Thursday, July 21, 2016

A Deadly Hobby...!

If you ever wonder where some of of the colorful names of infamous acts came from, maybe this will help a bit.

Believe it or not, some acts of cruel justice were named after real people. Take this name, for instance.

Captain Lynch



Captain William Lynch was a man with a horrifying hobby. Nope, not stamp collecting. The captain was a man who believed in rough justice. And that meant one thing for the petty criminals and wrongly accused in his town. He and his “Lynch-men” would, well . . . lynch them.

Although the term today has connotations of racial violence, the original lynchings weren’t specifically targeted at black people. Lynch and his men felt the government was too remote to dispense justice on outlaws, so they launched their vigilante group to target them.

Unfortunately, their methods were less like Batman and more like the Punisher. Captain Lynch and his men tortured, strung up, and murdered so many strangers that his name became synonymous with one of the cruelest forms of mob rule in US history.

Well, there ya go. Another little peek at the darker side of history. At least you now know where the name came from, right?

Coffee out on the patio this morning again

6 comments:

linda m said...

Always interesting to find out where something got its name from. However, in this case i don't think I would want my name associated with this vile means of torture. Very hot and humid here today. Thank goodness for A/C.

HermitJim said...

Hey Linda...
Info like this is interesting, for sure. I never knew that it was named after a person.
Thanks for stopping by today!

JO said...

All this sicko did was use the law to get away with his need to murder whether guilty or not.

The morning sure are nice these days, to bad it doesn't last very long.

Dizzy-Dick said...

You spend all your life doing the right thing and when you die, after awhile, nobody remembers you. Now, if you just hang a few innocent people, your name goes down in history. Not fair, not fair at all.

Sixbears said...

Rough justice isn't pretty.

HermitJim said...

Hey Jo...
I don't think the Law had much to do with it! Kinda played by his own rules!
Thanks for dropping in, sweetie!


Hey Dizzy...
Funny how that works, ain't it?
Thanks for coming over today!


Hey Sixbears...
No, it certainly isn't.
Thanks for the visit, buddy!