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Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
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This page is about Butch Cassidy, Sundance Kid, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kids, the old west, western, Clint Eastwood images, fist full images, good bad and the ugly wav, Marty Robbins, El Passo City
I have lived many times before but one of the most exciting and romantic lives was as the outlaw Butch Cassidy.
I was born Robert Leroy Parker in Beaver, Utah, on Apr. 13, 1866, the oldest of 13 children. I had no formal schoolin. I became a cowboy while still in my teens when I met Mike Cassidy. I adopted the Cassidy name after I joined him in rustling cattle in Utah and Colorado.
Mike Cassidy led a small band of robbers and rustlers until he shot a Wyoming rancher, and disappeared. I took over the gang. The gang's hideout was at Robber's Roost, located in the southwest corner of Utah, a rough, mountainous area which was difficult to find. In early 1887, I met Bill and Tom McCarty , hard-riding outlaws who headed up their own gang which included Matt Warner (real name Willard Christiansen), Tom O'Day, Silver Tip (Bill Wall), Maxwell, and Indian Ed Newcomb. When the McCarty brothers asked me to join them in a train robbery, I happily agreed. On Nov. 3, 1887 my gang and the McCartys stopped the Denver and Rio Grande express near Grand Junction, Colo. The express guard refused to open the safe and Bill McCarty put a pistol to his head. "Should we kill him?" he asked.
I answered, "Let's vote."
The gang members voted not to kill the guard and the train moved off leaving us bandits empty-handed. I went back to rustling cattle and occasionally tried to make an honest living while working as a cowboy or a miner in Colorado and Utah.
On Mar. 30, 1889, I again joined the McCartys and Matt Warner on another raid, this time we robbed the First National Bank of Denver of $20,000. Tom McCarty approached the bank president that day and stated: "Excuse me, sir, but I just overheard a plot to rob this bank."
The bank president nervously asked: "Lord! How did you learn of this plot?"
"I planned it," McCarty said, raising his gun "Put up your hands."
With this successful robbery Warner immediately opened a saloon (with his share), but me and the McCartys decided to rob another bank and, on June 24, 1889, successfully robbed the bank of Telluride, Colorado of $10,500. Local law officials formed huge posses in a extensive search for our gang, but we made our getaway and went into hiding. I decided to follow the straight and narrow path and took several jobs with ranches as a cowboy. I even worked as a butcher in Rock Springs, Wyo. which is where I earned his name "Butch."
Me and Al Hainer then began an extortion racket in Colorado. We would sell local ranchers protection, telling them that we would make sure that cattle were not rustled if the ranchers agreed to pay us a fee. If a rancher decided not to pay this fee, then Al and I would simply steal their cattle. Complaining ranchers caused lawmen John Chapman and Bob Calverly to track us down. The lawmen captured Al Hainer outside of the our cabin and tied him to a tree. Bob Calverly, with his gun drawn, entered the cabin where I was relaxing. When I saw Calverly, I jumped for my guns and gun belt, which were on the other side of the room. Calverly fired four shots, one of which creased my scalp and knocked me unconscious. Al and I were tried and found guilty for extortion and sentenced to two years at the penitentiary in Laramie City, Wyoming. At the end of a year and half, I applied for a pardon and was granted a hearing with governor William Richards.
I said, "My time is three-fourths done, and a few more months won't make much difference. I've got some property in Colorado that needs looking after, and I'd like to get a pardon."
"If it's your intention to go straight after you get out, perhaps it could be arranged," replied the governor. "You're still young, and smart enough to make a success in almost any line. Will you give me your word that you will quit rustling."
"Can't do that, governor," I replied, because if I gave you my word I'd only have to break it. I'm in too deep now to quit the game. But I'll promise you one thing, if you give me a pardon I'll not commit any more crimes in Wyoming."
William Richards was impressed with my frankness and believed that I would keep my word. The pardon was signed and I walked out of the Wyoming penitentiary a free man, on January 19, 1896.
Upon my release, I rode to a hideout called Hole-in-the-Wall. This hideout was located in Wyoming and was considered more of a fortress then just a difficult place to find (such as Robber's Roost). At Hole-in-the-Wall, I met the Logan brothers, Harvey (known as "Kid Curry") and Lonnie. Harvey Logan was one of the meanest outlaws of the "Wild Bunch, a known killer and a man few people dared to cross. Harvey Logan took his alias "Kid Curry" from another well known Hole-in-the-Wall bandit named Big Nose George Curry. I also met such gunmen and outlaws as Bob Meeks and William Ellsworth (known as Elza Lay. I became the natural leader of this last group of outlaws and convinced them that their days of easy pickings were over and that each robbery needed extensive scouting and planning. I told them about how my friend, Bill McCarty and his brother Fred McCarty had been shot to pieces while trying to rob the bank in Delta, Colorado on Sept. 27, 1893. Another friend, Matt Warner, had been captured while trying to rob a bank and was given a long prison term.
Bob Meeks, Elzy Lay, and I robbed the Montpelier Bank on August 13, 1896 (the take was $7,165). The success of this robbery was due to the fact that I had scouted the town a few weeks before. On April 21, 1897, Elzy Lay, Joe Walker, and I traveled to a mining camp at Castle Gate, Utah and robbed a mining payroll. The take was just over $8,000 and we left without firing a shot. I then rode to a New Mexico ranch with Lay where the two of us took jobs as cowboys.
When the money ran out, Lay and I left the ranch and rode back to Hole-in-the-Wall and gathered other outlaws to rob the bank at Belle Fourche, South Dakota. Harvey Logan, Tom O'Day, Walt Putney, and Indian Billy Roberts joined me for the robbery. Again , no gunfire took place, and the take was almost $5,000.
George "Flat-Nose" Curry, Harvey Logan, Elza Lay, Lonny Logan, Ben Kilpatrick, Sundance Kid (Harry Longbaugh), and Ben Beeson, and I stopped the Union Pacific's Overland Flyer on June 2, 1899. The train came to a stop before a small trestle (that we had been barricaded ). I ordered the engineer to uncouple the express car and move the rest of the train over the trestle. The engineer refused and Harvey Logan pistol whipped him. This beating still did not persuade the engineer to move the train, so Lay jumped into the cab moved the train forward over the trestle. We had placed a small charge of dynamite on the trestle and it blew just as the engine crossed the bridge. The separated express car was now left alone and the gang quickly surrounded it and called out to the guard inside, the man who identified himself as Woodcock. When ordered to open the express car door, the guard yelled:"Come in and get me!". We placed some dynamite next to the door and lit the fuse. The explosion ripped the express car in half and sent Woodcock flying out to ground. Harvey Logan ran up to the badly injured Woodcock, pulled his gun and shouted: "This damned fellow is going to hell!".
I interfered and said: "Now Harvey, a man with that kind of nerve deserves not to be shot." Meanwhile the rest of the bandits ran around picking up more than $30,000 in bank notes which had been scattered by the explosion. This spectacular raid caused the Union Pacific to bring in the Pinkerton Detective Agency which sent scores of agents after our hides. Dozens of posses led by such famous manhunters as Charles Siringo and N.K. Boswell, were on the trail of our little gang. I decided that the best way for the outlaws to escape was for the Wild Bunch to split up. The Sundance Kid, had become my most loyal companion. Sundance, Ben Kilpatrick, and I rode toward Hole-in-the-Wall while Logan, Curry, and Lay took a more circuitous route and were cornered by a large posse near Teapot Creek, Wyo.
The outlaws took refuge behind boulders while several possemen, including Sheriff Joe Hazen, charged their position. Hazen was shot off his horse, dead, by the sharp-shooting Harvey Logan. The outlaws then mounted their horses and, blazing away with their six-guns, shot their way through the ranks of the disorganized lawmen. Logan and Curry rode on alone while Lay joined notorious bandits, Thomas "Black Jack" Ketchum and G.W. Franks, and held up a Colorado Southern train on July 11, 1899, at Twin Mountains, N.M., stealing $30,000. The next day, the three bandits were surrounded at Turkey Creek Canyon, N.M., by a determined posse. A gunfight ensued and Lay was wounded twice and Ketchum once. The outlaws shot and killed Sheriff Edward Farr, Tom Smith, and W.H. Love before escaping. Ketchum was later captured and hanged for train robbery in a gruesome execution. Lay was trapped by lawmen in August 1899 and subdued after a desperate fight. He was given a life term and sent to the New Mexico Territorial Prison on Oct. 10, 1899. He would be paroled in 1906 and reform, living until 1934.
Despite losing some of my best riders, I put together another band of outlaws for another train raid. These bandits included Harvey Logan, who had managed to ride through several posses and return to Hole-in-the-Wall following the wild Wilcox robbery, the Sundance Kid, Ben Beeson, Ben Kilpatrick, and Laura Bullion, the Tall Texan's girlfriend. We stopped the Union Pacific's Train Number 3 at Tipton, Wyo., on Aug. 29, 1900. Ironically, the express guard, Woodcock, was in the mail car and he again refused to open the door to the bandits. I shook my head in disgust and then said to the engineer: "You tell that iron-headed Woodcock that if he doesn't open the door this time, we're going to blow up him and the whole damned car sky high!" When the engineer pleaded with Woodcock, the plucky guard finally relented and threw open the door. We bandits blew open the safe and took more than $50,000, the largest haul taken by our gang up to that time.
Joe Lefors, one of the most feared lawmen of the era, was assigned by the Union Pacific to track us down at all costs. He wore out fifty men and twice as many horses chasing our Wild Bunch across Wyoming but lost us when we slipped into our mountainous hideout, Hole-in-the-Wall. The gang rode out again to strike the bank at Winnemucca, Nev., taking $30,000 on Sept. 19, 1900. The gang next rode to Wagner, Montana, where Logan, Kilpatrick, the Sundance Kid, Deaf Charley Hanks, and I stopped the Great Northern Flyer on July 3, 1901. (The Sundance Kid had robbed a train near this spot almost ten years earlier.) Two of the men boarded the train, and as the train got up steam, Logan climbed into the engineer's cab by crawling over the coal tender, dropping down with two six-guns in his hands and ordering the engineer to stop the train. The Sundance Kid and Ben Kilpatrick raced through the passenger cars, firing their six-guns into the ceiling and shouting to the startled passengers: "Keep your heads inside the car!"
When the train came to a small trestle, it ground to a stop where Hanks and I were waiting. I planted a charge of dynamite beneath the Adams Express car and blew off its side. More than $40,000 was taken from the safe but most of it was in unsigned bank notes. This didn't bother us outlaws, Bill Carver had good penmanship and merely signed the notes and these were quickly cashed or passed. Following the Wagner robbery, the Wild Bunch split up for the last time. Ben Kilpatrick and Laura Bullion rode east and were later arrested in Memphis with part of the loot taken from the Wagner robbery. Both were given long prison terms. When Kilpatrick was released in 1912, he attempted another train robbery and was killed by an aggressive express car guard. Harvey Logan was later wounded and trapped by a posse and, rather than be taken captive, sent a bullet into his brain.
The fate of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid after that has been much in debate, but this is the way I remember it. Sundance and I rode to Fort Worth, Texas, to relax in Fannie Porter's luxurious brothel. The Sundance Kid then took up with a bored teacher and housewife, Etta (or Ethel) Place, an attractive brunette who seemed to long for adventure. She left with Sundance and I when we decided that the West was too "hot" for us. The three of us first went to New York to stay in the finest hotels.
In late 1901, Sundance, Etta, and I traveled to Buenos Aires and settled in southern Argentina. We took the names James Ryan and Mr. and Mrs. Harry Place ("Place" was Sundance's mothers maiden name). We built a cabin in the Cholila Valley and began a peaceful life as ranchers. For the next three years, we settled down and made a living raising cattle, horses and sheep. We made many friends in the area and if any of their neighbors knew about our outlaw backgrounds, they kept it to themselves.
In February of 1905, the bank of Rio Gallegos was robbed and authorities suspected Sundance and I had committed this crime.We didn't. Before authorities could catch up with Sundance and me, a local sheriff, who was a good friend of ours, warned us of our impending arrest. After three years of the quiet life, we outlaws were on the run again. This time we crossed the border into Chile and hid out for a few months. With most of our money gone, we returned to a life of crime. In late 1905, Sundance, Etta, and I robbed the bank in Mercedes, Argentina. We escaped back to Chile, with several posses chasing us. Not long after this, Etta returned to the United States and into oblivion.
In 1906, while the authorities were looking for two English speaking bandits, Sundance and I split up. I found work at a tin mine in central Bolivia, while Sundance worked for a Argentinean contractor. A few months later, Sundance joined me at the Bolivian mine, where we became guards. Again I wanted to settle down and we began looking for a place where we could start a ranch and raise livestock. In early 1908, Sundance, and I quit our jobs at the mine, after reports of our criminal past resurfaced in the area. During the next few months, two railroad payrolls near the city of La Paz, Bolivia, had been robbed. Again, fingers were being pointed at us two American outlaws. We had nothing to do with the robbery. We decided, if we were going to be caused of crimes, we may as well get the benefits of the money. So we drifted south, where we planned the robbery of mining payroll near Salo, Bolivia. The payroll was being carried and guarded by only one man, Carlos Pero. Accompanying Carlos on this trip was his young son. The two carried few weapons and lead a small train of mules as they headed for the town of Quechisla. On November 4, as they rounded a rocky bend in the road, they saw two masked men holding rifles. I ordered Carlos to hand over the payroll. Carlos was in no position to argue or put up a fight, he handed over mining payroll and Sundance and I headed south. Carlos and his son continued north and alerted authorities along the way of the robbery. All local law officials were now looking for the two American bandits, so Sundance and I traveled mostly at night and rested during the day.
On the night of November 6, 1908, Sundance and I arrived in the town of San Vicente. We were looking for a place to stay and were directed to the home of Bonifacio Casaola. The room that we were given had one doorway that opened up into a walled patio, no windows and no back door. After guiding us to the room, the local man who directed us to Casaola's home, alerted four local soldiers that two strangers were in town. The soldiers gathered their rifles and ammunition and headed for the house. The soldiers entered the patio at the same time I was coming out of the doorway. I drew my gun and fired, hitting one of the soldiers. The other soldiers returned fire and backed out of the patio, positioning themselves around the wall. Sundance and I desperately tried to defend ourselves from the doorway, but the soldiers were able to fire into the room from different angles. They hit us several times. Sundance bled to death first. His last words were "Well I reckon those son a bitches got us." I said, "Yelp, I reckon they did." Then I reached over and closed my friends eyes. I died silently a few minutes later.
EL PASO CITY
This story was origionally told on the internet at this site. They did such a great job of telling my story almost exactly the way I remember it.
Index to all Butch Cassidy's Storyteller pages to make you laugh and cry
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