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The Barefoot Bandit, Outlaw Legend, and Modern American Folk Heroism

2012; Routledge; Volume: 123; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/0015587x.2012.642987

1469-8315

Casey R. Schmitt,

Music History and Culture

Abstract This paper explores the emergent legend of Colton Harris-Moore, the Barefoot Bandit, to locate its place within American folk legendry. Analysis builds off the work of Eric Hobsbawm and Graham Seal, highlighting how folklorists might re-envision classifications and representations of banditry in constantly changing yet specific populations and environments. Notes [1] At the time of the writing this paper (11 February 2001), the primary Barefoot Bandit page on Facebook.com had well over thirty-three thousand friends/members ("Facebook—Colton Harris-Moore, The Barefoot Bandit" "Facebook—Colton Harris-Moore, The Barefoot Bandit.", Facebook.com [accessed 29 November 2010]. Available from http://www.facebook.com/pages/Colton-Harris-Moore-The-Barefoot-Bandit/334761154065 ; INTERNET [Google Scholar]). Also, several individuals claiming to be Harris-Moore had opened message-posting accounts on the popular social site, Twitter.com. [2] Although not addressed in this paper, Harris-Moore, as an apparently footloose wilderness rebel, also fits the model of two other popular American folk characters discussed at length in other works: the American wildman and the "McCandless type." See Miner (1972 Miner, Earl. 1972. "The Wild Man Through the Looking Glass". In The Wild Man Within: An Image in Western Thought from the Renaissance to Romanticism, Edited by: Dudley, Edward and Novak, Maximillian E. 87–114. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press. [Google Scholar]), Slotkin (1998 Slotkin, Richard. 1998. Gunfighter Nation: The Myth of the Frontier in Twentieth-Century America, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press. [Google Scholar]), Bartra (2000 Bartra, Roger. 2000. The Artificial Savage: Modern Myths of the Wild Man, Translated by Christopher Follett Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press. [Google Scholar]), Lawlor (2000 Lawlor, Mary. 2000. Recalling the Wild: Naturalism and the Closing of the American West, New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press. [Google Scholar]), and Schmitt (2008 Schmitt, Casey R. "Wilderness, Wildmen, and the Liminal Landscape: An Exploration of Supernatural Space in the Oregon Folk Tradition." Master's diss., University of Oregon 2008 [Google Scholar]) for a more detailed discussion. [3] "'The kid has become Jesse James,' says Bob Tangney, owner of Haley's Bait Shop & Grill in [the Camano Island area]. 'All my employees love him. But our sheriff isn't too happy'" (Tresniowski and Lewis 2010 Tresniowski, Alex and Lewis, Mike. 2010. Catch Me If You Can. People, 73(23): 135–6. [Google Scholar], 136). [4] Author Bob Friel has excellently documented the spread of Harris-Moore's legend in a variety of communities, through face-to-face interaction and through mediated channels, in the Camano Island area itself and around the world (Friel 2011 Friel, Bob. "Outlaws & Outcasts." 22 February 2011 [accessed 2 March 2011]. Available from http://outlawsandoutcasts.blogspot.com/ ; INTERNET [Google Scholar]). [5] See in this connection: http://www.google.com/search?client = safari&rls = en&q = corrido+of+Gregorio+Cortez&ie = UTF-8&oe = UTF-8; INTERNET [accessed 4 April 2011]. [6] Woody Guthrie's ballad "Pretty Boy Floyd" is available from http://www.woodyguthrie.org/Lyrics/Pretty_Boy_Floyd.htm; INTERNET [accessed 4 April 2011]. [7] Idem. [8] The full lyrics to the song are also posted on the webpage, available from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v = 66hgvV9KSek; INTERNET [accessed 29 November 2010]. [9] This page, too, includes lyrics. See also "YouTube – The Barefoot Bandit-Jose Picazo" and "YouTube—Run, Colton, Run." "YouTube—Run, Colton, Run." YouTube.com , 7 July 2010 [accessed 29 November 2010]. Available from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v = Gahpc1lxJhg (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gahpc1lxjhg) ; INTERNET [Google Scholar] YouTube.com, 20 July 2010 [accessed 29 November 2010]. Available from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v = RduFxvZ1A_k; INTERNET. [10] Only one ballad encountered in my research seemed critical of Harris-Moore, pleading with him to turn himself in. K. C. Thomas Crow's "Ballad of the BareFoot Bandit," posted on 11 July 2010, still sympathises with the Barefoot Bandit, however ("YouTube – Colton Harris Moore 'Ballad of the BareFoot Bandit' (short version "YouTube—Colton Harris Moore." YouTube.com , 26 March 2010 [accessed 29 November 2010]. Available from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v = TO4-hfYxyLc (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=to4-hfyxylc) ; INTERNET [Google Scholar])"), and, in its using of his story as a warning to others like him, adheres to Meyer's twelfth element of the American outlaw legend (1980, 111–12).