A photograph of notorious outlaw Billy the Kid sold to a Florida billionaire for $2.3 million in 2011.

I bring that up because you need to have that $2.3 million figure in your mind when you read this story about Patrick Meguiar of Portland, Tennessee.

Meguiar, 64, wrote me a letter explaining that he has a familial connection to Jesse James.

And he has a photo that he hopes is worth even more than that Billy the Kid picture.

Here is the truth. Records have been destroyed or lost. No one is really sure if Patrick Mequiar's distant relative was a sister of Jesse James' relative. And without Jesse James around, it will be impossible to prove the authenticity of the photo.

Here's what I know for sure. Patrick Meguiar believes he is the "double third cousin, three times removed" of Jesse James.

"I have every reason to believe that Mary Hines James of Hanover County, Virginia was a sister of Sarah Hines Martin also of Hanover County, Virginia," he said. "They lived in the household of John Hines of Hanover County, Virginia and were members of the same Presbyterian church."

Mary Hines James was Jesse James' grandmother. Sarah Hines Martin was Meguiar's grandfather's grandmother. I think that would make her Meguiar's great great great grandmother. But it's hard to keep track.

He also said his family "aided and abetted Cousin Jesse" in hiding out from the law.

Jesse James was a murderous thug who robbed banks and stagecoaches and somehow became popular for creating mayhem.

He died in 1882 at the age of 34, shot in the head by someone from his own outlaw gang. Yes, he was that well liked.

James was from Missouri, but spent time in Tennessee, Kentucky and California. He was a "bushwhacker" during the Civil War, part of an unofficial group that attacked Union soldiers using guerilla tactics.

His bank robbing career peaked between 1866-76 when he and his brother, Frank, teamed up to form their own gang (the James-Younger gang) with outlaw Cole Younger.

Famously, the James-Younger gang tried to rob the First National Bank in Northfield, Minnesota, on Sept. 7, 1876. Six of the eight robbers were killed in the attempted robbery. Only Jesse and Frank James got away.

In the last six years of his life, James was a wanted man. He turned up in Nashville and Humphreys County, where he helped raise and race horses. Meguiar also said James came to his family's farm in Kentucky.

Horses, Meguiar said, is the clue that connects him to James.

The Meguiar family owned a horse-breeding farm in Lake Springs, Kentucky. Meguiar said James became a business partner on that farm.

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"My grandfather told me he heard Cousin Jesse was always real friendly when he would come by," Mequiar said.

Using racehorses to ride away from crime scenes was a key to James' success as a robber, Meguiar said.

The stories his grandfather told him fascinated Meguiar ... including the one about this old photo of Jesse James.

When Meguiar grew up, he ran the family farm — cattle, corn, soybeans, wheat.

In 1977, he was a student at Tennessee Tech, Meguiar decided to go looking for the James picture. He made some inquires and found that his aunt Patti had it.

"It was in a box in a music stand," he said. 

His Aunt Patti's reaction, however, was enlightening. "This is your cousin, and that's all you need to know."

Meguiar later found that his aunt hated James.

"She was ashamed to be related to him," Meguiar said. "She wanted that picture to be out of her house."

Realizing that a photo of Jesse James was extremely rare, Meguiar put it first in a fire-proof box. Now it's kept in a safe deposit box.

The photo is an ambrotype.

I had to look that up. Ambrotype: an underexposed, underdeveloped, wet-collodion negative on glass that, when viewed with a dark background, appears as a positive image.

It means it is kind of soft focus and open to interpretation.

Here's the biggest problem with the photo. It doesn't look like the Jesse James photo that is widely known from wanted posters of Jesse James.

Meguiar doesn't like the people who think James looks like that pointy-headed, receding hairlined person in the popular photo.

"Traditionalists aren't going to believe anything," he said. 

He likes to call them "idiot traditionalists." "It kind of makes me angry," he said.

The real characteristic that defines James' face is a misaligned jaw, Meguiar said.

He said a woman named Gilda Elizabeth, who is known on Facebook as "The Online Progenitor," told him his photo of James matches the one of James during the Civil War era. Elizabeth's Facebook page says she lives in Kent, England, and that she attended Oxford.

I contacted Elizabeth, who compared Meguiar's photo to others of Jesse James. Her response:

"I cannot swear under oath that this is a photograph of the same person as the authenticated photos," she said. "I would say that I cannot see any discrepancy between the two, that this is much more like the authenticated photos than others which have been tentatively accepted, and that in my view it is the same person. It is certainly very well worth further investigation by a journalist as it could be a splendid story, with all the family connections Patrick speaks of."

Meguiar knows he has a long way to go to establish enough proof to sway the popular opinion about what Jesse James looked like.

He said if his photo never becomes valuable, he will donate it to a Historical Society Memorial Center in Simpson County, Kentucky.

"I believe this is Jesse James with all my heart," he said.

Reach Keith Sharon at 615-406-1594 or ksharon@tennessean.com or on Twitter @KeithSharonTN.

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This story is part of Project 88, which is named for the 88 characters produced on a Smith-Corona typewriter. The Tennessean’s Keith Sharon types letters on his 1953 typewriter and mails them to people all over the world with an envelope and stamp so they can write back. This story originated with a letter Keith received. The question Project 88 is trying to answer is: Will people communicate the old-fashioned way, through heartfelt letters about the best and most challenging days of their lives. This project is not for political rants, and any kind of snail mail letter (typed, hand-written or computer printout) is acceptable. Please include a phone number.

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