Cassidy Sightings

For someone who supposedly died during the San Vicente shootout, Butch Cassidy sure got around in his later years. Many of the reported sightings can be traced back to William T. Phillips, the Spokane, Washington man who claimed to be Cassidy.

John Taylor of Rock Springs, Wyoming says he met the famous outlaw when Cassidy came into his shop in 1922 to have some work done on his car. Taylor says Cassidy was driving a Model-T, towing a trailer and camping supplies. It is said that William T. Phillips also drove a Model-T.

Another Wyoming resident, Tom Welch, says Cassidy visited him in Green River sometime in 1924. Like Taylor, Welch also describes Cassidy as driving a Model-T towing camping supplies.

Tom Vernon, known at the time as the unofficial mayor of Baggs, Wyoming, claims to have had a reunion with the notorious outlaw sometime in the 1920’s. Vernon used to play in the saloons frequented by Cassidy and the Wild Bunch back in the day.

The Model-T was spotted again near Grand Junction, Colorado sometime in 1923 or 1924. Ray Merrick, a child at the time, saw a Model-T towing camping supplies near an area his father and another man were parked. Two men exited the vehicle and began digging, uncovering a stash of $10.00 gold pieces. They gave Merrick, his father and the third man some of the money under the condition they forget what they had seen.

Boyd Charter recounts another meeting with Cassidy. In the summer of 1925, when Charter was 17 years old, a friend of his father’s spent part of the summer camping the family ranch near Jackson, Wyoming. Charter later overheard his father tell Will Simpson that the camper was his old friend Butch Cassidy.

Cassidy’s sister, Lula Parker Betenson, tells of a family reunion in 1925 when Cassidy approached their brother Mark out of the blue. The two men went back to the Parker family homestead and reminisced with family, including the then 81 year-old Maximillian Parker. During this visit Cassidy told his family that the Sundance Kid left South America without him. As to his “death” in the San Vicente shootout, Lula’s brother explained that Percy Siebert identified the bodies as Butch and Sundance as a favor to the outlaw. Explaining that Siebert felt if the two were no longer wanted men, they would have no choice but to go straight. Cassidy told his family that after he left South America, he wandered into Mexico where he discovered the Sundance Kid and Etta Place living in Mexico City. After visiting the couple, Cassidy left for Europe, especially enjoying Italy. From Europe he spent a year in Alaska before settling down in the Pacific Northwest.

Prior to this visit Lula’s neighbor, Jim Gass, told her that he had seen Butch in California boarding a train. The two men waved to each other but the train pulled away before they were allowed an opportunity to speak.

Max Parker, son of Cassidy’s brother Dan, and his wife Ellnor Parker also claim that Cassidy paid a visit to the Parker family, but say the meeting took place in 1930. They recalled Butch, along with several men, came to visit Max’s father Dan. Cassidy told them he was living in Spokane, Washington under the name William Phillips.

In 1928 Chick MacKnight, son of Josie Bassett, and his wife Edith MacKnight Jensen traveled to Nevada with Chick’s aunt, Ann Bassett and her husband Frank Willis. While in Nevada, Edith recalls paying a visit to Cassidy in the Pahrump Valley.

Josie Bassett’s other son, Crawford MacKnight, also recalls a trip to Nevada with his aunt. MacKnight says that during this trip a man named Doc Masson approached Ann. and quizzed the Queen of Brown’s Park about the early days. Midway through the conversation, his aunt suddenly realized that Masson was Cassidy.

Josie Bassett herself is said to have recalled two meetings with Cassidy. Bassett says she met with Cassidy once in 1928 in Nevada, and again in 1930 in Baggs, Wyoming.

Allan Robertson, grandson of former Cassidy flame Dora Lamorreaux, claimed his grandmother once told him that Cassidy made an appearance in Lander, Wyoming sometime in the 1930’s to visit old friends.

Mary Agnes Haynes of Silver City, New Mexico reported Cassidy visited her mother sometime in 1936 or 1937.

In November 1939 Matt Warner’s daughter, Joyce, says a man came to her house looking for her father. She advised the stranger that Warner was dead. The man asked if her father ever talked about Butch Cassidy to which she replied that he did. The stranger went on to describe robbing a bank with Warner, the details of which matched her father’s own words. It was during this story that Joyce realized she was speaking with Butch Cassidy. The stranger admitted that he was indeed the famed outlaw. He went on to say that he left The Sundance Kid in South America where his former partner found a new running mate who he called “Butch” as a joke. Never let it be said that outlaws didn't have a sense of humor.

Joyce went on to say that Cassidy told her he had moved east, had two daughters and, ironically, recently retired from the railroad. He spoke of a visit to the family homestead in 1925, but due to a family argument never went back. He asked that she not tell anyone of his visit. Joyce said the outlaw wrote her several times following his visit, but the letters stopped coming by 1941.

In July 1941 Utah State Trooper Merrill Johnson stopped a man traveling on US Hwy 89. Later that evening the officer returned to his parent’s home and was surprised to see the car he pulled over parked outside the house. Johnson’s father-in-law, John Kitchen, introduced the visitor as Bob Parker, alias Butch Cassidy. Johnson reports Cassidy stayed the night with the family and the following morning he was elected to drive Cassidy to Fredonia, Arizona to visit Cassidy’s brother Bill Parker.

In addition to the Bassett family’s sightings of Cassidy in Nevada, Butch is rumored to have lived and worked in Goldfield, Nevada. Ironically, George Nixon was an investor in several gold mines in Goldfield. Some believe that Nixon was in on the Winnemucca bank robbery, and this connection only adds fuel to that fire.

Another Nevada legend has Cassidy working the mines in Johnnie, Nevada, possibly using the alias Tipper. Wild Bunch historian Ed Kirby visited Johnnie in the 1980’s and came across an old timer by the name of Fred S. Cook who directed Kirby to a grave rumored to be Cassidy’s. The name on the plain wooden cross read Bill Kloth. Kirby believes Cassidy died in Johnnie sometime in 1944. Lula Parker Betenson later visited Johnnie to investigate this theory.

Did Butch Cassidy meet his fate in Bolivia? Did he survive and return to the states as many people claim? In a story where nothing is as concrete as it seems Newton’s Third Law seems to apply. For every piece of circumstantial evidence there is an equal and opposite (and usually, more intriguing) piece of evidence.

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