Black Jack
Despite my "working class hero" posturing ,I am solidly middle class in my background and values . I am honest to the point of recklessness , but am facinated by the often creaky workings of the criminal mind. Factoid #1- a majority of the bank robberies in the U.S.A. occur less than 25 miles from the perpetrator's home . Factoid #2- 80 % of all prison escapees are apprehended at their girlfriend's or mother's home . Most criminals are that way because they are basically losers . Heists are never as ornate as "The Great Train Robbery" or Ocean's Eleven" ,and are more of the "smash and grab" variety .This leads me to the tale of "Black Jack" Ketchum . In the 1890s this cattle thief figured out that that there was some money being moved on the new Colorado & Southern line between Denver and Ft.Worth . He found a lonely curve near Folsom ,New Mexico ,and held up the train , making off with a tidy little bundle. Like all of his ilk ,Black Jack went through booty quickly ,enriching every bartender and whore from Cimmaron to Trinidad . So ,when the money ran out , Black Jack went back to the very same lonely curve near Folsom and stuck up the same train .But alas ,the C&S Railroad had wised up and had guards and lawmen riding with the gold this time .Black Jack was wounded and apprehended . A rowdy trial ensued in Raton ,and Black Jack was sentenced to death by hanging . Hangings were still well-attended public affairs ,and Black Jack drew a crowd ,even though the hanging was held at 7 am on a frosty winter morning in old Raton . Defiant to the bitter end , Black Jack called out this famous farewell to the lawmen and the crowd : "Good-bye all you sons-of bitches ,I will be in Hell before Breakfast!! "
Even as the trap door opened on the scaffold and Black Jack slipped down to Eternity, true to his misbegotten profession ,he made a mess of it . The executioner gave Jack too much rope( a common mistake of hangmen)and his head was popped off with a great spray of blood covering the crowd .No one remembers who caught the head !
