I’ve just been to a Gaelic storytelling evening in Glasgow at it’s world famous Celtic Connections festival. One of the speakers was a man in his 90’s telling the story of when baby face Nelson came home to cape Breton and employed the services of a deaf and dumb member of his extended cape Breton family. He took him to Chicago to play the role of driver of the getaway vehicle. This mute man would never be able to “squeal”. After a successful while of being the gangsters driver, the deaf /dumb fella waited until the gangsters filled the car and then while they ran back to the bank for a 2nd collection, the driver drove away and headed home to Cape Breton. The gang caught up with him a week or so later and tried to intimidate him into revealing where the “loot” was. They got nowhere until they asked someone who could sign to ask him where he hid the money. In sign language the driver told that he hid the money under a bridge near a river in a certain area of cape Breton. The gangsters asked the interpreter what the driver told him and he said that the driver couldn’t answer because he was too scared. The interpreter fled. Eventually the driver indicated he would show them where the money was but when they arrived it was gone- never to be seen again, neither was the interpreter! After roughing up the cape Breton driver, the gang returned to Chicago. Soon the FBI would shoot babyface dead.
This is a story passed down generations. It’s accepted in cape Breton that babyface was a descendant of the highland clearances after Culloden. I don’t argue with oral tradition Yours Eddi Reader Singer songwriter
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