Comments on: Hatfields and the McCoys

Hatfields and the McCoys

frogan — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 17:47:14 -0800

As legends go, the first recorded instance of violence in the feud occurred after an 1873 dispute about the ownership of a hog: Floyd Hatfield had it and Randolph McCoy said it was his. The rest is Appalachian history. But it turns out that history may have had a helping hand in something called Von Hippel-Lindau disease. It weren't the moonshine, Pa. It was the DNA that did it.

By: stenseng

stenseng — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 17:58:07 -0800

Fist!

By: dgaicun

dgaicun — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 18:04:14 -0800

Let's get our hillbilly grammar in order here: 'It was the DNA what did it'.

By: pyramid termite

pyramid termite — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 18:07:22 -0800

so THAT'S why my ex was crazy

By: Navelgazer

Navelgazer — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 18:16:58 -0800

As a Hatfield decendent (honest) thank you for this post. Also, there's absolutely no reason for me to be bragging about that part of my heritage. They were crazy rednecks. It's like if someone a century from now were bragging about being a McVeigh. Anyhoo... thanks...

By: pyramid termite

pyramid termite — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 18:17:46 -0800

i wish i was kidding ... my ex really IS descended from the mccoys

By: bukvich

bukvich — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 18:32:31 -0800

Violence is as American as cherry pie.

By: frogan

frogan — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 18:40:46 -0800

Violence is as American as cherry pie. Violence, like cherry pie, is something we've learned from others. "English tradition credits making the first cherry pie to Queen Elizabeth I." We just happen to be really f'n good at violence. Cherry pie, too.

By: nebulawindphone

nebulawindphone — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 19:26:04 -0800

Wait, so do Navelgazer and pyramid termite have to fight now? I suppose this calls for popcorn.

By: GuyZero

GuyZero — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 20:54:31 -0800

*shakes fist* Martin Landau!!!

By: nickyskye

nickyskye — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 21:33:07 -0800

Fascinating. Thanks.

By: evilcolonel

evilcolonel — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 22:50:48 -0800

I hears bug music'll get rid of 'em.

By: amyms

amyms — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 00:07:11 -0800

Let's get our hillbilly grammar in order here: 'It was the DNA what did it'. I think it would look even hillbillier if it said "It were the DNA what did it."

By: pyramid termite

pyramid termite — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 01:14:53 -0800

no, no, no ... "that dna done did it"

By: smashingstars

smashingstars — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 03:24:09 -0800

My dad's family were McCoys, and allegedly part of the infamous Hatfield & McCoy feud. The relatives involved never said much about it, and of course there wasn't a lot of documentation back then, so we can't be completely sure. Genealogy and photos seem to confirm that my ancestors were a branch of the McCoys who moved away to get away from the feud, and ended up in Arkansas and Missouri. That branch of the family lived in the southern Missouri hills. In the 70s, when I was a little kid, dad took us to visit these cousins twice. You had to search for their houses which were practically hidden in the hills behind trees, way off the roads. Dad would holler up to the houses and tell them who he was. The first time, there was no answer, so we left. The next year dad tried again, and a lady hollered back that she was glad to see dad but Jimmy Frank was about to come home and he was still hoppin' mad about some supposed slight from the 1950s. So we left before Jimmy Frank saw us. It was a very Erskine Caldwell situation.

By: fullerine

fullerine — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 10:37:16 -0800

From the Wiki link "The 1951 Abbott and Costello comedy film, Comin' Round The Mountain was about a feud between the Bloodfields and the McCrips" How bizarre

By: Ateo Fiel

Ateo Fiel — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 14:11:30 -0800

My entire father's side of the family is riddled with VHL. Some have lost eyes or the ability to walk and many have lost their lives to it, but none of them were ever violent or angry. I think the docs may need to look somewhere else for the rage disease, but VHL is a nasty, nasty disease.

By: dilettante

dilettante — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 15:25:47 -0800

fullernine, according to the imdb entry on that movie, the characters were Winfields and McCoys. Somebody's been playing tricks with wikipedia again, and it seems to have been corrected this afternoon or yesterday night.