Disease may have fueled Hatfield-McCoy feud

[TallGeekyGirl]

MILWAUKEE, Wiconsin (AP) -- The most infamous feud in American folklore, the long-running battle between the Hatfields and McCoys, may be partly explained by a rare, inherited disease that can lead to hair-trigger rage and violent outbursts.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/condi....ap/index.html

[Ali Infree]

I don't know if this really helped foment the feud. I find it interesting that the stereotype of a hillbilly, mountaineer, etc, is really close to photos of "Devil" Anse Hatfield. The caricature is often a male with a long beard, a peaked hat, a gun, and a jug of moonshine: http://www.appalachiacoal.com/Hatfie...oy%20Feud.html
Additions are to make the mountaineer barefoot. In fact, Anse Hatfield was a businessman who was not opposed to suing people to get his way. A lawsuit which went against the McCoy family was one of the proximate causes of the blood-letting in which 12 people died between about 1865 and 1890.

Ali "wild and wonderful" Infree