Best of The History Guy: Outlaws of the Wild West

[Music] our vision of the american wild west is largely driven by film and if you watch the movies and tv shows of men in white hats and men in black cats you would think that the wild west was a wild and lawless place full of gunslingers and bandits in reality the difficulty of life in the wild west was largely because it was the frontier and people were trying to carve a life out of wild land it was largely a law-abiding and yet hard scrabble existence but there were real outlaws in the wild west and they were real people with real stories and perhaps no story of an outlaw in the wild west better reveals that the human nature of the people that were outlaws in the wild west than the extraordinary tale of the bandit dick fellows part of what makes dick fellow's story so interesting is that he did not start out in life in a way that you might expect for an outlaw bandit he was born george lytle in clay county kentucky likely in 1845 or 1846 and he was the son of a successful attorney and court judge he grew up with a wealthy and gentrified lifestyle he was given a good education he was bright and studied for what promised to be a successful career as a lawyer in kentucky his legal studies were interrupted by the u.s civil war he enlisted in the confederate army in july of 1863 was captured by the union in november of 1863 and in december was paroled on the promise that he never again take up arms against the united states he continued his legal education and was admitted to the bar and there with such a promising life in front of him he ran into the roadblock that would hobble him his entire life george lytle was an alcoholic he drank away his career and his law practice he ruined his reputation he embarrassed his family and his life in ruins in 1867 he quietly left kentucky like many americans of his time he went west moving to the san fernando valley area of california he reinvented himself and changed his name to dick fellows but george lytle or dick fellowes he was still an alcoholic he was unable to establish a successful law practice failed at several legitimate businesses was still simply besotted by alcohol and finally destitute he turned for income to stagecoach robbery his tactic for robbing stagecoaches was surprisingly simple he would lay in weight on a stagecoach route and when the stagecoach approached he would step out a bandana over his face brandish a pistol and order the driver to throw down the express box which usually included a few hundred dollars it was a simple but surprisingly effective tactic and yet one that required not insubstantial amount of luck to not get caught and after several successful robberies his luck ran out he was recognized based on a wanted poster arrested and sent to san quentin prison in 1870 and then dick fellow started what would become a pattern in his life in prison deprived of alcohol he was a charming and well-educated fellow he was contrite and remorseful he was a model prisoner he taught other prisoners remedial education he was such a good prisoner that then california governor newton booth pardoned him in 1874 having served just four years of an eight year sentence once again he tried to succeed in legitimate business once again he returned to alcoholism and his businesses failed once again in reduced circumstances he resorted to stagecoach robbery and this is where he built his most famous legend in 1875 by carefully watching the stage movements he defined that a certain wells fargo stage would be carrying an enormous amount of money that was going to be used for a bank transaction the astounding sum of 240 000 planning his robbery he rented a horse and racing to the location where he planned to rob the stage pushing the horse to run the horse through him and he was knocked unconscious for several hours and that is the life of dick fellows he had because he was so smart and so clever found the opportunity and planned what would have been the most lucrative stagecoach robbery in the history of the nation and he missed his chance because he fell off his horse and thus began the legend of dick fellows the outlaw who couldn't ride a horse not to be deterred fellows reasoned that the same stage would be returning back on its route in about a week and while it wouldn't have nearly as much money it also wouldn't have armed guards and on the second try he successfully robbed that same stage but when the driver threw down the heavy strong box and rode away fellows realized that he had forgotten to bring along any tools that he could use to open the strong box and when he tried to place the heavy strong box on the horse that he had stolen so that he could rob the stagecoach the horse bolted and ran away so here was dick fellows in the pitch black knight with a heavy strong box knowing that a posse would be chasing him and in the dark as he tried to get away he fell in a hole dropped the strong box on his leg and broke his leg well eventually he did manage to steal some tools that he could use to open the box and to splint his leg and he stole a horse on which he hoped to make his getaway with the not insubstantial take of eighteen hundred dollars but the problem was that the horse that he stole had been newly shot and the owner having run out of horseshoes had temporarily placed a mule shoe on one of the horse's feet and so the horse left very unique and identifiable tracks that the posse could follow and once again dick fellows was caught and sent to san quentin prison he actually managed a brief escape while he was being transported to the prison but one more time he was identified because of a wanted poster and he was sent to san quentin with a sentence of eight years back in san quentin and once again deprived of alcohol dick fellows again became a model prisoner who was contrite and remorseful and taught other prisoners remedial education and in this case studied and became proficient in spanish and once again he was such a model prisoner that the new california governor george perkins pardoned him in 1881 having served just five years of his eight-year sentence again dick fellows tried to make a legitimate living this time selling himself as a teacher of the spanish language but again he turned to alcoholism and lost his business and once more turned to stagecoach robbery to pay the bills he successfully robbed a number of stagecoaches in the san luis obispo area of california but one more time he was identified from a wanted poster and was sent back to prison while being transported to prison he managed to escape not once but twice both times by simply being so charming that he lulled his guards into a false complacency and then running away the second time he tried to steal a horse in order to escape and of course the horse threw him on the ground knocking him senseless and allowing him to be captured fitting in for the outlaw who could not ride a horse he was sent to california's folsom prison this time as a repeat offender with a life sentence today dick fellow's name is almost forgotten outside of a few small town california historical societies and if he is known it's for his incompetence the outlaw who couldn't ride a horse and both of those facts are really kind of unfair he did successfully rob more than a dozen stage coaches and is suspected in many more stagecoach robberies and he managed some amazing and brazen escapes from law enforcement in many ways he was one of the most successful outlaws in the wild west but much more compellingly he was just a person that was very very human he was intelligent he was well educated by all accounts he sincerely wanted to live a law abiding life and yet was continually sabotaged by his addictions and that is a story that is more human and in many ways much sadder than the black-headed villains that we tend to see in film and on television despite his life sentence dick fellows got one more pardon by california governor james gilletti in 1908 it seems that his wealthy and influential kentucky family rediscovered and reconciled with him and successfully petitioned the governor to pardon him on the promise that he would return to kentucky where the family would guarantee his good behavior and it's there where that wily villain made maybe his last escape because there is no record that he ever returned to kentucky no proof that he ever lived there and no evidence that he died there his ultimate fate is unknown just another legend of the wild west [Music] [Music] in february of 1881 james fowler who sometimes went by the nickname fly spec billy was in custer south dakota in a saloon drinking and causing trouble he got in an argument with a teamster in the bar and shot the man dead movies might exaggerate the number of gun fights that occurred in the wild west but it could still be a place of extreme violence and more than a few people who are trying to make their living through crime and for every butch cassidy or billy the kid there were dozens of lesser-known outlaws who never quite gained the notoriety to become well famous people like fly spec billy or his sometimes companion lame johnny and yet even these lesser-known outlaws can tell us something about life in the wild west history that deserves to be remembered the black hills are full of legends of the west after the discovery of gold miners businessmen and fortune seekers flooded into the region the town of custer was actually set out before the region was officially open to white settlement men were interested especially area because the earlier custer expedition reportedly found gold on french creek which passes through modern day custer the town was named by the earliest arrivals although there was some disagreement of whether it should be called stonewall after confederate hero stonewall jackson or after custer and not because of custer's last stand which hadn't happened yet or because he led the expedition that found the gold there but for his service in the civil war most of the settlers were veterans of the war and it turned out union veterans outnumbered former confederates as possibly the first permanent american settlement in the region custer boomed large by may of 1876 there were an estimated 10 000 people living in ramshackle huts and cabins in the area but discovery of gold at deadwood pulled nearly everyone away as she was 14 people remained in custer although there were about a hundred by the end of the year the town was on the far frontier and before 1890 supplies had to be freighted to the town via ox pulled wagons from places like sydney nebraska and cheyenne wyoming the town was designed with wide 100-foot streets specifically to allow enough space for the wagon teams to make u-turns in 1876 a group of prospectors discovered the home stake deposit a large deposit of gold near modern deadwood in leed south dakota the claim was bought for 70 thousand dollars by a trio of mining entrepreneurs a year later the owners pulled equipment from the nearest rail head at sydney nebraska and began working the deposit digging deep mines despite the remote location an 80 stamped mill was built to pound ore dug in the processing the homestake mine was opened continuously until 2002 was the largest and deepest gold mine in north america produced 40 million 20 ounces of gold during its lifetime the homestake mining company became one of the longest listed stocks on the new york stock exchange beginning in 1879 until the company was acquired in 2001. george hearst one of the owners and the principal manager of the mind in its earliest years and the father of famous newspaperman william randolph hurst was himself a good representation of the kind of cutthroat business and lawlessness that often punctuated life on the frontier he purchased numerous adjacent claims legally but he acquired others in courts and at least one man who wouldn't sell his claim was killed by a hurst employee that employee was acquitted when witnesses failed to appear in court hearst bought newspapers in nearby deadwood to influence local opinion but he feared for his own life when an opposing editor was attacked in deadwood he wrote a letter to his partners asking that his family be provided for if he was killed but ultimately hearst would escape the black hills alive and very rich the homestake mine ran its riches from deadwood via treasure coaches on stage lines to railroad locations like cheyenne wyoming where it could be taken to the east and stored in secure banks stage robbers were an unfortunately common part of life in the 1870s in a two-month period one gang robbed a stage line coming into deadwood four times in 1877. the stages pulled out all the stops to protect their valuable shipments one of the coaches that transported gold was the steel lined monitor which had portholes to fire from and an iron safe that was supposedly so difficult to open without the combination that robbers would need days to get it open on september 26 1878 the monitor left deadwood loaded with gold a driver telegraph operator hugh campbell and three guards around the same time a band of outlaws was making their plans to rob the coach they rode into canyon springs station 37 miles southwest of deadwood in modern wyoming they locked the station attended in a room and hid nearby stages would only stay a short time at stations like these mostly to change out horse teams the driver and the guard riding shotgun jumped down from the coach to investigate the absence of the attendant only to be ambushed one guard galen hill was seriously wounded while campbell was killed in the volley the gunfight that ensued was brief but vicious gang member big nose mclaughlin was killed and another member reportedly injured the bandits still eventually managed to get the guards to give up the couch and commandeered it they opened the safe so much for being impregnable and discovered that they had just made a once in a lifetime haul inside the safe was hundreds of dollars worth of jewelry diamonds 3 500 in currency and 700 pounds of gold dust nuggets and bullion the stage company estimated the value of the stolen goods at 140 thousand dollars equaled about 3.8 million in inflation adjusted 2021 dollars although the value of the gold is likely to have been considerably more than that exactly who all was involved in the robbery wasn't clear but one of the prime suspects was a person called lame johnny born cornelius donahue he supposedly got good grades at the gerard college in philadelphia not a university but a primary school for poor white male orphans according to its charter apparently he was uninterested in academia and made his way out west as a cowboy he called himself john hurley among other names he had a pronounced limp which would lead to his nickname he may have gotten the injury as a child in a horse accident as was often reported or some other way he once told a doctor that he'd been shot through the legs but others have speculated that he had contracted polio he left for east texas where he became a cowboy for a time his condition seemed to make the work hard for him and at some point he turned to horse thievery stealing horses for resale his occupation got him into trouble in texas and so he wandered north eventually settling in south dakota where he got a job as a sheriff in custer county the reports we have suggest that he performed his job well and eventually got a job doing bookkeeping for the home stake mine until he was recognized by a texas acquaintance and lost the job afterwards he seems to have turned back to crime first to horse thievery and then putting together a crew for state dropping if he had done the books for the homestake mine he likely knew just how much money was often transferred on the treasure coaches and local papers reported that the coaches sometimes carried as much as 240 thousand dollars in a single load when the rob coach didn't arrive at jenny station relief messengers essentially hired guns rode out from the station one of them was boone may a well-known gunman called the fastest gun in the dakotas and first cousin of the wounded stage guard galen hill they met one of the treasure coaches guards riding towards them to report the robbery and all four of the gunmen rode to canyon springs where they found the coach abandoned and empty the surviving members of the coach's crew were tied up and left in the woods nearby upon investigation someone claimed to have recognized johnny at the robbery possibly because of his injury and soon the mind was offering a hefty reward and sending posses and detectives out all over the black hills in search of johnny or any of his crew but whether they identified the right man is a matter of some debate lame johnny had another acquaintance that he had worked with before called lame bradley besides big-nosed mclaughlin none of the other rubbers seemed to have been positively identified either although al spears was sentenced to life in prison after confessing to firing the shot that killed hugh campbell regardless men were on lame johnny's trail he appeared again near pine ridge where he's attempting to steal more horses there he was tracked down by whispering smith a detective who arrested him johnny was jailed at chadron nebashka for a time until they loaded him up on a stage and headed for trial they had a blacksmith fashioned leg shackles which were then riveted to the metal plate to test the floor of the stagecoach one of the coach's guards was jesse brown who described what happened on the ride smith was one of the coaches guards everything went along all right up to buffalo gap when looking out towards the foothills to the west we could see a horseman riding parallel to us at a swift gallop johnny became nervous about the man when brown asked why john responded that i think i recognized him as boone may at buffalo gap brown changed horses and rode further behind the coach we'd reach the small creek that's now called lame johnny creek when sure enough i heard the old familiar command halt brown thought it was likely either a hold up or some of johnny's gang come to free him so he dismounted and tried to sneak up on the coach but before he reached a voice called out go back don't come any farther and he stopped smith appeared a few minutes later asking to take brown's horse to recon order the area brown walked up to the coach to find that the shackle's been pried up from the floor and johnny was hanging from a nearby elm a victim a vigilante justice the area has been reported to be a place where johnny robbed another coach legend says that johnny refused to give up the location of his treasure johnny's body was discovered the next day by a group of men led by pete osland they cut johnny down and buried him lame johnny's reputation has its own controversy a number of writers have claimed that he was basically an innocent man killed for no reason while others are sure that he robbed the coach at canyon springs and possibly others at least one scholar suggested the crew that robbed the canyon springs coach was led by charles carey who was only a few years later also hanged as for johnny's treasure some weeks after the robbery the mine reported that 60 percent of the stolen goods had been recovered but several gold bars remain unaccounted for rumors remain that it's buried somewhere in the area i grew up in the black hills and we were always told that lame johnny's gold was buried under a flat rock along the stream i turned over a lot of flat rocks in my youth johnny wasn't the only member of his crew to find a similar bad end another acquaintance in possible robber was fly spec billy described as a desperate character an outlaw connected with lame johnny billy was born james fowler but became known as fly spec billy because of his unkept appearance and a sprinkling of dark freckles on his face he hung around the black hills reportedly stealing horses and committing other crimes some with lame johnny in february of 1881 he begged to ride aboard a coach with some freighters led by abe barnes he said he was trying to get to custer barnes let him join him they arrived in custer that afternoon and billy went to saloons and establishments generally making a nuisance of himself billy was able to get barnes to give him his pistol after claiming he needed to be able to defend himself fly spec billy then went about with a gun about every man who saw him during that evening had the pistol stuck in his breast the custer chronicle reported he later reportedly fired the gun three times demanding that a man drink with him later in the night he returned to abe barnes who was playing billiards the words come take a drink and the shot were simultaneous billy shot barnes dead right in the saloon barnes cried oh i am shot and ran a few steps before he fell over dead killed by his own pistol billy attempted to flee but was hit over the head and knocked out cold was said directly into the arms of sheriff code after his arrest code held him for hours at a nearby saloon before attempting to transfer the prisoner but found himself and several deputies overpowered when they tried to bring fowler to the sheriff's cabin fly specbilly was taken towards the nearest tree as rapidly as 20 men could haul him and strung up near french creek the custer county chronicle reported that it was the most thrilling and exciting scene that custer has witnessed no one was ultimately charged because no one would identify any of the attackers to give you an idea how complex the wild west was daniel boone may who developed such a reputation as a lawman in the black hills eventually immigrated to south america where he was hunted as a murderer killing first a peruvian army officer and later a brazilian man in a fight over a woman he reportedly died there of yellow fever the stories of lame johnny and fly spec billy are representative of hundreds of other stories in the wild west the black hills robbers were often pursued across state lines some of them were killed in gunfights some were brought back to trial but others found vigilante justice at the end of a rope saying that the wild west was lawless might mean that it was a place where there was opportunity for crime but it also meant that vigilantes could punish criminals outside of a system of justice which is its own kind of lawlessness [Music] on february 20th 1901 three americans mr and mrs harry a place and mrs place's brother jim ryan boarded a steamship called the ss herminius which was bound from new york to patagonia that trip would be the genesis of a set of enduring mysteries that would challenge the discipline of history the man calling himself jim ryan was in fact robert leroy parker and the man calling himself harry a place was in fact harry alonso longabo and they were two of the most successful and most prolific bank and train robbers in american history you might better recognize them by their nicknames butch cassidy and the sundance kid and as much as an enigma as their life was their companion at a place was well even more of a mystery the circumstances which caused those famous outlaws to board that steamship where well not always is the movies portray it's history that deserves to be remembered robert leroy parker was born in utah in 1866 the son of a mormon pioneer he grew up on the family ranch started working on nearby ranches at the age of 13 helping to support his family sometime in the 1880s he met a ranch hand and petty criminal named mike cassidy from whom he learned about handling horses he apparently admired his mentor and started going by the last name cassidy he worked as a hired hand notably good with horses and participated in local horse races he was also quite good-looking a young admirer josie bassett described parker when he was 20 as the most dashing and handsome man that i had ever seen at the time parker was working as a hired hand on a nearby ranch and going under the name george cassidy josie bassett and her sister ann would become acquainted with cassidy and many others at their ranch near browns park in the rough area around the colorado utah wyoming border cassidy would often leave the area for months at a time but would then return was admired by the basset sisters both of whom were rumored to have been linked to him romantically there are two stories for how he came up with the nickname butch one claims he got the name while working at a butcher shop in wyoming one winter another story is that the nickname was coined as a rib at cassidy who was once knocked over into some mud when he fired a shotgun named butch that had a notorious kick the area around the bassets ranch was a good spot for people on the run was remote locations along the border of three states left lawmen with questions of jurisdiction there were many places to hide and people like the bassett's father would sell horses and beef to men without asking too many questions the area became known as outlaws trail and cassidy made the acquaintance of several people with whom he would eventually partner in various ventures it isn't exactly clear when butch cassidy turned to a life of crime but he was most likely involved in a bank robbery in telluride colorado in 1889 after they pulled a job cassidy and his associates would often lay low for a while before meeting again at some sort of pre-arranged point and butch cassie often spent that time in between near the bassettes ranch at brown's point josie bassett used the euphemism one of butch's rich uncles died to refer to those times when he came back flushed with cash from having pulled a job in 1894 cassidy was sent to prison in laramie wyoming for horse theft and served 18 months for the crime he was able to secure early release by promising the governor that he would no longer commit crimes in wyoming sometime after his return from prison he helped to form a loose group of as many as 25 associates who called themselves the wild bunch the colorful group of robbers included cassie's close friend elsie lay and outlaws like bill kilpatrick known as the tall texan george flat knows curry and his protege harry logan who adopted the name kid curry some time later harry alonso longabao became a part of the group longaball was born in pennsylvania in 1867 and at 15 traveled west to help with his brother's homestead lungabal worked at his brother's ranch in cortez in southwestern colorado they had become acquainted with cassidy or his associates there as they sometimes raced horses in the area in 1886 he set out to make his fortune working as a ranch hand in 1887 he fell in hard times as there was less work for ranch hands after a bad winter had killed many wyoming cattle he stole a horse and some goods in wyoming and was caught by a sheriff outside of mile city montana it was the only crime for which was ever successfully held while being taken to trial long about managed a brief escape and made several more attempts he was adapted getting out of handcuffs and was described in the local newspaper as a slippery cuss harry was sentenced to 18 months in the county jail in sundance wyoming owing to his young age not even 21 upon his release the local newspaper referred to him as kid longabah and after that he started going by the name the sundance kid multiple accounts describe him as good-looking blonde charming and well-behaved he was an excellent horseman and despite being fast with a pistol was not known to have killed anyone he worked as a cowhand and horse breaker in canada where he was described as a splendid rider a top-notch cowhand but life as an honest cow hand did not last long in 1892 he participated in a train robbery near malta montana the robbery put the pinkerton detective agency employed by the railroad on his trail the wanted notice described him as five feet eleven inches dark complexion short dark mustache dark hair longaboe was suspected by the pinkertons in a number of robberies some of which he almost certainly was not involved but he did apparently participate in a train robbery in wilcox station wyoming in 1899 in which a large amount of dynamite was used to open the express safe butch cassie has often been assumed to be part of the robbery as well but there's at least some evidence that he could not have been present it is more likely that he was involved in the planning but not in the robbery itself which would have violated the agreement he made when he was released from prison in 1896. flush with cash longaball went to leilo in texas where he's presumed to have first met a woman named ethel little at all is known about the woman called etta place she went by the name ethel but newspaper accounts and pinkerton reports often used the name etta likely because of a misspelling and a pinkerton memo the pickerton agency assumed that she was from texas and sought information on her there but she also claimed to come from the northeast she was described as intelligent and beautiful with refined speech and manners but still skilled at riding horses and with a rifle by various accounts she was a prostitute a ranch girl a school teacher or a mother who abandoned her children for the handsome outlaw in 1949 the retired pinkerton detective speculated that she and harry had met in a house of ill fame if so not have been surprising members of the wild bunch often found women in brothels and both gang members kid curry and will carver had married prostitutes several possible candidates considered by historians are derived from records regarding women who worked in fanny portals brothel in san antonio and whose birth dates fit the description but there's no hard evidence that she was ever a prostitute and her appearance and manners did not seem to fit the profile of a woman in a profession that tended to take a heavy toll on a woman's health her identity and pass before 1900 even her name has never been established the last name place was longabah's mother's maiden name in august of 1900 a union pacific train was robbed near tipton wyoming in a robbery similar to the one in 1899 including the use of dynamite on the safe many accounts assume that both butch cassidy and the sundance kid participated in the robbery but there's compelling evidence including a note from sundance before the robbery and the detailed account provided by him later let's say that the two instead joined another member of the wild bunch named will carver who's nicknamed news because it was said to delight in seeing his name in the newspaper for a bank robbery in winnemucca nevada careful planning allowed them to outpace the posse following them it was a very rich haul a letter later from cassidy said that another of my rich uncles died and left thirty thousand dollars that would be close to a million dollars today pinkerton detectives that were trailing them noted that they were exchanging money both from the winnemucca bank robbery and the wilcox train robbery where some of the gold was still blackened from the dynamite realizing that the law was on their tail they apparently decided that it was time to skip the country in november they met up with three other members of the wild bunch will carver harvey kid curry logan and ben tall texan kilpatrick in fort worth texas the five decided to have a now famous photograph called the fort worth five taken the photo was a mistake the shop owner put a copy in his window where a pinkerton detective recognized will carver the agency had hundreds of copies made and they were used to identify the man when one of them recognized a lawman on the street the men left town time was running out for the wild bunch will carver was killed by a sheriff in sonora texas in april 1901. ben kilpatrick was captured in st louis in 1901 and sentenced to 15 years for a short while the police were convinced it was harry longabal that they had caught harvey logan who despite not being as well known as butch and sundance was the member of the wild bunch known to have killed the most people was finally caught in 1902 and sentenced to 20 years but escaped in 1903 his mentor george flatnose curry had been killed by a sheriff in utah in 1900 harry collected ethel and the two claimed to marry although no official record has been found they visited his family in pennsylvania and met up with butch in new york harry and ethel had a photo taken in february a copy of which he sent to a friend in wyoming was copied by pinkerton detectives they visited a health spa which was able to provide a description of them to the pinkertons butch bought harry a watch at tiffany and company possibly as a wedding present and then traveling as mr and mrs harry place and jim ryan they set sail for argentina been quite a lot of historical research on which casting sundance kid dozens maybe hundreds of books but historians disagree and there's still quite a lot of controversy about their lives and of course much of what the public knows comes from what we've seen on television or in film notably the oscar winning 1969 film but cassidy and the sundance kid that starred paul newman and robert redford and catherine ross is at a place but things didn't necessarily go the way that they were described in the movies for example it's generally assumed that butch cassidy and the sundance kid were best friends but that might not be the case it appears that they simply might have been a coincidence that they pulled their last big job together that ended up tying them together for the rest of their lives elsa lay was generally considered to be butch cassidy's best friend but he had been arrested the year before in new mexico and sentenced to 15 years in prison still it's possible that butch cassidy and harry longabahn knew each other much earlier than it's been suspected because longabah's family always suspected that he played some role in the 1889 bank robbery that butch pulled in telluride colorado there are several crimes that are generally attributed to the two where they might not have been for example the pinkertons assume that they participated both of them in the tipton train robbery and then rushed to nevada to pull the win among a bank job but there was only three weeks in between it would have been extremely difficult to travel the 600 miles distance and have adequate time to plan the winnemucca robbery the thing is the wild bunch had a very clear strategy they would pull their robberies during the day but they would have pre-positioned fresh mounts so that they could quickly outpace posses it was a very effective strategy but since all the gang used it then jobs that were pulled by some members of the gang might be misattributed to other members of the gang the pinkerton detective agency was a relentless pursuer and also sometimes an unscrupulous one butch cassidy and the sundance kid often lamented that they wanted to quit robbing and and go straight only to have their past and the law catch up with them and nowhere was that more apparent than in the next and most enigmatic phase of their careers in south america but that is another story [Music] in february of 1901 two of america's most famous outlaws and a companion left the united states under assumed names heading for argentina there they hoped to start a new life and escape their criminal past and for a while they would find success but ultimately they would not find escape they would return to their life of crime and they would leave behind some of the history's most enduring mysteries the final chapters in the life of butch cassidy and the sundance kid are history that deserves to be remembered the three americans arrived by steemer in buenos aires march 23 1901. the man traveling under the name jim ryan had been born robert leroy parker that had become known under the name butch cassidy purported leader of the notorious gang of wild west bank and train robbers called the wild bunch with him was a couple going by the name mr mrs harry a place harry had been born harold alonso longabaugh but had written under the nickname the sundance kid the two were friends but it was not clear how close or even when they first met what was known was that they had committed a bank robbery and win amok in nevada in august of 1900 their last big heist and decided to travel to south america to escape the pursuit of the notorious detectives of the pinkerton agency the woman calling herself mrs harry place was named ethel although she had been popularly called etta little is known about her even her real name aside from the fact that she and harry had met sometime around 1899 while he was laying low after the winnemucca heist and he had told his family that they were married in 1900 in november 1900 butch and sundance had met up with other members of their gang in fort worth texas where they had their photo taken a pinkerton agent had seen the photo in the shop and contacted law enforcement the group fled when one of them recognized a lawman on the streets harry collected ethel a woman he told a friend he had previously met in texas the two claimed to marry although no official record has been found visited his family in pennsylvania and traveled to new york where butch joined them the three then caught the steamer to buenos aires in argentina they bought a ranch in a remote area which was successful and made many friends both locals and other american expatriates harry and ethel made a trip back to the united states in 1902 visiting relatives and coney island they visited again in 1904 spending time in the fort worth area and then attending the st louis world's fair the pinkertons were still chasing them but were always a step behind the agency had bribed people to intercept the outlaws mail and figured out that they were in argentina from letters butch sent to his sister but they didn't pursue them at the time as their employers did not authorize funds to chase them that far in february 1904 there was a bank robbery in argentina by what was described as two gringos butch and sundance have often been blamed for the robbery although it was very likely committed by another pair of americans whose butch and harry seem to be still living law-abiding lives on their ranch the robbery however brought new attention to the outlaws the pinkertons convinced argentina to issue an arrest warrant in april of 1905. friends warned them before the warrant could be served and they were on the run again in december 1905 the banco de la lacian in via mercedes de san luis argentina was robbed witnesses reported that the robbers were three men and a woman butch sundance and ethel were identified as three of the robbers by witnesses from their wanted posters the third man is a question local newspapers at the time suggested that the man was harvey logan known as kid curry a member of butch and sundance's wild bunch gang logan had supposedly been killed by a posse in 1904 but there were questions about his identity and fame pinkerton detective charlie soringo was convinced they'd gotten the wrong man did kid curry escape death and like butch and sundance make it to south america for another life or was the third man someone else a local that was picked up for the job or not the job of actually being carried out by another gang all together we do know that witnesses said that one of the robbers quite possibly the female was wounded during the getaway ethel then mysteriously disappeared from the picture and butch and harry took legitimate jobs harry started becoming more loose-lipped about their past and that is when he presumably provided the details to locals about the bank robbery that he and cassidy had pulled in winnemucca in 1900 the robbery was their last big score and apparently the one that convinced them that it was time to leave the united states those details were later published although the two took legitimate jobs every once a while they would simply disappear for a time just like they'd done in the united states of course the assumption is that during those periods they were committing crimes in november 1908 two yankees robbed a mine payroll in bolivia the robbers apparently assumed that the people robbed would not be able to pass word quickly in the remote area but the victims of the robbery happened upon another traveler and were able to spread a warning to nearby towns the two yankees sought lodging in a house in a small village of sen vincente bolivia the locals however suspected that they were the men who had robbed the mine payroll they alerted a nearby military patrol three cavalrymen and a police inspector three of the men from the patrol surrounded the house the yankees fired at them and one of the soldiers was hit in the throat and killed the group returned fire and after a brief gunfight three loud shouts were heard from the house followed by two gunshots in the morning the bodies of the outlaws were found one assumed to be the sundance kid had been hit several times in the arm and then shot in the forehead the second assumed to have been butch cassidy had a shot to the temple authorities surmised that butch had shot his mortally wounded friend and then killed himself to avoid capture there is compelling circumstantial evidence that butch cassidy and the sundance kid died that day the two men that were killed were most definitely the robbers the money from the payroll robbery was found in their saddle bags the general descriptions of the two men fit descriptions of butch and harry although they lacked the sort of specifics that you could use for a positive identification the time frame makes sense and the way that the robbery was conducted makes sense there's no definitive evidence that butch or harry were somewhere else at the time certainly many of their friends and family both in south america and north america were convinced that they died that day letters from harry longobo to his family stopped after that day and letters that were written to butch cassidy's pseudonym at the time frank boyd likewise went unanswered by far the most accepted theory to historians was that butch cassidy and the sunden's kid were killed in 1908 in bolivia but there are legitimate reasons for skepticism the men were buried as disconocidos unknowns the bodies were never viewed or identified by anyone who positively knew them the remains have never since been discovered an attempt by archaeologists to locate their remains in 1991 failed to find any remains that match dna of relatives of butcher harry the cemetery is crowded it's possible their remains are simply lost among the graves or interred outside the cemetery but so far no remains that can be definitively proved to be those of robert parker and harry lagabah have ever been identified bolivia who buried them as unknowns never provided death certificates in their names more intriguingly if two unknown yankees had been killed after a payroll robbery in bolivia butch and harry had every reason to let the world believe that it was them the two had tried to go straight many times only to have the law track them down they've been accused of many crimes that they probably didn't commit and this last one might have offered them an opportunity for freedom the lack of proof has resulted in many theories some mere speculation but some that cannot be easily discounted many members of butch cassidy's family insisted that he returned to the united states reconnected with his family and lived possibly into the 1940s family members and acquaintances have gone on record with positive identifications of robert parker aka butch cassidy 15 years after he was supposed to have died several went on camera in a 1978 episode of the tv program in search of these were not just sightings in a crowd but people claiming to have spent substantial time and had lengthy conversations with a man they claimed could only have been the butch cassidy that they knew one of those making that claim was josie bassett the daughter of a utah rancher bassett had grown up in the area called outlaws trail that was a place of hideout for members of the wild bunch she was very familiar with butch cassidy having first met him when she was a teenager while he was working at a nearby ranch and using the name george cassidy in a 1960 interview she recalled of him i thought he was the most dashing and handsome man that i had ever seen i was such a young thing and giddy as most teenagers are and i looked upon butch as my knight in shining armor by her own admission the two were linked romantically or as she described it all i can say is i didn't let him get bored in the interview she matter-of-factly stated i saw butch cassidy back in the 1920s after he came back from south america the meeting occurred in rock springs wyoming she said that he was with elsie lay who'd been butch's best friend and a member of the wild bunch lay had been arrested in new mexico in 1899 and sentenced to prison and thus had missed butch's last successful robberies since his escape to south america he had received a pardon in 1906 she described them having a long conversation three friends catching up she said butch described his life in south america and after she concluded butch died in johnny nevada about 15 years ago butch's family however has refused to disclose the location of his final burial saying that he had been chased all his life and they would not let him keep being chased after he died an attempt by modern researchers to recover his remains from potential burial site in 2017 produced some remains but they were not a dna match so far no remains in the united states have been discovered that can be definitively identified as butch cassidy or provide proof that he survived after he was supposed to have been killed in bolivia in 1908. that of course leaves a question of what had happened to harry longabah the sundance kid one story suggested that butch had actually escaped in the night after longer but been killed by the posse but another story says that the two that were killed in bolivia were two entirely different men and that butch and harry had spread the rumor that it was them so that they could escape the law like butch cassidy there were many rumors about harry longebaugh returning to the united states one of the most intriguing was a rancher named william henry long who died in utah in 1936. long's age was correct for harry longabah and he bore what was called a striking resemblance to the famous outlaw what's more he told his family that he was the sundance kid and they believed it to be true in 2009 long's remains were exhumed from a cemetery in duchesne utah and tested versus the dna of a person believed to be a distant relative of harry longabah the results were unable to prove that the two were connected but there was an issue groundwater in the cemetery had disintegrated the coffin and it's very likely that the remains that they found had been contaminated the dna results were in fact inclusive and once again there is simply no evidence in bolivia or the united states that can be definitively tied to the remains of harry alonso longabar and that leaves a final question what happened to longabah's companion at a place the answer is elusive we don't even know her real name we have no reliable information on her life before she met harry longabah in texas in 1899. the pinkertons kept files on her and search for more information in texas but their results are contradictory and much of it is speculative in fact she always used the name ethel the name etta was apparently simply the pinkerton's mistake either from a misspelling in a report or because spanish speakers in argentina had difficulty pronouncing her name it's not clear when she was last seen if witnesses to the 1905 bank robbery were correct she was last seen escaping that robbery in july 1909 a woman met the us consul in argentina seeking help finding a death certificate for harry longabaugh presumably to settle his estate officials in bolivia were unable to help only producing death certificates for the two disconceitos the woman was described as pretty but her name was not recorded and it's not clear whether the woman was ethel in the speculation for her true identity there were a couple of clear-eyed contenders one of the theories was that she was a woman named eunice gray who owned a brothel and ran businesses in fort worth texas and passed away in 1962. their reported ages were similar eunice gray was described very much like anna plays says pretty intelligent and well spoken and reportedly had a similar appearance miss gray had once mentioned to a newspaper that she'd spent time in south america during roughly the period when at a place was known to be there however when relatives were found we have pictures of eunice gray and the pictures were compared to the known picture of at a place in harry it was clear they were not the same person another contender was ann bassett josie's younger sister and herself was a famous pioneer and a rancher and possibly a wrestler who was called colorado's cattle queen while anne later said that she barely knew butch cassidy other sources linked her romantically to butch and other members of the wild bunch the speculation is that she had taken up with harry and traveled with them to south america the most compelling evidence was that the two were strikingly similar in appearance so much so that a group at the los alamos natural laboratory that specializes in photographic comparisons determined them to be the same person however there are periods when ethel was seen by witnesses in argentina while anne was clearly in the united states including being arrested and incarcerated on accusations of cattle wrestling the timelines simply did not align without even knowing who she was we are left with speculation as to what happened to her one possibility is that she did participate in the robbery in 1905 and was the person wounded and it's possible that she died then harry had told a friend from argentina that she had relocated to san francisco in 1906 and if so it's not known what name she may have used and there's no definitive record if she gone to san francisco then she could have been one of the more than 3 000 people killed in the earthquake and fire in april there have been many claims about her living in various parts of the united states or moving back to south america but they amount to nothing more than speculation like her famous outlaw companions we cannot identify her final resting place we do know quite a few details about their life in patagonia but they're details that are simply fuzzy and some other details contradict but what's most distressing is that even with all of the efforts of modern science our methods still have yet to be able to find definitively what happened to these very famous people just at the turn of the last century and that of course is distressing for people who study history as we try to make speculation about things that happen millennia before that but still the inability to know exactly what happened to butch cassidy the sundance kid and at a place reminds us how much history there is still to discover history that deserves to be remembered i hope you enjoyed this episode of the history guide check out our community on thehistoryguyguild.locals.com our webpage at thehistoryguy.com and our merchandise at teespring.com or book a special message from the history guy on cameo and if you'd like more episodes of forgotten history all you have to do is subscribe [Music] [Applause] [Music] you

Channel: The History Guy: History Deserves to Be Remembered

Views: 482,126

Keywords: history, history guy, the history guy, wild West

Id: F4Qp_twkcJo

Length: 50min 31sec (3031 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 29 2022