The Criminal
Host – “Good evening, everyone and thank you for joining us tonight as we continue our series of interviews. We have already heard one man’s tale of how he met his hero and
The Legacies He Left. Despite the wonderful memories that were shared previously, our guest tonight knew a different side of this larger than life man.
You will hear firsthand the memories and experiences our guest had and how they helped form his opinion. Please welcome, joining us from prison where he is living out consecutive life sentences, Paykal Zahn. Mister Zahn, we understand that your experiences with him were vastly different than those of our previous guest. Will share your memories with us?”
Zahn – “I’ll tell you what that no good piece of… I’ll tell you what he did to me. A long while back, I worked with him on a few jobs. We was guns for hire and did whatever we needed to do to make our money.”
Host – “Anything?”
Zahn – “Clean your ears out; that’s what I said. We did what we needed to do. Your ‘great hero’ was just like me ‘cept he was quicker on the trigger. If we was s’posed to steal a ring from someone’s finger, he’d take the finger too. If someone crossed the boss, it’d be me and ‘Plague’ that went.”
Host – “I’m sorry, ‘Plague’?”
Zahn – “What’s wrong with you, pretty boy? Got crud in your ears or somethin’? We called your hero ‘Plague’. And shut your mouth, I’ll tell you why. He was called ‘Plague’ because he didn’t care who he killed. Huh, I remember one time there was a pretty boy like you walkin’ by wearin’ a hat Plague liked. So Plague shot ‘im and took the hat. Yeah, he’s no hero.
Well, me and Plague worked together because we got the job done and the boss liked it. One day the boss called us in and told us ‘bout some big job he had planned; it was s’posed to make us all rich enough to retire. ‘Course, it was goin’ to be real dangerous."
Host – “It sounds like that kind of criminal life would always be dangerous. The law would be after you as soon as they discovered what you had done and who you were. What made this particular job so dangerous?”
Zahn – “I’m getting’ there! Anyway, we was s’posed to rob a bank on the capitol. It was goin’ to be a big job, but the boss thought we could do it. So, he sent us to the capitol with a team of five others.
Once we got to the bank, we did what we did best. Me and Plague killed the guards and fought our way through to the vault. We used the other five as pack animals to move the money and made it back to our ship.”
Host – “If it was such a successful run, why do you hate him then?”
Zahn – “What’d I tell you? Interrupt me again and you don’t get the story. Anyway, once we got back to the ship, we did what the boss told us to do; we shot the five hired hands and got out of the capitol as fast as we could.
We had to refuel the ship before we could make it back to the boss so we stopped ‘bout halfway there. While we was gettin’ the fuel, I turned around for a minute and Plague goes and shoots me in the back!
I dropped to the dust and Plague takes off for who knows where. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the ‘authorities’ show up and arrest me. Seems Plague told ‘em who I was, that I robbed the bank, and that I hid the money somewhere. I told ‘em all what happened, even told ‘em that I was with a team, but they locked me up anyway.
Come to find out later, Plague had been tellin’ the ‘authorities’ ‘bout what we’d been doing and said that I’d been the one doin’ all the killin’. No one cared what I said and they locked me up anyway. I’m in jail ‘cause that lousy piece of trash lied to me, stole from me, and tried to kill me! He’s no hero; he’s scum. He's a murderer, a thief, and a cheat!”
Host – “Well, Mister Zahn, thank you for sharing your…interesting tale with us. As we mentioned in the beginning of this series, this man has worn many different faces through his life. As with us all, he has been many different people over the years and not all of those people have been good or heroic. Sometimes, he was more sinner than saint.
Please join us again as we continue the series of interviews and memories speaking of this powerful man’s life. We will return next time with another one of
The Legacies He Left. Goodnight.”
