Banditos Yanqui

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid made their return to the outlaw life by robbing the del Banco de Tarapaca in Rio Gallegos, Argentina on February 14, 1905. Three men are said to have been involved in the robbery–two men entered the bank while the third waited outside with the horses. On duty inside was assistant manager Arturo Bishop and cashier Alexander Mackerrow. It was nearing closing and the two men were busy totaling the day’s business when the two outlaws entered the bank. Bishop and Mackerrow recognized the men as the English-speaking customers who had previously opened an account at the bank under the names Brady and Linden. The men had been in town for a while, staying at the Hotel Argentino and posing as representatives of a livestock company scouting new land. Brady and Linden indicated they wanted to close their accounts and then drew their weapons. They grabbed all the loose cash along with a small box of silver. The outlaws made a clean escape. Posses dispatched to find the criminals came across the empty cash box and discarded relay horses, but no signs of the outlaws.

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid are said to have been Brady and Linden. However, physical descriptions provided by witnesses disagree with this allegation. Witnesses describe the robbers as in their twenties while Cassidy and Sundance were pushing forty at the time of the robbery. The infamous duo’s neighbors in Cholila claim the two men were at their ranch in February 1905. Their statements are backed up by a government survey that documents the two men as present at the Cholila ranch in February.

Harvey Logan is often mentioned as the third man involved in the Rio Gallegos robbery despite the fact that Logan died June 9, 1904 near Rifle, Colorado. Needless to say, Logan was in no condition to participate in the robbery. The prevailing theory is, if it was in fact Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid who committed the crime, the third member was likely Etta Place wearing men’s clothing to disguise her appearance.

The Rio Gallegos robbery was soon followed up with a robbery of the Banco del la Nacion in Villa Mercedes, Argentina. According to reports four men rode up to the bank and, following established Wild Bunch procedure, one man remained outside with the horses as a lookout while the other three entered the bank. After relieving the bank of approximately $5,000 pesos, the robbers shot their way out of town. Utilizing a series of relay horses, again a textbook Wild Bunch maneuver, the outlaws were able to easily escape the pursuing posses. 

The Villa Mercedes robbery was chalked up to Butch Cassidy, the Sundance Kid, Etta Place and the deceased Harvey Logan. Witnesses later identified Cassidy, Sundance and Place after shown photographs of the fugitives. The same witnesses did not recognize Logan as a participant of the crime. Newspaper reports credited the robbery to the same individuals who pulled the Rio Gallegos robbery some ten months earlier.

Following the Villa Mercedes robbery Butch Cassidy, and eventually the Sundance Kid, hired on with the Concordia Tin Mines in Tres Cruces, Bolivia. They would work the mines and live life more or less on the straight and narrow until the summer of 1908 when several more crimes were attributed to the infamous duo.

In May and August of 1908 two men, believed to be North Americans, robbed trains in Eucalyptus, Bolivia. While at first the robbers were thought to be ex-employees of the railroad, the robberies were later attributed to be the work of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

The bandits remained quiet until November 1908 when the outlaws may have met their fate in the infamous San Vicente shootout.

Back