Myths about Billy's character

[Canuckster]

I am going to ask this right up front. PLEASE save all discussions on whether you believe in his claims or VC raid for another thread or start one (I'll gladly join in). I see there is a thread on the VC raid and it has already quickly devolved into discussing up everything but the raid. Muddies up the waters on the topic at hand.

What I'd like this thread to be is all the rhetoric and other stuff that is bandied about that people use to prove that Billy was a liar, boastful, a cheat, and I guess all round bad person. The tactic is simple, vilify the person so that it is easier to believe anything negative about him.

It seems most of those accusations of Billy's corruptness fall into three categories...1) outright fabrications 2) twisting of whatever was stated or 3) to use double-standards regarding something Billy did or said as proof of deceit even if it was a common occurrence amongst others.

In Histo-journalist Ian Mackersey's book "No Empty Chairs" the writer employs this tactic in the chapter "The Raid That Never Was" setting the tone for the development of Billy's evilness almost right from birth or as he describes 'his less than virtuous earlier life back in Canada'. There even seems to be an insinuation that the house he grew up contributed in the development of those evil traits.

So I'll start things off with my favourite as it not only came up in the last few days on another thread but primarily because of its source and can be disproved without a shadow of a doubt.

Myth:
Department of National Defence historian Breton Greenhous claimed that Billy wore the 1914-1915 Star to which he was not entitled. With credentials like that how could it be anything but the truth and an indictment of Billy's character? I bet all you BB-haters' blood boils with contempt just reading that!

Myth Busted:
The criteria for someone from the UK may have been getting to France. What's forgotten is that someone coming from Canada had to cross that big old war zone called the Atlantic Ocean. As soon as you were three miles out. Here's what the Department of National Defence in Ottawa has to say...
http://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/rememb...66-1918/15star

So how could a historian at DND in Ottawa get something so wrong about info that has always been available from the DND in Ottawa?