, almost unique in the world. it's certainly the largest in the world. ray and his wife, ma, think the freaky forest would make a great roadside attraction, so they buy the property and move to the middle-of-nowhere northern california to run the odd business. but it won't be easy getting money to grow on these trees. >> someone could have gotten hurt. >> oh, totally. >> here's a "strange inheritance" quiz question. the answer after the break.

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and sometimes, you can find yourself heading in a new direction. but when you're with fidelity, a partner who makes sure every step is clear, there's nothing to stop you from moving forward. ♪ >> so, coast redwoods belong to the species sempervirens, which is latin for what? it's c -- "always living." redwoods are known for their incredible ability to adapt and survive, sometimes in bizarre fashion. ♪ >> in 1946, ray and mary lee thompson open a natural roadside attraction filled with corkscrew

tree roots and branchy abnormalities called trees of mystery along highway 101 in northern california. even ripley's believe it or not is awed by the park's bizarre redwoods, like the stunning and freakish fallen giant and upside down trees. >> it has a very mystical, spiritual feeling, and you might see something like this in "lord of the rings" or "game of thrones." it just transports you to another world. >> at the time, millions of road trippers cruise up and down the pacific coast highway each year. the trick -- getting them to pull over. so, the couple goes all out with a big purchase, says their son, john -- a 12-foot paul bunyan statue. >> but he only lasted one season... >> oh. what happened? >> ...'cause he was made out of paper-mache and he melted. >> they build a second bunyan, this time 24 feet tall and made from wood and cement. >> kids are going to start

screaming from the back seat if they see a giant paul bunyan along the highway, so this was a great kid magnet. >> they figure a bigger bunyan will get even more kids to scream, so in the early '60s, ray and mary lee double up. paul number three is 49 feet tall with 10-foot high boots and a 52-foot waist. he even waves, winks, and makes >> welcome to trees of mystery. >> how you doing, paul? >> well, i'm doing great. how could you not on a day like today? couple also create a trail of tall tales attraction, featuring 80 wood sculptures from milled-redwood timbers. john grows up right here on site during this golden era of the park. >> when i was about 8 years old, brush around the trail and pick up the flashbulbs people threw out after taking pictures. >> but it's not all happy memories. in the mid-'60s, john's parents

divorce. his dad, ray, leaves the family and the park forever, seeking out a new escape. >> where did dad go? >> he went sailing. [ laughs ] >> so, mom stayed here, and dad wasn't here. >> yeah. mom bought dad out. i think mom had a lot more satisfaction from the place than dad did. >> a few years later, john leaves home himself, moving to seattle and becoming a successful engineer. but times are changing at trees of mystery. between a new interstate routing traffic inland and an oil crisis, the roadside attraction is fighting to survive. >> traffic becomes, like, half of what it used to be. mom was hemorrhaging money like crazy. >> so john uproots his life and moves back home to help mom with the family business. what is it about this place that would make you, being so successful with your own life in seattle, want to come back? >> [ chuckles ] well, a little insanity helps. >> [ laughs ] i bet.

>> it's because i love the place. >> in time, john becomes general manager, running the park on a day-to-day basis. he has two daughters from two marriages. his youngest, hannah, spends her early childhood living in the on-site family home just like her dad. >> what do you remember most about growing up here? >> playing in the woods was a big part of my childhood.limb t. we would throw rocks. i would make a vine-rope swing out of the ivy that grows around here. >> it sounds like it was a wonderful childhood. >> it was. >> over the years, john and his mother attempt to reinvigorate trees of mystery. they add a restaurant and native american museum, then take out a big loan for the construction of a $1-million sky trail gondola. you really modernized the whole experience.>> it's about the tre unique perspective that we get of them up here, you can't really see them any other way without being a bird. >> the gamble pays off.

big attraction? >> big attraction. people absolutely love it, doubled our business. >> attendance climbs to 400,000 visitors a year, but in 2015, some bad breaks. first, there's trouble with the family tree, that 200-foot-tall, centuries-old sitka spruce with numerous trees sprouting from its branches. in the middle of the night, a loud crack precedes and even louder crash. >> one of those giant tree limbs broke off, hit paul's arm, and broke it off at the shoulder. >> that big branch from the 150-ton tree comes crashing down from 40 feet. old paul got off easy, no bull. someone could've gotten hurt. oh, totally.if it ever fell on p and it was full of people, it would kill everybody in it.ew m, john's mother, mary lee, passes away at age 94. john inherits trees of mystery, knowing a colossal safety

problem is now hanging over his head alone. did you feel prepared to run the place? >> oh, gosh. >> here's another quiz question. the answer when we return.

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[ barking ] ♪ >> so according to folklore, which was created by paul bunyan? it's b, the great lakes. legend has it that when paul couldn't find a suitable watering hole for his blue ox, babe, he dug five of his own. >> john thompson inherits trees of mystery, a roadside

attraction along the pacific in northern california. it comes with a gigantic problem. a couple months before, a massive branch broke off the park's hallmark attraction, a 450-year-old sitka spruce called the family tree, and crashed down 40 feet, ripping off the right arm of the huge paul bunyan statue. it could've taken out the entire gift shop and lord knows how many customers with it, but that's not the worst news. an inspection of the tree reveals a rotted, dying trunk. what caused it, and what can be done about it? were you worried that it could spread?sease. it's very typical for spruce trees to do that at a certain point in their age. >> so, what do you do? >> i fretted about it for some time. >> since nobody knows when the next limb will drop, it's time john really doesn't have. while he explores if he can

somehow shore up the iconic behemoth, workers patch up the giant lumberjack's rotator cuff. >> it took us about 6 months and $100,000 to repair it. >> now the harsh realities of running the family business himself are really weighing heavy on our heir. >> we work very, very hard, sometimes 100 hours a week. >> you get vacations here? >> no, we don't. i work every day. >> what is your daily life like? >> typically, we come in, make sure the place opens up on time, and then you wait for the shoe to fall -- quasi emergencies, fires to put out, besides what you have in mind that you want to accomplish. >> maybe the time has finally come to sell off trees of mystery and its valuable coastal land, especially after a $4-million real-estate appraisal. $4 million you're sitting on? and you're not tempted to sell? >> well, there are a lot easier. but, really, to us, it's priceless. >> so, are you doing it because it's your legacy?

>> it's because i love it. and the reward is people coming back and bringing their children to see this place that they enjoyed. >> john also comes to another realization about the fate of the family tree. there's no way around it. it must come down. could you have let it fall and die naturally? >> a random falling of 150-ton no. no, it was too dangerous. the potential for death was too >> what does it mean to your family when such an integral part of it, the family tree... >> mm-hmm. >> ...in all its beauty, won't be with you anymore? and on top of that, your mom is gone. two big empty spots in our lives, isn't it? it was very painful for me. >> in november 2015, the parks closed while ax-man erik tjossem works up a strategy to fell the tree. >> i was a little bit nervous there's usually collateral damage for such a big tree. >> the job is even more daunting than imagined. >> if we kind of misjudged

exactly the way that we were cutting it, it would be total destruction, really. >> timber! what's your "strange inheritance" story? we'd love to tell it. send me an e-mail or go to our website, strangeinheritance.com.

>> now back to "strange inheritance." >> trees of mystery roadside attraction owner john thompson is attempting to take down a dying, 450-year-old, 200-foot-high, 150-ton sitka spruce. with limbs falling, it's already caused $100,000 in damage. it has to come down now before things get worse or someone is killed. arborist erik tjossem has been brought in to oversee the treacherous assignment. he maps out a strategy. step one -- cut the limbs hanging over the gift shop.

>> we had to climb up to the top. it can definitely be dangerous. i mean, we're talking about being hundreds of feet off the ground, and we're just attached by ropes. >> with the hazardous limbs shaved off, the crew makes a pie-wedge-shaped cut into the face of the tree. >> that gives you the direction of where it's gonna fall... hopefully. >> the next step is to make a horizontal cut on the backside, but not all the way through. a piece of the middle, called the holding wood, remains intact, acting as a hinge to help guide the tree down in the desired direction. at least in a healthy tree, it works that way, but the inside of this one is full of rot. erik is not sure the holding wood will, in fact, hold, meaning the tree could fall in any direction -- on paul, the

gift shop, or into the forest where it could take out some other of the park's iconic treasures. >> if we kind of misjudge exactly the way that we were cutting it, it could be catastrophic. it would be total destruction, really. >> that's not the only thing that can go wrong. the tree could also barber-chair. >> which means split in two and one part goes off the back and then one part goes the other way and there's a person strapped to the tree right there, so it could be deadly. >> erik nervously makes his back cut as two vehicles help guide the 212-foot giant safely to the ground -- or so they hope. >> it's always a little bit nerve-wracking when it starts going over. [ wood cracking ] [ dramatic music playing ] the whole thing kind of

explodes, and it's sawdust and tree parts everywhere, but we got the tree down where we wanted it to go. >> it takes an entire year to chip up the 150-ton tree. most of the remains are unusable. >> the cross sections of the trunk showed like 75% solid rot. there was just a rind of wood around a rotten center. >> the salvageable wood is used to create benches along the trails here at trees of mystery. john has survived his first major test as owner, but the ordeal has the 66-year-old thinking, what will become of the park when he's gone? do you have any idea if anyone in your family would be willing to do the same thing when you're ready to retire? >> well, i have hoped for 40 years that my children would come back. >> but you may be setting them up for disaster. at the time, both of john's daughters are enjoying successful careers, so it shocks

everyone when youngest, hannah, uproots her life to move back to trees of mystery. how big a decision was it for you to decide to do this? >> i mean, to give up everything and come here is a big thing. so, there's a lot of love, and there's really no desire to sell, ever. >> you could've stayed at your job and hired somebody to run this place. why'd you have to do it >> we have to do it. that's part of the fun. the creativity that you get to do here, the stress that you go through, the mayhem, the sleepless nights, this is a part of me. >> just like her father decades ago, hannah preps to one day take over the roadside attraction. >> it's just a juggle every day, but it's also wonderful and liberating. >> you ever rethink your >> honestly? of course, but this place is

important. it feels like it's in my genetics. it's the family business. >> you know, i'm thinking there are similarities between the thompson family and these magnificent trees. >> they are strong, and they're and to last for thousands of years -- yeah, i don't think we're quite that strong, but it takes -- >> you got a lot of generations to come. but it takes a certain inner strength to run any business, really.have to be a little stro. >> the family tree may be gone, but john and hannah are constantly coming up with new attraction ideas to fill its void. say, for example, you want to spend the night camping in the giant redwoods. the family is looking into building really cool tree houses, like this one hovering over the forest floor. word of caution -- you may have to share the space with a few birds and squirrels. i'm jamie colby. thanks so much for watching "strange inheritance." and remember -- you can't take

it with you. do you know sasquatch? >> well, of course. he plays cards here every tuesday night. >> a notorious criminal. >> jesse james was never anything but an outlaw. >> an outlaw with a cult-like following. >> today, we'd call him a terrorist. >> that's a northern term. >> caught on a haunting image... >> this is a controversial photo. >> ...next to his killer? >> it's either jesse james and bob ford or it isn't. >> it's her strange inheritance, and it could bring in a bounty. >> people questioned it. they wanted to see proof. >> we've heard everything from $50,000 to a half-million dollars. $15,000. now $20,000. $20,000. thinking about $20,000. ♪ >> i'm jamie colby, just

northeast of bellingham, washington, near the canadian border. beautiful isn't it? the woman i'm about to meet is the heir of a controversial relic that, according to family lore, connects her and her ancestors to jesse james and his notorious gang from the 1860s and '70s. >> my name is sandy mills, and i inherited a very old picture from my grandmother, isabelle. she said it was the infamous outlaw, jesse james. i believed it, but it didn't seem like anybody else really did. >> sandy. >> hi. >> i'm jamie. so nice to meet you, and i can't wait to hear your story. sandy explains that her roots go back to missouri, where her grandmother, isabelle, shared with her the family legend -- that their forebears occasionally aided jesse james. the outlaw jesse james. >> yes, ma'am. she would tell me the stories as i was growing up, how they would give them horses and food and shelter, just protect them. >> to prove it, grandma isabelle

shows sandy this picture, known as a tintype. it's an early form of photography, using a chemical emulsion to transfer a direct positive image to a small metal plate. so each tin is unique, a camera original. when do you first learn about it? >> i was about 5 years old, and she would take out the tin and she would show it to me. >> who's in the picture exactly? >> it's jesse james and bob ford. he was the one that took his life. >> it seems very unusual for the two of them to be in a picture together. >> it is, and it's the only one. so, my family had it. >> is sandy's strange inheritance the real thing? if so, this image might be worth a bundle. one of the most valuable photos ever is this tintype of western outlaw billy the kid. it sells for $2.3 million, to billionaire bill koch in 2011. jesse james is no less a legend.

like our heir, sandy, he hails from rural western missouri. >> jesse james was born in september 1847. >> missouri historian christopher gordon. >> his father was a baptist preacher, a hemp farmer, and he was a slaveholder. >> jesse and his older brother, frank, grow up as tensions are escalating across the u.s. over slavery... with neighboring kansas, a territory deciding whether to be free or slave, exploding in violence. >> the rhetoric is heating up how law-abiding missourians should be able to maintain the lifestyle that they want to lead. >> when civil war breaks out in 1861, missouri remains in the union but is bitterly divided. frank james joins a band of confederate guerilla fighters. at 14, jesse is too young to join, but he's spoiling for a fight. did the family pick sides in the war? >> oh, absolutely.

>> freda cruse hardison is an author, whose latest book uses genealogical research to track thousands of local stories, going back to frank and jesse james. >> they were never anything but southerners. >> legend has it that, when jesse's 16 years old, the james farm is attacked by union soldiers, looking for his rebel brother, frank. >> from that point on, jesse james seems bent on revenge. he takes up with these guerrilla fighters and basically terrorized the western part of the state. >> when the south surrenders in 1865 and slavery is outlawed, the james boys return home. >> their farm had been decimated. they couldn't get a job. >> seething with resentment, the brothers figure they can still attack the yankees -- by stealing from them. james and his gang of ex-confederates plot a bold bank robbery in broad daylight, the first of its kind on american

soil. on february 13, 1866, they enter clay county savings. >> everyone on the ground! >> now! >> get down! >> they seize 60,000 bucks. that would be 800 grand today. as they're fleeing, one of the gang guns down a witness in cold blood. there are more bank and train robberies, just as violent. today, we'd call him a terrorist. >> that's a northern term. >> they killed a lot of people. >> today, he would have been a good soldier, if he was on the right side, a terrorist if he wasn't. >> so we should feel sorry for him? >> no. he was good at what he did. it was still a way of life for them, a holdover from the civil war. >> journalists romanticize the outlaws, who move from one hideout to another, with help from the locals. >> it was at the home of southerners they stayed, and they would leave money for dinner or horses or whatever. hundreds of people had little

tidbit stories. >> sympathetic southerners, like sandy mills' family. >> he cared about people. he helped out families as much as possible. it was just different back then. >> it wasn't the type of robin hood, "i give away the money. i rob from the rich and give to the poor. but i rob from the union and i sustain the southerner." >> that was kind of a thin veneer over his real intention. jesse james enjoyed the thrill of being a bandit. >> a bandit whose gang is responsible for more than 20 bank and train robberies and the murders of at least 17 people who stand in their way. >> missouri became known as "the outlaw state." it was really a public-relations disaster. >> by 1881, the governor of missouri has seen enough. >> he approaches the heads of the railroad. they come together and offer up a reward.

it's $10,000. >> by now, 34-year-old jesse james is getting a little old for a life of crime. he takes on a false identity and moves his family to st. joseph, missouri, to start a new life. >> many of his friends were dead. >> but jesse wants another heist before he retires. he just needs a few new renegades. enter 22-year-old bob ford, who's thrilled to join forces with a legendary outlaw. but the newly formed kinship is about to turn sour. >> if bob ford couldn't be jesse james, the next-best thing would be to kill him. >> which could make this tiny tintype a valuable artifact of one of the most notorious murders in history. >> but first, our "strange inheritance" quiz question.

the answer after the break. (music) ♪

>> so, which legendary gunslinger later worked in hollywood? it's wyatt earp. he became a technical advisor on silent cowboy films and befriended a young john wayne. >> as sandy mills grows up, her grandmother, isabelle, promises that, when she dies, she'll leave sandy her tintype photo.

grandma tells her it's a one-of-kind image of legendary outlaw jesse james and his killer, bob ford, whom she calls "the coward." the picture, she adds, is hugely valuable. >> she wanted me to have a good life, so she said, "this is jesse james and the coward, and this is now yours. go do something with it." >> so, when isabelle passes away in 2006, at age 85, the tintype becomes sandy's strange inheritance. but while there are tales of the family harboring the james gang, no one knows why they came to possess the picture, only that it dates back to sandy's great-great-great-grandmother, pauline roundtree. >> it's just passed on through all the ladies, and then my grandma gave it to me. >> sandy's now a single mom, living in washington state, with a young son to raise. >> i wanted to sell it because i could make a nice start for me and my son, you know, have a home and everything.

>> so it could be a life-changer. is that what you're thinking? >> yeah. >> and here's why -- on april 3, 1882, jesse james is unaware that his new recruit, bob ford, has turned him in, hoping to collect a hefty $10,000 reward. he's with the ford brothers here, at his home in st. joseph, missouri, planning another bank robbery. >> this is the actual room. >> right here? >> right here. jesse had noticed that the cross-stitch was crooked. >> "god bless our home." >> so he stood on the chair, and that was when bob ford took the opportunity to shoot him in the back of the head. you see this spot over here? imagine jesse falling backwards out of the chair, onto the floor. >> i can see there's an indentation. >> it was originally a bloody spot on the floor, and souvenir hunters picked the bloody splinters away, to leave an

indentation in the floor. >> unbelievable. hundreds of people scurry to the house to see the body. >> they took his chairs. they took clapboards off the side of the house. once they knew it was jesse james, they were immediately ripping apart the house. >> bob ford, who hoped to gain fame and a $10,000 fortune, receives a fraction of the bounty, then flees missouri in fear for his life. >> he wanted to be jesse. he wanted his life, and so he eventually took his life. he didn't get too much out of it...a lot of disrespect. >> now sandy hopes a collector will pay big bucks for the historic image of james and his killer. she makes dozens of calls, but there's a glaring problem. >> people wanted to see proof. they wanted to see authentication. they wanted to see forensics. >> there are plenty of family stories that so-and-so got handed this down, but there's no paperwork or genealogy. >> robb burley, owner of burley auction gallery in

new braunfels, texas. >> old west relics -- there are so few real ones out there, so the ones that you can document, there's a built-in value. there's more people collecting them every year. >> sandy keeps looking for anyone who can help her attract the interest of those collectors. it's early 2015 when she comes across a news story about lois gibson, who authenticated yet another photo of billy the kid. >> she did billy the kid, and so that was another, "okay, she's done one already." >> turns out, lois is a renowned forensic artist, working for the houston police department. she holds the guinness world record for most criminals accurately i.d.'d. so sandy e-mails a scan of her jesse james-bob ford tintype to lois. lois, you hear from sandy, and you think what? >> i was just going to look at it and tell her, "no, it's not jesse james" and get rid of her. >> then she takes a closer look at the picture. she starts by comparing the

tintype to this undisputed wedding photo of james. >> the area below the nose and the top of the lip is the philtrum. notice he dents in a certain way. >> strong dent. >> strong dent. and then the top of this lip shape -- his is like roof peaks, little pointy roof peaks. that's the same. >> lois agrees to perform a full forensic analysis. she compares the tintype to the official jesse james death photo. >> and then i got the final picture, the picture of him in his coffin. this was very important. in a computer program, you make them the same size, make one transparent, and lay it atop the other one. >> the resemblance between sandy's tintype and the deceased jesse james is remarkable. for lois, it's the clincher. >> i realized, "oh, my god. it is jesse james." >> if you went to court and had to testify about it? >> i'll be willing to testify in a court of law. it's either jesse james or it

isn't, and it just darn well is. >> lois also says the other guy "darn well" is bob ford, based on other known photos of him. auctioneer robb burley knows a photo of jesse james and his killer would be an exceptionally compelling collectible. >> you don't see lee harvey oswald and jack kennedy together. that's how creepy that would be. >> but dealers like robb will want more proof. if that is james and ford, somebody should be able to trace the history of the tintype back to its origin and convincingly explain why sandy's ancestor ended up with it. help may be on the way. >> i saw it on the news. i was very intrigued immediately. >> here's another quiz question for you.

the answer when we return. nowadays you do more from home than ever before.

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>> so, in which movie does clint eastwood play a missouri farmer who joins a band of confederate raiders? it's "the outlaw josey wales." eastwood's character is loosely based on jesse james. >> sandy mills has taken the first step in proving the vintage tintype she inherited is the only known photo of outlaw jesse james and his killer, bob ford, thanks to an authentication by a forensic artist in texas. >> it was amazing. she was absolutely certain. >> sandy sends her findings to auctioneer robb burley in new braunfels, texas.

robb's impressed. but there are still questions of where the tintype came from and how sandy's family ended up with it. >> the value often is dependent upon how good the provenance is. >> provenance -- that's auctioneer talk for evidence that an artifact is exactly what you say it is. seems sandy hasn't convinced him yet. but, thanks to lois gibson's analysis, the tintype is now getting some buzz in the press. that's how freda cruse hardison, that local historian we met earlier, catches wind of the story. what was your first reaction? >> i was very intrigued immediately. the thing that popped out to me was the name of pauline roundtree, which was sandy's three-times great-grandmother. >> freda turns to her genealogy database. it maps the connections of nearly 15,000 people to the jesse james family. she types in the name -- "pauline roundtree." >> i already had her, knew who

she was and what the relationship was. >> what was it? >> she was married to robert stevenson, who was a cousin of annie ralston, frank james' wife. frank was jesse's brother. >> so it makes complete sense that sandy's ancestor would have a picture of her infamous in-law. did sandy know any of this? >> she knew none of it. it was her three-times great-grandmother's first husband, not the line she was from. so she had just totally missed what the relationship was. >> she did all the proof going down and wrote about the family-tree lines, which was really cool. >> freda even pinpoints the most likely photographer in st. joseph, missouri, rudy uhlman. so, how'd you figure out he's the photographer? it doesn't have his name on it. it doesn't even have a date. >> he's the only photographer of any standing in "saint joe" at that time, and he ended up taking the death photo. >> freda believes bob ford and

jesse james posed for the tintype at uhlman's studio just weeks before his death, while the ford brothers were holed up at the outlaw's home in st. joseph. auctioneer robb burley is now convinced the item's ready to sell. your dream team -- you got lois, a historian, and you have an auctioneer. that must have been a relief. >> yeah. yes, it was. >> the question is -- how much could it fetch? >> we've heard everything from $50,000 to a half-million dollars. we really have no idea where it's going to land. $15,000. now $20,000. $20,000. thinking about $20,000. now $25,000. >> what's your "strange inheritance" story? we'd love to tell it. send me an e-mail or go to our website, strangeinheritance.com.

more? he has asked for... what? well he did say please (all boys): thank you, thank you, thank you. "strange inheritance." >> in january 2017, this vintage tintype of american outlaw jesse james, along with his

killer, bob ford, hits the auction block at burley auction gallery in new braunfels, texas. >> we really had no clue where it was gonna go. >> in addition to sandy's tintype, robb burley's auctioning a large collection of texas ranger guns and badges. over 100 people have shown up, along with plenty of phone bidders. >> today, you'll have everybody from the buyer that's here looking for a beer stein to the ones that are looking for an antique colt, from the $100 buyer to the $1 million buyer. >> which one will bid on sandy's strange inheritance? or will it be someone in between? [ auctioneer calling ] just after noon, it's time for the jesse james picture to test the marketplace. >> lot number 150 is a photograph attributed to jesse james and bob ford. we got a call from sandy mills, from up in washington state. told us about how her family had handed it down through generations from her grandmother. so, here you go.

we're gonna start it cheap enough that everybody can bid, everybody can play. where do y'all want to start? >> it starts at $5,000 -- not so promising. >> i got $5,000. now $10,000. $5,000 here. now $10,000. $10,000. $10,000. $10,000. now $15,000. $15,000. >> at 15k, all but three bidders drop out. >> now $20,000. $15,000 here. now $20,000. $20,000. thinking about $20,000. $20,000. now $25,000. >> now it's 25k. how long before someone blinks? >> now $30,000. i'm at $25,000. $30,000. now $35,000. now $40,000. i'm at $35,000. now $40,000. sell it your way! >> sold for $35,000. not exactly the payday robb once thought possible, but that's the auction business. the proof is always in the bidding. >> i wish it would have brought $1 million. you know, it didn't, but i'm happy with what it brought. >> the buyer, texas collector terry verburgt, is really happy. he thinks he got a steal. >> i think i got an extremely good deal, rare deal, and i

don't think it will ever be sold that cheap again. >> as for the heir in this strange inheritance story, she can live with the result, even if 35k isn't the life-changer she had hoped for. >> i actually wanted to maybe buy a bed-and-breakfast and do gardens and just raise my son the most, best way that i can come up with, and this would be it. >> no regrets on selling it? >> i have no regrets. it's sold and we did good and it's out there now. i want it to be in history books. >> controversy just seems to be the rule for all things related to jesse james. fittingly, after the notorious outlaw's death in 1882, there was speculation he had faked his own murder. the rumor circulated until 1995, when scientists dug up the grave and performed a dna test that proved the body was, indeed, jesse james. i'm jamie colby. thanks so much for watching

"strange inheritance." and remember -- you can't take it with you. maria: good morning, everyone, happy monday to you. thanks for joining us. i'm maria bartiromo, monday april 20th, top stories 6:00 a.m. on the east coast. more help from small business on the way. congress and the white house close to a deal for additional aid after the paycheck protection program runs out of money. shake shack returning $10 million after the publicly-traded company faces criticism for getting funds for mall business. president trump push ago head with plans to reopen the u.s. economy in 3 phases as protestors hit the streets