MovieChat Forums > Silverado (1985) Discussion > When you kill someone, do you get their ...

When you kill someone, do you get their stuff?

posted 9 years ago by jgroub
3 replies | jump to latest

I've always wondered, what becomes of the dead guy's horse, saddle, guns, gear? It seems like all that stuff would be worth a pretty sizeable amount - at least a couple of hundred dollars, if not more. That was a pretty sizable sum back then.

Of course, I'm assuming that it was a justifiable killing, not out-and-out murder. You know, like a standup fight, "Draw!" kind of thing. And yes, I'm also assuming that the dead guy doesn't have a family; but 80% of the dead guys in duels - at least as shown in Westerns - didn't have a family.

Forget about the law, inheritance, and what not. In "real life", or at least in Westersn, did the killer get all that stuff?

I want the doctor to take your picture so I can look at you from inside as well.

[–] signlady 9 years ago

... I guess they dont show this happening much in westerns the same way they dont show people doing other mundane things - at the same time - when Emmett was ambushed at the opening of the movie, he only took a horse and its rig - it seems he would've took the other two horses but we see them run off -

In this case, how would Emmett carry 3 pairs of boots and all the hardware?

Maybe there was a code in the west ..

Also a lot of times in westerns, its the outlaws who pilfer from their victims - its sort of an unspoken code that good guys dont want anything from a dead outlaw ...

Notice, we also dont see Emmett bury the 3 guys that ambushed him ... do you reckon he just left them where they died?

Later in the movie, we see Emmett do the chivalrous thing and return the branded horse back to the Mckenny family.

[–] signlady 9 years ago

btw - in a western - if the person is shot down in town, his next of kin would have rights to his things - if there were no next of kin, the sheriff or deputy would collect these things and use them to pay the victims debts or pay for their burial - unless it was an outlaw who died - they typically get chunked in an unmarked hole, sans even a box.

in some westerns, I've seen several people
run and grab things off the victim - and outlaws will usually always claim things off a dead partner in crime - even argue over who gets what ...

In most cases, it seems the horse is the most valuable thing - even most outlaws wont shoot the horse ...

[–] Florist9 9 years ago

In "The Quick and the Dead" there are several gunfighting matches and the loser was usually stripped and robbed by the town folks, who jumped immediately to take his clothes, boots and guns...