We all know why the Wild West was so famous. What we sometimes forget to
remember is the names of the people who gave the "Wild West" its name. One of those people is the
infamous "Butch Cassidy", the legendary outlaw, who took his name to the top by robbing banks and
trains in the 1880s and '90s. However, beyond the well-known exploits of robbing banks and trains,
there's a deeper story waiting to be unveiled. Early Years.
Butch Cassidy, whose real name was Robert LeRoy Parker, was born on
April 13th, 1866,
in Beaver, Utah. Grown in a Mormon family and worked in cattle ranching during his childhood.
His life would take a weird turn after leaving his house in his adolescence and afterwards
would meet Mike Cassidy, the person who would introduce him to the world of crime by teaching
him about cattle rustling and gunslinging. Robert, shortly after, worked on
different ranches and learned from a butcher from Rock Springs (Wyoming),
where he got the nickname "Butch", he then added
"Cassidy" to
honor his old friend and mentor. First Incidents
Somewhen around 1880, Butch tried to visit a business of clothes, which
was closed; Butch let himself in, grabbed a couple of jeans, and left a note that stated that he
would promise to pay the next visit. Nonetheless, the owner of the shop made a report. After
battling in court, Cassidy was released. For 4 years, up until 1884, he
continued working in a ranch, but then he took back his work at the Wyoming
and Montana ranches a
nd got back to Telluride in 1887. He made friends with Mathew Warner, owner
of a racehorse. They raced the horse in different events and spread the profit. This went on
until they met William and Thomas McCarty, who probably were guilty of giving the ideas,
and knowledge for train and bank robberies. 1889 comes, and the group of Cassidy, Warner,
and McCarty alongside a 4th unknown man, were responsible for the heist of San Miguel Valley
Bank in Colorado. They got away with approximately 21
thousand dollars. They then fled to Robbers
Roost, a remote hideout in the southeast of Utah. Now in 1890, Butch bought a ranch near Dubois,
Wyoming, and 4 years later he would fall in love with Ann Bassett, whose father previously
made business with Butch. In that same year, Cassidy would be finally arrested in
Lander, for horse theft and for the possibility of creating a system
for protection for local farmers. This was the first time that Butch made
a sentence behind bars. He stayed for
18 months and made a promise to the governor
William Alford Richards, that he would never, under any circumstance, break the law in that
State, in exchange for his sentence being reduced, surprisingly the governor believed him and
after being released, Cassidy started a short relationship with Josie, Ann's older sister, to
then come back with Ann. What a life, ain't it? The "Wild Bunch" is born.
After his release, Butch started to gather more with a group of
criminals, who were his most cl
ose friends: Elzy Lay, Harvey "Kid Curry" Logan, Ben
Kilpatrick, and Harry Tracy amongst others. With the formation, they would then
receive the name of the "Wild Bunch". The criminal activity of the group quickly
advanced, and even though they were known to be non-violent, they indeed were responsible
for numerous deaths during their assaults. On the 13th of August of 1896, the band
robbed a bank in Montpelier, Idaho, and fled with an amount of 7 thousand dollars.
Shortly after, a very we
ll-known name would join the group, the famous Harry Alonzo
Longabaugh, also known as "Sundance Kid". Another assault, and probably the one that
pushed Butch Cassidy's fame to the sky, happened on the 2 of June of 1899, when the Wild
Bunch stole from the mail of the Union Pacific, near Wilcox, Wyoming. This led to
the massive hunt of the thieves, and a lot of famous names of the law
participated in the search, without success. A shooting started to happen with
policemen, where Kid Curry an
d George Curry shot and killed Sheriff Joe Hazen.
The band escaped onto Hole-In-The-Wall. Another train heist occur on July 11th,
1899, Elzy Lay amongst other members robbed a merchandise train in Folsom, New
México, in an action that it is presumed to be planned by Butch, and he also might
have been involved. During the robbery, another shooting took place, in which Lay
killed Sheriff Edward Farr and Henry Love, which ended with giving him a life
sentence in the penitentiary of New México
. Members of the Wild Bunch gang were
used to splitting after every robbery, and they fled always in different directions.
The usual places to which they flew were the Hole-In-The-Wall hideout, "Robbers Roost", or
Fannie Porter's burdel in San Antonio Texas. Failed Amnesty
Things started to go downhill for the group, and now with the loss of Lay, Cassidy wanted to get
closer to safer spots. His first step was to get closer to Governor Heber Wells, from Utah, to form
an amnesty. He, instead
of agreeing immediately, gave him advice to instead of persuading him,
to try and persuade the Union Pacific Railroad, so that they could drop all of the charges against
Cassidy. To sum up, the reunion never happened, and after that, the Union Pacific Railroad
tried to contact Cassidy under the direction of E. H. Harriman, nonetheless, on
August 29th of 1900, Butch, Longabaugh, and the others robbed the Union Pacific train
on the proximities of Tipton, Wyoming, and by doing so he would be b
reaking his old promise
that he made to the Governor of Wyoming of not breaking the law again in that state, and pushing
away the possibility of achieving an amnesty. Meanwhile, on February 28th of 1900, some law
agents tried to arrest Lonny Curry, brother to Kid Curry, while he was staying at his aunt's
house. Lonny died in the shooting that unfolded, and his cousin Bob Lee was caught. One month
later, Kid Curry and Bill Carver were chased by an officer in St. Johns, Arizona, after
being
identified for using money that came from the robbery at Wilcox, Wyoming. After starting
another shooting, both Carver and Curry escaped. On the 17th of April, George Curry was murdered
by Sheriff John Tyler and his helper from Grand County. Kid Curry wanted revenge, so he took his
horse and on the 26th of May, he rode to Moab, Utah, where he killed Tyler and Jenkins, avenging
the death of George and his brother, Lonny. Now back to Cassidy, he, Harry, and Bill
traveled to Winnemucca, Nevada
, and on the 19th of September of 1900, they robbed the
First National Bank and put in their pockets the incredible amount of over $32,000. The team wanted
to celebrate and in December of that same year, they took a photo that was called "The 5
of Fort Worth", in which Butch Cassidy, Harry A. Longabaugh, Kid Curry, Ben Kilpatrick,
and William Carver, made an appearance. This photo was then used by the detective's agency
to make search flyers and give them a hunt. Kid Curry then joined the b
and, and
together with Cassidy and Longabaough, they stole another train from the
Union Pacific near Wagner, Montana, and took an amount of over $60,000.
As usual, the band parted ways. Argentina, a taste of fresh air.
Butch Cassidy and Longabaugh fled to the east of New York, and on February 20th of 1901, alongside
Ethel "Etta" Place, a friend of Longabaugh's, they headed to Buenos Aires, Argentina, on board the
British vapor beast "Herminius". Cassidy used the surname of James Ryan and ac
ted as Etta's brother.
After arrival, the three of them bought a cabin on the lakeside of the Blanco River, near Cholila.
May of 1901 kicked in, and after staying for a while in Trelew in a hotel called "Del Globo"
they settled in Cholila. Shortly after, the Pinkerton sent a document of the robbers, offering
a reward of 10 thousand dollars per head, (Butch and Sundance) alive or dead. The documentation
included all of Butch's and Sundance's physical details, in hopes to catch them.
Last ye
ars and The Biggest Heist On February 14th, 1905, two bandits who might have
been Cassidy and Longabaugh jumped the Tarapacá and Argentina Bank, in Gallego's River. They
escaped with a sum that in today's money would be close to 100 thousand dollars. The robbers
vanished in the immensity of the Patagonia. The police were so close to catching
them, that on the 1 of May, the band had to sell their property at Cholila,
and even Governor Julio Lezana sent an arrest order, but before it got to b
e
executed, Sheriff Edward Humphreys, an Argentinian-wales who was friends
with Cassidy, alerted them of the search. Etta Place decided that it was enough of
adventures for her, and asked Longabaugh to take her back to San Francisco, which he
did. All of this happened in 1906, and Cassidy, under the name of James "Santiago" Maxwell, got a
job at a mine in Concordia, Santa Vera Cruz in the Bolivian central Andes, where after Longabaugh's
return from the USA, they met once again. What then h
appened, was Cassidy's regret of its
delictive life, where after doing an excursion in late 1907 in a town in east Bolivia, he
felt sad. He wrote to friends at Concordia, saying that he had finally found the "exact
place that he was looking for over 20 years". Now with 41 years on him, he was thrilled about
the possibility of having found a beautiful land, one that could give him a new
opportunity to redeem himself, and even said in that same letter "If I
don't fall, I'll be soon living he
re". Farewell
Mystery is all around Butch's dead since there is not a certainty of how he died.
One of the theories, and probably the closest to the truth, states that on the 6th of November of
1908, a group of armed people together with the local major, surrounded a house where Butch and
Longabaugh were staying. The shooting started, bullets flew and chaos made its presence.
After a short break from the shooting, it is said that a scream from a man,
followed by another shot, was heard. The
group entered the property not until the next
morning and found the dead bodies of two men lying down, they both had multiple bullet injuries,
and one of them had a hole in the head. It is assumed that both men killed themselves.
This is stated as a theory since it is not confirmed that both men's bodies
belong to Cassidy's and Longabaugh's, and there have been attempts to find
their anonymous graves without success, due to not getting good DNA samples that can
belong to alive relatives of
Butch or Longabaugh. Another research was conducted by Butch's sister,
Lula Parker Betenson, which states that he indeed came back alive to the USA, and live in the
anonymacy for years. She then states in her biography "Butch Cassidy, my brother", that people
who knew her brother meet with him after 1908, and she tells about a supposed "family
reunion", with her brother Mark, her father, herself, and, of course, Butch Cassidy.
A lot of stories circle around the end of Butch Cassidy, and ther
e will be forever
tales about how it ended, but what we do know, is that it is in fact, a story to remember.
Butch Cassidy's life has left an indelible mark on Wild West history. All of his plans,
his heists, and his band, made him a legendary figure. Over the years, the story of his name
has been forever marked in books, movies, songs, and in a lot of different media all over
the world. The true story remains an enigma, and due to the mystery of his last days,
it will forever add intrigue
to his legacy.
Comments
This channel doesn't get the love it deserves. Great video as always!
Sounds like RDR 2
My father did our family tree and discovered that good old RLP is my great x 5 uncle !!