Robert Leroy Parker (p.2)

It wasn’t long after Bob left home that he found himself in another brush with the law. By early summer 1885, Parker had relocated to Telluride, Colorado. Bob soon found himself in a dispute with a local rancher over the ownership of Parker’s horse, Cornish. Parker’s sister, Lula, writes that the rancher was angry with her brother for not selling the horse to him when Parker and when Parker left the ranch with Cornish, the rancher promptly filed theft charges against him. Bob was later apprehended in Montrose County and placed in jail. His friends in Telluride send word to the Parker family that their son was in trouble and Maximillian set out for Montrose County at once. When the elder Parker arrived he found his son sitting in a jail cell with the door wide open. Maximillian offered to help his son get out, but the younger Parker refused, stating, “They know I haven’t taken anything that wasn’t mine, I plan on to stay right here until I get my horse.” Bob was eventually released and the matter dropped.

After his release, Parker returned to Telluride where he soon met up with a fellow Utah cowboy by the name of Matt Warner.

Through Warner, Parker (henceforth referred to as Butch Cassidy) was introduced to Tom McCarty, Matt Warner’s brother-in-law and an experienced cattle rustler. Legend has it that McCarty taught the younger outlaws the art of robbing trains. On November 3, 1887, an eastbound Denver & Rio Grande passenger train was robbed near the Gunnison River. While four men were later arrested and convicted of the crime, many believe the real culprits were Cassidy, Warner and McCarty.

In 1888, Cassidy and Warner hired on with the Spectator Ranch owned by Harry B. Adist. The ranch was located about forty miles from Telluride, Colorado. The pair worked the ranch for about a year before moving on, receiving their choice of horses from the stock they had broken as a bonus.

On March 30, 1889 a lone man walked into the First National Bank of Denver carrying what he claimed to be a vial of nitroglycerin. The man threatened to blow up the bank unless he his demands were met. The bankers quickly acquiesced to the man’s orders, handing over $21,000. As he left the bank the robber handed off the money to an accomplice waiting outside and was never seen from again. Although they denied it, Tom McCarty and Matt Warner are the favored suspects in this robbery. Matt Warner’s daughter, Joyce, later claimed that both her father and Butch Cassidy admitted to her their roles in the crime.

Two months later on June 24, 1889, Butch Cassidy, along with Matt Warner and Tom McCarty, returned to Telluride and robbed the San Miguel Valley Bank. The outlaws escaped into Robbers Roost with approximately $20,000. After laying low in the Roost, the three men set off towards Lander, Wyoming where Cassidy split with his partners just outside of town. Butch advised the brothers-in-law not to show their faced in town so soon after a robbery, but they didn’t listen. As a result McCarty and Warner were spotted by a posse and again pursued by the law.

Cassidy eventually made his way to the Brown’s Park area in Utah, hiring on with Herb and Elizabeth Bassett. Butch quickly became part of the family, possibly dating one or both of the Bassett daughters – Anne and Josie. A number of Cassidy's future Wild Bunch partners were known to frequent Brown’s Park including Elzy Lay and the Sundance Kid. Matt Warner also had a ranch on the nearby Diamond Mountain.

From Brown’s Park, Parker headed north where he met up with Al Hainer. The two men hit it off and soon purchased a ranch on Horse Creek, about 75 miles from Lander, Wyoming. It was here that Cassidy became acquainted with John and Margaret Simpson and their son, Will. In the years to come Will would have the unfortunate duty of sending Cassidy to jail over a stolen horse. The Meeks family also lived in the area and this is probably when Cassidy first met Bub Meeks. Cassidy is known to have dated Dora Lamorreaux Robertson and Mary Boyd during this time period. Boyd would later go on to have a relationship with William T. Phillips, the man suspected of being Butch Cassidy.

Hainer and Cassidy eventually closed up their ranch, selling off the stock and parting ways. Cassidy headed to Johnson County, Wyoming. While in Johnson County, Cassidy rustled horses from the area and sold them in Utah, only to turn around and steal horses from Utah to sell in the Dakotas. Cassidy homesteaded property on Blue Creek, eventually controlling over 500 acres of land. When his reputation became too hot to handle, Cassidy sold the ranch off to Jim Stubbs and left the area.