My dad, born in 1913, told a story where as a little boy he heard an old timer from before homesteading days say that actually hung horse thieves. The reason they were hated so, if your horse was stolen out in the middle of nowhere, literally speaking, it was a death sentence.
thats exactly the same thing my dad said about why horse thieves were so hated...steal a mans horse was giving that man a death sentence. They’d hang um high if they got caught.