A Bad Idea

After the Sundance Kid, Walt Punteney and Harvey Logan reunited following the Belle Fourche robbery, they made their way to Red Lodge, Montana. The purpose of this trip was to bribe the local marshal, Byron St. Clair, to “disappear” for a couple days while the outlaws robbed the local bank. It’s quite possible they got the idea from Butch Cassidy. Telluride town marshal Jim Clark allegedly took a bribe under the same circumstances eight years earlier. Unlike the bribe at Telluride, this one turned out to be a big mistake.

Not only did St. Clair refuse to accept the bribe, he immediately notified Carbon County Sheriff John Dunn as to the outlaws’ intentions. The outlaws hightailed it out of town in a hurry but a posse would soon be on their trail.

Sheriff Dunn organized a posse consisting of stock detectives J. Dick Hicks and W.D. Smith, attorney Oscar D. Stone, constable H.J. Calhoun and Billy Mendenhall. The men followed the outlaws’ trail north, finally catching up with the bandits near Lavina, Montana on September 22, 1897.

A firefight broke out between the two parties. Harvey Logan was shot in the wrist and uncharacteristically surrendered. Sundance and Punteney held out a while longer but surrendered as well. The three men were taken to Billings and held on charges stemming from the Belle Fourche robbery. Harry Ticknor, an employee of the Butte County Bank present at the time of the robbery, was brought in to identify the bandits.

The trio were then transported to Deadwood, South Dakota and placed in the Lawrence County Jail to await a preliminary hearing scheduled for September 30, 1897. Arthur Marble, also present at the Belle Fourche robbery, and Ticknor both testified at the preliminary hearing. Bail was set for the outlaws at $10,000 each.

The three men were taken back to their cells where they were joined by fellow Belle Fourche alumni Tom O’Day who had been there since the robbery awaiting trial. On October 13, 1897, under the alias Frank Jones, the Sundance Kid filed an affidavit on behalf of himself and his compatriots stating their innocence and requesting more time to gather evidence to prove their case. The request became unnecessary eighteen days later when the four men escaped.

Shortly after 9 pm on Halloween night the outlaws escaped from jail along with a fellow inmate named William Moore. The five men overpowered their jailor to escape. A posse was quickly mobilized to pursue the jailbirds. The ever-unlucky Tom O’Day, along with Walt Punteney, was recaptured near Spearfish about fourteen miles from Deadwood. The Sundance Kid and Harvey Logan made a clean escape.

For all his bad luck, good fortune finally shined on O’Day during his trial when he was found innocent of all charges and set free. Walt Punteney managed to escape trial all together as the case against him was dropped due to lack of evidence.

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