title: Still Speaking Ill of the Dead: More Jerks In Montana History
author: Jon Axline
description: <div><font face="Tms Rmn">Tales of moral, courageous, and selfless heroes fill the annals of history. But what about the immoral, cowardly, selfish, and just plain evil? This eagerly awaited follow-up to Speaking Ill of the Dead explores the other, arguably more interesting side of Montana history, with fourteen stories about people who left the world a better place . . . not through selfless actions, but because they left! Selected from the increasingly popular Montana History Conference session-Jerks in Montana History-the less than perfect Montana Hall of Shame members profiled here include:</font><br><font face="Tms Rmn">Lewis and Clark's infamous guide Toussaint Charbonneau-an opportunistic fool among heroic explorers; </font><br><font face="Tms Rmn">Boone Helm and Liver-Eatin' Johnston-alleged cannibals and heinous frontier characters; </font><br><font face="Tms Rmn">John X. Beidler-vigilante, executioner, and pint-sized bully; </font><br><font face="Tms Rmn">and The Montana Council of Defense-"patriots" gone berserk who fed hysteria and played fast and loose with civil liberties. </font><br><font face="Tms Rmn">Still Speaking Ill of the Dead carefully documents and exposes the lives of these and many other jerks to uncover a complicated and fascinating history of Montana and its people.</font><br><br></div>
zlib_text: Montana Sky [067-011-4.9]
  
  
  
  
  
  By: Nora Roberts
  
  
  
  
  
  Synopsis:
  
  
  
  
  
  Sisters, yet strangers, they must live together at Mercy Ranch, the
  
  
  home bequeathed to them by the late father, in order to inherit their
  
  
  share.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Being dead didn't make Jack Mercy less of a son of a bitch. One week
  
  
  of dead didn't offset sixty-eight years of living mean. Plenty of the
  
  
  people gathered by his grave would be happy to say so.
  
  
  
  
  
  The fact was, funeral or no funeral, Bethanne Mosebly muttered those
  
  
  sentiments into her husband's ear as they stood in the high grass of
  
  
  the cemetery. She was there only out of affection for young Willa, and
  
  
  she had bent her husband's tired ear with that information as well all
  
  
  the way up from Ennis.
  
  
  
  
  
  As a man who had listened to his wife's chatter for forty-six years,
  
  
  Bob Mosebly simply grunted, tuning her and the preacher's droning voice
  
  
  out.
  
  
  
  
  
  Not that Bob had fond memories of Jack. He'd hated the old bastard, as
  
  
  did most e