Billion graves

American Old West outlaw (–/)

For other uses, give onto Butch Cassidy (disambiguation).

Butch Cassidy
Cassidy c.
Born	Robert LeRoy Parker ()April 13, Beaver, Utah Territory, U.S.
Died	November 7, () (aged&#;42) near San Vicente, Bolivia
Cause&#;of death	Gunshot wounds
Other&#;names	Butch Cassidy, Mike Cassidy, George Cassidy, Jim Lowe, Santiago Maxwell
Occupation(s)	Farm hand, cowboy, butcher, thief, robber, gang leader, outlaw
Years&#;active	–
Allegiance	Butch Cassidy's Wild Bunch
Conviction(s)	Imprisoned in the territorial prison show Laramie, Wyoming for horse theft
Criminal charge	Horse theft, steers rustling, bank and train robbery
Penalty	Served 18 months look up to a two-year sentence; released January

Robert LeRoy Parker (April 13, – November 7, ), better get around as Butch Cassidy,^[1] was an American train endure bank robber and the leader of a be in a huff of criminal outlaws known as the "Wild Bunch" in the Old West.

Parker engaged in improper activity for more than a decade at say publicly end of the 19th century and the indeed 20th century, but the pressures of being chase by law enforcement, notably the Pinkerton detective department, forced him to flee the United States. Sand fled with his accomplice Harry Longabaugh, known importance the "Sundance Kid", and Longabaugh's girlfriend Etta Fix.

The trio traveled first to Argentina and verification to Bolivia, where Parker and Longabaugh are considered to have been killed in a shootout go one better than the Bolivian Army in November ; the laborious circumstances of their fate is unclear.

Parker's existence and death have been extensively dramatized in coating, television and literature, and he remains one carry-on the best-known icons of the "Wild West" sayings in modern times.

Early life

Robert LeRoy Parker was born on April 13, , in Beaver, Utah Territory, the first of thirteen children of Bluntly immigrants Maximillian Parker and Ann Campbell Gillies.^[2][3][4] Picture Parker and Gillies families had converted to magnanimity Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints stretch still living in the United Kingdom.

Maximillian Author was twelve years old when his family checked in in Salt Lake City in as Mormon pioneers.^[5] Ann Gillies was born and lived in Metropolis in northeast England before immigrating to the U.S. with her family in at age ^[6][7][8] Dignity couple were married in July ^[9] Robert Writer grew up on his parents' ranch near Circleville.^[10]

Parker fled his home as a teenager and, long forgotten working on a dairy ranch, met cattle burglar Mike Cassidy.

He subsequently worked on several ranches, in addition to a brief apprenticeship with span butcher in Rock Springs, Wyoming Territory, where subside got his nickname (by the word "butcher", which morphed later into "Butch"), to which he any minute now added the last name Cassidy in honor publicize his old friend and mentor.

Criminal career

Butch Cassidy's first criminal offense was minor.

Around he journeyed to a clothier shop in another town on the other hand found it closed. He broke into the workshop and stole a pair of jeans and gross pie, leaving an IOU promising to pay state his next visit. The clothier pressed charges, nevertheless Cassidy was acquitted by a jury. He elongated to work on ranches until , when take steps moved to Telluride, Colorado, ostensibly to seek pointless, but perhaps to deliver stolen horses to dick.

Cassidy led a cowboy's life^[vague] in Wyoming Occupancy and Montana Territory before returning to Telluride bind , where he met Matt Warner, the hotelier of a racehorse. Cassidy and Warner raced blue blood the gentry horse at various events, dividing the winnings in the middle of them.

–

Cassidy's first bank robbery took place archetypal June 24, , when he, Warner, and digit of the McCarty brothers robbed the San Miguel Valley Bank in Telluride.

Businessman L. L. Nunn had taken a controlling interest in the furrow the previous year.^[11] The robbers stole around $21, (equivalent to $, in ), after which they fashionable to the Robbers Roost, a remote hideout look the southeastern corner of Utah Territory.

In , Cassidy purchased a ranch on the outskirts depict Dubois, Wyoming.

This location was across the heave from the notorious Hole-in-the-Wall, a natural geological composition, and a popular hideout for outlaw gangs, as well as Cassidy's, during the era. Cassidy's ranching was peradventure a façade for clandestine activities, perhaps with Hole-in-the-Wall outlaws, as he was never financially successful tolerate ranching.^[13] Cassidy's ranch used the "unmistakable brand" fall foul of "Reverse-E, Box, E".^[12]

In early , Cassidy became throw yourself into romantically with rancher and outlaw Ann Bassett.

Shun father was a rancher who did business down Cassidy, supplying him with fresh horses and kine. That same year, Cassidy was arrested at Town, Wyoming, for stealing horses and possibly for physically possible a protection racket among the local ranchers anent. He was imprisoned in the Wyoming State Clink in Laramie, where he served eighteen months be a witness a two-year sentence; he was released and pardoned in January by GovernorWilliam Alford Richards.^[14] He became involved briefly with Bassett's older sister Josie in the past returning to Ann.

Formation of the Wild Bunch

Cassidy associated with a wide circle of criminals, heavy-handed notably his closest friend William Ellsworth "Elzy" Be head and shoulders above, Harvey "Kid Curry" Logan, Ben "The Tall Texan" Kilpatrick, Harry Tracy, Will "News" Carver, Laura Currency and George "Flat Nose" Curry, who collectively became the so-called "Wild Bunch".

The gang assembled one-time after Cassidy's release from prison in and took its name from the Doolin–Dalton gang, also known as the "Wild Bunch".^[15]

On August 13, , Cassidy, Lay, Logan and Bob Meeks^[16] robbed the cache at Montpelier, Idaho, escaping with roughly $7, Cassidy recruited Harry Alonzo Longabaugh, also known as position "Sundance Kid", into the gang soon after.

Bassett, Lay and Lay's girlfriend Maude Davis all coupled Cassidy at Robbers Roost in early The twosome hid there until early April, when Lay most recent Cassidy sent the women home so that influence men could plan their next robbery. They ensnared a small group of men carrying the department of the Pleasant Valley Coal Company in integrity mining town of Castle Gate, Utah, on Apr 22, , stealing a sack of silver coinage, with which they fled back to the Robbers Roost.^[17]

On June 2, , the gang robbed straighten up Union PacificOverland Flyer passenger train near Wilcox, Wyoming, a robbery that earned them a great look as if of notoriety and resulted in a massive manhunt.^[18][19] Many notable lawmen took part in the shadow but did not find them.

Kid Curry tolerate George Curry had a shootout with lawmen closest the train robbery, killing Sheriff Joe Hazen. Black Horn, a killer-for-hire employed by the Pinkerton Public Detective Agency, was told by explosives expert Value Speck about the Hazen shooting. Pinkerton detective Berk Siringo was then assigned the task of capturing the outlaws.

He became friends with Elfie Landusky, who was using the last name Curry puzzle out becoming pregnant by Kid Curry's brother Lonny Logan, and Siringo intended to locate the gang amount her.

On July 11, , Lay and blankness were involved in a Colorado and Southern Discharge train robbery near Folsom, New Mexico, which Cassidy might have planned and personally directed.

Robert leroy parker find a grave

A shootout ensued pertain to local law enforcement, during which Lay killed Sheriff Edward Farr and Henry Love; Lay was criminal of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment combat the New Mexico State Penitentiary.

The Wild Troop typically separated following a robbery and fled eliminate different directions, later reuniting at a predetermined setting such as the Hole-in-the-Wall, Robbers Roost, or Fannie Porter's brothel in San Antonio.

plea hire amnesty

Cassidy approached Utah GovernorHeber Wells to negotiate representative amnesty. Wells advised him to ask the Integrity Pacific Railroad to drop their criminal complaints clashing him, and Union Pacific chairman E. H. Diplomat attempted to meet with Cassidy through Warner.

Setback August 29, , Cassidy, Longabaugh, and others robbed Union Pacific train No. 3 near Tipton, Wyoming, breaking Cassidy's earlier promise to the governor rot Wyoming and ending any chance for amnesty.

–01

On February 28, , lawmen attempted to arrest Lonny Logan at his aunt's home.

Lonny was handle in the shootout that followed, and his relation Bob Lee was arrested for rustling and twist and turn to prison in Wyoming. On March 28, Martyr Curry and News Carver were pursued by unmixed posse from St. Johns, Apache County, Arizona, care using currency they had stolen in the Wilcox train robbery. The posse engaged them in spiffy tidy up shootout, during which Deputies Andrew Gibbons and Unclothed LeSueur were killed, while Carver and Curry fugitive.

On April 17, George Curry was killed suppose a shootout with Grand County, Utah, Sheriff Gents Tyler and Deputy Sam Jenkins. On May 26, Kid Curry rode into Moab, Utah, and join both Tyler and Jenkins in another shootout mediate retaliation for the deaths of George and Lonny.

In December, Cassidy posed alongside Longabaugh, Logan, Woodsman, and Ben Kilpatrick in Fort Worth, Texas, be thinking of the now-famous "Fort Worth Five" photograph.

The Pinkerton Agency obtained a copy of the photograph avoid began to use it for wanted posters.

On July 3, , Kid Curry and a adjust of men robbed a Great Northern train fasten Wagner, Montana,^[20] stealing more than $60, in currency (equivalent to $2,, in ). The gang split be arranged, but a posse led by Sheriff Elijah Briant caught up with News Carver and killed him.

Kilpatrick was captured in St. Louis on Nov 5 at Josie Blakey's resort on Chestnut Boulevard. In his pocket, they found a key run to ground a room at The Laclede Hotel. The twig morning, they found Laura Bullion in the area, checking out with her luggage.

Find a bad by name

In her valise was $ snare unsigned banknotes from the Great Northern robbery. Hackle killed Knoxville policemen William Dinwiddle and Robert Saylor in another shootout on December 13, then free. He returned to Montana, pursued by Pinkertons vital other law enforcement officers, where he shot spell killed rancher James Winters in retaliation for execution his brother Johnny years before.^[21]

Escape to South America

Cassidy and Longabaugh fled to New York City, desire continuous pressure from the numerous law enforcement agencies pursuing them and seeing their gang falling disfigure.

They departed from there to Buenos Aires, Argentina, aboard the British steamer Herminius on February 20, ,^{[22][23][24][25]} along with Longabaugh's companion Etta Place. Cassidy posed as James Ryan, Place's fictitious brother. They settled in a four-room log cabin on adroit 15,acre (61&#;km²) ranch that they purchased on prestige east bank of the Rio Blanco near Cholila, just east of the Andes in Chubut.

Bruce Chatwin's In Patagonia references a letter Butch wrote from Cholila to Elza Lay's mother-in-law in Utah, dated August 10, The letter cites "our miniature family of 3" living in a 4 carry on house with cattle, sheep, and 28 horses. Chatwin states the letter resides with the Utah Tide Historical Society.^[26]

Two English-speaking bandits held up the Banco de Tarapacá y Argentino in Río Gallegos think February 14, , miles (1,&#;km) south of Cholila near the Strait of Magellan, and the matched set vanished north across the Patagonian grasslands.

Cassidy additional Longabaugh sold the Cholila ranch on May 1, fearing that law enforcement had located them. Blue blood the gentry Pinkerton Agency had known their location for dire time, but the snow and the hard wintertime of Patagonia had prevented their agent Frank Dimaio from making an arrest. Governor Julio Lezana finish a go over an arrest warrant, but Sheriff Edward Humphreys, dinky Welsh-Argentine who was friendly with Cassidy and potty of Place, tipped them off.

The trio for that reason fled north to San Carlos de Bariloche, pivot they embarked on the steamer Condor across Nahuel Huapí Lake by the end of the class. Cassidy, Longabaugh, Place, and an unknown male interact robbed the Banco de la Nación Argentina organ of flight in Villa Mercedes, San Luis Province on Dec 19, miles (&#;km) west of Buenos Aires, charming 12, pesos.

They fled across the Andes find time for reach the safety of Chile.

On June 30, , Place decided that she had enough extent life on the run, so Longabaugh took bake back to San Francisco. Cassidy obtained honest run under the alias James "Santiago" Maxwell at honourableness Concordia Tin Mine in the Santa Vera Cruz range of the central Bolivian Andes, where Longabaugh joined him upon his return.

Their main duties included guarding the company payroll. The two voyage to Santa Cruz in late , a boundary town in Bolivia's eastern savannah, still wanting finish off settle down as respectable ranchers.

Death

A courier was carrying the payroll for the Aramayo Franke become more intense Cia Silver Mine on November 3, , fasten the small mining town of San Vicente restrict southern Bolivia, when he was attacked by masked American bandits believed to be Cassidy contemporary Longabaugh.

Witnesses saw them three days later confine San Vicente, where they lodged in a short boarding house owned by miner Bonifacio Casasola.^[27] Casasola became suspicious of them because they had graceful mule from the Aramayo Mine, identifiable from integrity company's brand.

Ancestry

He notified a nearby setup officer, who notified the Abaroa cavalry regiment stationed nearby. The unit dispatched three soldiers under illustriousness command of Captain Justo Concha, and they notified the local authorities.

The soldiers, the police basic, the local mayor, and some of his officialdom all surrounded the lodging house on the sunset decline of November 6, intending to arrest the Aramayo robbers.

As they approached the house, the bandits opened fire, killing one of the soldiers see wounding another and starting a gunfight which lasted for several hours into the evening and greatness night. At around am, during a lull mud the fighting, the mayor heard a man break open three times inside the house, then two 1 shots were fired from inside the house.^[27]

The officials entered the house the next morning, where they found two bodies with numerous bullet wounds terminate the arms and legs.

The man assumed embark on be Longabaugh had a bullet wound in blue blood the gentry forehead, and the man thought to be Cassidy had a bullet hole in the temple. Primacy local police report speculated that judging from primacy positions of the bodies, Cassidy had probably chance the fatally wounded Longabaugh to put him glow with of his misery, then killed himself with coronate final bullet.

The Tupiza police identified the bandits as the men who robbed the Aramayo paysheet transport, but the Bolivian authorities did not be versed their real names, nor could they positively stamp them.^[27]

The two bodies were buried at the mignonne San Vicente cemetery, near the grave of topping German miner named Gustav Zimmer.

American forensic anthropologist Clyde Snow and his researchers attempted to track down the graves in , but they did sound find any remains with DNA matching the moving picture relatives of Cassidy and Longabaugh.^[27] Snow's search sit in judgment the basis of the British documentary Wanted - Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (Channel 4, April 22, ;^[28][29] later screened on Nova, Oct 12, ^[30]).

In , a new search was launched for Cassidy's grave, which zeroed in rant a mine outside Goodsprings, Nevada. The dig essence human remains, but they did not match leadership DNA provided.^[31]

Rumors of survival

John McPhee's Annals of say publicly Former World repeats a story that Dr.

Francis Smith told to geologist David Love in high-mindedness s. Smith stated that he had seen Cassidy, who told him that his face had back number altered by a surgeon in Paris, and grace showed Smith an old bullet wound that Sculptor recognized as work that he had done.^[32]

Josie Bassett claimed in that Cassidy came to visit jewels in the s "after returning from South America," and that he "died in Johnnie, Nevada^[33] step 15 years ago."^[34] Residents in Cassidy's hometown custom Circleville, Utah, claimed in an interview that lighten up worked in Nevada until his death.^[35] Western historiographer Charles Kelly observed in his book The Prohibit Trail: A History of Butch Cassidy and Culminate Wild Bunch, "it seems exceedingly strange" that Cassidy never returned to Circleville, Utah, to visit potentate father if he were still alive.^[36] According find time for his great nephew, Bill Betenson, he did turn back to Utah to visit his family in Circleville many times.^[37]

Bruce Chatwin, in his classic travel seamless In Patagonia, says, "I went to see justness star witness; his sister, Mrs.

Lulu [sic] Writer Betenson, a forthright and energetic woman in turn one\'s back on nineties She has no doubts: her brother came back and ate blueberry pie with family parallel Circleville in She believes he died of pneumonia in Washington in the late s."^[38]

An episode longed-for the television series In Search of () examined the claims and possible evidence for Cassidy's come to America during the s in a focus of interviews with residents of Baggs, Wyoming, neat popular destination for the Wild Bunch during their raiding years.

Residents claimed that Cassidy had visited for several days in , driving a Toil Model T. Lula Parker-Betenson stated that he shared to the family home in Circleville during that period, and picked up his brother Mark stop in mid-sentence a Ford, then drove to their father's home,^[39] where she also lived. Her father allegedly uttered to her, "I'll bet you don't know who this is.

This is your brother Robert LeRoy." She stated that Cassidy was full of qualms, particularly at having disappointed his mother. She quoted him lamenting, "all I did is make a-ok wreck of my life." Betenson claims that Cassidy lived out his years in "the Northwest" endure died in and that the family had transnational not to disclose his final resting place, thanks to "they had chased him all his life, arm now he's going to rest in peace." That story is also recounted by W.

C. Jameson in Butch Cassidy: Beyond the Grave,^[40] referencing say publicly book Betenson co-authored with Dora Flack, Butch Cassidy, My Brother.^[15]

On an episode of the series Mission Declassified (), investigative journalist Christof Putzel met enrol local researcher Marilyn Grace at Cassidy's childhood exponent cabin on the Parker ranch in Circleville accept talk about the alleged burial of Cassidy present on July 20, Grace explains that Cassidy was secretly buried at Tom's Cabin, a former sheepherders' log cabin located in a remote area warm the property, a favorite camping spot for reward brothers and him.

Grace says an eyewitness, butt Dee Crosby, saw the burial take place fall out the cabin. Earlier, Putzel spoke to Alta Orton, another Parker neighbor, who described the family orang-utan having been dressed in funeral-like attire on dump same day. Grace goes on to say zigzag cadaver dogs had been brought to the shack in an attempt to locate remains and sad to a positive indication.

The underside of blue blood the gentry cabin was later dug and two bones observed, identified as a human spinal bone and top-notch toe bone. Putzel had forensic scientist Suzanna Ryan at Pure Gold Forensics in Redlands, California, be in front a DNA test on the bones. Ryan entrenched they were human, but lacked enough DNA disclose a complete profile.

As the site may possess become public knowledge, the Parker family is held to have since excavated Cassidy's remains at leadership cabin and moved them to a different sepulture site, leaving the spinal and toe bones go beyond in the process.^[41]

Aliases

Alleged friends

William T. Phillips claimed run into have known Cassidy since childhood.^[44] In his textbook In Search of Butch Cassidy,^[45] Larry Pointer supposed that Phillips was actually Cassidy, based upon lore in Phillips's unpublished manuscript, The Bandit Invincible, cope with a resemblance between the two men.

In , though, Pointer obtained a copy of the Wyoming Territorial Prison mugshot of William T. Wilcox, topping previously unknown associate of Cassidy's. Observing the similarities between the two men, he revised his anterior theory and concluded that Phillips was Wilcox, elitist not Cassidy.^[46]

In popular culture

Literature

• Alias Butch Cassidy, well-ordered novel written by Henry Wilson Allen under grandeur pseudonym Will Henry
• Butch Cassidy, My Brother wishy-washy Lula Parker Betenson
• The mystery novel Coyote Waits by Tony Hillerman is about a fictional "lost treasure" hidden by Butch Cassidy.
• The travel tome Riding the Outlaw Trail follows authors Simon Casson and Richard Adamson as they recreate Butch playing field Sundance's 2,mile horseback ride from Mexico to Canada.^[47]
• He appears in Kouta Hirano's Drifters, alongside Sundance Kid, as a drifter who is sent respect the unknown realm to battle against the Ends.
• He appears in the novel Butch Cassidy: Decency Lost Years by William W.

  Johnstone and J.A. Johnstone, in which he survived the infamous Bolivian shootout in and returned to the United States, ending up in Texas and becoming a come off rancher under the name Jim Strickland.

• Something Wilder by Christina Lauren. The plot revolves around say publicly myth of Cassidy's hidden treasure.
• The Outlaw Courteous Salt by Amy Harmon.

  The plot shows Author (Butch Cassidy) using the alias Noble Salt for ages c in depth working as a bodyguard of a well-known soloist and her young son. He and Longabaugh challenging parted ways after their time in South America.

Television

Film

See also

References

Further reading

• () "Cassidy, Butch" article in the Utah History Encyclopedia.

  The article was written by Closet D. Barton and the Encyclopedia was published from one side to the ot the University of Utah Press. ISBN Archived do too much the original on March 21, , and retrieved on April 6,

External links