Great-Great Uncle Remus Reid-Fiction!

Harry Reid’s Horse-Thief AncestorFiction!

 
Summary of eRumor:

This email claims that Judy Wallman, a genealogy researcher, discovered Senator Harry Reid had an ancestor who was hanged as a horse thief and bank robber in 1889.  It was his great-great uncle Remus Reid.  The only picture of him was one of him standing on the gallows just before he was hung and had an inscription on the back describing his crimes, capture, and execution.  The eRumor says that Wallman contacted Harry Reid’s office to inquire about great-great uncle Remus and their response was a sanitized version of his story that was expertly created by Reid’s image-makers.

The Truth:
This is not true just like it was not true about Hillary Clinton, Al Gore or George W. Bush.  The essence of this story is from an old piece of humorous writing that was designed to demonstrate how you can put “spin” on a negative story to make it sound positive. For example Remus fell off of a platform at a civic function instead of being hanged.  Someone altered the story to make it seem as though it was talking about an ancestor of Al Gore.  Then another version got started saying it was about an ancestor of Hillary Clinton and George W. Bush.  Now there is a version making the rounds saying it is about Senator Harry Reid.
updated 01/08/09