Scoundrels get extra syllables
Susan Spano’s April 20 article “In Pursuit of Butch and Sundance” was magnificent. One inflexible rule of journalese is that American assassins must have three names: John Wilkes Booth, Lee Harvey Oswald, James Earl Ray, Mark David Chapman. This courtesy of a resonant three-part moniker is also applied to other dangerous folk. This is why the “Utah bandit” is “Robert LeRoy Parker” to many journalists and just plain “Butch Cassidy” to almost everyone else.
Evan Dale Santos
Adelanto, Calif.
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