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I’m not talking about what happened to Stratogale, Meta-Man, Splashdown, Dynaguy, or Thunderhead. This isn’t about Edna’s No capes! advice. I’m talking about everyday heroes who do things some of us wish we could. Or wish we’d thought of. Or would do if we didn’t think we’d go to jail or be institutionalized. These are people who deserve to have their own Not All Heroes Wear Capes meme.

 

Florida man arrested trying to trade his mother-in-law in a "prisoner swap" with the Iranians.
Carl Benitez of Kissimee, FL, purportedly tried to contact an Iranian diplomat in an effort to exchange his mother-in-law for “two American hostages and a gas price reduction…” Is the story true? I have no idea, but if this doesn’t 100% fit the Not All Heroes Wear Caps meaning, I don’t know what does.

Alas, this one is an urban legend. It’s not even based on a true story. But it oughta be.

 

Now, this one is a little more serious. Well, depending on your perspective and personal moral stance.

Jonathan Watson inmate - he beat two child molesters to death in prison.
According to a number of news outlets (including CBS News), a convicted murderer and California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) inmate named Jonathan Watson beat two other inmates to death with his cane because they were child molesters. According to the CDCR, inmates David Bobb (48 yoa) and Graham De Luis-Conti (62 yoa) were both serving life sentences with the possibility of parole for aggravated sexual assault of a child under 14 years. Watson was 10 years into a life sentence for first-degree murder.

 

Stipulated, this one is iffy. Certainly, it’s debatable from a legal standpoint and, arguably (depending on who you’re talking to), an ethical one. It’s easy to be flippant in a case like this, but…they were convicted child molesters. Which is why the publication of his letter admitting to the murders (and his unapologetic reason for committing them) led to an extraordinary outpouring of support. Consider this: so much money was sent to Watson’s commissary account by his admirers that the CDCR ultimately put a block on it.

Note: There’s no evidence to support the recurring social media reports that Watson changed his name to Caesar August, or that the killing that put him in prison was a vigilante act committed to avenge his sister. No, he earned that life sentence for shooting a 27-year-old UPS driver named Garrett Benson in what was described as a marijuana rip job. Most of this notoriety is a “print-the-legend” style deal of the Liberty Valance sort. But it’s awfully hard not to get worked up about the deaths of a couple of convicted child molesters.

 

More to follow. Probably.