Varicose Brain
New Member
Hello from the not so sunny west coast of the US. I noticed a Biggs thread while surfing around & reading up on the Great Train Robbery. It seems there are some well informed people here. So, on to my point-question about all this, there seems to be 2 perceptions about these 3 aforementioned personas, a dichotomy of sorts. on one hand, people think of them as free spirited Rogues who beat the system, on the other side, they are considered self serving thugs with little regard to the safety of human beings..................................................... The problem with Jesse James is that there are 2 strong versions of who he was, & why he did what he did, some say the Railroads ran people off their land & paid them nothing, so he & his gang got even, & even gave a large sum of money to the Benton family. When Jesse surrendered at the end of the Civil war, he was told his position in a guerilla warfare outfit meant he was not recognized as a legit military person, & he gave them his rifle & rode away & they shot him in the back. A non plussed person politically a safe bet. Spaggiari so they say gave money, 3 mil, to a children's charity. Then we have Biggs who sang on a pistols song & lived off of telling his story about the crime for many yrs in Brazil, even today, the Great Train Robbery sells newspapers., just won't go away. In all 3 cases, they are considered folk heroes in their respective countries, ( I had a French room mate who was 13 at the time of Spaggiari's bank job ). In a recent program, a photo of Jesse holding a 1886 model rifle came to discussion, he was supposed to have died in 1882. Just like Biggs, he won't go away. Now, my final thought on all this is that Scarface & Pimps in my country are revered by younger generations, & my 2 cents is pimps are the absolute bottom of society. So what is the verdict? re Biggs, Spaggiari & Jesse? Thugs, Robin Hoods? or a mish-mash of both? Are they a cut above Scarface & pimps? Or are the cut from the same cloth etc etc.