Harvey Alexander Logan (p.3)

In August and September of 1900, the Wild Bunch pulled off a pair of robberies in quick succession. First came the August 29, 1900 robbery of a Union Pacific train near Tipton, Wyoming, followed by the September 19, 1900 robbery of the First National Bank of Winnemucca in Winnemucca, Nevada. Although Logan’s name is attributed to both robberies, it is believed he was in Nevada with the Sundance Kid and Will Carver for the Winnemucca robbery. The head cashier of the First National Bank of Winnemucca later identified all three men.

Following Winnemucca, the Wild Bunch met in the Hell’s Half Acre area of Fort Worth, Texas for a celebration of sorts. The impetus for the meeting may have been Will Carver’s upcoming nuptials to Callie May Hunt. While in Fort Worth, Logan, Carver, Butch Cassidy, the Sundance Kid and Ben Kilpatrick posed for a portrait together. This turned out to be a huge mistake as passing authorities soon discovered the picture and the outlaws found their likenesses staring back at them on thousands of wanted posters across the nation.

Following Fort Worth, Logan, along with his girlfriend Annie Rogers, left with Carver and his new bride to venture off on a honeymoon of sorts. By the end of December 1900, the outlaws had sent their women home and paid a visit to Ben Kilpatrick near Eden, Texas.

While in Eden, Kilpatrick’s neighbor Oliver C. Thornton paid the Kilpatrick’s a visit. The Kilpatrick’s and Thornton were in the middle of a feud over pigs and that may have been the purpose of Thornton’s visit. The details are sketchy as to what happened next, but Thornton soon found himself dead. Most accounts list Logan as the shooter.

After Thornton’s death, the outlaws wisely left the area. Six days after the murder, Will Carver was spotted in Sonora, Texas by authorities as he was picking up supplies. Will Carver was shot and killed by the officers.

Logan and Kilpatrick escaped north and, together with O.C. Hanks, robbed the Great Northern Coast Flyer near Wagner, Montana on July 3, 1901. The three men escaped with upwards of $40,000.

Twenty-three days after the Wagner robbery, Logan found himself back in Landusky, Montana. This was not friendly homecoming however; Logan had a score to settle. On July 26, 1901, Logan found Jim Winters and shot him dead five years after Winters killed Logan’s brother Johnnie.

Logan reappeared on December 13, 1901 when he got into a bar fight in Knoxville, Tennessee. According to the July 11, 1904 edition of the New York Times, the fight, “attracted the attention of two near-by policemen. They attempted to arrest him, and in the fight he made to avoid arrest he shot both officers, injuring them so seriously that their lives for a time were despaired of. He then held up the proprietor, his employees, and others in the saloon, who tried to assist in his capture, and, backing out of a rear door, escaped by vaulting over a fence into a railroad cut thirty feet deep.”

Logan was arrested two days later. In November 1902, Logan was convicted of multiple charges, including forging stolen bank notes. He was sentenced to 130 years in a federal penitentiary. While waiting in a Knoxville jail on appeal, Logan escaped on June 27, 1903.

It is said that Logan escaped by lassoing a guard using a noose made from a broomstick and wire. After tying the guard up, Logan took his keys and escaped.

A year later, on June 7, 1904, Logan participated in the robbery of a Denver & Rio Grande train near Parachute, Colorado. Two days later a posse caught up the bandits and Logan was wounded in the confrontation. Rather than surrender and face prison, Logan chose to take his own life. He was 37 years old.