Quirky Founding Fathers and Other Bonkers Bits of American History

Quirky Founding Fathers and Other Bonkers Bits of American History

Khalid Elhassan - May 2, 2020

Quirky Founding Fathers and Other Bonkers Bits of American History
The hanging of Ellison “Cottontop” Mount in 1890. Boston Globe

30. Real Bad Blood

The Hatfield-McCoy Feud (or war) was remarkable for its intensity and longevity. That ability to keep good hate going for a long time might have been due, at least on the McCoys’ part, to genetics. In 2007, an eleven-year-old McCoy girl prone to fits of rage underwent medical tests to find out what was wrong with her. It was discovered that she, and many members of the McCoy clan, had tumors on their adrenal glands. According to doctors, such tumors cause the release of massive amounts of mood-altering chemicals, such as adrenaline.

That could explain much about the infamous feud. As the McCoy girl’s physician put it, her family’s genetic defect: “does produce hypertension, headache and sweating intermittently depending on when the surge of these compounds occurs in the bloodstream. I suppose these compounds could possibly make somebody very angry and upset for no good reason“. Feuding was literally in the McCoys’ blood.

Also Read: Dirty Details About the Hatfield-McCoy Feud.

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