The close connections between outlaw heroes and political figures can be seen in the early histories of Mao Zhedong and Josef Stalin. Mao was a reader of the Outlaws of the Marsh novel from an early age and a student of Chinese bandits, introducing their techniques and mentality into his Red Army. It was the custom in the clandestine days of early Russian communism for individuals to take political names to disguise their true identities. Joseph Stalin chose ‘Koba’, a legendary Georgian bandit, as his party name. Both these men were pivotal in large-scale and relatively long-lasting political revolutions and the elaborated philosophy associated with those historical developments. Although outlaw heroes rarely espouse more than a rudimentary, if any, political agenda, many have been actors in larger or smaller political activities, often involving the desire for a better deal, a fairer distribution of resources as well as vengeance on a long-hated group of occupiers, rivals or other oppressors. Politics have enveloped the lives, deaths and legends of many outlaw heroes, in many times and places, most notably in China, Mexico and Sicily. In other instances, we can glimpse a submerged politic being played out through the actions of street mobs supporting English highwaymen making their way to the gallows, and after.