TÜRKİYE ORTA ASYA HABER KKUORDİNATÖRÜ

WORLD TURKISH NEWS / WORLDPRESS Bounty Hunting in America Returns with Trump: The American People and Justice Must Stop It The Truth About Bounty Hunters in the Old West BY CODY COPELAND UPDATED: JUNE 3, 2022, 11:54 EST Shutterstock A cliché frequently encountered in spaghetti westerns and in our understanding of American history in general: the classic wanted poster with edges scorched by the scorching desert sun. Underneath the portrait of a scruffy stagecoach robber with a bushy mustache and piercing gaze, the words "Wanted: Dead or Alive" are written. These, and the bounty hunters they imply, must have been plastered all over billboards in the Old West, right? Yes, in a way. But the reality is very different from what the films suggest. According to Marshall Trimble of True West magazine, the lone bounty hunter who made a living hunting fugitives, despised by outlaws, lawmen, and citizens alike, is not historically accurate. Fugitives and the "bounties" placed on their heads (we'll get to that in a moment) were more often caught by public safety officers, private detective agencies, or companies like Wells, Fargo & Co. "Many town sheriffs and marshals supplemented their meager incomes by collecting bounties," Trimble wrote, shattering another misconception about the Wild West. "Also, most bounties were less than $100, not the thousands of dollars we hear about in the movies." So yes, the frontier wasn't as crowded as our movies make us think, with Boba Fetts hunting Han Solos. In reality, the idea of ​​bounty hunting isn't as old as the characters immortalized by Clint Eastwood and Henry Fonda would like us to believe. The term 'bounty hunter,' as we know it today, wasn't used in the Wild West. Shutterstock That's why a bunch of cowardly intellectuals ruined all our fun. As lexicographers at Merriam-Webster quite coldly point out, the term "bounty hunter," as commonly accepted today, only dates back to the 1950s. We know, that's sad. Just like the swamp and other myths the movies have taught you, bounty hunters weren't called bounty hunters in the Old West. Merriam-Webster points to a legal decision from 1872 which states that "such special law enforcement never used the term bounty hunter or bounty, but rather the term bail." The word "bounty," originally meaning "favor" or "kindness," became synonymous with "reward" in the early 18th century. The term "bounty hunter" is found in texts dating back to 1864, but not in the sense of private outlaws. It referred only to mercenaries who joined military units to receive a bonus given in return for enlistment or completion of an expedition. In a sense, it was also used for people who hunted for bounties, but not for the rewards offered for fugitive criminals. It referred to the payment received for hunting trophies such as animal hides or dead birds. What we would call a mountain man today was what was meant by "bounty hunter" back then. Popular novels that were the beginning of the modern idea of ​​the bounty hunter. Wikipedia Merriam-Webster bases the modern understanding of bounty hunters on newspaper serials and pulp novels that became popular in the 1950s. One of these serials was written by author Norman A. Fox and featured characters such as the Ghost Bandit and Rat Purdy in its stories. In a 1953 serial in The Daily Clintonian, a newspaper published in Clinton, Indiana, a character said: "You seemed very worried about Purdy. Another bounty hunter, I thought. So I discouraged you." The other person replied, "Did you want the bounty for yourself?" The following year, a novel titled Bounty Hunters by author Elmore Leonard was published, and a Hollywood western film of the same name was released. This cliché of the silver screen probably found its most popular example in the Star Wars films. Even though they were set in a galaxy far, far away, they embodied idealized myths of the American frontier: extreme individualism, lone wolf freedom, and the ruthless capitalism of bounty-seeking outlaws. Disgusting commentators at Merriam-Webster suggested that the term "bounty hunter" became popular in popular culture because it sounded cooler than terms like "bailout" or "bailout officer." Yes, we don't want to disappoint you, but bounty hunters are just one of the many misconceptions you probably always believed about the Wild West. History, it seems, isn't always as theatrical as it is on screen.