I doubt that the townspeople would be so quick to take sides on behalf of someone who just rode into town, vs someone who had been there six weeks. More likely the posse was made up of friends of the victim, who just wanted revenge for the killing whether it was self defense or not. And if anyone in the song committed murder, it was the members of the posse. The cowboy wasn’t trying to escape, but to return to Feleena.
There’s a bit of discrepancy in the timing of the cowboy’s return. In El Paso, it’s implied that he stays away for some time.
Yes, but the next day makes more sense since why would there be a posse waiting if it had been some time? Esp a 17 man posse.
That always made me wonder, how long is a posse gonna sit outside of town and wait for a man who committed manslaughter and horse theft? (with horse theft possibly the worse crime).
But now the sequel song clarifies this and makes sense.
In El Paso “Back in El Paso my life would be worthless.
Everything’s gone in life; nothing is left.
It’s been so long since I’ve seen the young maiden
My love is stronger than my fear of death.”
“It’s been so long since I’ve seen the young maiden” could well be the next day for this love smitten dude.
He got “Out to the badlands of New Mexico” and back in a couple of days? Both the Zuni-Banderas malpais and the Carrizozo malpais are a significant distance from El Paso.
As a critic once said of Louis L’Amour’s writings, “He had strange ideas about how far a horse could travel in a day.”
