"History's 'Hatfields amd McCoys' a bleak depiction of famous feud"

[MicaelS]

3. Friend of mine who is the history buff tells me..

That the feud really started over a pig.

Wikipedia supports this. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hatfield%E2%80%93McCoy_feud

The second recorded instance of violence in the feud occurred thirteen years later, in 1878, after a dispute about the ownership of a hog: Floyd Hatfield had it but Randolph McCoy said it was his. The pig was only in the fight because some of the Hatfields believed that since the pig was on their land, it was theirs. Some of the McCoys objected, saying that the "notches" (markings) on the pig's ears were McCoy marks, not Hatfield marks. The matter was taken to the local Justice of the Peace, and the McCoys lost because of the testimony of Bill Staton, a relative of both families. Presiding over the case was Anderson "Preacher Anse" Hatfield. In June 1880, Staton was killed by two McCoy brothers, Sam and Paris, who were later acquitted on the grounds of self-defense.