From: firstinitiallastname@texas.net   
      
   Hanging seems to have been generally reserved for truely odious crimes   
   and for the habitually criminal.   
      
   As to cattlemen dealing out rough justice, there's a story about a   
   fellow who worked a scheme at a river crossing. It may have been   
   Horsehead Crossing on the Pecos. His gag was to hide in the brush at the   
   river bank and wave hide or blanket to spook the cattle so that he could   
   make off with a few in the confusion. It's said that he was found   
   hanging at the crossing, having hanged himself in remourse, to himself   
   assure that he would steal no more. It wasn't necessary to hang. A shot   
   to the head would do, as it did for the man who became drunk on a drive   
   and committed the sin of firing his pistol in an attempt to turn a   
   stampede, just as coller and more sober heads were about to get them   
   turned. He caused a buch to be lose as they ran over a long drop off. He   
   was taken far enough away to avoid the noise further exiting the cattle   
   and cured of his addiction.   
      
   --   
                          Gerald Clough   
       "Nothing has any value, unless you know you can give it up."   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)