Vengeance & George Coe

For several months, I’ve been working on a sequel to the book Outlaw Tales of California. The research I have done has led me to realize that one of the strongest human emotions is vengeance – a feeling I can all too well identify. In many instances, wanting to get back at the bad guys is what turned an ordinary western citizen into an outlaw. For example, a friend of Billy the Kid’s named George Coe swore vengeance against Sheriff Brady of Lincoln County, New Mexico, for cruel treatment at the time of his arrest upon a charge of which he was innocent. Sheriff Brady was a Murphy partisan in the Murphy-McSween feud and had just cooked up some excuse to jail Coe, who he knew was sympathetic with McSween. About this incident, Coe wrote in his memoirs, Frontier Fighter: “I groaned in agony at the thought. They took horse hobble and tied my feet together under the horse’s belly (a common method of preventing escape). At the same time, they bound Scurlock’s feet in the same manner. Then, with bed-cord, they tied my hands together after circling my arms about Scurlock’s waist. Talk about suffering! That was the most horrible three hours that anyone ever had to endure. I know, for I’ve been shot twice, had my leg broken in two places, and could say more, but that’s enough. A slow, drizzling rain had begun to fall, making the night more hideous. The cords on my wrists tightened up as they wet through, adding to my misery-if that were possible. That ride was hell!” Coe swore to get revenge upon Sheriff Brady and his cohorts because of this treatment if it was the last thing he did. This ride was the chief thing that induced Coe actually to join up with Billy the Kid and fight the Murphy-Riley-Dolan faction of the Lincoln County War. I don’t think Coe was right in killing anyone, but the desire to want to get back at someone for the bad they’ve done is overwhelming. Everyday I deal with the situation someone else created. I see my brother handcuffed and shackled and think about the people who lied to bring about this heartache. I don’t know how someone sleeps at night knowing they manufactured evidence to frame an innocent man. Like Coe, I’m fighting back against such horrors, but it’s being done legally and I won’t stop until at least one of the bad guys goes to jail. I’ve waited a long time for this. I’ve seen many bad things dealing with the prison system and I have become vengeful. As Coe wrote, “That ride was hell.”