Black Jack Ketchum On Western Wednesday...!

In most cases, gunfighters were considered as outlaws and punished accordingly. However, there were a few cases where the public demanded more harsh punishment and, in this case, were awarded just that.

Black Jack Ketchum

Tom “Black Jack” Ketchum, shown here after he was captured and his right arm amputated, and shortly before he was hanged in 1901 for attempted train robbery, had emptied his rifle into the bodies of two posse members chasing him and his brother for robbing a store in Liberty, New Mexico, in 1896, before continuing on his life of crime as a train robber. The citizens of New Mexico Territory were so mad at the daring of train robbers that they made Ketchum pay with his life, marking him as the only person who suffered capital punishment for “felonious assault upon a railway train,” a law later deemed unconstitutional.

Looks like the change in the law didn't come in time for ol' Black Jack. Too bad !

Coffee inside again today. Rain is coming and going again today!