Chapter Twenty-Eight

Cruel and Unusual Punishment

“My object all sublime I shall achieve in time To make the punishment fit the crime.”

—Gilbert & Sullivan The Lord High Executioner

The Mikado

William James “Scotty” Rummel hung around with the wrong kind of friends. When he was sixteen, he stole a case of beer. A year later, along with a buddy, he broke into a Western Auto store in Karnes City, Texas.

Rummel was born in 1942 and reared by his grand- parents in Karnes City. He dropped out of high school to do construction work and odd jobs in San Antonio. There wasn't a lot of work to go around, so he did what he had to do.

He was six f...

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