A bandit is a criminal who is a fugitive from the law and called by faction (a command or edict).
Bandit is a term that is usually used as a synonym for criminal or thief , although a more specific meaning can be attributed to it. According to the dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) , a bandit is a fugitive from justice who is called by bando (a published edict or command of a higher order).
For example: "The sheriff offered a reward for any information that helps capture the bandit who robbed the bank" , "Three bandits entered the house and took the family's savings" , "When we catch the bandit, I think the sheriff will promote us .
Different uses of the notion of bandit
A bandit, on the other hand, can be the person who steals in a deserted area or on a road : "There were a few kilometers left to reach their destination when a bandit crossed in front of the carriage and stripped the travelers of their belongings, " "Be careful ." on the trip: there are many bandits lurking on the sides of the road" , "The bandit took advantage of the fact that no other vehicle was passing and threw himself on ours" .
In colloquial language, a bandit is a person who deceives or swindles : "I can't believe you betrayed my trust like this! You are a bandit" , "If I meet that bandit again, he will have serious problems" , "Your father kicked me out of the house, accusing me of being a bandit" .
Bandit is often used as a synonym for thief.
Famous thieves of the Wild West
Billy the Kid
Billy the Kid , whose real name was William H. Bonney and known in Spain by the nickname Billy the Kid , was an American cowboy who became a legendary bandit despite having lived only 21 years. It is worth mentioning that he used other pseudonyms throughout his short criminal career, including Henry Antrim and Henry McCarty . After arriving in New Mexico , more specifically Lincoln County, he began as a cowboy and soon earned the peculiar reputation of being one of the most dangerous gunfighters in the area.
Billy the Kid was far from being an innocent child, despite his nickname, as he was responsible for 21 murders, which took place in various encounters such as confrontations between sides and attacks on the law while escaping from prison.
The Dalton Brothers
Also known as The Dalton Gang , these brothers went down in history thanks to their unfortunate crimes at the end of the 19th century , which included robberies on trains and banks. Although they had a certain relationship with the Younger Brothers , who were ruled by the also famous bandit Jesse James , the Dalton Brothers acted independently. It is important to mention that not all the Daltons were outlaws; One of the thirteen brothers was a sheriff 's deputy and, as the story goes, he tried to keep the others away from crime.
Jesse James
Full name Jesse Woodson James , he was the most famous member of the James-Younger , a band of raiders that wreaked havoc in the Wild West in the mid- 19th century in the United States . Jesse James is a true legend, and not precisely because of his exemplary conduct, but in part because he was murdered by one of his companions, Robert Ford , with a shot in the back to collect an important reward offered by the governor.
Jesse James ' childhood was not easy, and this was decisive in the path he chose during his adulthood, as it happens to all of us. After the death of his father when he was only three years old, his mother married two more times, which gave him four stepbrothers and hit his fragile emotional stability hard. As if that had not been enough, the Civil War ended up destroying the landscape of his childhood.
The term bandit in music
"Bandido" , on the other hand, is a song performed by the duo Azúcar Moreno in the 1990 Eurovision Song Contest .
The Argentine singer-songwriter León Gieco , finally, has released an album titled "Rural Bandits" and that includes a song of the same name.