Saturday, April 04, 2009

No honour (among thieves)

Who knew that American outlaw Jesse James was shot in the back after a reward was posted for his capture - presumably "Dead or Alive"? The shooter was one of Jesse's own gang - one of two brothers Jesse had moved in to help protect him. Jesse might still be alive today (well, not really) if it had not been a hot day, if he'd not taken off his coat, then taken off his guns so he wouldn't look suspicious (in the robberies planned for that day), and if he hadn't noticed a dusty picture on the wall - and then stood on a chair to clean it. It was then that Robert Ford shot James in the back of the head. They say that "Cleanliness is next to Godliness" and in this case, perhaps it was.
Also something I didn't know, rather than just being an "outlaw" there are suggestions that Jesse and his brother, Frank, were Confederate
guerrillas in the American Civil War - before going on to be what Wikipedia calls a "regional insurgent" post-War.

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