Everyone loves a good bandit. Or outlaw...

So many famous bandits and outlaws. I bet you could name five just off the top of your head. I could, but crime and murder and... other stuff like that... is something I'm interested in anyway, so I dont' count.

Anyways. It could be said that there are "good" outlaws, and of course, when a "well-intended highwayman" is mentioned who does everyone immediately think of? All together now...

ROBIN HOOD.

Yes, of course, Robin Hood, the fox... sorry, slipped into Disney mode then... man who robbed from the rich to give to the poor with his band of Merry Men. Whether he really existed or not no-one really knows, but he has over the years become somewhat of a poor man's hero.

It is people like Robin Hood (read about him at http://www.robinhood.ltd.uk/robinhood/index.html)who have come to be known as "social bandits". These are peasants who during the pre-capitalist rule broke away from their masters, the lords and landowners who ruled over them and became bandits, like Robin Hood supposedly robbing from the rich to give to the poor. However, although they were hailed as heroes in the villages around them, it was not just the rich they stole from. They may not have stolen from their own village, but they had no qualms with stealing from villages further afield. They helped their own villages, but ransacked and destroyed others. They were also, in many cases, not as against those richer than them as it may have seemed. They often worked for the lords and landowners that they had supposedly broken away from, even killing members of the peasantry for them.

However, it was not just people who broke away from the peasantry who came to be seen as "good bad guys". The most famous outlaw of all time has to be... JESSE JAMES.

Yes, Jesse James, hailed as one of the greatest outlaws of all time, and known for standing up for the little man, a product of the plains of the Wild West.... Except.... Not all of that is entirely true, really...

James wasn't a poor man who wanted to stand up for his own people, and he wasn't even a product of the Wild West, as he is so popularly depicted. He was in fact an articulate and political man from Missouri. His family were wealthy land owners, and were highly politcally active, particularly when it came to the abolition of slavery, which, being land owners, they were against. When Civil War broke out Missouri was divided between the confederates of the South, with whom they shared a border, and the unionists surrounding them. James decided to join the confederates, and joined the army aged just 16. Manyof the activities James was involved in were known as "political cleansing", which involved the murder of unionists within the town. It was therefore during this time that he committed his first murder. James emerged from the war as a hero of the confederates, despite the brutal attacks he had carried out. It is after the war he robbed his first bank, and it was not conincidence that it was one affiliated with the republican party. James continually claimed that his party were victims of the republicans, and he was merely retaliating. He continued with this argument until his assassination in 1882.

There are other examples of people who were hailed as heroes despite the fact that they killed many people to gain the notoriety they did, including Ned Kelly, the Australian who robbed banks, killing many in the process, Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, and 'Pretty Boy' Charles Floyd. More people turned out to 'Pretty Boy's funeral than to one of his victims. Over forty thousand people attended. The Kray twins Ronnie and Reggie from the east end of London could also be considered in the same field.

There is of course arguments within each of these cases, and as none of these people are around to tell us their reasons for their crimes.


At the end of the day, I suppose you have to believe what you want to believe.

Over and out.

~Meg~