Robert LeRoy Parker (p.6)

A few months later Cassidy reunited with the Sundance Kid and Etta Place in New York City, checking into Mrs. Catherine Taylor’s boarding house sometime in February 1901. While in New York the trio treated themselves to a shopping spree at Tiffany’s where Cassidy purchased a new watch. On February 20, 1901 they boarded the British vessel Herminius bound for Argentina. Some believe that only Sundance and Etta were on the ship with Cassidy staying behind to participate in the July 3, 1901 robbery of a Great Northern train near Wagner, Montana.

The three arrived in Buenos Aries March 1901. From this point little is known about their activities until April 2, 1902. On this date Cassidy, using the name James Ryan, petitioned the government to purchase public land in Cholila, Argentina.

Cassidy, Sundance and Place soon found themselves the owners of 25,000 acres of land and went about setting up a home. During this time the Sundance Kid made several trips back to the United States with Etta Place, leaving Cassidy alone at the ranch for months at a time.

All indications point to the outlaws having abandoned their criminal ways for the quiet life in South America. This, however, did not stop the Pinkertons in there never-ending search for infamous duo. On February 24, 1903 Robert Pinkerton sent a letter to the president of the Union Pacific Railroad advising that the trio had been located in South America. The Pinkertons obtained the information through its network of spies that were monitoring mail going into and out the outlaws’ stateside families. To follow up on this discovery the Pinkertons sent agent Frank Dimaio to Buenos Aires to look search for the bandits. When he arrived, Dimaio met with US Vice Consul George Newberry who advised him not to go to Cholila until after the rainy season had ended. Before returning to the states, Dimaio distributed stacks of wanted posters throughout the area.

The Pinkertons later put the entire matter on hold after failing to gain any interest from the railroads to pursue the outlaws. The general feeling with the railroad companies was the outlaws were better off in South America than North, where the possibility remained they would return to the outlaw life and plague the railways once again.

It is believed that Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid made their return to a life of crime on February 14, 1905 with the robbery of the Banco de Londres y Tarapaca in Rio Gallegos, Argentina. It is a matter of some debate whether men who committed the Rio Gallegos robbery were in fact Cassidy and Sundance. However, by May 1905 the pair made preparations to sell the Cholila ranch, perhaps due to their renewed criminal careers.

At any rate, the outlaws laid low for the rest of the year until December 1905 when it is believed they robbed the Banco de la Nacion in Villa Mercedes, Argentina. Newspaper reports claimed the robbers were the same men who robbed the Rio Gallegos bank. Somewhere around this time Etta Place is believed to have left for the United States, leaving the outlaws free to return to their old ways.

By 1907 the outlaws found themselves in the employ of the Concordia Tin Mines in Tres Cruces, Bolivia. Cassidy became fast friends with Percy Seibert who later became the manager of the mines. As their friendship grew, Cassidy  and Siebert spoke openly of Cassidy’s outlaw career and Siebert remains the source of much of the information related to the outlaws South American days.

Having a friend like Siebert know about their outlaw past was one thing, but soon the rest of the camp started hearing rumors and it was time for the bandits to hit the road once again. After leaving the mines, the outlaws may have participated on one or both of a pair of train robberies near Eucalyptus, Bolivia.