Robert LeRoy Parker (p.4)

On August 13, 1896 Butch Cassidy, Elzy Lay and Bub Meeks rode into Montpelier, Idaho and relieved the Bank of Montpelier of $16,500. After making their escape, the outlaws took the money directly to Douglas A. Preston and retained the lawyer for Warner’s defense. The bandits then fled to Robbers Roost.

Ann Bassett states that Cassidy, Elzy Lay, the Sundance Kid and other members of the Wild Bunch spent Thanksgiving 1896 with the Bassett family in Brown’s Park. During this time it is believed that Cassidy, Lay, Lay’s girlfriend Maude Davis, Ann Bassett and possibly the Sundance Kid and Etta Place were all camped out in Robbers Roost.

The outlaws spent the winter at the Roost before sending the women home so Cassidy and Lay could rob the Pleasant Valley Coal Company payroll in Castle Gate, Utah. The two outlaws, posing as horse racers, arrived in town several days before the robbery to await the arrival of the payroll. It came on April 21, 1897. Cassidy and Lay ambushed the paymaster shortly after he picked up the money and raced out of town. Using a series of relay horses, the outlaws managed to escape to Robbers Roost without incident.

Two months later on June 28, 1897, members of the Wild Bunch robbed the Butte County Bank in Belle Fourche, South Dakota. While it has never been proven that Cassidy was among the men who robbed the bank, his name often comes up as a suspect. Butch may have been working on a nearby ranch at the time and possibly assisted in the planning of the robbery.

During the last week of July 1897, the Wild Bunch headed to Baggs, Wyoming for a celebration at Jack Ryan’s Bulldog Saloon. The gang is said to have put 25 bullet holes in the bar’s ceiling, compensating Ryan one silver dollar per hole he later used towards purchasing a better saloon.

In May of 1898, Wild Bunch associate Joe Walker and another man were shot and killed by authorities. Newspapers reported the identity of the second man was none other than Butch Cassidy. The reports were later retracted when it became apparent that the slain man was not the famous outlaw. The real Cassidy, with the help of a friend who allowed him to hide in the back of a wagon, took the opportunity to attend his own “funeral.”

Later that same year, under the alias Jim Lowe, Cassidy and Elzy Lay worked at the WS Ranch in Alma, New Mexico. Cassidy hired on as assistant foreman while Lay worked as a horse wrangler.

Cassidy, and possibly Lay, are suspected of leaving the WS Ranch to take part in the robbery of a Union Pacific train near Wilcox, Wyoming on June 2, 1899. The train robbers blew up the express car in their attempt to open the safe. This was Cassidy’s first encounter with C.E. Woodcock, the express car manager who refused to leave his post. Woodcock was eventually forced out of the car with the use of dynamite. Cassidy would later go on to describe Woodcock as one of the toughest men he ever met, short of Harvey Logan.

The Pinkerton Detective Agency put famed cowboy detective Charles Siringo on the case. Siringo tracked the outlaws into New Mexico, but did not make any arrests. Cassidy and Lay quietly returned to their duties at the WS Ranch. Lay eventually left the ranch and joined the Ketchum Gang in a July 1899 train robbery. The aftermath of this robbery would lead to the demise of the Ketchum Gang and Lay sentenced to life in prison.