My New Small Business: Dairy of Kathy Leventhall

I'm a new student of the Cyber Gold Online and Business Success Course and have just come across another new student and her diary-blog, Kathy Leventhall. You can see her here, http://mynewsmallbusiness.blogspot.com/

She has decided to keep a run-down of her experiences during each module, much like I have, and will be posting as often as possible. I love this!

Kathy is a sweet lady (I actually ran into her at one of the seminars that Pam and Tobin like to give--which is a crazy coincidence!) and is a totally different generation than me, so it should be interesting for you, the reader, to see this course from two completely different points of view.

I'll be reading her frequently, because I'm interested to see how she gets along, and I'll post here on her highlights.

Learn more about the course on how to start a small business or build a website for an existing business, http://www.smallbusinessonlinecollege.org

Small Business Website Design: Don’t Buy the Cyber Gold Course Until You Read This

I've been reviewing tons of sites lately and, like most of you, have come across the internet marketing, how to make money online niche. Now, it's true that many people make a good deal of money online in this niche, but it's even more true that for every one that makes money, there are hundreds, if not thousands, of people who don't make enough to pay for the cost of their website host.

This sucks. It's sad and it is discouraging, but it's true.

Now, my thing is that I've recently signed up for an online course. It’s called the “Cyber Gold: Online and Small Business Success Course.” It’s taught by Pam Mosbrucker and Tobin Alder, authors of a book called “Cyber Gold.” I usually don't go for online courses because they seem high-cost and low-value, but this one was very different. First, I've seen these people on YouTube doing an interview for a real television show and I've actually seen their second edition book in the bookstore. Yes, a real, legit book in the real live bookstore. Sticker, barcode, and everything.

Then, after a bit of research, I found that these people have taught the course before--at a real live university: Idaho State University. I wondered why they would take the course online and it turns out that they found that most of their students had busy schedules and couldn't make the drive to Pocatello for the class (that’s Pocatello, Idaho). Since they wanted to reach as many students as possible, they chose to start their own university and teach the class online, so that students all over the globe could participate.

Okay, I admit I was a bit stunned at first by their attitude. Most "gurus" can only talk about how they made so much money overnight and are now buying a new home and have a hundred fancy cars. But Pam and Tobin have never tried to sell me that way. In fact, they never tried to sell me at all. They offer the course, bios of themselves, a good deal of free information, and leave the rest up to me, whether I want to take their course or not. I liked their approach because I didn't feel like I had to read between the lines of a sales pitch. In fact, they didn't even have a sales pitch!

I looked over their site and even sent them an email to see if my situation would fit into the course. Within hours I had a reply. It was honest, didn't try to sell me, and even mentioned that if I couldn't afford the course (though they do offer a payment plan) that I could send them my questions and they would help me. Of course, they suggested that I buy their book. About 19 bucks on Amazon and, they said, the book is used as the textbook for the course so I could get all the basics down just from reading through it.

Having seen their book in the bookstore before, I knew it was good. I wished I had purchased it then but my daughter wanted the box set of that "Eragon" series and she took precedent.

But after their kind and generous email, I decided just to sign up for the course. I chose the three pay option because I'm a bit strapped for cash with the holidays approaching and already I've received my textbook in the mail.

The course is divided into seven modules. I'm halfway through Module 2 and am so happy I took this chance.

Not only do they actually offer a good, easy to follow course on how to start a website and online business, but they've given me hope that there are still good people online who care about the success of others.

I do have to comment that I've sent them a few emails as I've progressed through the modules. I couldn't decide what to sell and I was having problems with picking out a niche. For each email, they replied within hours with suggestions and ideas for me. I've never gotten a warm and fuzzy feeling from someone online before, but they gave me that. I feel like I can ask them anything and they're there for me, whenever I might need them.

It sounds incredibly cheesy, but that's online customer service to me!

Now, to have an honest report, I must talk about the downside. The social community, where I can chat and compare with my fellow students, is growing every day, but it is still small by comparison to others that I've seen. Since their course is new, that's why the community is still small, but I do hope that more students join and participate.

The only other downside that I can think of is that I can’t literally have them sitting at my shoulder and helping me build my website. I wish I could, but that would be kidnapping and is, as far as I’ve been told, illegal.

They do, however, write back almost as frequently as I send them emails, so it’s almost like Pam and Tobin are with me, teaching me how to build a website.

If you’ve been burned before, or genuinely want to start a business online, or even build a professional looking website for your existing business, I highly recommend this online course.

Enroll here, http://www.smallbusinessonlinecollege.org

Small Business Opportunity: I’m So Sick of “Make Money Online” Crap-- Aren’t You? Just Start a Legit Business Already

I’m the kind of person that likes to check people out on Rip Off Report before I’ll buy from them. Usually, you can tell from the sales letter whether that “guru” is worth anything by the sweeping claims that they make. Make a million over-night, okay that’s a sales pitch that won’t amount to anything. Make a million using my simple one-button program, obviously that’s a sales pitch that will just waste your time and money. The more grand the claims, the more the scale tips on the scam-o-meter.

And what about those ads that promise you one (or ten!) free websites? All you have to do is sign up for their monthly contract, press one button, and wham, ten web businesses just waiting for management. You know that’s a scam, right?

You know this, you feel it in your gut too. It might sound nice, but you’re past the point of an easy fool.

First of all, anyone that can pump out ten websites for each customer is either a genius that spends their life making websites 24 hours a day or has a program that can create simple cookie-cutter websites at the press of a button. A cookie-cutter website, if you don’t already know, is basically a website that looks like all the others, like a cookie cut from a mold.

From a strictly professional standpoint, whether these sites even look good doesn’t matter. It’s the fact that they are all the same that really hurts. To Google, you know the top dog who ranks websites professionally, websites that look alike are a very bad thing indeed. And hundreds (let alone thousands) of websites that look alike is just a death sentence, a pure waste of money.

Why bother with “money making” opportunities when you know they sound a little too good to be true?

If you’re anything like me, you want to make a living online because of the freedom that can grant. Sure, the money has the potential to be great, but spending only a few hours doing something for your successful online business is sure a heck of a lot easier than 8 hours a day at someone else’s business—for the rest of your life.

So, my thing is this: stop spending your money and stop wasting your time. Take the course that will change your life for the better. It won’t make you a millionaire overnight, but it sure will give you the tools to make your business happen, realistically, and grant you the freedom you’re looking for. And there’s nothing sales-pitchy about it.

Take the online course on how to start a small business or build a website for your existing business at http://www.smallbusinessonlinecollege.org . The course is taught by the authors of “Cyber Gold” and was taught live at Idaho State University last fall. Audry Grant is the author of numerous online articles and has a Bachelor of Arts in Creative Writing.

Starting a Small Business: Not Getting Results Online? It’s Time to Stop Cooking with the Microwave

I don’t know what to think any more. For a while, it seemed that everyone was making a million online and now it seems that everyone is trying to sell everyone on how to make a million online, but no one is getting results anymore.

This trend began to happen when eBay stopped allowing ebooks on their auction website. Why? Ebooks are mostly crap. Plus, they can be copied and turned into extra versions of crap.
Basically, no new information has been presented in an ebook for the past five years. It’s all been re-hashed and re-worked to the point of insanity. eBay was so sick of having crap (mind you, hundreds of thousands of ebooks were on their site) that they took everything down. Now, the only way to sell an ebook on eBay is to burn it to a CD and ship it to your customer. No more instant information.

But that’s the thing with instant anything. The quality is much lower than it would be if you had to wait. Take dinner for example (just go with me here…). Would you rather have a frozen dinner that cooks in two minutes in your microwave, or would you rather have a creamy, scalloped potato and roasted rosemary and garlic chicken stove-top feast?

I choose the chicken and potatoes, because I had them for dinner tonight, but also because of that word, quality. While the microwave meal was “nearly” instant, the quality ends there. Why put that in your body when the feast, though it sounds extravagant, only takes twenty minutes more?

That’s what went wrong online too, and eBay knew it. And I’m glad they made this change because it gives real online courses with real information to share a chance, once more. Instant information is only worth what you get out of it in that instant. But information that is bound in a book that has been published, or a course that has been taught to real students, is like the chicken and potatoes and is worth the wait.

Take the online course on how to start a small business or build a website for your existing business at http://www.smallbusinessonlinecollege.org . The course is taught by the authors of “Cyber Gold” and was taught live at Idaho State University last fall. Audry Grant is the author of numerous online articles and has a Bachelor of Arts in Creative Writing.

Online Business Course: You Can Make a Million Overnight, if You’re a Moron

I get probably fifty emails every day about some new-fangled way to make millions literally overnight. For just $50 to $600 a month (or worse, just a one-time payment of $6500!), you too could have these secrets! Puh-lease! These guys are just scamming people and it's about to make me sick. There is no fast track way to millions. Sure, if you get lucky with the new Tickle-Me Elmo you might hit it big real fast, but the honest to God truth is that it takes more than fifteen minutes a day and it sure takes more than one night to make it big. It just does. Google doesn’t even crawl that fast.

The latest scoundrel about blew my mind. A fifteen page sales letter, fancy car pictures, and the man was posing by his fifty-foot catamaran. Overnight, supposedly, he made nearly half a million dollars. The check came in the mail the day before his home was to go into foreclosure, and minutes before the repo guy was coming for his car. Sound believable? Not to me.

The thing is, every “guru” has a rags to riches story to tell and they are all starting to sound the same. Some poor schmoe who has no internet knowledge whatsoever, turns on his computer, and poof! he’s a millionaire. The next day he’s buying a big new home and is posing for his sales letter to tell everyone else how he made his fortune.

The truth is that these gurus are full of bunk. There are real ways to make money out there, but they do not give you ten websites for free, and they do not have some magic program where you just press a button and whammo, you’re rolling in the cabbages. Doesn’t happen and never will.

If you want to make money online, you have to do it right and not fall for the scammers. Otherwise, you’ll just spend a lot of money and end up right where you started, looking for a real, legit solution. And why waste that kind of time?

Take the online course on how to start a small business or build a website for your existing business at http://www.smallbusinessonlinecollege.org . The course is taught by the authors of “Cyber Gold” and was taught live at Idaho State University last fall. Audry Grant is the author of numerous online articles and has a Bachelor of Arts in Creative Writing.

The Worst Thing a Ballerina Can Do Before Her Routines

The workout of a dancer can be one of the most grueling workouts in existence. Even the Navy Seals would be put to shame with the strength and stamina that ballet dancers achieve. But, in their quest for perfection, many dancers work just a little too hard.

Some push their limits and don’t even realize it because that is what they are trained to do.
The absolute worst thing that a ballerina can do is to work out too hard before her routine. The body is a unique thing and as we work out, our bodies need time to replenish and restore what may get damaged during a workout.

There is a strategy to stretching and working out that every ballerina should know to maximize her results up on stage. And, if you get the technique down, your workout time could literally be cut in half for the results you can achieve.

The best part is, when you learn the right techniques for working out your body, you can achieve results that you never could have imagined, and often, with less effort and less time spent.

Even better, with less time spent working out, more time can be spent on skill level and performance. And, with a stronger body that is less stressed, ballet movements can be performed with more control and dexterity than ever before.

You’ll be able to hold your movements longer, and pose with maximum effect for the audience with less effort than you could ever imagine.

So, my suggestion is this. Learn the techniques that will best work out and strengthen your body. This may not be as hard a workout as you once had, and you’ll be surprised by the results you’ll be able to achieve.

If you’d like to learn more about how to gain an extra advantage in your ballet dancing, visit http://www.shoplizards.com/bibleballet.html . Audry Grant is the author of over a hundred online articles and has a Bachelor of Arts in Creative Writing.

Being a Ballerina: Top 3 Mistakes Every Ballerina Makes

Being a ballerina, especially a good one, requires a great deal of dedication and hard work. Saying that is almost a joke because it’s really much more than that – and any ballerina knows that.

Working hard is just part of the job. It’s part of the lifestyle, but even with that dedication, it can be hard to avoid a few of the most common mistakes.

So, what are the top three mistakes that every ballerina makes?

1. Posture. From head to toe a ballerina must be perfect. The walk must be graceful and her stance must be pristine. But there are moments during routines when any ballerina can falter, if just for a moment, when she could have kept control. A few simple steps can keep this from ever happening again.

2. Arm extensions. Okay, we’ve all seen the dreaded chicken wing during a turn. Your instructor has probably made a big issue about this because arm extensions play a huge role in points when in front of a judge. A floppy arm will elicit big deductions - when it could have been avoided with a simple technique.

3. Maintaining control during positions. Often, this is an issue of technique more than it is one of strength. But, many ballerinas have difficulty keeping control of positions like the Penche, Foutté, Arabesque, and Pirouette, but they don’t know why. But what if it is an issue of strength? Then it’s time to learn how to trick your body into doing these moves with the control you need, until you gain the strength that will ensure results every time.

Watch out for these common mistakes and your audience will take one look at you and think you’ve been dancing since you were old enough to walk -which, okay, most ballerinas have.


If you’d like to learn more about how to gain an extra advantage in your ballet dancing, visit http://www.shoplizards.com/bibleballet.html . Audry Grant is the author of over a hundred online articles and has a Bachelor of Arts in Creative Writing.

How to Be a Better Ballet Dancer: Get Rid of Common Errors

When I was nine, my mom took me to a beginner’s ballet class. It was fun for me, but I didn’t understand what was going on and I didn’t get why the teacher kept scolding me for incorrectly performing the moves.

I’d often come home crying because I just didn’t see where I was making my mistakes. I was young, sure, but there came a point where I wanted to do well and just couldn’t make that happen.

Now, of course, I know what went wrong.

There are a few common errors that every ballerina happens upon, and some may never know it until that audition comes and they don’t get the part, or until they are performing in front of a judge and receive poor marks.

So, what are the most common errors?

*Form. Okay, this one couldn’t be more obvious. But what if you knew what you were doing wrong and just didn’t know how to fix it? This is a very common problem for ballerinas. Often, you know that you’ve performed a move wrong, but can’t quite get your body to do things right. And, even more often, the fixing of this problem has to occur at home, on your free time, without the help of your instructor.

*Foot placement. Stability is a major issue for ballerinas and getting your feet strong and in position correctly can be a big deal. Did you know that many dancers struggle unnecessarily with their pointe work because they don’t know the best way to more easily achieve maximum stability? This is unfortunate.

Errors in ballet dancing aren’t the end of the world. Most may despair about not being able to find results quickly, but trust me when I say that all it takes is a little, step by step instruction.

If you’d like to learn more about how to gain an extra advantage in your ballet dancing, visit http://www.shoplizards.com/bibleballet.html . Audry Grant is the author of over a hundred online articles and has a Bachelor of Arts in Creative Writing.

What You’re Doing - Right Now - to Make Yourself Fat

I was at a Fourth of July party and one of the women there took a liking to me, deciding that she had a lot to talk about and that I would be the one who she could confess everything to.

After about three hours, and six bottles of Bud Light, I told her that I couldn’t talk to her anymore because she was making me feel just as depressed as she was. And I just couldn’t handle it anymore. I mean, I’m a nice person, but I can’t handle everybody’s problems—especially on a holiday!

So, what was she ranting all night about?

Her weight. Ugg! Women, are so bad about complaining about their weight that it is almost painful to listen to. No, scratch that, it is painful to listen to. And it’s frustrating because it just doesn’t have to be that way.

Believe it or not, I used to be pretty heavy. Okay, pretty fat. But then I discovered that I was doing something to make myself fatter! Scary, right?

Yeah, I thought so too.

No, talking about being fat and hating yourself because you’re fat isn’t going to make you fatter, but it isn’t going to help you lose weight. But there is one thing that you can do right now to stop making yourself fatter.

What could that possibly be?

Now, this is serious information and it’s going to change the way you think about dieting altogether. It’s the food that you’re eating, and when you eat that food that determines whether you lose weight from what you eat or whether it attaches itself to your thighs.

Saying you are what you eat isn’t necessarily true anymore. You could eat whatever you wanted, but the key is that you have to learn the times when your body is better able to break down the foods if you want to lose weight.

Throw out everything you’ve ever learned about exercise programs or diet plans. The key that you’ve been missing all along is simply the time of day.

Crazy, right? But amazing.

To learn more about how to stop making yourself fatter, check out http://www.shoplizards.com/fatloss4idiots.html . Audry Grant is the author of over a hundred online articles and has a Bachelor of Arts in Creative Writing.

Guys - How to Lose that Flabby Stomach and Get Six Pack Abs

Okay guys, let’s be honest here. You want to have a ripped stomach and sexy, six pack abs. Every guy does. And every woman secretly desires that. I know I do.

I probably wouldn’t tell my man, though, because I do have a heart, but I know looking great is something that every man has an interest in.

What if I told you that it wasn’t near as hard as you thought it could be to achieve?

Throw out every ab exercise you’ve tried in the past and let me tell you a few tidbits about the best kind of workout for your body.

The key is that when you work out, you must raise your metabolism or no fat will be burned, and your time spent will be wasted. You probably know this, of course, but do you know how to make it happen?

Let me tell you this: abdominal exercises do not get rid of belly fat. They don’t burn away your love handles or make that six pack any easier to achieve. All most abdominal exercises do is waste your time and energy.

Instead, a full-body training exercise is what your body needs to maximize fat burning and boost your metabolism to reveal the muscles being sculpted beneath.

Even better, instead of wasting hours on cardio exercises, interval training is introduced that works your body out much faster, and with much faster results. You’re not going to have to take dangerous diet pills, or even buy the latest abdominal machine.

None of that crap is even worth your time.

You don’t have to believe a word of this if you choose not to. But, if you could work smarter, not harder, to get your body in the shape that you want - doesn’t that make things worth it?

To learn more about how to burn belly flab and get rid of those love handles, check out http://www.shoplizards.com/sixpackabs.html . Audry Grant is the author of over a hundred online articles and has a Bachelor of Arts in Creative Writing.

Why Lowering Your Calorie Intake is the Stupid Way to Lose Weight

Have you ever tried a low calorie diet and found yourself hunched over the refrigerator in the middle of the night with the remains of an entire chocolate cake on your face?

Maybe nothing that drastic, but I’m sure you’ve tried the diets where you never eat enough and never get full enough. By the end of the day not only are you extremely cranky, but you are starving and would do anything, including convincing yourself that it isn’t cheating, to just eat something.

But some diets make sense, don’t they? Perhaps in theory.

Take for example, simply lowering your calorie intake.

An average person takes in about 2,500 calories per day. Take in less than that and you’ll lose weight. Take in more and you’ll gain weight. Right?

For a short time, yes. But then something happens within the body because the body has a survival method of its own. After a time, if you only take in 800 calories, the body will adjust to that 800 calories. Anything more and you’ll gain weight. Anything less, and you’ll lose weight.

But, as I’m sure you know, taking in less than around 2000 calories a day makes anyone crazy with starvation.

You’ve seen it happen with celebrities all the time. They drop 40 pounds for a photo shoot or a music video and then suddenly they’re fat again. This is why. For a time, the body drops the weight from the lower calorie intake, but the second the body adjusts, any additional calories skyrocket the weight right back up.

And that’s just a stupid way to diet.

What if I told you there was a better way? No counting calories. No looking at labels to check for fat free items, no restrictions on what you can eat, and no low-carb mumbo jumbo.

All you have to do is learn the time of day that your body can best break down the food that you intake. That’s it.

To learn more about how to lose weight without counting calories, check out http://www.shoplizards.com/fatloss4idiots.html . Audry Grant is the author of over a hundred online articles and has a Bachelor of Arts in Creative Writing.

Abdominal Exercises Won’t Burn Off that Flabby Stomach - Here’s Why

Right now I want you to take a moment and very seriously consider the question I’m about to ask you. It’s a two part question, but I don’t want you to feel ashamed or embarrassed, because we’ve all been there.

Do you spend hours doing crunches with no results? Or are you someone who needs to be doing crunches but you hate spending the time and effort?

It’s okay to be both.

I’m right there with you. I would spend hours in a gym and get zero results. Sometimes after a workout, especially an abdominal workout, I would even feel fatter because of the swelling that my stomach did from working out.

But I’ve never really seen results and all I’ve got in return is frustration, and a wasted gym membership.

But then I learned that there’s a reason I feel this way…and everything is going to be alright.
Would you like to hear what changed my tune?

I learned that abdominal exercises don’t work the areas that need to be worked to actually burn stubborn belly fat away. Muffin tops are safe from expulsion too. Torso twisting and floor crunches are just as bad.

Turns out that the body needs a different kind of workout to burn stubborn belly flab away.
Anything else, and all the workout tends to do is build up cortisol, which we’ve all heard is the cause and culprit for belly fat!

Instead of wasting time, and actually making it harder on yourself to lose the belly fat, you need to learn the same method that I did for burning away belly fat.

It’s a simple exercise, and anyone at any age or athletic level can do it. And the good news is that you’ll finally burn that belly fat away.

To learn more about how to burn belly flab, check out http://www.shoplizards.com/sixpackabs.html . Audry Grant is the author of over a hundred online articles and has a Bachelor of Arts in Creative Writing.

Need to Lose Weight Fast? How to Lose 9 Pounds Every 11 Days

Arg. The Freshman Fifteen, the Newlywed Nine…erm…Newlywed Nineteen. You’ve heard it called a million things but the fact is that there is no nice way to say you’ve gained weight. Cutesy names only soften the blow.

So, let’s get serious here. You need to lose weight. You need to lose weight fast. Okay, maybe you have a little time, maybe a few months or so before a deadline like a pool party or vacation, but if you’re like most of us, you’d like to show up at the office on Monday ten pounds thinner.
And you’d like to feel that you haven’t starved yourself into an immediate eating binge, and you’d like to feel that you didn’t have to exercise until even your sweat called out for mercy.
Fair, all fair to ask for.

What if I told you that I did a lot of research on the hundreds (nay, thousands) of weight loss products and found that they all had one thing in common. Underneath all of the hype, most said that it is not the amount of exercise you get, or the amount of calories you take in that determine whether or not you lose weight.

It’s the FOOD that you eat, and WHEN you eat that food that makes the difference between fitting into your jeans tomorrow and grabbing a pair of sweatpants from your dresser drawer.

I’m not going to be cliché and tell you that you’ll lose 60 pounds by the weekend, but I will tell you that I’ve done the research, I’ve compared tons of weight loss programs, and I finally found one that works. It’s truly amazing.

Our bodies are scientific beings. Take your diet down to the scientific level and all you have to do is eat when your body can best break down the food, and your weight will come right off. You will literally lose about 9 pounds in just 11 days.

To learn more about how to lose weight fast, check out http://www.shoplizards.com/fatloss4idiots.html . Audry Grant is the author of over a hundred online articles and has a Bachelor of Arts in Creative Writing.

95% of Women Make this Mistake with their Flabby Stomachs

For women, it is often much harder to lose weight than it is for men.

Despite the fact that it is one of the hardest things to do in the world when you’re overweight (think muffin top, flabby thighs, and cute buff men walking around), working out in the gym can be so boring. And frustrating.

You could do a thousand crunches a day and still have a flabby stomach. How is that fair? You could change your diet, do thirty minutes of cardio a day, spend hundreds of dollars on fat burner pills, and still have a muffin top.

So, what’s wrong? Why do women have such a hard time losing stomach flab?

Ironically, it’s the very exercise that we spend so much time on that keeps the tummy flab in place. Too much cardio actually stimulates excessive cortisol in the body, which is the one ingredient that makes it impossible to get rid of stomach flab.

Also, spending time on crunches and ab exercises is just another useless effort. The truth is that you needs full-body exercises to burn the fat off in the places you most desire. And, if you do it right, your metabolic rate can be increased for a good 24-48 hours after! Burning stomach flab the entire time.

Now, I’m not going to say that you can be lazy and not exercise at all and lose 100 pounds. But if you’re really trying to burn that stubborn belly fat, once and for all, then it’s time to stop making the same mistakes that 95% of all other women make when trying to tone and tighten their stomachs.

It’s time to spend less of your precious time in the gym, and more time enjoying your beautiful new stomach.

To learn more about how to burn belly flab, check out http://www.shoplizards.com/sixpackabs.html. Audry Grant is the author of over a hundred online articles and has a Bachelor of Arts in Creative Writing.

Private Investigator Files: the Truth about Butch Cassidy

Butch Cassidy is known as a hero in the legends, but often the endings to the tales have been left untold to keep him as mythical and heroic as possible. However, in the “Outlaw Trail,” the full tale is finally told, and it comes straight from Butch Cassidy’s own mouth.

“Frank,” Butch Cassidy told Weber, the oldest resident of Hankville, “I’m not as bad as I have been pictured. I’ve done a poor feller and his wife a good turn on this trip. As I was cutting across the hills, I came upon a run-down looking outfit but I stopped to see if I could get something to eat. There was an old man and a woman there. They had tried to make a home but old age had hit ‘em quicker than they imagined, and the fact is they were about to be run off the place by a feller who had a note against them.

“I asked them who the gent was and they said he would be there any minute.

“Which way will he come in? I asked and the old woman pointed to an old trail. I made the old lady take $500, the amount due, and I told her to give it to this feller. I said goodbye and left. I hid out along the trail and along comes a fellow on a horse. He had black clothes and I had a hunch that this was the collector. I watched him and he went to the old log cabin and the lady let him in. Maybe five minutes later he came out. When he came up the trail, I stopped him, took the $500, and here I am!”

While it was kind of Butch Cassidy to give the old woman $500 of his own money, he did it with the clear intent of robbing her landlord and getting it back. And, whether or not he killed the landlord to get his money back, we’ll never know.

Now, I know that’s not enough to tarnish his whole Robin Hood exterior, as it is pretty legendary after all, but it is enough to get you thinking that perhaps there is more behind the man than his Hollywood tributes portray.

If that story wasn’t enough to satisfy your appetite, visit Private Investigator to learn more about the Wild West Outlaws and the Private Investigators that caught them. And, if you’re in need of detective services, from infidelity cases to lost loved ones, visit Private Investigator to hire one of the nation’s foremost Private Investigator’s, Sandra Hope.

Private Investigator Files: the Younger Brothers

One of the best accounts of the Younger Brothers comes from a friend to the Younger family, August Appler, editor of the Osceola Missouri Democrat, who tells how Cole Younger and his band of followers captured fifteen men. In camp that night, Cole debated with the members of his gang on the merits of the Enfield rifle. One of the gang thought that since it could kill a man at a mile, it could also kill ten men in one shot. Cole decided to use his prisoners as his test.

He placed them in a line, one behind the other, then measured off fifteen paces and fired. Three men dropped.

Cole continued to fire until all men had been killed, disappointed with the results.

Another story gives some insight into the men behind the killings. The District Attorney of Dallas County, E.G. Bower wrote that “Cole, Bob, and Jim Younger sang in the choir of the Baptist Church in Dallas where they were on the side of law and order. The boys were often called on by the sheriff to assist in the arrest of desperate characters and they always responded.”

One can see the solemn-face of Cole and his brothers side by side sharing a hymnbook under the admiring eyes of the Baptist congregation, while underneath their neat broadcloth coats rested well-oiled and much used Navy Colts.

The gang could kill and plunder as much as they wanted as long as their victims were banks, railroads, and express companies. These institutions were commonly considered robbers of the people. When they were raided by the outlaws, the public generally shrugged their shoulders.
Many peace officers, like Bower, were ex-soldiers and to arrest a “war comrade” was unthinkable—unless of course that comrade had raped your sister, insulted your mother, or stolen your horse.

If that story wasn’t enough to satisfy your appetite, visit Private Investigator to learn more about the Wild West Outlaws and the Private Investigators that caught them. And, if you’re in need of detective services, from infidelity cases to lost loved ones, visit Private Investigator to hire one of the nation’s foremost Private Investigator’s, Sandra Hope.

Private Investigator Files: Jesse James, Studying the Legend

Perhaps the most famous and glamorized outlaw who ever lived, Jesse James has been known throughout history as a Robin Hood, robbing from the overly-rich railroad tycoons and freely giving to the poor. He is historical in theme and legend, but, what most people know is only the Hollywood story, and not the real Jesse James. His tales have been passed from generation to generation and are mythical in proportion and nearly apocryphal in their power to enthrall.

So, let’s start with the most basic question: how did Jesse James start his life of killing?

Jesse James joined the guerilla outfit of “Bloody Bill” Anderson at the age of sixteen and served, at different times, under Quantrill, Anderson, and George Todd, three of the bloodiest men in the annals of American history.

For two years, Jesse was tutored in every technique of cold-blooded murder, violence, thievery, and arson. While his past is never an excuse for the epic serial-killer proportions that Jesse James reached in his prime, it is a truth that cannot be denied.

When Jesse had been tutored for a year, and dubbed a full-rank guerilla fighter, he was given the order by George Todd to “kill every male thing that wears a blue uniform” one dark night at Centralia. Jesse got out his gun with the rest of the gang and started his killing spree, without remorse. When the massacre was over, Jesse had managed to kill nine men. This may seem like a small number, but by this time, Jesse James had an impressive record in killings (some thirty men by this time) for a boy of just seventeen.

And that is just the beginning of Jesse James. In later years, he was to start his own gang of outlaws and terrorize the American West in ways never before seen, and with a cruelty never before imagined.

If that story wasn’t enough to satisfy your appetite, visit Private Investigator to learn more about the Wild West Outlaws and the Private Investigators that caught them. And, if you’re in need of detective services, from infidelity cases to lost loved ones, visit Private Investigator to hire one of the nation’s foremost Private Investigator’s, Sandra Hope.

The Private Investigator: Highlighting the Pinkertons

When Jesse James and his Wild Bunch had finally robbed one bank too many, Allan Pinkerton and his son William stepped up to exert a very terrifying pressure upon the outlaws. Intelligent, incredibly tenacious, physically powerful, fearless, and with an almost fanatical devotion for the laws of their land, they were without a doubt two of America’s greatest detectives.

Allan Pinkerton founded his private investigation agency in 1850 and can be described as the nation’s first civilian FBI-like agency. The Pinkertons were pioneers in the field of criminology and pursued Jesse James and his fellow outlaws under the most primitive of conditions.

There was no central fingerprint filing system in Washington, no rogues gallery, no most wanted descriptions being sent to each of the police stations in the fifty states at the touch of a button, no ballistics or modern techniques from which a criminal could be made by his patterns, his left-over fingerprints, or his DNA. Nothing that like existed for the Pinkertons. All they had was a deep desire to uphold the law and an even deeper desire to catch those running loose breaking it.

They also had a great desire to keep pristine records of every account, and as a result, the Pinkerton agency files are legendary themselves. They started the first rogues gallery that included pictures and physical descriptions, as well as laying the foundations for tracking a criminal’s habits.

And the job of a private investigator was not an easy one. For months they were riding horseback, following dead leads (literally), and endlessly questioning bystanders, before finally picking up the trail that led them into hostile territories infested with murderous outlaws and their henchmen.

When the first four bank robberies led by Jesse James and his gang rocked the nation, Allan Pinkerton and his agency were called in to hunt down the bandits once and for all. Pinkerton’s prestige was well-known by this time, but more than that, it was understood that he and his agency were incorruptible to the core. No bribes, liquor, or prostitutes could sway them, and men had tried.

And, in a humorous twist, while the bandits feared and hated the Pinkertons, they grew to respect them for their fair dealings. The Pinkertons would pursue any bandit until captured, but once the criminal was given a chance to repay his debt to society, he was a free man in their eyes.

If that story wasn’t enough to satisfy your appetite, visit Private Investigator to learn more about the Wild West Outlaws and the Private Investigators that caught them. And, if you’re in need of detective services, from infidelity cases to lost loved ones, visit Private Investigator to hire one of the nation’s foremost Private Investigator’s, Sandra Hope.