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For other senses of this word, see outlaw (disambiguation).
Butch Cassidy, a famous Western American outlaw
An outlaw, a person living the lifestyle of outlawry, meaning literally "outside of the law." In the common law of England, a judgment declaring someone an outlaw was one of the harshest penalties in the legal system. However, romanticised outlaws became stock characters in several fictional settings, particularly in Western movies.
[edit] A feature of older legal systems
In British common law, an outlaw was a person who had defied the laws of the realm, by such acts as ignoring a summons to court, or fleeing instead of appearing to plead when charged with a crime. In the earlier law of Anglo-Saxon England, outlawry was also declared when a person committed a homicide and could not pay the weregild, the blood-money, due to the victim's kin. Outlawry also existed in other legal codes of the time, such as the ancient Norse and Icelandic legal code.
To be declared an outlaw was to suffer a form of civil death. The outlaw was debarred from all civilised society. No one was allowed to give him food, shelter, or any other sort of support — to do so was to commit the crime of aiding and abetting, and to be in danger of the ban oneself. An outlaw might be killed with impunity; and it was not only lawful but meritorious to kill a thief flying from justice — to do so was not murder. A man who slew a thief was expected to declare the fact without delay, otherwise the dead man’s kindred might clear his name by their oath and require the slayer to pay weregild as for a true man (F. Pollock and F. W. Maitland, The History of English Law Before the Time of Edward I (1895, 2nd. ed., Cambridge, 1898, reprinted 1968)). Because the outlaw has defied civil society, that society was quit of any obligations to the outlaw —outlaws had no civil rights, could not sue in any court on any cause of action, though they were themselves personally liable.
In the context of criminal law, outlawry faded not so much by legal changes as by the greater population density of the country, which made it harder for wanted fugitives to evade capture; and by the international adoption of extradition pacts. In the civil context, outlawry became obsolescent in civil procedure by reforms that no longer required summoned defendants to appear and plead. Still, the possibility of being declared an outlaw for derelictions of civil duty continued to exist in English law until 1879 and in Scots law until the late 1940s. Prior to the Nuremberg Trials, the British jurist Lord Chancellor John Allsebrook Simon attempted to resurrect the concept of outlawry in order to provide for summary executions of captured Nazi war criminals. Although Simon's point of view was supported by Winston Churchill, American and Soviet attorneys insisted on a trial, and he was thus overruled.
[edit] Famous outlaws
The stereotype owes a great deal to English folklore precedents, in the tales of Robin Hood and of gallant highwaymen. But outlawry was once a term of art in the law, and one of the harshest judgments that could be pronounced on anyone's head.
The outlaw is familiar to contemporary readers as an archetype in Western movies, depicting the lawless expansionism period of the United States in the late 19th century. The Western outlaw is typically a criminal who operates from a base in the wilderness, and opposes, attacks or disrupts the fragile institutions of new settlements.
[edit] American Western outlaws
- Jim Miller
- Apache Kid
- Sam Bass
- Kid Curry
- Butch Cassidy
- Billy the Kid
- Jesse James
- Cole Younger
- Marlow Brothers Outlaw
Also see: List of Western Outlaws
[edit] Depression-era "Public Enemy" outlaws
- John Dillinger
- Bonnie & Clyde
- Ma Barker
- Jack Black
[edit] Norse peoples
- Erik the Red
- Gísli Súrsson (Gísli the Outlaw)
- Grettir the Strong
[edit] Asian
- Song Jiang - Historical Chinese outlaw immortalised in the classic Water Margin
- Ishikawa Goemon - Legendary Japanese thief featured in kabuki plays
- Wong Fei Hung - Famous Chinese herbal medicinist considered an outlaw hero in Chinese folklore
[edit] British
- Sawney Beane - Scottish outlaw
- Edgar the Outlaw - English king
- Robin Hood - Legendary Medieval English outlaw
- Eustace Folville - English outlaw and soldier
- Adam the Leper - Fourteenth-century English gang-leader
- William Wallace - Leader of the Scottish resistance to Edward I.
- Rob Roy MacGregor - Scottish Chieftain.
[edit] Bandits
- Veerappan Indian (of India) bandit.
- Jovo Stanisavljević - Čaruga - Serb in Yugoslavia
- Joco Udmanić - Serb in Yugoslavia
- Perot Rocaguinarda - Catalan bandit, pictured as the gentlemanly bandit Roque Guinart in Don Quixote
[edit] Australian bushrangers
- Ned Kelly
- Martin Cash
- Ben Hall
- Frank Gardiner
- Captain Thunderbolt
- Dan Morgan
- Jack the Rammer
- Mary Ann Bugg
- Moondyne Joe
- William Westwood aka Jackey Jackey
[edit] Turkish Efe and Eşkıyas
- Ince Memed, a legendary fictional character by Yaşar Kemal
- Atçalı Kel Mehmet Efe, an outlaw who led a local revolt against Ottoman Empire
- Çakırcalı Mehmet Efe, one of the most powerful outlaws of late Ottoman era
[edit] Fugitives: Contemporary outlaws
[edit] Others
- Nightingale the Robber (Russian myth)
- Jack the Robber (Roma)
- Cercyon (Greek), a bandit killed by Theseus
- Napoleon by the coalition in Vienna
- When the government of the First Spanish Republic was unable to reduce the Cantonalist rebellion centered in Cartagena, Spain, the Cartagena fleet was declared piratic, allowing any nation to prey on it.
[edit] Outlaw musicians
- David Alan Coe
- Merle Haggard
- Waylon Jennings
- Willie Nelson
[edit] The Outlaw (movie)
The Outlaw is a 1943 Western movie about Billy the Kid that marked the début of Jane Russell; it was directed by Howard Hughes. The film also starred Walter Huston as Doc Holliday.
The film is remembered mostly because Hughes invented the push-up brassière for his new star Jane Russell to wear. The attention paid to her cleavage meant that the film had a running battle with censors in several states, as well as with the Hays Office.
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