The American Spectator

br> For he ate of Jesse’s bread and he slept in Jesse’s bed br> Then laid poor Jesse in his grave. /em> /blockquote>

Could it be that Jesse’s rehabilitation in the song and elsewhere as a sort of latter day Robin Hood itself owed something to sympathy with him on account of this betrayal? “He stole from the rich and he gave to the poor,” the song tells us: “He’d a hand and a heart and a brain.”

blockquote> em>Jesse was a man, a friend to the poor br> He never would see a man suffer pain, br> And with his brother Frank he robbed the Chicago bank, br> And stopped the Glendale train. /em> /blockquote>

The word “Judas” in the Post’s headline about Mikey Scars and the mention of his oath to burn in hell are further reminders of the mythic power of the closely connected stories of the innocent criminal — of which Jesus Christ is of course the ultimate example — and the friendly betrayer who pretends to a higher loyalty. Thus Dante put the betrayers of benefactors — “For he ate of Jesse’s bread and he slept in Jesse’s bed” — with Judas in the lowest circle of hell just as the mafia oath does. Honor may have fallen into disrepute with us, but deep down we have never really forgotten it, nor the feelings it continues to evoke in us.