# If Johnny Cash shot a man in Reno, why was he in a CA prison?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-johnny-cash-shot-a-man-in-reno-why-was-he-in-a-ca-prison/293823
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [March 10, 2005, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-johnny-cash-shot-a-man-in-reno-why-was-he-in-a-ca-prison/293823 "2005-03-10T13:49:02Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@The\_Big\_Cheese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Big_Cheese)
#### Post date: [March 10, 2005, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-johnny-cash-shot-a-man-in-reno-why-was-he-in-a-ca-prison/293823/1 "2005-03-10T13:49:02Z")
You’ve heard, I’ve always wondered. If he shot a man in Reno(just to watch him die), why was he sitting in a prison in California(Folsom prison)?
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### Author:  [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)
#### Post date: [March 10, 2005, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-johnny-cash-shot-a-man-in-reno-why-was-he-in-a-ca-prison/293823/2 "2005-03-10T13:51:10Z")
Alaska ships its hardtimers out to Arizona. Perhaps Nevada ships theirs to CA.
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### Author:  [@slortar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slortar)
#### Post date: [March 10, 2005, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-johnny-cash-shot-a-man-in-reno-why-was-he-in-a-ca-prison/293823/3 "2005-03-10T13:51:11Z")
Because it rolls off the tongue better than Ferndale?
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### Author:  [@Askia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askia)
#### Post date: [March 10, 2005, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-johnny-cash-shot-a-man-in-reno-why-was-he-in-a-ca-prison/293823/4 "2005-03-10T13:51:25Z")
WAG: He was singing about a crime that he WASN’T convicted for.
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### Author:  [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)
#### Post date: [March 10, 2005, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-johnny-cash-shot-a-man-in-reno-why-was-he-in-a-ca-prison/293823/5 "2005-03-10T13:51:51Z")
Just a WAG - is Folsom a Federal pen?
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### Author:  [@The\_Big\_Cheese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Big_Cheese)
#### Post date: [March 10, 2005, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-johnny-cash-shot-a-man-in-reno-why-was-he-in-a-ca-prison/293823/6 "2005-03-10T13:58:29Z")
what’s a WAG?
and my first sentence should have said “You’ve heard **it…** ”
and of course I’m referring to Folsom Prison Blues by Johnny Cash.
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### Author:  [@UncleRojelio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleRojelio)
#### Post date: [March 10, 2005, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-johnny-cash-shot-a-man-in-reno-why-was-he-in-a-ca-prison/293823/7 "2005-03-10T14:12:19Z")
> [@The Big Cheese](#):
>
> what’s a WAG?
Wild Ass Guess
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### Author:  [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)
#### Post date: [March 10, 2005, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-johnny-cash-shot-a-man-in-reno-why-was-he-in-a-ca-prison/293823/8 "2005-03-10T14:16:25Z")
Well, the only California town that really scans is Fresno. Let’s try it
“I shot a man in Fresno… just to watch him die.”
Nope, doesn’t quite work!
More seriously, MAYBE the narrator of the song is a guy who’s lived a long, violent, criminal life that BEGAN with shooting a man in Reno… and which eventually led him to incarceration at Folsom.
Remember, that line comes immediately AFTER his recollection that his mother had always urged him to be a good away and avoid guns. Maybe shooting that guy in Reno was just the first of many things he’d done out of sheer meanness, in defiance of Mama’s wishes.
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### Author:  [@keeper0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/keeper0)
#### Post date: [March 10, 2005, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-johnny-cash-shot-a-man-in-reno-why-was-he-in-a-ca-prison/293823/9 "2005-03-10T14:23:42Z")
> [@astorian](#):
>
> More seriously, MAYBE the narrator of the song is a guy who’s lived a long, violent, criminal life that BEGAN with shooting a man in Reno… and which eventually led him to incarceration at Folsom.
This brings up an important point. Johnny Cash didn’t shoot anybody. Mr. Cash may not have been an exemplary role model in all ways, but he never shot anyone and never served time.
The character in the song did so.
> [@](#):
>
> Remember, that line comes immediately AFTER his recollection that his mother had always urged him to be a good away and avoid guns. Maybe shooting that guy in Reno was just the first of many things he’d done out of sheer meanness, in defiance of Mama’s wishes.
This was always my interpretation, too. The shooting of the man was only one of many crimes, but was indicative of how little he cared about what he was doing or why.
“I’m just visiting Springfield Prison. I get to sleep at home tonight!”
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### Author:  [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)
#### Post date: [March 10, 2005, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-johnny-cash-shot-a-man-in-reno-why-was-he-in-a-ca-prison/293823/10 "2005-03-10T15:28:52Z")
> [@astorian](#):
>
> Well, the only California town that really scans is Fresno.
How about _“I shot a man in [Chino](http://www.city-data.com/city/Chino-California.html)…”_
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### Author:  [@Governor\_Quinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Governor_Quinn)
#### Post date: [March 10, 2005, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-johnny-cash-shot-a-man-in-reno-why-was-he-in-a-ca-prison/293823/11 "2005-03-10T15:33:54Z")
> [@Shoeless](#):
>
> Just a WAG - is Folsom a Federal pen?
[No](http://www.corr.ca.gov/InstitutionsDiv/INSTDIV/facilities/fac_prison_FSP.asp)
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### Author:  [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)
#### Post date: [March 10, 2005, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-johnny-cash-shot-a-man-in-reno-why-was-he-in-a-ca-prison/293823/12 "2005-03-10T15:50:13Z")
> [@keeper0](#):
>
> This brings up an important point. Johnny Cash didn’t shoot anybody. Mr. Cash may not have been an exemplary role model in all ways, but he never shot anyone and never served time.
“Served time” might have the more specific connotation of being in prison as opposed to jail and, if that is the case, what you say is true but Johnny Cash \*was \* incarcerated numerous times during his life, although usually only overnight.
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### Author:  [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)
#### Post date: [March 10, 2005, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-johnny-cash-shot-a-man-in-reno-why-was-he-in-a-ca-prison/293823/13 "2005-03-10T16:08:21Z")
Didn’t he first play that song at Folsom Prison? That, more than anything, might explain the discrepancy between the location of the shooting and the name of the prison.
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### Author:  [@Bearflag70](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bearflag70)
#### Post date: [March 10, 2005, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-johnny-cash-shot-a-man-in-reno-why-was-he-in-a-ca-prison/293823/14 "2005-03-10T16:11:07Z")
> [@keeper0](#):
>
> This brings up an important point. Johnny Cash didn’t shoot anybody. Mr. Cash may not have been an exemplary role model in all ways, but he never shot anyone and never served time.
>
> The character in the song did so.
WHAT!? And all this time I wondered why they let that hardened crminal do all those concerts.
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### Author:  [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)
#### Post date: [March 10, 2005, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-johnny-cash-shot-a-man-in-reno-why-was-he-in-a-ca-prison/293823/15 "2005-03-10T16:35:23Z")
Cash wrote the song in [1956](http://www.toptown.com/hp/66/folsom.htm), the prison concert wasn’t until 1968. The train keeps rollin’ down to San Antone, FWIW.
Guess what, kiddies: Merle Haggard didn’t really “turn 21 in prison doin’ life without parole” either, even though there’s no doubt his “Mama Tried”. He did do some time when young and stupid, though, but Cash didn’t until he got into the depths of drug addiction and sympathetic cops would sometimes let him sleep it off in a cell.
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### Author:  [@Ol\_Gaffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ol_Gaffer)
#### Post date: [March 10, 2005, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-johnny-cash-shot-a-man-in-reno-why-was-he-in-a-ca-prison/293823/16 "2005-03-10T17:47:11Z")
**Dewey** , you might be thinking of the song _San Quentin_ which (I believe) he first performed in 1969 for the _Live At San Quentin_ album.
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### Author:  [@Soul\_Brother\_Number\_Two](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soul_Brother_Number_Two)
#### Post date: [March 10, 2005, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-johnny-cash-shot-a-man-in-reno-why-was-he-in-a-ca-prison/293823/17 "2005-03-10T22:56:45Z")
Marty Robbins didn’t either, Elvis.
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### Author:  [@Soul\_Brother\_Number\_Two](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soul_Brother_Number_Two)
#### Post date: [March 10, 2005, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-johnny-cash-shot-a-man-in-reno-why-was-he-in-a-ca-prison/293823/18 "2005-03-10T22:58:58Z")
Shoot me now. I don’t know why I thought it was Marty Robbings wrote that song. Sorry Elvis.
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### Author:  [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)
#### Post date: [March 10, 2005, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-johnny-cash-shot-a-man-in-reno-why-was-he-in-a-ca-prison/293823/19 "2005-03-10T23:10:50Z")
Cash’s explanation:
> [@](#):
>
> Marshall had also photographed Cash’s visit to Folsom Prison, which led to his most popular album. The photographer asked him about the incongruity of one of his most famous songs, ``Folsom Prison Blues,’’ in which the singer claims "I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die,’’ but serves his prison time not in Nevada but in California.
>
> "That’s called poetic license,’’ Cash told him.
[http://maninblack.net/memorial/world\_jc\_11.html](http://maninblack.net/memorial/world_jc_11.html)
Alternatively, Reno is near the California border; if he’d stood in California and shot a man in Reno, he could be tried for murder in both jurisdictions.
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### Author:  [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)
#### Post date: [March 10, 2005, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-johnny-cash-shot-a-man-in-reno-why-was-he-in-a-ca-prison/293823/20 "2005-03-10T23:16:43Z")
Or, if he’d committed any portion of the crime in California…say he was paid to kill him in California and drove to Reno to shoot him…that wouldn’t work, though, since he siad he shot a man in Reno _just_ to watch him die, unless he’s lying, which convicts do occassionally. Maybe killing for compensation carries a stiffer penalty. Okay, say he shot him in Reno and then drove him to California, where he died. Or something.
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