KFC’s Founder Shot a Business Rival Without Going to Jail
Colonel Sanders was no chicken
Harland Sanders, known endearingly as Colonel Sanders, is famous worldwide for his fried chicken.
His creation, Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC), currently has a brand value of 5.5 billion dollars. So when most people think about the Colonel, it’s always an image of a jolly grandpa that popularized buckets of chicken.
And what most people don’t know is that he was also a hotheaded and ruthless gunslinging entrepreneur.
Heated Competition
You can trace back the Colonel’s fried chicken to a gas station in North Corbin, Kentucky. In the 1930s, Sanders found a bit of business success running a gas station, which allowed him to sell chicken for extra income on the side.
A competing gas station was located just down the road, so Sanders did everything he could to win customers. One of his advertising tactics was to paint signs in different places across the town.
The aggressive promotion pissed off Matt Stewart, who owned the competing outlet.
Matt Stewart would then go around painting over the signs Sanders set up. When Sanders first found out about this, he approached Matt Stewart and said he’d straight-up shoot him…
