The Ballad of Blackjack: Chapter Ten

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By: Travis Naughton

Shortly after Jane McCourt arrived in the town of Deliverance, on the high plains of eastern Colorado, the woman known by lawmen throughout the west as the Heartbreak Bandit had already set her sights on her next mark. In the local saloon, she had spotted a sloppy drunk who was careless with his cash, both at the poker table and at the bar. “Easy money,” she thought to herself.

Jane had become quite good at selecting her victims over the years. Having charmed and seduced her way into dozens of pocketbooks since she began robbing men following her “emancipation” (as she called it), drunks were her primary source of income. Professional gamblers were typically more difficult to steal from due to their general distrust of others, but inebriated amateurs were another story.

Read full chapter in this week’s Journal…