A violent man can retain the manners of a gentleman.

Evidence

A less ungovernable nature would never have spoken as he did, nor told me what he did; but his proud, fierce soul all poured itself out then, with hatred and self-loathing, blood on his hands and murder in his heart, though even then he could not be altogether other than a gentleman, or altogether divest himself of fascination, even when so tempestuously revealing the darkest points of his character. — Isabella L. Bird, A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains, 226

Categorization

• STORYSTEM: A narrator trapped by a promise of secrecy to a magnetic, self-loathing killer who is still half gentleman — a ready-made gothic Western frame.
• XREF: Resonates with the Whartons and Byronic outlaws of frontier memoir, and with the fascination/repulsion dyad of captivity narratives. — connects to: A one-eyed desperado could combine a repulsive visage with a chivalrous gentlemanly manner. — Isabella L. Bird, A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains, 99