Friday, August 28, 2015

Famous Last Words




"I see a good many enemies around, and mighty few friends.”
Bill Longley’s last words before he was hanged in 1878.

Unlike Bill Longley, I see a great many friends. Of course, I haven't killed anyone... yet. But I have missed a few post dates which is why this is my last entry on the fourth (and usually last) Friday of the month.

I'm moving to the second Friday.

"They say I killed six or seven men for snoring. It ain't true. I only killed one man for snoring."
John Wesley Hardin.

Knowing me, I'll still be putting together my notes in the wee hours of the night when I should be snoring (if I was willing to admit that I did). But at least in the middle of the month, I won't be staying up to finish so many things at once.

"Can't you hurry this up a bit? I hear they eat dinner in Hades at twelve sharp and I don't aim to be late."
Black Jack Ketchum, just before he was hanged at Clayton, New Mexico on April 26, 1901.

I hope if I do miss a day, no one will lose their head over it like Black Jack Ketchum. He really shouldn't have hurried the hangman. Due to a miscalculation, Ketchum fell so fast, his head was torn off. It had to be sewn back on for burial.

Black Jack didn't deserve that. He was a robber, not a killer. It was judged, too late, that his death sentence was unconstitutional. . .  misjudged as well as miscalculated.

Under the circumstances, we can hardly blame convicted killer, William Palmer, for being cautious.