Outlaws

Billy the Kid is one of the best known characters of the Old West. Unfortunately, parts of the his life have been built on legends.

Basically, Billy was born in the east and moved west with his mother to Silver City, NM. At a young age he was jailed for a minor offense and escaped. In Bonito, Az, he killed Frank Cahilll.

Billy arrived in Lincoln, NM during a time when the Murphy-Dolan Faction and John Tunstall were trying to secure beef contracts with the military in Fort Stanton. Tunstall had befriended Billy and a number of young drifters. The conflict between the Murphy-Dolan Faction and Tunstall turned ugly. John Tunstall was killed. Angered by the death of their friend, the drifters formed a group known as the 'Regulators'. As a self-impose police force, they tried to round up the people responsible for the death of Tunstall.. Many people died during this pursuit..

The plot becomes more complicated and Billy is a wanted man. Pat Garrett becomes sheriff of Lincoln county and begins his pursuit of Billy. The cat and mouse game between these two lasts about a year and a half. Billy is cornered, but escapes. Billy is caught and sentenced to die, but escapes. Finally, Pat Garrett waits for Billy in a room at Pete Maxwell's home in Fort Sumner, NM. Billy enters and Pat Garrett fires.

Billy the Kid is buried in the old Fort Sumner Post Cemetery near present day Fort Sumner, New Mexico. There are plenty of signs directing you to the grave.

The Story of Bonnie and Clyde

Bonnie Parker (1934)

You've read the story of Jesse James--
Of how he lived and died;
If you're still in need
Of something to read
Here's the story of Bonnie and Clyde.

Now Bonnie and Clyde are the Barrow gang.
I'm sure you all have read
How they rob and steal
And those who squeal
Are usually found dying or dead.

There's lots of untruths to these write-ups;
They're not so ruthless as that;
Their nature is raw;
They hate the law--
The stool pigeons, spotters, and rats.

They call them cold-blooded killers;
They say they are heartless and mean;
But I say this with pride,
That I once knew Clyde
When he was honest and upright and clean.

But the laws fooled around,
Kept taking him down
And locking him up in a cell,
Till he said to me,
"I'll never be free,
So I'll meet a few of them in hell."

The road was so dimly lighted;
There were no highway signs to guide;
But they made up their minds
If all roads were blind,
They wouldn't give up till they died.

The road gets dimmer and dimmer;
Sometimes you can hardly see;
But it's fight, man to man,
And do all you can,
For they know they can never be free.

From heart-break some people have suffered;
From weariness some people have died;
But take it all in all,
Our troubles are small
Till we get like Bonnie and Clyde.

If a policeman is killed in Dallas,
And they have no clue or guide;
If they can't find a fiend,
They just wipe their slate clean
And hang it on Bonnie and Clyde.

There's two crimes committed in America
Not accredited to the Barrow mob;
They had no hand
In the kidnap demand,
Nor the Kansas City Depot job.

A newsboy once said to his buddy:
"I wish old Clyde would get jumped;
In these awful hard times
We'd make a few dimes
If five or six cops would get bumped."

The police haven't got the report yet,
But Clyde called me up today;
He said, "Don't start any fights--
We aren't working nights--
We're joining the NRA."

From Irving to West Dallas viaduct
Is known as the Great Divide,
Where the women are kin,
And the men are men,
And they won't »stool« on Bonnie and Clyde.

If they try to act like citizens
And rent them a nice little flat,
About the third night
They're invited to fight
By a sub-gun's rat-tat-tat.

They don't think they're too smart or desperate,
They know that the law always wins;
They've been shot at before,
But they do not ignore
That death is the wages of sin.

Some day they'll go down together;
They'll bury them side by side;
To few it'll be grief--
To the law a relief--
But it's death for Bonnie and Clyde.

RONALD BIGGS: THE MAN & THE MYTH

Who exactly is Ronald Arthur Biggs who was born in the London borough of Lambeth on August 8, 1929? Ron has out run and out lasted them all over four decades. He never intended to be the most famous element of the Great Train Robbery, neither did he plan to rob the train on his birthday, or become Britain's most wanted man. Life just happened like that for Ron and continues to for a man who has been called many things over the years, but deserves to be called a good father, a doting grandfather and a generous and caring friend to many of the people who have met him.

When he was born in Lambeth, Ron was the youngest of five. He had one sister and three brothers, one of whom, Terence, died at an early age. His family was working class but he never considered them poor or was left wanting for anything. In 1940, as the German bombing of London increased, Ron was separated from his family and evacuated to the safety of Devon and later to Cornwall. He returned to London at the end of 1942 and was sent to Santley Street School. In the May of 1943 his mother died. She was fifty-three.

It was not long after his return to London that the 15 year old Ron made his first appearance in court for stealing pencils from Littlewoods. That same year he made two further court appearances for petty pilfering but appeared to be back on the right track when in 1947 he volunteered for the Royal Air Force. It was during his time in the RAF that Ron learned how to cook. Cooking was something that his father, a professional cook at one time, had instilled in him and it is something he has never forgotten as he continues to work the gastronomic magic in his kitchen in Rio or around the barbecue pit in his garden.

However, after breaking into a chemist while AWOL from the RAF, Ron found himself up before the London Sessions in February 1949 which resulted in a six month prison sentence and a dishonourable discharge from the service. Released from Lewes Prison for Young Prisoners in June 1949 he was in court the following month for taking a car without the owner's permission. This time he was sent to Wormwood Scrubs and then on to Lewes where his path crossed for the first time with Bruce Reynolds, the man who would be the driving force and brains behind the Great Train Robbery. A life of crime, court appearances and imprisonment was to follow over the next 14 years.

Ron has never complained about those fourteen years between 1949 and 1963, perhaps because in October 1957 he met Charmian Powell, the future Mrs Biggs. The two married on February 20 1960, and a first son, Nicholas, who was tragically to die in a car crash in Australia in 1971, was born the same year. A second son. Christopher, was to come along in 1963 and a third, Farley, would be added when the couple were on the run in Australia in 1967.

Ned Kelly, part II

With his first shot Ned Kelly sent a rifle bullet through Hare’s wrist, but a bullet also struck Ned in the forearm. This was the most decisive shot in the whole battle, for
it prevented Ned from using his Spencer repeating rifle, which must be supported by the left arm. He was also struck in the upper part of the arm and also in the foot.
Most fatal of all, the heavy armour destroyed the outlaws freedom of movement.

Ned bleeding freely, hopped around to the north side of the hotel. The other three went through the front door into the hotel. It was not Ned’s idea that his gang should
take shelter behind the people imprisoned there. Then Ned decided on a bold stroke to draw the police away from the hotel. He staggered into the stockyard and tried
to mount a horse, but it was impossible in his armour, so he lurched away into the bush where his grey mare was tethered. There he sat down and tried to unfasten his
armour, but because of his injured hands he could not get the bolts undone. After much struggling, he eased the helmet off his head. Next he tried to load the rifle, but
could not do that, either. He decided to lie hidden in the bush for a while, so he untethered his mare and let her go. This was a bad decision, for Ned now had no way
of retreat.

Feeling very weak, he put on his helmet again. He lay, half fainting from loss of blood. Footsteps were coming towards him! Would he be found? But the policemen
were thinking of only surrounding the hotel, and did not look in the bushes where Ned lay hidden.

Kelly’s Courage

After lying encased in his armour on the frosty ground for three and a half hours, Ned came fully to his senses and decided to return to battle. Desperately wounded as
he was, weakened by loss of blood, his limbs frozen and encumbered by nearly a hundredweight of iron, he managed to stand up and walk – not away from the fight,
in the direction of safety for himself, but back to the hotel to rescue his mates.

It was at that moment and by that decision, that Ned Kelly’s name was fixed in Australia’s lore as a symbol of reckless courage.

As game as Ned Kelly…

This was the supreme moment of his life, and perhaps he knew it. It was one of the policemen who first noticed the seemingly gigantic figure lurching among the
saplings. In the mist and grey overcoat over the armour, and wearing the rounded helmet with a slit in it, appeared to be about nine feet tall. The police opened fire,
aiming at the head and chest. The bullets struck with a metallic clang. The tall figure staggered at each impact but continued to advance. A loud muffled voice came
from the slit in the helmet.

“Fire away, you can’t hurt me!”

The police closed in rapidly, firing at the outlaw’s legs and arms, and a charge of gunshot fired from Sergeant Steele finally brought him crashing to the ground. The
police seized his wrist and wrenched the revolver from him. Then they pulled off his helmet.

“Oh my God, it’s Ned!”

They were more than sixty yards from the hotel where Dan and Hart could have fired upon them with deadly effect if they had chosen. But those two dazed and
drink-stupefied youths did not take this opportunity of helping Ned. And so the outlaw was carried to the railway station and placed on a mattress in the station
master’s office. There the police tried to persuade Ned to make his mates surrender – but he knew they never would, and there was nothing he could do.

At about 10a.m. after the police had been firing at the hotel for about seven hours, the order was given to cease fire. A strange silence settled on the scene. No shots
came from the hotel. Then a loud voice called from the police positions : “we will give you ten minutes. All innocent person t come out.”

After about three minutes the people who had been kept prisoner at the hotel came out. Everyone was identified, searched and questioned, and the police learnt for the
first time that Joe Burne was dead. The other two, still wearing their armour, were apparently quiet and miserable and talking together in low tones. They knew that
Ned was captured and that their own position was hopeless

The police now decided to set fire to the hotel and smoke them out. Under a heavy burst of fire, a policeman ran forward with a bundle of straw and placed it against
the weatherboard wall. The rifle-fire ceased. As the flames licked at the wall, fanned by the southerly breeze, a hush of awe fell on the spectators. Now or never the
outlaws must emerge.

Dean Gibney, a Roman Catholic priest, who happened to be on the train, and who had already spoken with Ned, now showed great personal heroism. “May God
protect me,” he said “I’m going into that house, to give those men a chance to have a little time to prepare themselves before they die.”

And as the flames crackles and black smoke billowed, he walked forward alone to the burning building. “In the name of God,” he called out to the outlaws, “I am a
Catholic priest, do not shoot me.”

Inside he ran quickly from room to room. He saw the dead body of Joe Burne, and there in a little room at the back he saw two bodies lying side by side on the floor.
Their armour was off and laid beside them. They were Dan Kelly and Steve Hart. They had been dead for some time and it appeared that they had committed suicide.
The priest emerged and told the police what he had found. A few minutes later the hotel became a raging mass of flames.

So the Kelly Gang was ended in that strange battle which lasted for twelve and a half hours on Monday, 28th June 1880.

Ned’s Trail

Ned Kelly was taken by the police to the Melbourne Gaol hospital, and carefully nursed back to health. On 28th October 1880, he was put on trial. A jury was chosen,
evidence was heard, and the “twelve good men and true” gave their verdict – guilty.

The judge, Sir Redmond Barry, asked the formal question, “Prisoner at the bar, have you anything to say why sentence of death should not be passed upon you?”

Ned looked at the judge thoughtfully.

“Well,” he said, “it is rather too late for me to speak now. I wish I had insisted on examining the witnesses myself. I could have thrown a different light on the case –
but I thought if I did so it would look like bravado and flashiness.”

This interruption of the death sentence was something quite new. Ned continued to argue quietly and coolly with the judge. At last he said, “A day will come, at a
bigger Court than this, when we shall see which is right and which is wrong. No matter how long a man lives, he has to come to judgement somewhere. If I had
examined the witnesses, I would have stopped a lot of the reward, I assure you!”

After a few more exchanges, the judge decided the fantastic argument to a close. He looked at his notes, prepared in advance, and read in solemn tones a homily on
the miseries of an outlaw’s lot and on Ned’s misdeeds. He ended on pronouncing the sentence, “You will be taken from here to the place from whence you came, and
thence to a place of execution, and there you will be hanged by the neck until you be dead, and may the Lord have mercy on your soul!”

Ned looked fixedly at the ageing judge. “ I will add something to that,” he said, as the court listened in awe-struck silence. “ I will see you where I am going!”

Many people remembered these words when Sir Redmond Barry was suddenly taken ill two days after Ned was hanged, and died soon afterwards.

The date fixed on Ned’s execution was 11 November 1880. On the day before his brother and sisters were allowed to visit him, and after this, his mother. Her last
words to him were: “Mind you die like a Kelly, Ned!”.

The morning of Thursday, 11th November, dawned fine and clear. Ned was taken to the gallows. As the hangman adjusted the noose Ned looked round him
resignedly and said, “Ah well, I suppose it had to come to this!”.

A white cap was put over his head and face. As it was pulled down over his eyes Ned spoke three words, with a sigh:

“Such is Life”

ALPHONSE CAPONE, aka. AL, SCARFACE
CONTEMPT OF COURT


Born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1899, of an immigrant family,
Al Capone quit school after the sixth grade and associated
with a notorious street gang, becoming accepted as a
member. Johnny Torrio was the street gang leader and
among the other members was Lucky Luciano, who would
later attain his own notoriety.

About 1920, at Torrio's invitation, Capone joined Torrio in
Chicago where he had become an influential lieutenant in the
Colosimo mob. The rackets spawned by enactment of the
Prohibition Amendment, illegal brewing, distilling and
distribution of beer and liquor, were viewed as "growth
industries." Torrio, abetted by Al Capone, intended to take full advantage of
opportunities. The mobs also developed interests in legitimate businesses, in the
cleaning and dyeing field, and cultivated influence with receptive public officials, labor
unions and employees' associations.

Torrio soon succeeded to full leadership of the gang with the violent demise of Big
Jim Colosimo, and Capone gained experience and expertise as his strong right arm.

In 1925, Capone became boss when Torrio, seriously wounded in an assassination
attempt, surrendered control and retired to Brooklyn. Capone had built a fearsome
reputation in the ruthless gang rivalries of the period, struggling to acquire and retain
»racketeering rights« to several areas of Chicago. That reputation grew as rival gangs
were eliminated or nullified, and the suburb of Cicero became, in effect, a fiefdom of
the Capone mob.

Perhaps the St. Valentine's Day Massacre on February 14, 1929, might be regarded
as the culminating violence of the Chicago gang era, as seven members or
associates of the »Bugs« Moran mob were machine-gunned against a garage wall by
rivals posing as police. The massacre was generally ascribed to the Capone mob,
although Al himself was then in Florida.

The investigative jurisdiction of the Bureau of Investigation during the 1920s and early
1930s was more limited than it is now, and the gang warfare and depredations of the
period were not within the Bureau's investigative authority.

The Bureau's investigation of Al Capone arose from his reluctance to appear before a
Federal Grand Jury on March 12, 1929, in response to a subpoena. On March 11, his
lawyers formally filed for postponement of his appearance, submitting a physician's
affidavit dated March 5, which attested that Capone, in Miami, had been suffering
from bronchial pneumonia, had been confined to bed from January 13 to February 23,
and that it would be dangerous to Capone's health to travel to Chicago. His
appearance date before the grand jury was re-set for March 20.

On request of the U.S. Attorney's Office, Bureau of Investigation Agents obtained
statements to the effect that Capone had attended race tracks in the Miami area, that
he had made a plane trip to Bimini and a cruise to Nassau, and that he had been
interviewed at the office of the Dade County Solicitor, and that he had appeared in
good health on each of those occasions.

Capone appeared before the Federal Grand Jury at Chicago on March 20, 1929, and
completed his testimony on March 27. As he left the courtroom, he was arrested by
Agents for Contempt of Court, an offense for which the penalty could be one year and
a $1,000 fine. He posted $5,000 bond and was released.

On May 17, 1929, Al Capone and his bodyguard were arrested in Philadelphia for
carrying concealed deadly weapons. Within 16 hours they had been sentenced to
terms of one year each. Capone served his time and was released in nine months for
good behavior on March 17, 1930.

On February 28, 1936, Capone was found guilty in Federal Court on the Contempt of
Court charge and was sentenced to six months in Cook County Jail. His appeal on
that charge was subsequently dismissed.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Treasury Department had been developing evidence on tax
evasion charges – in addition to Al Capone, his brother Ralph »Bottles« Capone, Jake
»Greasy Thumb« Guzik, Frank Nitti and other mobsters were subjects of tax evasion
charges.

On June 16, 1931, Al Capone pled guilty to tax evasion and prohibition charges. He
then boasted to the press that he had struck a deal for a two-and-one-half year
sentence, but the presiding judge informed him he, the judge, was not bound by any
deal. Capone then changed his plea to not guilty.

On October 18, 1931, Capone was convicted after trial, and on November 24, was
sentenced to eleven years in Federal prison, fined $50,000 and charged $7,692 for
court costs, in addition to $215,000 plus interest due on back taxes. The six-month
Contempt of Court sentence was to be served concurrently.

While awaiting the results of appeals, Capone was confined to the Cook County Jail.
Upon denial of appeals, he entered the U.S. Penitentiary at Atlanta, serving his
sentence there and at Alcatraz.

On November 16, 1939, Al Capone was released after having served seven years, six
months and fifteen days, and having paid all fines and back taxes.

Suffering from paresis derived from syphilis, he had deteriorated greatly during his
confinement. Immediately on release he entered a Baltimore hospital for brain
treatment, and then went on to his Florida home, an estate on Palm Island in Biscayne
Bay near Miami, which he had purchased in 1928.

Following his release, he never publicly returned to Chicago. He had become mentally
incapable of returning to gangland politics. In 1946, his physician and a Baltimore
psychiatrist, after examination, both concluded Al Capone then had the mentality of a
12-year-old child. Capone resided on Palm Island with his wife and immediate family,
in a secluded atmosphere, until his death due to a stroke and pneumonia on January
25, 1947.

BIBLIOGRAPHY REGARDING AL CAPONE

1. »Farewell, Mr. Gangster!« Herbert Corey, D. Appleton-Century Company, Inc., New
York, New York, 1936

2. »The FBI Story,« Don Whitehead, Random House, New York, New York, 1956

3. »Organized Crime In America,« Gus Tyler, University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor,
Michigan, 1962

4. »The Dillinger Days,« John Toland, Random House, New York, New York, 1963

5. »The Devil's Emissaries,« Myron J. Quimby, A. S. Barnes and Company, New York,
New York, 1969

6. »Capone,« John Kobler, G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York, New York, 1971

7. »Mafia, USA,« Nicholas Gage, Dell Publishing Company, Inc., New York, New York,
1972

8. »The Mobs And The Mafia,« Hank Messick and Burt Goldblatt, Thomas Y. Crowell
Company, New York, New York, 1972

9. »Bloodletters and Badmen,« Jay Robert Nash, M. Evans and Company, Inc., New
York, New York, 1973

10. »G-Men: Hoover's FBI in American Popular Culture,« Richard Gid Powers,
Southern Illinois University Press, Carbondale, Illinois, 1983