About the middle of the 'great depression' there were people starving, for there were no jobs and little money in circulation. There became a great danger from the many gangs that formed to rob and take from those not too much better off than themselves.
One such gang made up of desperate and unscrupulous men that would kill for a bit of food, a weapon, or a bit of coin money, began to operate in west central Kentucky in 1936.
Their first victim proved too tough and escaped their efforts to kill him to get his almost new 30-06 Winchester rifle.
He was shot in the head, fortunately only a glancing hit from a .22-caliber bullet. His fall off a high bluff about 250 feet above the floor of the valley below was also another stretch of good luck.
The young man fell through cedar trees, one after another and hit a ledge about 30 feet above the valley floor. Thus began a fight that the young man took to the gang in order to hold what was his.
The young man was a woodsman, and even emulated one of his heroes, Daniel Boone, who established the first white man's settlement in the 'dark and bloody land' called Kentucky.
This narrative is partly fiction and partly old tales handed down by the people who lived through that period. The county, although not named in the book was Logan County. Jerrico was simply a place and did not ever grow to be a 'town' and some of the people named actually lived there and were friends of my own family.
One family was the Charlie Moore family with two sons, James and Bobby. On a recent trip back the author found that James and his father Charlie Moore were both dead but Bobby still lived.
