The Origins of "Butch"

Robert LeRoy Parker took on the last name Cassidy as a partial tribute to his early hero, Mike Cassidy. How he came to be known as “Butch” is the subject of much debate. However there seems to two main schools of thought here.

Cassidy’s sister, Lula Parker Betenson, says her brother got the nickname while working as a butcher in Rock Springs, Wyoming. Cassidy did spend time in the Rock Springs area, and this theory seems to be the most logical.

A variation on the butcher story has Cassidy acquiring the nickname after serving as a camp cook and butcher for various outfits.

In his biography, The Last of the Bandit Riders, Matt Warner tells another story of how Cassidy came to be known as “Butch.”

Warner writes that after the Telluride robbery, the outlaws (Warner, Cassidy and Tom McCarty) found themselves in Thompson Springs, Utah. The three men came across a shallow lake with a rock sticking out of it. This gave Warner an idea.

Cassidy was relaxing with his back against a slopped rock that stuck out into the lake. Surrounding the rock was nothing but mud. Warner bet Cassidy he couldn’t hit the rock in the sticking out of the lake with the rifle he was holding. Warner described the rifle as using long bullets that caused the weapon to pack an incredible kick when fired. Cassidy took the bet and soon found himself thrown backwards into mud.

Warner’s nickname for the gun was Butch, and after his dip in the mud, Butch became Cassidy’s nickname too.

Did Cassidy get his name from being a butcher or from a gun? We’ll probably never know. At any rate “Butch” was a better nickname than the one Cassidy had as a boy.

And what was the boyhood nickname of one of the most infamous outlaws that ever lived?

Sallie.

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