Here's a story from the life of Grandpa Aldridge that you might find interesting. I got it from the book Grandma wrote for us for Christmas in 2000.
. . . the Tri-State area of Kansas, Oklahoma and Missouri was a very rough place to live. Many of the miners were on strike or out of work. Some of the most hated men in the mining towns were the scabs. They would cross the picket lines of the strikers to work in the mines. Weekends were pretty violent in these rough mining towns. Fights were numerous among the miners, scabs, and young men out to have a good time. As a result, the county jails were often overcrowded on the weekends. Sometimes, the law officers would keep the young men in jail over Saturday and Sunday just to keep them out of more serious trouble. They would be released on Monday morning to return to their jobs or go home.
On one occasion, this happened to Mick (Grandpa Aldridge went by Mick). His cell mates were a very mean, rough looking group of men. One of them was actually a member of the notorious Bonnie and Clyde Gang. Coffeeville, Kansas was just a few miles away. This is the town where Bonnie and Clyde were shot to death by law officers. Two large cockroaches were found in the cell so two of the men decided they would race to see which roach was the fastest. Mick was sleeping on one of the bunks when these events transpired so knew nothing about the race of the cockroaches. The cheering of the men for their favorite entry woke Mick with a start. The first thing he saw as he jumped from his bunk was a large cockroach and he immediately stomped on and killed the bug. Pandemonium broke out among the men and Mick was the object of their anger. The man whose roach Mick had killed started to fight him with a vengeance. Mick had no chance at all against this heavier, older man and was really taking a beating. He really thought that man was going to kill him.
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