Hanging Bees

The Old West frowned indignantly upon shooting anyone who was unarmed. Gunman Clay Allison refused to kill his unarmed avowed enemy, a Native American named Ground Owl. Marshal Wyatt Earp spared the main object of his vengeance, unarmed Ike Clanton, in the famous O.K. Corral fight. A fourteen-year-old sheepherder in Colorado and a feudist cowboy exchanged shots until the latter said, “Don’t shoot, I’m empty,” to which the boy responded, “Well, then, load up while I wait.” The cowboy started to reload, but considered that one good turn deserved another and rode off saying that he had had enough. In northwest Montana Bill Mayfield challenged a cardsharp enemy named Evans, who said, “I’m not heeled.” Mayfield snarled, “Well, go heel yourself then, and come back shooting.” In the ensuing fight Mayfield was killed, but he had abided by the code. In the Territory of Idaho a man named Clark shot another man named Raymond, who was unarmed. In the mob that hanged Clark as a result of the shooting, there were many respected citizens, who were enraged at the “murder.” It was “murder” when the deceased was unarmed and it usually ended up with a hanging bee. Hanging Bees served to hold many bad guys accountable for their misdeeds. Whenever a lawyer lied in court about someone on trial a lynch party got together to do away with the dishonest attorney. Think how few attorneys we’d have now if that tradition was still upheld. Prosecutorial misconduct is rampant throughout the United States and particular so in places like Kansas City, Missouri. Lawyers representing the federal government in courts in Jackson, Platte, and Cass County, Missouri have held onto their unscrupulous methods of trying a case. Fortunately for them the punishment for such devious actions changed with the times.