I know that the point of this is to get to the grisly revenge stuff. But, honestly, two murders, plus one maiming and an attempted murder for...silver dollars?
Tough for me, and I'm guessing, quite a few others, to buy that.
I'd buy that for a dollar!
The silver dollars were incidental, I think. They do carry a particular value, but it seemed like window dressing to justify Rane's vengeance over the senseless death of his family.
People are murdered all the time for less than two thousand dollars and that amount was worth considerably more in 1974.
shareAbsent the potential collector's item value of these silver dollars, two thousand five hundred and fifty five of them today would be worth $13,413.75 (March 11, 2020).
shareThere you go.
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Assuming they were Morgan Silver Dollars, they were worth $12,000 in their silver melt value alone in 1974, $85,000 adjusted for inflation today, closer to $90k if you value the silver adjusted for inflation or just the bulk melt value in '74.
What's weird about the robbery isn't that it was over a coin collection -- knowing that some guy is sitting on essentially that much cash seems like a decent motive. What's weird is that this is Texas and you would stand a really good chance of getting killed by the homeowner, and with a well-loved POW and his family as victims? The Texas Rangers would be the ones doing the killing and literally nobody would complain if they were executed handcuffed behind their backs on the evening news.
Probably the main impetus for this high risk crime, which had relatively low reward considering the multiple murder rap they'd be hit with, was the mere fact that Rane's welcome home ceremony was locally well advertised. The Automatic Slim character (Luke Askew) showed particular disdain for Rane's celebrated service record, so perhaps the 'Cuna boys also had some motivation to stick it to a war hero who they considered unworthy of the accolades and sympathy. Also, it's clear they didn't intend to kill anyone. They figured they could just scuttle in, grab the silver dollars, and slither out quietly.
shareYeah, I don’t think they started out intending to execute him and his family but since they were more than willing to put his hand down the disposal and they actually did execute his family, I suspect even if Rane had given up the coins right away they still may have killed him or beat him up badly.
They just might have killed Rane even if he gave up the silver dollars without a fuss. The leaders of the 'Cuna boys weren't exactly stupid, but obviously they weren't shy about murdering people (like Cliff later on) and putting themselves in the precarious position of being hunted by both the police and pissed off Vietnam vets.
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