Broadside Johnnie

Popular accounts credit him with a noble pedigree of debatable heritage. By his own account, Broadside Johnnie is an heir only to misfortune, whose origins lay in the wake of fervent undertakings compounded with traditional rearing. He entertains a pressing task that likewise relentlessly squeezes the breath of life from his accomplice, an English concertina, likewise of debatable heritage
A Popular Account
"Broadside... admits to having a bit of mischief up his ragged sleeve. “It’s not about the clothes,” he says. “It’s about what’s in me mind – I see a lot of possibilities here,” he adds, looking around the room.

“What are you going to do?” I ask. “Rob people?”

“Not of their money, no,” he answers. “Maybe of their dignity and self-respect, if they’ve been foolish enough to bring any with them tonight"
Anne Marie Distefano