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LeJeune, Keagan

WORK TITLE: Legendary Louisiana Outlaws
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
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http://www.mcneese.edu/enfl/clejeune * https://www.mcneese.edu/enfl/mcneese_professor_wins_international_book_award * http://countryroadsmagazine.com/art-and-culture/history/perfectly-good-reasons/

RESEARCHER NOTES:
LC control no.: no2010119024
LCCN Permalink: https://lccn.loc.gov/no2010119024
HEADING: LeJeune, Keagan, 1972-
000 00748nz a2200145n 450
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005 20100723070644.0
008 100722n| acannaabn |a aaa c
010 __ |a no2010119024
035 __ |a (OCoLC)oca08568399
040 __ |a TxCM |b eng |c TxCM
100 1_ |a LeJeune, Keagan, |d 1972-
400 1_ |a LeJeune, Charles Keagan, |d 1972-
670 __ |a Always for the underdog, 2010: |b ECIP t.p. (Keagan LeJeune) Data View (LeJeune, Charles Keagan, b. Oct. 26, 1972; Keagan LeJeune, prof. of English and Folklore, McNeese State Univ.; b. in Louisiana; former president of Louisiana Folklore Society; lives in Lake Charles, LA)
670 __ |a OCLC, July 20, 2010 |b (hdg.: Lejeune, Charles Keagan, 1972-; LeJeune, Keagan, 1972-; usage: Charles Keagan Lejeune, Keagan LeJeune)

PERSONAL

Born 1972, in LA.

EDUCATION:

McNeese State University, M.A., M.F.A., 1997; University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Ph.D.

ADDRESS

CAREER

Academic and writer. McNeese State University, Lake Charles, LA, professor of English.

MEMBER:

American Folklore Society, Texas Folklore Society, Louisiana Folklore Society (past president), Louisiana Folklife Commission.

AWARDS:

Brian McConnell Book Award, International Society for Contemporary Legend Research, 2016, for Legendary Louisiana Outlaws.

WRITINGS

  • Always for the Underdog: Leather Britches Smith and the Grabow War, University of North Texas Press (Denton, TX), 2010
  • Legendary Louisiana Outlaws: The Villains and Heroes of Folk Justice, Louisiana State University Press (Baton Rouge, LA), 2016

Editor, Louisiana Folklore Miscellany, 2013-18; contributor of poetry to anthologies and journals, including New South, Louisiana Literature, 2River, Xavier Review, Borderlands, and the Review.

SIDELIGHTS

Keagan LeJeune is an academic and writer. He earned an M.A. and M.F.A. from McNeese State University before completing a Ph.D. from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. LeJeune then returned to McNeese State University, eventually becoming a professor of English. His academic research interests include American folklore with a special focus on Louisiana, outlaw legends, and Louisiana’s Neutral Strip.  From 2013 until 2018, he served as the editor of Louisiana Folklore Miscellany. LeJeune has also contributed poetry to a number of anthologies and journals, including New South, Louisiana Literature, 2River, Xavier Review, Borderlands, and the Review.

Always for the Underdog

LeJeune published Always for the Underdog: Leather Britches Smith and the Grabow War in 2010. The book centers on the life of East Texas fugitive Charles “Leather Britches” Smith. Due to the few sources available on the life of Smith, LeJeune is able to recreate his times and expand on information regarding the early-twentieth-century southern timber industry and Smith’s involvement in this conflict. LeJeune offers the pieces available on the legend of Smith’s origins and how he first came into the record upon entering Merryville, Louisiana, before ultimately coming to Grabow on July 7, 1912, along with hundreds of union men from the Brotherhood of Timber Workers and the Industrial Workers of the World. Gunfire broke out, and Smith was labeled as one of the main gunmen. LeJeune shows how Smith’s legend after his death grew beyond the historical evidence available during his life.

Reviewing the book in the Journal of Southern History, Brian D. McKnight commented that “there is much to complain about, but those elements are the product of a historian’s reading of a folklorist’s writing rather than attributable to the credibility of the work.” McKnight reasoned that “ultimately, historians will applaud LeJeune’s ability to tell such a broad and meaningful story.”

Legendary Louisiana Outlaws

In 2016 LeJeune published Legendary Louisiana Outlaws: The Villains and Heroes of Folk Justice. The account is the recipient of the 2016 Brian McConnell Book Award from the International Society for Contemporary Legend Research. The account posits that despite being outsiders to the parameters of the legal system, outlaws are usually closely connected to the local community. This is particularly so with the creation of folk tales surrounding their actions and the ultimate creation of their legends. LeJeune focuses his study on outlaws in the state of Louisiana, looking at both the stories of individuals as well as the historical contexts from which their legends arose. LeJeune shows how each outlaw is connected to a particular locale and historical moment. Among the outlaws LaJeune covers are Ozeme Carriere, Dan Kimbrell, Jean Laffite, John West, the brothers Dunn, and Charles “Leather Britches” Smith. In the McNeese State University’s Department of English and Foreign Languages Website, LeJeune admitted that “this book wouldn’t have been possible without the people who opened their homes to me and told me their stories…. These stories were … so amazing and interesting to me.”

Writing in the Journal of Southern History, James I. Deutsch opined that “one of the book’s great strengths is its synthesis of numerous primary and secondary sources, including materials from archives and special collections, newspapers and periodicals, personal interviews, and assorted ephemera. Randomly selecting some of those sources for fact checking, I found several incorrect bibliographical citations and instances where quotations were rendered incorrectly.” Deutsch mentioned that “this type of carelessness is annoying but appears relatively minor.” Reviewing the book in Country Roads, Chris Turner-Neal concluded that “Legendary Louisiana Outlaws does contain fun, sharp-shooting, blood-and-guts stories of outlaws, but what I found myself enjoying most was the context LeJeune provides. His thesis, that these outlaw tales reflect their times, necessitates a description of those times; and I learned more juicy tidbits of Louisiana history than I expected. It’s an academic work—don’t think you’re going to escape into a Western—but that doesn’t mean it’s not a good ride.”

BIOCRIT

PERIODICALS

  • Journal of Southern History, May 1, 2012, Brian D. McKnight, review of Always for the Underdog: Leather Britches Smith and the Grabow War, p. 502; May 1, 2017, James I. Deutsch, review of Legendary Louisiana Outlaws: The Villains and Heroes of Folk Justice, p. 417.

  • Reference & Research Book News, February 1, 2011, review of Always for the Underdog.

ONLINE

  • Country Roads, http://countryroadsmagazine.com/ (January 23, 2017), Chris Turner-Neal, review of Legenday Louisiana Outlaws.

  • McNeese State University, Department of English and Foreign Languages Website, http://www.mcneese.edu/enfl/ (November 16, 2017), author profile.

  • Always for the Underdog: Leather Britches Smith and the Grabow War University of North Texas Press (Denton, TX), 2010
  • Legendary Louisiana Outlaws: The Villains and Heroes of Folk Justice Louisiana State University Press (Baton Rouge, LA), 2016
1. Legendary Louisiana outlaws : the villains and heroes of folk justice LCCN 2015038220 Type of material Book Personal name LeJeune, Keagan, 1972- author. Main title Legendary Louisiana outlaws : the villains and heroes of folk justice / Keagan LeJeune. Published/Produced Baton Rouge : Louisiana State University Press, [2016] Description 251 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm ISBN 9780807162576 (cloth : alk. paper) Shelf Location FLM2016 104110 CALL NUMBER F374 .L45 2016 OVERFLOWJ34 Request in Jefferson or Adams Building Reading Rooms (FLM2) CALL NUMBER F374 .L45 2016 CABIN BRANCH Copy 2 Request in Jefferson or Adams Building Reading Rooms - STORED OFFSITE 2. Always for the underdog : Leather Britches Smith and the Grabow War LCCN 2010030471 Type of material Book Personal name LeJeune, Keagan, 1972- Main title Always for the underdog : Leather Britches Smith and the Grabow War / Keagan LeJeune. Edition 1st ed. Published/Created Denton, Tex. : University of North Texas Press, c2010. Description xix, 220 p. : ill., map ; 24 cm. ISBN 9781574412888 (hardback : alk. paper) 1574412884 (hardback : alk. paper) CALL NUMBER F375.S645 L45 2010 Copy 1 Request in Jefferson or Adams Building Reading Rooms CALL NUMBER F375.S645 L45 2010 Copy 2 Request in Jefferson or Adams Building Reading Rooms
  • McNeese - http://www.mcneese.edu/enfl/clejeune

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    Dr. Keagan LeJeune, Professor of English
    Home»English and Foreign Languages
    M.A., M.F.A., McNeese State University; Ph.D., University of Louisiana at Lafayette

    Kaufman Hall, 310

    clejeune@mcneese.edu

    (337) 475-5312

    Teaching and Research Interests
    Louisiana Folklore
    American Folklore
    Outlaw Legends
    Louisiana's Neutral Strip (No Man's Land)

    Professional Activities and Affiliations
    Member, Louisiana Folklore Society
    Member, American Folklore Society
    Member, Texas Folklore Society
    Member, Louisiana Folklife Commission
    Primary Researcher, Myths and Legends Byways project completed by Allen, and Beauregard, and Vernon Parish

    Editorial Service To Academic Journals
    Editor, Louisiana Folklore Miscellany, 2013-2018

    Presentations
    “Louisiana French and Contemporary Louisiana Poets” at the Conference on Bicultural Literature at the L’Institut Français in London (December 2010)
    “Traditional Mardi Gras Practices” at the Texas Tech lecture series
    ​"Folklore of the Louisiana's Neutral Strip: Outlaw Legend and Buried Treasure Stories" (2004)
    "Photographer as Folklorist: East Texas Cultural Landscape in the photographs of Keith Carter's The Blue Man" (2004)
    "Guerilla Folklore: Teaching Folklore without a Department" (2003)
    "Cajun Country Mardi Gras: Forming Community Identity through the Mardi Gras Run" (2003)
    "Leather Britches Smith and the Graybow War: A Community's Outlaw Legend and Its Function" (2002)
    "Louisiana's No Man's Land and Its Outlaws" (2002)

    Awards
    Finalist for the 2016 Tennessee Williams Festival Poetry Prize
    Semifinalist for the 2013 Berkshire Prize by Tupelo Press

    Selected Works
    Legendary Louisiana Outlaws: The Villains and Heroes of Folk Justice. LSU Press, 2016.
    Of Gilded Circles and Sure Trouble (poetry and photography, 21st Editions, 2012), a collaboration with photographer Josephine Sacabo.
    “Western Louisiana's Neutral Strip: Its History, People, and Legends,” commissioned by Louisiana’s Office of Cultural Development Division of the Arts: Folklife Division
    Always for the Underdog: Leather Britches Smith and the Grabow War. Texas Folklore Society in cooperation with the University of North Texas Press, 2010.
    Annotated Bibliography of Sources Relating to the History and Culture of Louisiana’s Neutral Strip, commissioned by Five Parishes West in partnership with the Louisiana Division of the Arts and the Louisiana Office of Tourism
    "Binding a Family: Examining Job's Tears Rosaries as Religious Artifacts of Kinship" (2000)
    Keagan's poems have appeared in New South, Louisiana Literature, 2River, The Xavier Review, Borderlands, The Review, among other journals, and in several recent anthologies, including The Southern Poetry Anthology: Louisiana and The World Is Charged: Poetic Engagements with Gerard Manley Hopkins.

    Contact Information
    Campus: 4205 Ryan Street
    Lake Charles, LA
    Tel: 337-475-5000,
    or 800.622.3352
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  • McNeese - https://www.mcneese.edu/enfl/mcneese_professor_wins_international_book_award

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    McNeese Professor Wins International Book Award
    Home»English and Foreign Languages»McNeese Professor Wins International Book Award
    (August 5, 2016) Dr. Keagan LeJeune, professor of English at McNeese State University, has been awarded the 2016 Brian McConnell BoKeagan LeJeuneok Award by the International Society for Contemporary Legend Research (ISCLR) for his book, “Legendary Louisiana Outlaws: The Villains and Heroes of Folk Justice.”

    The Brian McConnell Book Award is a prize established “to encourage scholarship in the field of contemporary legend, to recognize and inspire standards of excellence in contemporary legend publications and to commemorate the life and work of Brian McConnell, a long time member of ISCLR, celebrated crime reporter, author and legend scholar.”

    "This book wouldn’t have been possible without the people who opened their homes to me and told me their stories,” said LeJeune. Book cover for Louisiana Outlaws“These stories were often so amazing and interesting to me, and I wanted to make this book as interesting to readers. The award recognizes several different achievements of the book, but it’s especially rewarding to hear the judges found the book so accessible and engaging."

    LeJeune’s book has been recognized as a work that offers access to a legend cycle grounded in place and in social history, both locally and statewide. By tracing legends from the early years of Louisiana - infamous pirate Jean Laffite and the storied couple Bonnie and Clyde, to less familiar bandits like train-robber Eugene Bunch and suspected murderer Leather Britches Smith - LeJeune outlines how the Louisiana legend cycle about outlaws continues to serve to maintain local identity today.

    Of particular note are the intricacies of folk and institutional justice in the context of these legends, the legacy of the Civil War and resentment over incursions by Jayhawkers from the northern states and the role that tourism and ostension (real-life occurrence of events described by a legend) play in sustaining the legend cycle.

    LeJeune, a 1997 graduate of the Master of Fine Arts program in creative writing at McNeese, is past president of the Louisiana Folklore Society. He was also a finalist for the 2016 Tennessee Williams Festival Poetry Prize.

    Contact Information
    Campus: 4205 Ryan Street
    Lake Charles, LA
    Tel: 337-475-5000,
    or 800.622.3352
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    Snippet of Google Map for Campus
    Apply Now
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  • LSU Press - https://lsupress.org/authors/detail/keagan-lejune/

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    Keagan LeJeune

    Keagan LeJeune is professor of English at McNeese State University, past president of the Louisiana Folklore Society, and editor of its journal, Louisiana Folklore Miscellany. He has collected stories about outlaws and Louisiana folklore for more than fifteen years.

    Extras:
    Extras for Legendary Louisiana Outlaws

    Legendary Louisiana Outlaws - Cover
    Legendary Louisiana Outlaws

    © 2017 LSU Press / 338 Johnston Hall / Baton Rouge, LA 70803

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Print Marked Items
Legendary Louisiana Outlaws: The Villains and
Heroes of Folk Justice
James I. Deutsch
Journal of Southern History.
83.2 (May 2017): p417.
COPYRIGHT 2017 Southern Historical Association
http://www.uga.edu/~sha
Full Text: 
Legendary Louisiana Outlaws: The Villains and Heroes of Folk Justice. By Keagan LeJeune. (Baton Rouge: Louisiana
State University Press, 2016. Pp. [xiv], 251. $38.00, ISBN 978-0-8071-6257-6.)
Criminals are not the same as outlaws, observes Keagan LeJeune in this absorbing study of the latter. "A criminal is a
person who commits a crime and remains within the system of law to be punished, but also within its protection"--that
is, to be treated fairly, in a manner in which the punishment should fit the crime (p. 5). However, an outlaw is someone
who "defies the system to such an extent that standard codes of justice no longer apply" and who thereby "forfeits the
basic rights inherent in the community's official system of law and order" (p. 5). Because they remain outside the legal
systems of justice, outlaws are the ultimate outsiders. But outlaws are also intimately connected with local communities
that often create folklore to explain how these outlaws became lawless and were ultimately captured or killed.
The legends associated with a wide range of outlaws operating within the state of Louisiana provide LeJeune the
opportunity not only to analyze some of the fascinating stories that have emerged, but also, and more important, to
better understand the historical and cultural contexts that have surrounded these individuals. As a result. Legendary
Louisiana Outlaws: The Villains and Heroes of Folk Justice should prove useful and relevant to scholars of southern
history. According to LeJeune, a professor of English at McNeese State University in Lake Charles, Louisiana, each
outlaw legend is "[c]onnected to a specific historical moment and a specific locale," thereby acting "as a monument to
the past and as a representation of a people within a place" (p. 12). Folklore scholars such as LeJeune are very much
aware that legends are typically grounded in historical fact and are believed by their tellers to be true.
In seven chapters arranged chronologically, LeJeune explores the legends and significance of Louisiana outlaws, both
famous and obscure. Such figures include the early-nineteenth-century pirate and privateer Jean Laffite; John West,
Dan Kimbrell, and others who robbed and murdered travelers passing by their farmland from the 1840s to the 1860s;
Ozeme Carriere, who robbed both civilians and soldiers during the Civil War; Eugene Bunch, who robbed trains during
the Gilded Age at a time when the railroads were consolidating power; Charles "Leather Britches" Smith, who
confronted the authority of lumber companies in the early twentieth century--and the subject of LeJeune's previous
book, Always for the Underdog: Leather Britches Smith and the Grabow War (Denton, Tex., 2010); the brothers Dunn
(Bob, Byron, and Eustice), who operated as boodeggers during Prohibition; and Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, who
committed robberies across the south-central United States before Texas lawmen ambushed and killed the outlaws in
their car in rural Louisiana in 1934.
Thanks to their prominence in popular culture, Bonnie and Clyde may be the best known of these outlaws, and
LeJeune's analysis of their case seems particularly perceptive. He notes that the "dead bodies of Bonnie and Clyde
riddled with bullet holes demonstrated the ultimate authority the law wielded." but that this authority was instantly
undermined by the folk, who took both souvenirs and memories in order to assert "control of the outlaws and the
perseverance of the legend" (pp. 196-97).
11/12/2017 General OneFile - Saved Articles
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One of the book's great strengths is its synthesis of numerous primary and secondary sources, including materials from
archives and special collections, newspapers and periodicals, personal interviews, and assorted ephemera. Randomly
selecting some of those sources for fact checking, I found several incorrect bibliographical citations and instances
where quotations were rendered incorrectly--either with some of the original words missing or with words changed,
such as "you can't get something for nothing" rather than the original source's "you don't get something for nothing" (p.
40). This type of carelessness is annoying but appears relatively minor.
James I. Deutsch
Smithsonian Institution
Deutsch, James I.
Source Citation   (MLA 8th
Edition)
Deutsch, James I. "Legendary Louisiana Outlaws: The Villains and Heroes of Folk Justice." Journal of Southern
History, vol. 83, no. 2, 2017, p. 417+. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA495476225&it=r&asid=740fc40c14014bec6bc94e0de812c815.
Accessed 12 Nov. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A495476225
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Always for the Underdog: Leather Britches
Smith and the Grabow War
Brian D. McKNIGHT
Journal of Southern History.
78.2 (May 2012): p502.
COPYRIGHT 2012 Southern Historical Association
http://www.uga.edu/~sha
Full Text: 
Always for the Underdog: Leather Britches Smith and the Grabow War. By Keagan LeJeune. Texas Folklore Society
Extra Book. (Denton: University of North Texas Press, c. 2010. Pp. [xx], 220. $29.95, ISBN 978-1-57441-288-8.)
Few topics offer as fertile ground for writers as banditry. For contemporary journalists and historians alike, the outlaw
always provides the good story necessary to write gripping prose. Keagan LeJeune, a folklorist at McNeese State
University, takes as his compelling subject the East Texas fugitive Leather Britches Smith. In Smith, LeJeune has found
a man who, although virtually anonymous because of the many questions surrounding him and the few answers
available, effectively teaches much about the nature of the early-twentieth-century southern timber industry and the
backcountry conflict that frequently followed it.
Leather Britches Smith was an invention of the early twentieth century. Theories abound as to his origins, but no one
knows who he really was or where he originated. It is said he entered Merryville, Louisiana, with two pistols on his hip
and carrying a .30-30 Winchester, stopped in the middle of town, and shot birds out of the sky to announce both his
arrival and his temperament. The one thing that is known is that Smith was in Grabow, Louisiana, on July 7, 1912,
when two hundred union men representing the Industrial Workers of the World and the Brotherhood of Timber Workers
arrived in town. That evening, a ten-minute gun battle erupted that killed or wounded several men. Leather Britches
Smith was apparently one of the principal gunmen.
LeJeune's subject is reminiscent of virtually every frontier outlaw. He is an unknown man running from a crime
committed elsewhere, along the way making both friends and enemies who will last far longer than he and will
doggedly tell his story after he is gone. Leather Britches Smith was gunned down by a posse near a pump house he
used as a hideout, but the stories that follow the death of an outlaw often eclipse the person's real life. Smith is likely
greater in legend than he ever was in life.
For a historian, this book is difficult to review. There is much to complain about, but those elements are the product of
a historian's reading of a folklorist's writing rather than attributable to the credibility of the work. Historians of the latenineteenth-
and early-twentieth-century South will find that LeJeune tells a fine story and illustrates some nuanced
points regarding the nature of the frontier of that period; however, they will also be bothered by the conversational
nature of the writing, the existence of at least three sections that could pass for introductions, and the lack of historical
analysis. Ultimately, historians will applaud LeJeune's ability to tell such a broad and meaningful story about a nearanonymous
southern outlaw whose great war lasted all of ten minutes.
BRIAN D. McKNIGHT
University of Virginia's College at Wise
McKNIGHT, Brian D.
Source Citation   (MLA 8th
Edition)
McKNIGHT, Brian D. "Always for the Underdog: Leather Britches Smith and the Grabow War." Journal of Southern
History, vol. 78, no. 2, 2012, p. 502+. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA288978017&it=r&asid=fae011d401bfaf0717cc6f8a57731f23.
Accessed 12 Nov. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A288978017
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Always for the underdog; Leather Britches Smith
and the Grabow War
Reference & Research Book News.
26.1 (Feb. 2011):
COPYRIGHT 2011 Ringgold, Inc.
http://www.ringgold.com/
Full Text: 
9781574412888
Always for the underdog; Leather Britches Smith and the Grabow War.
LeJeune, Keagan.
Univ. of North Texas Press
2010
220 pages
$29.95
Hardcover
Texas Folklore Society extra book; no.23
F375
LeJeune (English and folklore, McNeese State U.) presents this fascinating look into early twentieth century eastern
Texas via the outlaw Leather Britches Smith. The Louisiana Purchase transformed this region into a dangerous frontier
land which cultivated resilient communities and vivid folklore. LeJeune draws from news articles and court records in
conjunction with local folklore to create a multidimensional account of the legend of Leather Britches and this unique
region.
([c]2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR)
Source Citation   (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Always for the underdog; Leather Britches Smith and the Grabow War." Reference & Research Book News, Feb. 2011.
General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA276432739&it=r&asid=98e2931261d1ed25a9382181b6f01ea8.
Accessed 12 Nov. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A276432739

Deutsch, James I. "Legendary Louisiana Outlaws: The Villains and Heroes of Folk Justice." Journal of Southern History, vol. 83, no. 2, 2017, p. 417+. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do? p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA495476225&it=r. Accessed 12 Nov. 2017. McKNIGHT, Brian D. "Always for the Underdog: Leather Britches Smith and the Grabow War." Journal of Southern History, vol. 78, no. 2, 2012, p. 502+. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do? p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA288978017&it=r. Accessed 12 Nov. 2017. "Always for the underdog; Leather Britches Smith and the Grabow War." Reference & Research Book News, Feb. 2011. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do? p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA276432739&it=r. Accessed 12 Nov. 2017.
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    "Perfectly Good Reasons"
    A review of Keagan LeJeune’s “Legendary Louisiana Outlaws: The Villains and Heroes of Folk Justice”

    BY CHRIS TURNER-NEAL JANUARY 23, 2017
    RSS Print
    Expand
    Outlaws_PollyKimball_Burton Durand full.jpgILLUSTRATION BY BURTON DURAND
    My mother’s family had an outlaw. Stories about him varied depending on who was telling them and how intent that person was on preserving our collective respectability, but they all agreed on two points: he had actually escaped from prison using a file baked into a cake, and he had a perfectly good reason for his crimes. He was not a criminal, he was an outlaw. This distinction is an important one, and one of the most thought-provoking points raised in Keagan LeJeune’s collection of historical case studies, Legendary Louisiana Outlaws.

    LeJeune, a professor at McNeese State University, has been collecting stories about outlaws and their exploits for over fifteen years. He argues that outlaws are born when a conflict arises between official laws and folk laws—folk laws being, essentially, the body of behavior that’s not legally codified but which the majority of a social or cultural group agrees is How Things Are. The problem, of course, is that official law and folk law do not always coincide. It is technically legal, if appalling, not to write thank-you notes. It is not legal to shoot someone “because he deserved it,” but a murdered serial killer certainly won’t raise much ire. Choosing folk law over official law is one route to outlawry.

    LeJeune further differentiates between two kinds of outlaw: the outlaw who just acts outside the official law, and the outlaw-hero who acts outside the official law in the interests of the poor, is good to the poor or innocent when he encounters them, or is in some other way following folk law even as he ignores official law. Anyone can rob and shoot, but when Jesse James (or Pretty Boy Floyd, or Billy the Kid, or whoever the story is about in the current telling) repays one night of an old widow’s hospitality with the then-princely sum of $50, they become elevated. The extenuating logic seems to be “no one who’s kind to old ladies can be all bad.”

    To LeJeune’s points, I would add that being bad is just plain interesting. We admire saints more when they start as sinners. Most of us never transgress the law in a big way, and there’s a terrifying but seductive grandeur in just not giving a damn. Someone with my nerves and eyesight couldn’t rob a stagecoach even if he wanted to and they still existed, but the mere fact that someone, somewhere, is tearing up the rulebook gives us a little freedom to think we might do the same … even though we won’t.

    [You might like: The Chase Hunters: Hunting was one of Louisiana's most lucrative occupations 250 years ago.]

    Though most of these outlaws (or hero-outlaws) were real people with real criminal careers, LeJeune argues that the stories that emerge around outlaws reveal a second layer of meaning. Each of the seven case studies he presents explain not only the facts (inasmuch as the facts can be teased apart from the legend) of an outlaw’s career, but also what those acts and their accompanying legends reveal about societal mores and historical circumstances.

    The West-Kimbrell group of thieves and murderers, disguised as pillars of the Winn Parish communities in which they lived, were able to thrive because they lived in a still-remote place in a country struggling to recentralize authority after the Civil War. Stories about them spread partly because of the lurid image of matriarch Polly Kimbrell cutting throats in her garden so the blood would soak undetected into the earth, but also because the Civil War and the gradual filling-in of the frontier meant that people were confronting authority and coming away with complex feelings. The wonderfully named Leather Britches Smith, an outlaw who became involved in a management-vs-union shootout at a mill town called Grabow, can be a hero-outlaw or a criminal based on the sympathies of the teller. And of course, the Dunn brothers, whose bootleg operation supplied thirsty residents of Lake Charles, were always going to have their supporters—from a modern standpoint, it’s hard to imagine Louisiana bootleggers having opponents.

    Legendary Louisiana Outlaws does contain fun, sharp-shooting, blood-and-guts stories of outlaws, but what I found myself enjoying most was the context LeJeune provides. His thesis, that these outlaw tales reflect their times, necessitates a description of those times; and I learned more juicy tidbits of Louisiana history than I expected. It’s an academic work—don’t think you’re going to escape into a Western—but that doesn’t mean it’s not a good ride.

    Legendary Louisiana Outlaws: The Villains and Heroes of Folk Justice, by Keagan LeJeune. 272 pages. 2016. LSU Press.

    LITERATURE ACADIANA HISTORY FEBRUARY 2017
    by Chris Turner-Neal
    January 23, 2017 12:32 PM
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    Outlaws book
    I am happy to announce that Mr. LeJeune's book is the recipient of the 2017 Louisiana Literary Award. Given by the Louisiana Library Association each year, the award recognizes the best book about an aspect of Louisiana life that was published in the previous year. Mr. LeJeune will receive his award at the Louisiana Library Association's annual conference on March 8, 2017 in Lafayette, Louisiana
    Elissa Plank, Chair, Louisiana Literary Award Committee 291 days ago | reply

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