the townsfolk were putting two and two together and coming up with the theory that she needed whiskey to deal with the reality confronting her - the reality of having her life thrown into inconvenient turmoil , having to become a fugitive , having to run for her life to stay out of prison - after she gunned a man down in cold blood , gunned him down in order to steal his money , after she murdered a man who was survived by a wife and three young children .