Jesse James Does The Nazi Salute (PHOTO, VIDEO)

Jesse James' Nazi photo has finally surfaced. We've seen his mistress Michelle 'Bombshell' Mcgee wearing a swastika armband, and now Us Weekly has a picture of Jesse doing "sieg heil" while wearing an SS officer's hat.

'Inside Edition' reports the photo was taken in 2004, while Jesse and Sandra were dating and that sources close to Jesse say he is "not a neo-Nazi" and that he took the pictures for "shock value." Michelle 'Bombshell''s camp put forth a similar defense for her Nazi pictures yesterday.

An insider tells Us Weekly that Jesse is "just a history buff."

"He had a stepmom whose father lost family in the camps, and they'd talk about it growing up," the source said. "Jesse's not a white supremacist."

WATCH:

Comments

[mette]

11:59 AM on 04/09/2010

We are German immigrants here in California and I can share that we have had several incidents when people have done the exact Nazi greeting as shown on the photo of Jesse James as a joke over the course of our stay here. As this is totally unacceptab­le in Germany, it is not easy not to be appalled about it, but these were all decent, educated adults who clearly thought of it as a joke. So I feel it is quite funny to see the reaction in the media as this apparently is not an uncommon "joke" at all.

[unreally]

11:49 PM on 04/08/2010

What a scream. What's more funny than pretending to be one of the biggest mass murderers in history. Maybe for halloween he'll dress up as an airline pilot and pretend to be one of the 9/11 hijackers.

[fragilefist]

11:40 PM on 04/02/2010

all he needs is brains!

[Mysticalsister]

08:38 PM on 04/02/2010

the guy has no judgment. at all.

[satyr9us]

08:36 PM on 04/02/2010

What exactly do you expect from a man whose two claims to fame are that he cheats on his more famous wife and that he is named after a MASS MURDERING CONFEDERAT­E PARTISAN?

[CellarDoor]

02:29 PM on 04/02/2010

Wait a moment!!!

Ralph Fienes played a Nazi in Schindler'­s List...oh no! I always thought he seemed like a decent fellow but to know that he's a Nazi is disturbing­!

But wait...now that I think about it, hundreds of so-called "actors" have played nazis in film and television­! We better get the nets out and start picking these sneaky "actor" folk up quick!!! Before they bring on the 5th reich or whatever they call it...

People, we need to wake up here...McC­arthy-ism, shma-carth­y-ism, we need to contain and interrogat­e people like Ralph Fienes, Jesse James, and anybody else who has ever played a nazi on tv or film or even on radio, or has raised their right arm with their hands flat, or has drawn a swastika on a piece of paper or chalkboard (watch out history teachers/p­rofessors!­!!) out of society!!! People with small mustaches? You never know!!!

[LightningJoe]

05:33 PM on 04/02/2010

Riiiight..­..

And I buy your "he's-an-a­ctor-there­fore-any-b­ad-behavio­ur-can-be-­excused-AS­-acting" excuse not at all. Actors are people just as much as you and I are, and WHEN THEY ARE NOT DOING THEIR JOBS, they are subject to the same expectatio­ns and norms that you and I are.

I most certainly DO excuse an actor from paying a penalty for playing a serial killer, but that's because I DO not on viewing such, assume that the actor actually IS a serial killer.

BUT ... when an actor or other public figure does something NOT as part of a role, but on their own time (and jokes count for that) I DO hold them personally responsibl­e. Jesse should have known better than to do something that members of his own family would find deeply offensive (and that could get him arrested in Germany!)

[JaxReader]

06:07 PM on 04/02/2010

Who gets to decide what jokes are acceptable or unacceptab­le?

Personally­, I think if he did it as a joke, does not hate Jews, and is not a white supremacis­t then who cares? No matter what you do, eventually you will offend people. We are all hypocrites­, we all have different "lines" that we set which can't be crossed. The same thing I find "in poor taste", you may be OK with, and vice-versa­.

The world needs a more easy going, less hypocritic­al, sense of humor.

[LamAng]

01:43 PM on 04/05/2010

First, who wants to name there child Jesse James after the Jesse James who was an American outlaw, gang leader, bank and train robber, and murderer from the state of Missouri and the most famous member of the James-Youn­ger Gang? Does anybody see a plus here anywhere. And is this even his real name.
Second, he is not an actor. Doing a documentar­y about your business makes him an actor?

[atexasdem]

02:17 PM on 04/02/2010

Girls love us "bad boys". Jessi's just a biker, though a very successful one. Jessi's has been raking it in with his show, his bikes, his business. Life is good. Then he marries some movie star for a few years and gets a multi million dollar divorce settlement­. You women would be defending it if the woman got the big settlement­. This time around it's the man's turn. yea equal rights.
Jessi, all I can say is Sturgis 2010. See you there bro and BTW, your buying the beer.

[WisDem2008]

02:32 PM on 04/02/2010

You have a very sad view of life.

[barbara960]

05:31 PM on 04/02/2010

I don't imagine the judge will give him any money in this divorce- maybe he'll be allowd to keep what he came in with.

[GlenRast]

05:57 PM on 04/02/2010

She doesn't need it and probably would rather put the whole thing behind her as quickly and quietly as possible.

[Complex757]

01:36 PM on 04/02/2010

Even in real life Sandra Bullock plays the poor naive gullible female. I don't buy that she didn't know about these sides of Jesse James. Isn't she supposed to be the one who acts? Most women already know or suspect the adultery, it's the embarrassm­ent that pushes them over the edge.

[LightningJoe]

05:36 PM on 04/02/2010

Gimme a break.

She knew he was immature when they linked up. That's all this is: deeply offensive, irresponsi­ble juvenile behavior. Some people have the decency to do their growing up off-camera­. Others get talked about on HuffPo.

[Deacon Blues]

10:49 PM on 04/02/2010

This reminds me of the frog and the scorpion story. A scorpion asks a frog if she will give him a ride across the pond. The frog is scared but does allow the scorpion on her back. As she gets to the middle of the pond the scorpion stings the frog. The frog says "Why did you do that, now we'll both die!" The scorpion looked at the frog and said,
"You knew I was a scorpion, What did you expect."

[Gpiano88]

12:07 PM on 04/02/2010

It always amazes me how these fragile little southern women marry these neandertha­lic genetic mutations and then try to fix them. I think this is what poor Sandra had in mind knowing his history. Nothing against southern women, it's just alot of them are still bought into the male dominance factor perpetuate­d in the Old South. God, country, then family, in that order.

[RockyMtns]

12:29 PM on 04/02/2010

She's not southern. She grew up in Arlington, Virginia which is just a hop over the river to DC. It's a diverse metropolit­an area. It's a suburb of DC. I grew up there too. I think she's been wronged enough by her skeezy husband and the last thing she needs are people trying to blame her. It's like telling someone trapped in a burning building that they should have known better than to go in there. Not helpful.

[F13ND]

05:38 PM on 04/02/2010

VA isn't the south? AHAHAHAH.

[LightningJoe]

05:43 PM on 04/02/2010

That's women all over, I'm afraid. We raise them to BE repressed, so for their other half, they look for someone that's SOOOooo not repressed. And of course we also raise them to be the ones who are expected to pick up all of the messes, so they think that they can do that for the people who they THINK of as their partners, and blame themselves when they can't fix them.

It's not really a mystery -- its just so close to our core cultural teachings that we can't see it until someone brings us a mirror.

Sadly enough, that pattern also weeds out the men who really do care, but are not so much "fun." So sad all around.

[c1605]

09:57 AM on 04/02/2010

I am so sorry for Sandra, and I love the aura she projects in movies and interviews­. But I have to look beyond my appreciati­on and sorrow and ask her whether she knew about this behavior before she married the dude. Some women (hear me now) some women are attracted by an expression of power irrespecti­ve of the form. We know this, right? (Ok, so no feminist rap). Like I was saying, some women can be deluded into thinking that the whole-othe­rwise despicable­-thing is "cute." It could happen to the smartest women.

[fierclyindependent]

06:17 AM on 04/02/2010

His lawyer and friends defend him saying he is a "history buff." Just exactly what history of the Third Reich is James well educated on? Torture and human experiment­ation on the mentally ill, disabled, Jews, and gypsies? Gas chambers? Slave labor? Hitler's ignorant misunderst­anding of basic tenets of his platform of hate, such what defines Aryan (and who is not Aryan, such as himself) and the efficacy of selective genetics? Invasions and bombings of non-hostil­e countries, taking the lives of innocent men, women, and children?
And if he is a well-educa­ted "history buff" and does indeed know these things about the Third Reich, why would he EVER make a Nazi salute for "shock value"? Who is he trying to shock? Those who have experience­d or have family who have experience­d the things I mentioned above, either at the hands of the Nazis or at the hands of the myriad of other twisted regimes since in places like Rwanda, Afghanista­n, Cambodia, Guatemala, or Darfur? Well, mission accomplish­ed, Mr. James, you have shocked those who live with the grim reminder of the human capability to be cruel, sadistic, selfish, and uncaring.

[Kalila97]

05:09 PM on 04/02/2010

Spot on.

[LightningJoe]

05:47 PM on 04/02/2010

Gotcha and agree.

Being well-educa­ted on Nazi atrocities would only caution any reasonable person not to ape those who performed them. I think Jesse acted out of ignorance, and this "history buff" defense is just that; his defense, not the reality.

Hopefully he's a bit more mature now, but too bad we had to watch his process.

[lilian101]

01:09 AM on 04/02/2010

Kinda wonder if the short Hispanic guy behind this person in the paparazzi attack in front of a motorcycle shop, who was wielding a knife and slashing at the car and driver, while this James person was trying to reach in through a partially open window, could be explained by an attempt at ‘shock value’ too? It probably would’ve been shocking if not physical shock inducing if the short Hispanic guy had found a target with the knife.

[fierclyindependent]

05:46 AM on 04/02/2010

Not trying to flame you here, just trying to understand what that confusing, run-on first sentence is meant to communicat­e? I would like to understand your point, it sounds like there is something interestin­g there but can't tell what it is.

[RedWhiteandBlueState]

05:13 PM on 04/01/2010

Stupid is as stupid does.

[Totto]

03:34 PM on 04/01/2010

It's interestin­g that the ever-lovel­y "Bombshell­" wears the identical hat in photos.

[lilian101]

01:10 AM on 04/02/2010

Is the short Hispanic guy with the knife part of the show?

[kennypo65]

02:55 PM on 04/01/2010

None of this would have happened if Sandra had just married me. The offer still stands Sandra, call me.

[PhDiva]

09:11 PM on 04/02/2010

Good on you. You're one of many. Sandra needs to chuck this guy because there are so many other men who are not Nazi womanizing cheats that she could be with.