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Hell's Half Acre
According to the Handbook
of Texas Online, the south end of Fort Worth, Texas was first referred
to as Hell’s Half Acre by a local newspaper in 1874. Entertainment in
the area revolved around prostitution, drinking, and a healthy amount of
gambling and fighting.
In short, it was an
outlaw’s paradise.
It is said that a
bartender in the Acre went by the name Mike
Cassidy. It is not known if this is the
same man who was Butch Cassidy’s mentor back in Utah. If it was the same
man, that would be one more reason to for Butch to frequent
the area.
The Wild Bunch chose Fort
Worth to meet up after the Tipton and Winnemucca robberies.
It is believed the reason
for the meeting was to celebrate the upcoming nuptials of Wild Bunch
member Will Carver to his girlfriend
Callie May Hunt, also known as Lillie
Davis.
While in Fort Worth Butch
Cassidy, the Sundance Kid, Harvey
Logan, Ben Kilpatrick and Will Carver decided to have
their portrait together. Dressed in
their finest, the outlaws stopped into John Swartz’s photography studio at 705 Main
Street; just a few blocks away from the Acre.
This turned out to be a
colossal mistake.
Swartz, proud of the
photograph, chose to display a copy of the picture in his storefront
window. Not long afterwards Fred
Dodge, a Wells Fargo agent, happened to
walk by the studio and recognized Will Carver’s face staring back at him
from the window. Dodge went inside and obtained a copy of the photograph.
The picture was then
copied and sent out across the country, finding its way on thousands of
wanted posters. Thanks to the infamous "Fort Worth Five"
photograph, the
Wild Bunch were systematically hunted down, arrested, and, in some
cases, killed.
After the reunion in Fort
Worth, Will Carver and Harvey Logan, along with Callie May Hunt and Annie
Rogers (believed to be one of Fannie Porter’s former employees),
left together to celebrate Carver’s honeymoon. Will Carver would die
four months later on April 12, 1901
Butch Cassidy, the
Sundance Kid and Etta Place moved on to South America. Even though they
were thousands of miles away from the States, the "Fort Worth Five"
photograph continued to haunt them. Representatives of the Pinkertons distributed hundreds of
wanted posters throughout South America in their unending search for the
outlaws.
The area formerly known
as Hell’s Half Acre is now home to Sundance
Square, Fort Worth’s entertainment and shopping district.
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