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Friday, September 29, 2006
Butch Cassidy Worked Here...
"The company's shop had been located in Spokane Valley, but it moved earlier this month to a new location along East Sprague, a mile east of downtown Spokane.
Now, a 103-year-old retail building there with ties to Spokane's past is home to the store that sells products aimed at sustaining its future.
Located at the southwest corner of Sprague and Perry Street, the front part of the 4,800-square-foot building housed a restaurant and grocery store when it was built. The back portion was a carriage house for the city of Spokane.
"According to lore, Butch Cassidy worked here," she says, referring to the notorious turn-of-the-20th-century train and bank robber who some say lived in Spokane late in life." - Spokane Journal William T. Phillips makes the news again.
Thursday, September 28, 2006
Annals of the Former World II
I cross-posted the August 24th entry regarding Annals of the Former World from this blog to Inland History Northwest (home of the never-ending catfight). I got this response from Dan Buck that I thought was pretty interesting.
"m/a/z/e, an April 1970 monograph written by W.L. Marion has a different version of Dr. Smith meeting Butch in Lander: "[Butch Cassidy] visited Evanston, where he had many friends and finally in 1933 he went to Lander. The late Doctor W.F. Smith saw Charley Stough, former sheriff and now County Commissioner, talking to a man in the bar of the Noble Hotel. Doc Smith had followed the career of Butch Cassidy and was thunder-struck when he saw the man Stough was talking to. When Charley came out, Doc Smith stopped him and askedd, 'Charley, could that have been Butch Cassidy you were just talking to?' Stough said, 'Yes, that was Butch, he's clean.' The statute of limitations had cleared him." Further on in the tale, Marion says Butch stayed with E.J. Farlow at his ranch: "Farlow told the writer [Marion] that Butch took off his clothes and showed him the scars of the battle he and Longabaugh and Etta Place had with the rurales at the railroad station in Bolivia." In a preface to the monograph, Pearl Baker said that John Broedeker had told her "that Butch had taken him and his father, Hank Boedeker, into the bathroom in 1933 and stripped and showed them the scars, at least 7, sustained in that battle." In McPhee's version, Butch had a face-lift in Paris, which is the William T. Phillips story. The photograph of 18 men plus Butch sounds like the one published on p. 133 of Larry Pointer's IN SEARCH OF BUTCH CASSIDY. The man said to be Butch is wearing a bowler hat. (It's not Butch, but that's another matter.) Per the Charter family (as well as Pointer), the photo originally came from them. The one thing everyone seems to agree on is that Bert Charter is in the photo. All the best, Dan"
Sunday, September 24, 2006
This Date in History
September 24, 1892 - The Benjamin E. Snipes & Co. payroll is robbed by The Invincible Three in Roslyn, Washington.
Friday, September 22, 2006
This Date in History
September 22, 1897 - Harvey Logan, the Sundance Kid and Walt Punteney are arrested near Lavina, Montana. Their arrest followed the trio's earlier attempt to bribe a town marshall in Red Lodge, Montana.
Thursday, September 21, 2006
This Date in History
September 21, 1896 - Matt Warner and William Wall are convicted of manslaughter following the "E.B. Coleman Affair." E.B. Coleman is acquitted.
Tuesday, September 19, 2006
This Date in History
September 19, 1900 - The first National Bank of Winnemucca robbed in Winnemucca, Nevada by members of the Wild Bunch.
The Catfight Continues
The debate continues to rage over at the Inland Northwest History. Somehow the conversation has turned from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid to, of all people, Winston Churchill. At any rate, it continues to be worth a read.
Thursday, September 07, 2006
Outlaw Trail: The Movie
A small tidbit of information re: the upcoming Outlaw Trail movie from the Indy Star...
"'Outlaw Trail.' A group of friends try to disprove the official version of outlaw Butch Cassidy's death. Adam Abel and Ryan Little, 2003 grand prize winners for "Saints and Soldiers,"are the filmmakers." - Indy Star
The film won a Crystal Heart Award at the Heartland Film Festival
Tuesday, September 05, 2006
Site Update
Forty new articles, including the one below this post, have been added to the Print Archive. I'm hoping to have another update later this month.
Vernal Express 05.04.1904
FIGHTING FOR "BUB" MEEKS
Attorneys and Cashier Think He Was Not in the Montpelier Bank Robbery
The case of Henry Meeks who was sent to the penitentiary for thirty-five years on the charge of having aided in robbing the bank at Montpelier on August 13, 1896 occupied the attention of the state board of pardons Monday for several hours. J.H. Wallis (?) of Paris appeared on behalf of Meeks. Congressman T.L. Glenn, who assisted in defending Meeks, was also present and made some statement on behalf of the convict. Mr. Wallis in a written statement presented to the board which he supplemented by oral statements and that the cashier of the bank, G.C. Gray, who was closest to the robber supposed to have been Meeks had testified that the man was not over five feet high and would not weigh to exceed 155 pounds, while Meeks is six feet, two inches in height and weighs over 200. Gray would not on the trial make positive identification. (unintelligible)
Another fact to be given great weight in connection with McIntosh's testimony is this. The trial of the case did not take place until nearly 14 months after the crime was committed. Meeks not long arrested until a year afterward, although Meeks was in Wyoming and Utah all the time. The testimony for the defense showed that Meeks was in Vernal Uintah county, Utah on the 12th of August 1896, the day before the robbery took place. Vernal is in the neighborhood of 250 miles from Montpelier and it was impossible for Meeks to have been in Montpelier less than 24 hours afterwards. On this 12th day of August, 1896 Meeks at Vernal traded a (unintelligible) horse to a man named George H. Wilson--a man of standing in the community there--for a (unintelligible) mare, and bills of sale passed between Meeks and Wilson for those animals witnessed by Del Colton and Charles Shannon, both of whom, Wilson and Colton, testified to these facts at the trial.
At the time the bank was robbed the whole community was thrown into great excitement. Heavy rewards were offered both by Bear Lake county in which the crime was committed and also by the guarantee companies in which the bank was insured. The officers worked hard for the reward, and Meeks was arrested in the July following. At his preliminary, the sheriff's brother, Sam J. Rich, engaged with Meeks to defend him. The treatment he received from this man was not honorable to say the least. He neglected his clients interests, after first getting from the man all he had, and paid no attention to the details connected with the trial of his cause. At the time he (unintelligible) he client by writing out subpoenas for "Butch" Cassidy, Matt Warner and others when it was known that such outlaws could not be (unintelligible). Letters that Meeks wanted registered and sent to parties whom he wanted as witnesses were held back until just as the case opened. Meeks had wanted these people subpoenaed but his attorney told him he couldn't have time and he (unintelligible) write to them as the judge would go ahead with the trial without them. So incensed was Meeks over this treatment that he would not allow Rich to further conduct the case, and the court appointed L. Glenn and R.S. Spence as his attorneys. The case was then in progress and the prisoner's plea of not guilty had been taken. Glenn and Spence asked for time to consult their client and arrange the evidence. But the court would not allow consent saying, "Gentlemen, if you don't wish to try this case, I'll remove you and appoint someone else." The attorney's knew none of these circumstances herein related concerning Meeks' treatment from his attorney until after the trial, sentence and conviction, or the whole matter would have been expressed before court.
This statement is fortified by others. Mr. Gray says there is a doubt as to Meeks guilt and that he would be glad to see him pardoned. Detective Jones of the Short Line says positively he is satisfied he is innocent. Basing his ascertain on a full investigation of the case. Alfred Bridge, prosecuting attorney of Bear Lake county, favors a commutation at least, saying ten to twelve years would have been ample punishment in any event. None of the jurors who tried Meeks ask clemency for him.
The board to the case under advisement--Statement
Mr. Rich will probably take steps to disprove the allegation above set forth, as many though he attended to the case as long as Meeks desired him to.
Sunday, September 03, 2006
This Date in History
September 3, 1897 - Members of the Ketchum Gang rob a Colorado & Southern train near Folsom, New Mexico.
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