You are looking at their actions from a 21st century sensibility. Those were hard times and they were hard men. Both survived the Civil War and had watched their friends die for apparently nothing as far as they were concerned. Many a father has disowned their daughters or sons for that matter. Devil Anse Hatfield considered killing his own son because he thought he betrayed and was responsible for the death of his brother (cousin?) Vance and the serious wounding of his other son Cap. They couldn't turn to the law if the law was the brother of the Hatfields or the hired gun of the McCoys. Originally Posted by JD BarleycornPlus, it may never have happened.
A reminder, these men were only one generation from the Indian wars and the War of 1812. Boone lost nearly his entire family to Shawnee and other Native American raiders in the 1770s. It was a hard life on the frontier. And the depressed economy and thieving carpet baggers made life harder in the post Civil War years
Another reminder, the Hatfields lived in West Virginia and the McCoys lived in Kentucky. It was not legal for Kentucky's law officers to enter West Virginia to arrest Hatfields, or vice versa. It happened, but it wasn't legal. It was the guns more than the warrants that forced compliance.
