BBM
If it comes out, that the Rs have done something, in the eyes of the assailant(s), as unforgivable
If I recall correctly the Hatfield-McCoy feud started over a pig. Or the pig was trigger. I personally believe it started during the Civil war when members of each family were on opposing sides and resentment built up over a number of years until it escalated into killing. If I recall my history correctly Anse Hatfield and Randolph McCoy were reputed to be on friendly terms at one time.
Something of this nature could have very well happened between the W's and R's with a very small issue being the trigger.
It would be more like taking the law into their own hands. Retribution.
This could very well fit the circumstances between the two families.
They want what they want and go after it, not caring about the feelings, or fall-out, they leave behind.
Sounds like a lot of ex-spouses.
JMO
There was a pig in the Hatfield/McCoy story, ( pigs were valuable at that time, especially if you happened to be poor), but there was violence and death between the two families, before and aftr the pig incident. The pig incident revolved around one being seen as a turncoat of sorts. The link below gives a pretty good overview of the feud. However, the Hatfield / McCoy feud was a many years long, ongoing, feud, and a feud is not really what I was talking about.
The Hatfield & McCoy Feud | HISTORY
I'm talking more along the lines of, say someone shorted a group of people on some drugs, or, maybe the folks who were/are dealing, had a connection who fronted them, and they, then, either shorted their connection, or didn't pay them at all, after they sold their weight. There's also things like, disagreements over price, quality, sources, and even meet-up locations. When one is dealing in illegal drugs, one cannot just threaten to report your source to the BBB, or call LE and ask them to come on over and help sort out a disagreement. If someone shorts you, you can't take them to court. If people disagree over price or purity, or source, or weight/numbers, those disagreements can, and will, become violent. It's about respect, and, it's about sending a message so that it doesn't happen again, with anyone else.
Authorities believe people have information, but may be worried about coming forward, or may be worried they'd implicate themselves in another crime by giving information.
Meth is big here, bigger than Heroin now, and it's as bad, or worse, than Heroin. Walkin' skeletons. What if a parent of a deceased child just lost it, and took their rage out on the folks who they found out provided that stuff to them. Plotted and planned, their hate growing with each day. There's a lot of folks who don't put much faith in LE doing much, or the courts convicting folks, if it's the common man vs someone with a little money or pull. So, they handle it themselves. Hillbilly justice (or vigilante justice).
I personally do not see custody as a motivator for Hillbilly Justice in this scenario. Some have said that JW was abusive. Had the Rs found out that he had beaten HMR to a pulp, yes, I could see that as something that would be a call to the R & M famies for Hillbilly Justice. The Rs beat the crap out of some boy, and his Dad, over a slur at a demo derby. Rolled up on their property, uninvited, and performed a beat down. I'd think they'd at the very least do likewise if HMR came home, crying, and battered. I'm looking at this from the opposite end of the spectrum. If JW was after full, total, 100%, custody, to steal away S to Alaska, and threatened CR1 with exposing his operation, I'd not think it would be the Rs who would be deceased, I'd think that we'd be wondering were on earth that W boy, from Peebles, Oh, went off missing to (and we'd likely never know).
I'm also not talking about selling weed, by the stick, ounce, or pound, (and Readers says it's deeper than weed anyway, and I believe him). So, taking weed out of it, I'm talking about selling something that will allow you to put down $30k in cash, for a six acre, corner lot, with a nice mobile home, in addition to helping out your family, and some in-laws, with expenses. Idk for sure that the Rs were doing that, maybe they were selling a bunch of weed, and making a ton of money, but, weed sells pretty cheap these days. LE likes to put a high dollar street value on it though. If it wasn't weed, and the main motivator wasn't custody, what was it?
Also, they weren't ex-spouses, and by Ohio law, HMR didn't even have to let him see S, let alone take her home with him, unless they had a custody agreement already hammered out, of course. I just don't see custody as the motivator. One more reason, Jeff Ruby wouldn't have pulled his $25k reward over a custody dispute, or weed. This is something deeper than a couple little weed grows, and a custody dispute. That's just my thinking. I could be wrong though. The Ws may be a family of psychopaths. Grandma, AW, may have sat with the children, while her two sons, and her spouse, went out on a murder spree. Stranger things have happened.
