Legends of the Old West - BUTCH & SUNDANCE Ep. 2 | “Rustlers and Robbers”

Episode Date: November 4, 2020

Bob Parker begins a rustling operation that contributes to the Johnson County War in Wyoming. He adopts the name Butch Cassidy and goes to trial for the alleged theft of a horse. Meanwhile, Sundance lives the life of a drifting cowboy until he robs his first train.  Join Black Barrel+ for bingeable seasons with no commercials: blackbarrel.supportingcast.fm/join For more details, visit our website www.blackbarrelmedia.com and check out our social media pages. We’re @OldWestPodcast on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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The outlaw stood next to the railroad tracks, rubbing his gloved hands together to keep warm. Just outside Malta, Montana, it was three in the morning and minus 16 degrees Fahrenheit. The fire he just built felt good. The flames grew until both ice-cold rails were too hot to touch. He smiled when he heard the train whistle blow and checked his pistol. He held his hands out to the heat and rubbed them together one last time. Before the train engineer could react to the fire burning on the tracks, he felt a pistol at the back of his head. He turned slightly to see a masked man standing between him and the coltender. There was a second outlaw near the first, with his pistol out and his mask hanging halfway off his face.

The engineer looked ahead, reached down, and pulled hard on the brake handle. The three men lurched forward. The train screeched to a halt, the cow catcher just touching the burning wood. The outlaw on the ground pointed his pistol up at the engineer and told him not to move. He nodded to his partners. They both jumped down to the ground and headed toward the express car. On the way, they ran into the conductor, who immediately surrendered. The three men stopped at the mail car. The bandits found no valuables, so they continued on. At the express car, the messenger slid the door open. The outlaws ordered him to unlock one of the safes. The bandits found two checks and less than $20. They ordered the messenger to open the other safe.

He claimed not to know the combination. One of the masked men hollered to open the safe or he'd die. The frightened man replied that he supposed he'd just have to die. Both bandits were taken aback by his courage. They were not prepared to kill someone for $20. They broke off the robbery and rode into the freezing dawn. News reports claimed that a $500 bounty was placed on the head of each robber for stealing less than $70. The Sundance kid's first train robbery was a miserable failure, but it made him a bona fide outlaw.

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Because businesses that grow, grow with Shopify. Sign up for a $1 per month trial period at shopify.com slash Realm, all lowercase. Go to Shopify.com slash R-E-A-L-M now to grow your business, no matter what stage you're in. Shopify.com slash Realm. From Black Barrel Media, this is Legends of the Old West. I'm your host, Chris Wimmer, and this is a four-part series about two of the most famous outlaws in American history, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. This is Episode 2, Rustlers and Robbers. Bob Parker, soon to be alias Butch Cassidy, carried bags full of paper money and gold coins

as he and his fellow outlaws Matt Warner and Tom McCarty rode out of Telluride, Colorado. They moved west through the San Miguel Valley. That morning, June 24, 1889, they had robbed the San Miguel Valley Bank, but they didn't know how hard it was to rob a bank and get away with it. They were about to find out. The first relay of fresh horses was posted at Keystone Hill, not far out of the valley. The three robbers ate lunch, changed horses, and then rode south toward the Dolores River. One of Tom McCarty's friends had been paid well to set up four or five stops throughout southwest Utah. Bob Parker would always remember Tom's ingenious getaway strategy,

and he used it throughout his career. Back in Telluride, Sheriff Beattie of San Miguel County formed a posse and was joined by others from neighboring towns. Soon, angry, well-armed riders were hot on the trail of the outlaws. The thieves struggled mightily to climb through thick, broken trees up the side of a steep mountain. Near the top, they happened onto a stray Indian pony. It was probably Bob's idea to use the pony as part of their getaway. As twilight fell, the posse attempted to follow the boys up the mountain.

Then a sudden specter came crashing through the trees. It sounded like a whole gaggle of outlaws was bearing down on the posse, possibly with guns drawn and ready to shoot. The posse was said to scatter in every direction, with some of the men heading back home to Telluride. What they later found was a single frightened pony with branches tied to its tail, breaking through the brush and trees. Bob, Matt, and Tom climbed onto their horses and disappeared over the mountain toward the safe haven of Robber's Roost. Nearly a week later, with all the bandits still on the run, one of Sheriff Beatty's men spotted a man named Bill Madden leading a pack horse out of town.

Bill's brother seemed to have played some small part in the escape, so some lawmen followed Bill as he left town. Madden rode south, following the outlaw's trail. The lawmen stopped him and searched him, and they found a note from his brother telling him where to meet. The lawmen now had a good line on the three outlaws, and another posse raced toward the rendezvous point. But when the posse arrived, the outlaws were gone. The lawmen tracked the bandits for several more days through the Dolores Mountains.

Just before losing the trail, they found a note pinned to a tree. It said, don't follow else you'll get shot. For the second time, the worn out citizens of Telluride rode back home. After two weeks on the run, the robbers crossed into Utah. Bob and the gang headed north into the land of arches, a twisted, desolate place. Without directions or water, it was an easy place to die. Matt and Bob were familiar enough with the lay of the land to survive. The problem was not heat exhaustion. It was actually the stolen money.

All the heavy gold coins and cash were held in thick money bags and wrapped around their waists. After weeks on the trail, huge bleeding blisters ringed their bodies from carrying all the loot. But they dared not take the chance of hanging the bags from their saddles for fear of their horses being shot out from under them. The thieves had not anticipated the possibility of dying from infection because of the sheer weight of their stolen money. But they survived. They spent a few days at Robber's Roost and then crossed back into Colorado. They narrowly escaped another posse's attempt to bring them to justice. Then Bob Parker, Matt Warner, and Tom McCarty made it to Brown's Hole.

There they found friendship and sanctuary, if only for a little while. By the late 1890s, The Hole in the Wall, Robber's Roost, and Brown's Hole were names famously known to everyone in the West and in the East. Brown's Hole were names famously known to everyone in the West and in the East. They were dark and dangerous places full of bank robbers and train robbers, cattle rustlers and murderers. They were the hideouts of, among others, a gang called the Wild Bunch. Brown's Hole, later called Brown's Park to soften its reputation, was Bob Parker's favorite haunt.

It was located in a valley in the upper northeast corner of Utah that crossed over to the westernmost corner of Colorado. The Green River ran the entire length of the valley. The hole was left abandoned after the beaver pelt industry played out. The Comanche, Blackfoot, and Ute tribes had left years before. By 1870, a few brave folks began to settle there. In some places, the valley floor spread wide with six or more miles of fine grazing land. It was the perfect place for a small-time rancher to raise cattle and horses. Brown's Hole also provided a safe sanctuary for outlaws who wanted to disappear. Bob, Tom, and Matt, worn out from being on the run for nearly three weeks,

ended up at Charlie Krause's horse ranch. Charlie was a friend of Matt Warner's, but the trio couldn't stay long. There was yet another posse on their heels. couldn't stay long. There was yet another posse on their heels. They left Charlie's ranch and headed to Robber's Roost. At that point, the three outlaws finally split up. Bob Parker ended up circling back around to Brown's Hole. He had survived the pursuit, and for the first time in a long time, he didn't feel like he was being chased. That was when he changed his name to George Cassidy. He went to work on the ranch of Herbert and Elizabeth Bassett. He found a family who took him in as one of their own. The Bassetts had migrated west from Arkansas and settled along the Green River.

Their ranch soon became the center for social gatherings in the valley, and George Cassidy fit right in. When George wasn't working as a ranch hand, he was in the Bassett's library. Sundays were for church and horse racing. George was the best jockey and won the most money. At night, cowboys and outlaws from all over Brown's Hole rode to the Bassett Ranch to attend dances. But then one day, without warning, George Cassidy left the Bassett Ranch and Brown's Hole. No one knew the reason, and he never offered one. He drifted up to Rock Springs, Wyoming. There he found only coal mining. He was not keen on spending his days breathing the coal dust that caused an early death.

But he did find a job, and it was the one that gave him the first name that would become known throughout history. To be a good rustler, a man had to be able to butcher a cow quickly and precisely, usually on a moment's notice, sometimes even in the dark. Throughout the frontier, town butchers might offer their services to a stray outfit for cash. The butcher at Rock Springs liked George and hired him. Soon, George was the favorite of the shop, especially with young wives and children. Like all the other stops before it, George Cassidy didn't stay in Rock Springs very long. Maybe he got into trouble at one of the saloons.

Or maybe he just got tired of cutting meat. But after his brief stint as a butcher, he was now known as Butch Cassidy. Butch went back to doing what he did best. Cowboying. He took up with the E.A. Ranch near Wind River, Wyoming. There he met a young cowboy named Al Hainer. With Butch's share of the stolen money from the bank robbery,

the two teamed up and bought property along Horse Creek in the Wind River Basin. They were going to raise the fastest horses in Wyoming. The land was nothing but sand and rock, with a few patches of sagebrush and prairie grass sandwiched between towering mountains. Rainfall was minimal, but when it did rain, the sky dumped bucketfuls and flooded the land. Neighbors were few and far between, and that suited Butch and Al just fine.

But like everything in Butch's life, the first attempt at ranching was short. For reasons unknown, Butch Cassidy and Al Hainer abandoned their land. But the changing times brought them back before too long. The great blizzard that had ripped through the region three years earlier had killed tens of thousands of cattle. Many of the huge ranches in Montana were owned by men who lived in England and Scotland. After the big die-up, as the destruction was called, the owners decided they needed a new form of ranching. And along came barbed wire. they needed a new form of ranching. And along came barbed wire. By 1890, barbed wire fences stretched across hundreds of miles of prairie, and the grand sweep of the open range was closed

forever. Now, the ranch boss and his cowboys could monitor the animals with relative ease. They could feed them the hay, soy, and various grains that were now being grown by the farmers who had settled the plains. But the fences also contributed to the growing tension in the Powder River Basin. By the summer of 1890, wealthy cattle barons were losing lots of money. Beef prices plummeted due to the fickle tastes of East Coast consumers. Homesteaders closed portions of the land with their barbed wire fences, and cattle rustling still happened on a huge scale. Some cattle barons in Montana began to use fences, but the ones in Wyoming, specifically Johnson

County, refused. Most of the cattle that were lost in the Gray Blizzard were free-range animals that grazed on federal lands. Many Wyoming ranchers wanted to continue that system. But as a consequence, unbranded mavericks and strays roamed free for anyone to claim. And that prompted Butch and Al to start another ranch. They headed to Johnson County, pooled their money, and bought a piece of property along Blue Creek, about 10 miles from Hole-in-the-Wall. As they started stealing, rebranding, and selling cattle, they weren't the only ones pilfering the range. Many other out-of-work cowboys joined in. This rustler's collective had great success, and the cattle barons

decided to take action against the thieves. By that time, the Wyoming Stock Growers Association had become the most powerful organization in all of Wyoming. It consisted of 40 or so of the richest men from the East Coast and beyond. Nothing was decided in the territory without the express consent of the men of the association, and their headquarters was the Cheyenne Club. The building sat in the middle of downtown Cheyenne, and its lavishness was unparalleled. It was three stories high, with a sky-lit tower and a wraparound porch. The interior was oak and featured two marble staircases. There were reading rooms and smoking rooms downstairs,

and six bedrooms upstairs. Dignitaries from across the country traveled to the capital of Wyoming to engage in business and high society activities, legal or otherwise. The parties were legendary affairs, and the attendees dressed in formal attire and served the most expensive food and drink. The entire town knew when these events took place. Afterward, the ranchers and their wives left in horse-drawn buggies that rolled past saloons filled with dusty cowboys and homesteaders. The economic gulf between the two classes was staggering. The cattle barons had created their grand lifestyle by selling beef, and they were

not about to give up because a few grangers, as they called homesteaders, had claimed their land and rustlers had stolen their cattle. The cattle barons sent for the guns, and a war erupted in Johnson County. avaient enlevé leurs câbles. Les marins de la chasse ont envoyé des armes et une guerre a érupté dans le pays de Johnson. excitation du magasinage. Mais avez-vous ce frisson d'obtenir le meilleur deal? Les membres de Rakuten, eux, oui. Ils magasinent les marques qu'ils aiment et font d'importantes économies, en plus des remises en argent. Et vous pouvez aussi commencer à gagner des remises en argent dans vos magasins préférés, comme Old Navy, Best Buy et Expedia, et même cumuler les ventes et les remises en argent. C'est facile à utiliser et vous obtenez vos remises par PayPal ou par chèque. L'idée est simple. Les magasins paient Rakuten pour leur envoyer des gens magasinés, Sous-titrage Société Radio-Canada Most of the ranchers hired gunmen from Texas.

Led by a man named Frank Canton, these cold-blooded killers were paid to drive the homesteaders out. Claiming they were all rustling cattle, the ranchers ordered the gunmen to scare the innocent folk off the land. If the homesteaders didn't leave, the gunmen were supposed to kill them. Some of the farmers left, some stayed, and some were murdered on their doorsteps. By March 1892, the ranchers had a kill list of 70 people. The governor sanctioned the use of 50 armed men to go to Johnson County and find the 70 people on the kill list.

A man named Nate Champion topped the list. Champion forced the hired killers into a standoff near the small town of Buffalo, Wyoming. 200 or more homesteaders showed up to fight the gunmen, but Nate and his friend were killed as they tried to escape. After a three-day siege, the governor telegraphed U.S. President Benjamin Harrison to intervene using the cavalry. The hired gunmen were taken into custody, but ultimately released. Frank Canton, the leader of the gunmen, went on to become a U.S. Marshal in Oklahoma. Though no one went to jail, it was a huge defeat for the cattle ranchers of Johnson County, Wyoming. Homesteaders and sheepherders eventually took over most of the parceled land and strung it with barbed wire fences. The Great Cheyenne Club lost its radiant luster.

The cattle rustling of men like Butch and Al helped instigate what became known as the Johnson County War. But they missed out on the bloody events. Butch and Al had gone back to their first ranch in the Wind River Basin and dealt in stolen horses. One day, they bought three horses from a young man from Lander, Wyoming. It was a typical transaction, and they didn't ask where the horses came from. Within days, Butch and Al learned that a couple big ranchers were out to get them. It was said the horses were stolen. Butch and Al left their spread at Horse Creek and were back on the run. They wintered outside a town called Auburn in Star Valley, near the border of Idaho.

They holed up in the cabin of a friend and debated the safety of going back to resume operations at their ranch. That spring, they were too late. A two-man posse arrived in Auburn. One was a rancher, the other was a deputy sheriff. In town, they found a girl who ran errands for Butch and Al and persuaded her to take them to the outlaws. Al was caught working on a small sawmill on the property. Butch was snoozing in the cabin when he noticed things outside were awry. The deputy sheriff shouted that he had a warrant for Butch's arrest. Butch hollered back to get to shooting. The deputy burst through the door.

He pointed his pistol at Butch's belly and pulled the trigger, but the gun misfired. He kept pulling the trigger until he finally got a shot off that grazed Butch's forehead. The rancher tackled Butch and placed him in handcuffs and shackles. The alleged horse thieves were taken to the town of Lander and thrown in jail to await trial. After being formally charged for stealing two horses, for some reason instead of all three, Butch Cassidy and Al Hainer were set free on bail.

The case was delayed for a year because of absent witnesses, so Butch went back to stealing horses and cattle. During this time, it was said that he traveled all the way to San Antonio, Texas to visit a friend. There, he spent a few nights at Fannie Porter's House of Ill Repute. He met a young girl and was confounded by her youth and innocence. He made arrangements to take her away. As Butch traveled back to Lander, Wyoming, he dropped the girl at the home of a Mormon family in Utah so she could be raised in a righteous way. Some say she was Etta Place, the future girlfriend and common-law wife of the Sundance Kid. While Butch was building short-lived ranches

and diving deeper into the rustling trade, Sundance was a drifting cowboy. He moved around Montana and then up to Canada and then returned to Montana. As the landscape of the West changed with range wars and barbed wire fences, the Sundance Kid slid closer to a life of crime. When he returned to Montana from Canada, he met up with a cowboy he'd known from his time in Colorado, Bill Madden. Three years earlier, Bill and his brother had been connected to Butch Cassidy's escape from several posses after his first bank robbery. Now, Bill Madden was going

to help Sundance rob his first train. On a freezing cold night in November 1892, Sundance, Bill Madden, and Harry Bass robbed the Great Northern Railroad in Malta, Montana. Afterward, the law caught up with Bill and Harry, and they went to prison. But Sundance narrowly escaped. Sundance was free, but he now carried a $500 price on his head. The bounty remained active for the rest of his life. For a time, he went back to the life of a drifting cowboy. He changed his name to Harry Alonzo, and his primary trade was working with horses.

He drifted south to the Little Snake River in Wyoming. He tried to settle into the routines of the ranches, working hard and making friends. But Sundance couldn't stay out of trouble. While he worked at the Beeler Ranch, he got into a scuffle with his boss. The sheriff arrived to take Sundance to jail, but Sundance made a preemptive strike. He hit the sheriff in the face with his handcuffs. The details of what happened next are very murky, but Sundance didn't try to escape after he hit the sheriff. Somehow, he and the sheriff worked it out. No charges were filed against the Sundance kid. But the sheriff

was curious about this drifting cowboy. He sent requests to find out who the young man really was. One such request went to the Pinkerton National Detective Agency, the eye that never sleeps. Butch Cassidy's trial for horse theft had been delayed for a year, but now it was time to face it. By that time, the case had changed. Initially, Butch and Al Hainer had been accused of stealing three horses. Then it was reduced to two. Now it was down to just a single horse valued at five dollars. Butch hired a lawyer whom he thought was the best in the state. Together, they came up with a scheme they thought was foolproof.

They forged a bill of sale for the stolen horse. They used the signature of a well the stolen horse they used as signature of a well-known horse trader from Nebraska. But when the trial started and Butch's lawyer was about to present the phony evidence, they learned of a mystery man sitting in the fourth row. Then they learned he was the horse trader from Nebraska. The prosecution brought him in for the trial. Butch's defense lawyer glanced at the prosecutor, and the prosecutor just smiled.

The foolproof scheme to use a forged bill of sale was not quite foolproof. The case went to the jury. Since it was a Saturday, the verdict could not be read until Monday. The delay caused the town to go wild. It was said that Butch's old friend Matt Warner and his gang waited outside town to spring Butch from jail. Later that night, the prosecutor was accosted in a stable, but he was able to fight off his attackers.

On Monday morning, the verdict was read. Butch's partner Al Hainer was found not guilty, but Butch Cassidy was found guilty. The judge sentenced Butch to two years in the state penitentiary. The defense lawyer was paid with the mortgage of the Horse Creek Ranch, and Al Hainer was never heard from again. The night before Butch went to prison, he asked to be set free for a short while. Somewhat amazingly, the deputy sheriff trusted Butch to return. Maybe it was because Butch was paying a visit to the prosecutor who had just sent him to prison. Butch and the prosecutor were old friends, and Butch actually visited more with the man's wife and mother than

he did his friend. It was said the prosecutor's family never forgave him for pursuing the case, and Butch never forgave him either. Either way, Butch was back in jail by sunup, and then the sheriff took him to the Wyoming State Prison. The warden met Butch and the sheriff at the gate. The warden asked why the prisoner was not wearing leg shackles. Butch said, honor among thieves, I suppose, and walked into prison. Next time on Legends of the Old West, Butch and Sundance join forces in a gang called the Wild Bunch.

The gang robs banks and trains and becomes famous nationwide. So famous that it attracts the attention of the Pinkerton Detective Agency. With the heat bearing down on them, Butch begins to dream of a new life in South America. That's next week on Legends of the Old West. If you're a member of our Black Barrel Plus program, you already have access to the full season. If you're not a member, you can sign up now through the link in the show notes or on our website, blackbarrelmedia.com. Members receive access to each new season in its entirety one week before the season begins for the general public.

And members receive exclusive bonus episodes. Sign up today for just $5 per month. dollars per month. This season was researched and written by Mark C. Jackson, the award-winning author of An Eye for an Eye and The Great Texas Dance from the series The Tales of Zebediah Creed. The closing music is A Theme for Butch and Sundance, written and produced by David R. Morgan and Mark C. Jackson. Audio editing and sound design by Dave Harrison. Original music by Rob Valliere. I'm your host and producer, Chris Wimmer. If you enjoyed the show, please leave us a rating and a review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you're listening. Check out our website, blackbarrelmedia.com, for more details,

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