I don't understand most of this. We're talking about people who went out secretly at night armed to the teeth, with the intention of shooting themselves out of trouble if they were apprehended (as indeed happened). Their objective was to make an indecent amount of money virtually directly ruining other peoples' lives. How can anyone have the remotest sympathy for them? Does it matter that there are other people doing other anti-social things? Perhaps we shouldn't punish men guilty of wife-battering because we should be grateful they didn't kill their wives?