Billy Box

After leaving home in the Mississippi Delta for the Oklahoma territory to seek his fortune, Billy Box grew up fast. He tried to be honest, but having no money after working hard and long hours made it extremely difficult.

Realizing that he would never acquire the necessary capital to break out of poverty by going the way he was, he decided that the only way was to turn to crime. His scheme was to get work in a prairie store, locate the owner's money cache, steal it, then burn the store to cover the crime. It worked.

Occasionally a store would burn with the owner inside. After each fire, Billy would move to another town with his ill gotten money and repeat the process. After several such experiences he accumulated enough money to buy a saloon in Arizona. With a partner he swindled the army by selling them non-existent horses.

A government investigation of the horse business, and the real possibility of being hung if captured, was enough to cause him to sell his saloon quickly and flee to the East. He arrived in Charleston, South Carolina, and set up operations as an investor using his saloon money as bait. A clever prostitute helped him as he slowly worked his way into the Charleston social structure and developed grand schemes to bilk the rich planters out of their money.

When the Civil War started, Billy began planning ways to cash in on it. He formed two shipping lines and sold foreign armaments to both sides in the conflict. Along the way Billy had an affair with a war widow who had inherited a plantation after her soldier-husband was killed in action. They married and Billy became the master of the plantation. His shipping lines were successfully running the Yankee blockades, and the money rolled in. He was really a Southern sympathizer, but worked hard to keep it from showing.

One of his adventures was a house of prostitution in Washington set up to spy on the North. He also used it to blackmail high ranking government officials to protect himself from prosecution. All of his schemes worked. He left a trail of bodies in his wake as he made himself rich and socially successful. After a long and successful career, he died in bed. His departing words were, "I have been a real bastard." He surely was that.