Friday, Jan. 09, 2009

Sen. Reid’s swinging family tree a mere web spoof

By Ken Robertson, Herald Executive Editor

One of the better internet spoofs out there that’s fooling a lot of folks is a bogus story that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid had a great-great uncle, Remus Reid, who was hanged for horse stealing and train robbery in Montana in 1889.

The tale, punningly titled “Harry and Remus Reid have a Swinging Family Tree,” is almost too good and too cleverly constructed not to be true. It's at http://www.fourwinds10.com/siterun_data/history/american/news.php?q=1231210590 s

It claims that a “professional genealogy researcher” in Southern California discovered Uncle Remus, the black sheep of the Reid family tree. It includes an old photo that purports to be “the only known photograph” of Remus Reid about to be hanged at the Montana Territorial Prison in 1889.

“Remus Reid was a famous cowboy in the Montana Territory,” is part of the biographical information Sen. Reid’s staff sent to the genealogy researcher, according to the web story. Remus’ “business empire grew to include acquisition of valuable equestrian assets and intimate dealings with the Montana railroad. Beginning in 1883, he devoted several years of his life to government service, finally taking leave to resume his dealings with the railroad. In 1887, he was a key player in a vital investigation run by the renowned Pinkerton Detective Agency. In 1889, Remus passed away during an important civic function held in his honor when the platform upon which he was standing collapsed.”

I first learned of the web story from Herald Publisher Rufus Friday, who was tweaking me a bit, asking whether I knew my Montana history. Since I’m a Montana native, he joked that I ought to know about Remus. But I didn’t.

He wasn’t in any of my high school or college history books, nor in any of the family stories I’d heard from my grandfathers, who were Montana pioneers. One was born in Helena in 1872 and the other in Dakota Territory in 1888.

My formal and informal Montana history lessons have included tales of Kid Curry, George “Big Nose” Parrot, Henry Plummer and plenty of others.

I even edited a book about an Old West desperado by a fellow Montanan, Jim Dullenty, who’s a former Herald reporter.

And I’ve written a magazine article about a Dayton resident who claimed he survived the battle between Custer’s cavalry and the Indians at the Little Bighorn.

But there was good reason I’d never heard of Uncle Remus Reid. It took just a few minutes to discover that Thomas Mitchell, editor of the Las Vegas Review Journal, had already debunked the Reid family tale, noting that Snopes.com reports that virtually the same e-mail had been sent about politicians named Rodham, Gore, Dion and Stevens.

But Mitchell had a little fun with the story as well:

“I’ve heard a lot of rumors about Harry Reid. Checked out more than a few. I might even believe a couple we couldn’t prove.

“But Harry Reid’s great-great uncle Remus Reid was hanged as a horse thief? Darn, too good to be true and it took about 30 seconds after the letter to the editor came in over the electronic transom to dismiss it. (Not sure that allegation is even considered defamation out West, where a scoundrel in the gene pool is something to brag about.)”

What Mitchell didn’t point out is that horse theft was likely to be a capital crime in the Old West, but stealing from the railroads was considered rather sporting, unless some upstanding citizen got killed.

— Ken Robertson: 582-1520; krobertson@tricityherald.com — Ken Robertson: 582-1520; krobertson@tricityherald.com

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