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Tuesday, August 29, 2006
Fire in the Hole
"Elsewhere in Wyoming, the Outlaw 2 Fire had burned over 12,000 acres by Friday evening in an area where famed outlaws Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid used to hide out. It has destroyed a restored historic cabin linked to the Johnson County War of the 1890s." - Casper Star Tribune
This Date in History
August 29, 1900 - The Union Pacific #3 was robbed just outside Tipton, Wyoming by members of the Wild Bunch.
Monday, August 28, 2006
Millard County Progress 01.11.1918
WOMAN ELUDES ALL BUT DEATH
Notorious Bandit Escapes Most Famous Detectives of Four Continents
WAS LEADER OF GANG
Cow Girl of West Finds Husband Is Bandit, Joins His Band and Leads Followers in Daring Bandit Work.
New York.--Out of the wilds of Argentina came a recent news dispatch that thrilled the New York police department and detectives throughout the world. The news was that Etta Longabaugh, the woman bandit, was dead. This daring girl, who had eluded the world's most famous criminal catchers, had been shot down by one of her dupes, according to the message.
Years ago, a cowgirl, Etta Place, began to attract attention on a ranch in the West. Her fame spread and she was soon known as one the most expert horsewomen in America. She could ride and shoot as good as the best cowboys, and had pluck and courage. Then she was married to Harry Longbaugh.
Learned Husband Was a Bandit.
Shortly after her marriage Etta learned that her husband was a bandit. When she made this discovery the woman not only joined his gang, but became the leader of it. Butch Cassidy, Kid Curry and a number of other notorious bandits were members of the gang. While a "job" was being "pulled" the woman, in man's attire, waited on guard. She bore the brunt of the fight with civilians and police and was the last to leave the scene.
The gang had its headquarters in the Grand Encampment, Wyo., and rode hundreds of miles to strike in unexpected places. Throughout Wyoming, Texas, Montana, Arizona and other nearby states the band reaped rich harvests and always evaded the authorities. In a Nevada town one day the gang robbed a bank in broad daylight. Etta held bank a posse of citizens until her comrades were safely away, then swung into the saddle and galloped off with a derisive laugh.
Avoided the Government.
When the government took a hand in the pursuit of the gang, Etta led her followers openly to New York. There they had a group picture taken, boarded a ship for Argentina and disappeared from view. Detectives later found the picture--after the gang had escaped.
In Argentina the bandits penetrated into the wilds and began cattle rustling. They made a fortune, honestly, but the lure of banditry drew them back to their old ways. They raided banks and stores in Argentina, then crossed into Chile and left a trail of looted banks behind them. Then back to Buenos Aires the gang had another group picture taken and then fled to Paris.
In Monte Carlo detectives finally located them and planned to catch the entire gang at once. A few hours before the raid the bandits disappeared. Nothing more was heard until months later word came that a gang of bandits led by a woman, was operating in Cape Horn.
Now the report comes from Argentina of Etta's death, but New York police are slow to accept it. With the authorities of four continents on her trail, Etta might wish to be officially "dead" and then come back to live quietly in the West that she loved so well in her younger days.
Thursday, August 24, 2006
Annals of the Former World
I saw this mentioned in Wikipedia, so I checked out a copy from the library - Annals of the Former World by John McPhee.
"Through the eighteen-nineties, there are various hiatuses in the resume of John Love, but as a cowboy and homesteader he very evidently prospered, and he also formed durable friendships--with Chief Washakie, for example, and with the stagecoach driver Peggy Dougherty, and with Robert LeRoy Parker and Harry Longabaugh (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid). There came a day when Love could not contain his developed curiosity in the precesence of the aging chief. He asked him what truth there was in the story of Crowheart Butte. Had Washaki really eaten his enemy's heart? The chief said, "Well, Johnny, when you're young and full of life you do strange things."
Robert LeRoy Parker was an occasional visitor at Love's homestead on Muskrat Creek, which was halfway between Hole-in-the-Wall and the Sweetwater River--that is, between Parker's hideout and his woman. Love's descendants sometimes stare bemusedly at a photograph discovered a few years ago in a cabin in Jackson Hole that had belonged to a member of the Wild Bunch. The photograph, made in the middle eighteen-nineties, shows eighteen men with Parker, who is wearing a dark business suit, a tie and a starchy white collar, a bowler hat. Two of the bunch are identified only by question marks. One of these is a jaunty man of middle height and strong frame, his hat at a rakish angle--a man with a kindly face, twinkling shrewd eyes, and a mustache growing over his mouth like willows bending over a brook. It may be doubtful whether John Love would have joined such a group, but when you are young and full of life you do strange things." (P.304-305)
"In one of those Yale summers, while taking some time away from the rock, he badly cut his foot in a lake near Lander. He made a tourniquet with his bandanna, and limped down to see Doc Smith. This was Francis Smith, M.D., who had coaxed David's father past the tick fever, had seen David's mother though a strep infection that nearly killed her, and, over the years, had put enough stitches in David to complete a baseball. Now, as he worked on the foot, he told David that one of his recent office visitors had been Robert LeRoy Parker himself (Butch Cassidy),
David said politely that Cassidy was dead in Bolivia, and everybody knew that.
Smith said everybody was wrong. The patient had appeared in the doorway, and had stood there long and thoughtfully, searching the face of the doctor. Pleased by what he did not find, he said. "You don't know who I am, do you?"
The doctor said, "You look familiar, but I can't quite say."
The patient remarked that his face had been altered by a surgeon in Paris. Then he lifted his shirt, exposing the deep crease of a repaired bullet would--craftmanship that Doc Smith recognized precisely as his own." (P.358)
Take it for what you will.
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
Conservation Buyers Protect Historic Ranch Property
Cody, WY--August 21, 2006--The Nature Conservancy's Sheep's Point property near Meeteetse was sold to buyers who will protect its conservation values with a donated conservation easement to the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation. The 320-acre parcel is surrounded by public land and harbors important elk and mule deer migratory corridors, elk calving grounds, and crucial elk winter range.
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The Sheep's Point property was once part of the Pitchfork Ranch, one of Wyoming's most historic ranches. Started in 1878, the ranch is an important link to the Old West--a place where Butch Cassidy stole a horse and legendary photographer Charles J. Belden captured images of the cowboy life. - Nature.org
Monday, August 14, 2006
Prostitution in San Antonio: Then & Now
"In the late 1800s, the city's red-light district ran on both sides of what now is Interstate 35, by and south of Market Square and the University of Texas at San Antonio Downtown Campus. Famed marshal Wyatt Earp is said to have been co-owner of a saloon, one of dozens of theaters, bars and brothels in the 22-block area, according to news archives.
Butch Cassidy and his Wild Bunch are said to have stayed in the area. According to David Bowser, author of "West of the Creek: Murder, Mayhem and Vice in Old San Antonio," Cassidy would ride a bicycle in the red-light district. That image of the bike-riding outlaw is believed to have inspired a scene from the 1969 film "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid." - My San Antonio
Sunday, August 13, 2006
This Date in History
August 13, 1896 - Bank of Montpelier robbery in Montpelier, Idaho.
Tuesday, August 08, 2006
New Layout
The old site design was bugging me - too bland - so I went ahead and created a new layout. Welcome to ButchandSundance.com v2.0
Saturday, August 05, 2006
This Date in History
August 5, 1887 - Harry A. Longabaugh sentenced to 18 months in the Wyoming Territorial Prison, however he serves his time in Sundance, Wyoming instead.
Friday, August 04, 2006
Butch Cassidy meets The Clash?
Bankrobber
My daddy was a bankrobber
But he never hurt anybody
He just loved to live that way
And he loved to steal your money
Some is rich and some is poor
That's the way the world is
But I don't believe in lying back
And sayin' how bad your luck is
So we came to jazz it up
We never loved a shovel
Break your back to earn your pay
And don't forget to grovel
The old man spoke up in bar
Said I never been in prison
A lifetime supply serving one machine
Is ten times worse than prison
Imagine if all the boys in jail
Could get out now together
Whadda you think they'd want
To say to us while we was being clever
Someday you'll meet your rocking chair
'Cos that's where we're spinning
There's no point to wanna comb your hair
When it's grey and thinning
Run rabbit run
Strike out boys for the hills
I can find that hole in the wall
And I know that they never will - The Clash (Strummer/Jones)
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