Burial of a Partner

Oh, this is a timely subject! I'm thinking in an unmarked grave. Somewhere the surviving partner could easily visit but away from the law and the press.

Not unusual to think of graveyards and all sorts of spooky things at this time of year. Walking through my neighborhood today, I saw all sorts of spooky figures hanging from trees and porches. Many yards had gravestones, and quite a few of those yards had various human parts poking out of the ground. No headstones or markers for Heyes or Curry that I saw, however.

If the boys had gotten amnesty, they could be interred under their own names. The location would depend on whether or not they'd acquired family. If still single, the burial could take place in a family plot in Kansas, if that existed.

If they were still on the lam, I think they'd prefer to be buried under a false name in a real cemetery, so the surviving partner could visit. And, maybe someday, the real name could be put on a grave marker.

I don't think either Heyes or Curry has a special relationship to Porterville, other than Lom being there, so that doesn't seem likely to me.

The great thing about fanfic is that you cam make any one of the possibilities you mention part of a story, and make it believable.

Penski, that makes two of us. In Massachusetts, I went to old graveyards to read the headstones. But nothing was as fascinating as the Cemeteries in New Orleans with the family vaults; they looked like cities of the dead.

I'm going to be practical here. Buried where died. From what I've read bodies weren't shipped around a lot in the west. You died in town, you were buried in Boot Hill. You died while traveling; well, if someone was with you and could do it, they dug a grave and placed a marker-if there was wood around to make a marker. A lot of graves just had some stones placed on top. In some cases, a family member might go back and place a marker later. However, in some cases historical societies or the state have placed markers where a notable death occurred, so I could just picture some western historical society group placing a marker where one(or both) of our boys died!

I hate to bring this up, but----- if they had the money to transport a body and one of them died, the time of year would matter. You wouldn't transport a body in summer. And even in cooler weather you wouldn't transport it very far.

Go back and visit? I picture the survivor as meaning to visit, feeling the obligation, but never getting around to it. More like wanting to remember the other as he was while living, and avoiding the grave and the idea of the partner dying.

It's a great question, painful as it is to think about. The surviving partner or friends or family if both died would have to be very careful about publicity. There are really grizzly photographs of Jesse James after death lying down and propped up and every which way in coffin, out, with people, without. They were reproduced by wood engraving in illustrated newspaper across the country. They wanted to prove that he was really dead. I'm sure our boys would have faced the same thing if one or both died while still wanted, or maybe even shortly after amnesty. I think there were a lot fewer celebrities in those days, but people really obsessed over the ones they had. And outlaws were surely among them.

But I hate to think about it. After all, in a way of speaking, we who are old enough have already been through it. I much prefer to think of the boys riding into the sunset together forever.
HW

These questions are on relative to where they are in their lives when this tragic event happens. For my answers, I shall say…they are as they are in the TV show.

Boy the circumstances are ripe here Penski and story ideas abound…but I won’t be writing any because I always think shooting one of RIP is like Jumping the Shark. IMHO :0)

I say an unmarked grave because look what happened to Billy the Kid’s and Jesse James even had a guard on his (for a time) against curiosity people. Besides who else would come visit the site other then whoever was left. Now, where…. Devil’s Hole or near it would be good because of the memories and the feeling of safety. Of course, it depends on how far they were when the catastrophe occurred but I don’t see a little heat and stench deterring either one of them once a location was set in mind.

My oh my what a morbid road to tread down.. thanks for the bantering Penski -- I think - :0)