Slingin' Seamus: Difference between revisions

The Seamus Express gang was formed in May 1875 following the first of eighteen successful train robberies by Slingin' Seamus. The next seven years would be Larcus's career "peak", as the gang was extremely successful over this time, successfully robbing seventeen more trains while failing on only four occasions. This made Larcus rich and the [[Urcean frontier]] a dangerous place to be given the widespread proliferation of military arms among criminal gangs. During this period, Larcus operated openly within Aliania and became de facto leader of the town; as a result, it entered a period of steady population and economic decline such that, by 1880, it was a glorified gang camp, with about twenty camp followers (mostly prostitutes) and about forty private citizens, with a saloon (that Larcus now owned) being the focal point of town. Administrative problems and lack of available manpower meant that efforts to arrest Larcus were poorly organized, and following the defeat of a large posse of about twenty five men in July 1877, the Royal government ceased sending men after Larcus and instead focused on train security. With each successful robbery, the gang grew, going from the original six (Larcus, Colla, and the original four train bandits) to over thirteen men including Larcus and Colla. The gang remained proficient in small scale cattle rustling schemes between major heists, and by 1878 most ranchers would divert their herds in circuitous routes to avoid Aliania.

Beginning in mid-1880, efforts were made to pacify parts of the frontier, this time employing other means besides large armed posses. In November of 1880, the Royal authorities entered into secret negotiations with Larcus, offering to legitimize his control over Aliania as a nominal government official along with a subsidy in exchange for Larcus and his men "settling down" there and no longer engaging in train heists or cattle rustling. Historians are divided on whether or not this was intended as a temporary solution after which time Larcus would be liquidated, but Larcus appears to have thought the offer genuine. He would write that agreements with the Royals "was not in his character" and that such an agreement would be a "comfortable retirement, or in other words death" that did not suit his needs. He decided to leak the correspondence to the papers, causing a major political scandal but also leading to some of his men leaving the gang. Rejecting the offer and leaking the papers lead to a renewed effort to hunt Larcus down and would prove his undoing. Throughout 1881, a plan was devised to trap Larcus away from his base of power in Aliania by running a train through Somerville, which was relatively nearby but far enough away that the gang could not easily retreat if an ambush was set.

Legend states that Seamus, like with his encounter with Enni, challenged the [[Royal and Imperial Army (Urcea)|Royal Army]] captain - John Mico - to a duel, only to finally have met his match as Mico managed to draw and shoot first. There are significant problems with this story, however; many of its details appear to directly mirror the Enni incident. While the newspapers only say that Larcus was "gunned down", photos of his body after death appear to indicate several bullet wounds, indicating that he may have been shot from multiple directions by many different soldiers. Regardless, the "last stand" - the duel with Mico - became the stuff of legends in the following years.

==Legacy==

"Slingin' Seamus" is the best known gunslinger of the [[Urcean frontier]], and is considered emblematic of the entire "old south" period. In the years and decades following his death, as public interest in the frontier grew, his life became subject of significant legend and many tales were attributed to his life. The exploits of Slingin' Seamus have been put to film several times, most notably in the 2003 [[Primo Kino]] production ''[[Last train to Somerville]]''. Larcus' grizzled apperance and determination has also been influential on many fictional characters of the [[Frontier film]] genre. [[Yonderre|Yonderian]] director [[Mathieu le Fêvre]] has referred to Larcus as "the quintessential outlaw". Yonderian {{wpl|crooner}} [[Dom Martinez]] recorded the ballad ''Slingin' Seamus'' which details the life and crimes of Larcus for his album ''[[Dom Martinez sings songs of the Frontier]]''.