Short History Of... - Butch Cassidy

Episode Date: February 10, 2025

Leader of the Wild Bunch gang, Butch Cassidy was a legendary American criminal who engineered infamous bank and train robberies across the West in the late 19th century. His charisma and careful planning ensured he eluded capture for years. And when, in 1901, he fled the law to South America with his partner, the Sundance Kid, reports differ as to what exactly became of him…. Could Cassidy have survived, quietly living out the rest of his days back in the United States? What is the real truth about his life? And was Butch Cassidy the kindly gentleman rogue some would have us believe? This is a Short History Of Butch Cassidy. A Noiser Production. Written by Nicola Rayner. With thanks to Amy Harmon, author of The Outlaw Noble Salt.  Get every episode of Short History Of a week early with Noiser+. You’ll also get ad-free listening, bonus material, and early access to shows across the Noiser network. Click the Noiser+ banner to get started. Or, if you’re on Spotify or Android, go to noiser.com/subscriptions. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Rise to rewards with the BMO Eclipse Rise Visa Card. Terms and conditions apply. It is around 3 a.m. on June the 2nd, 1899 in Southeastern Wyoming. A Union Pacific Overland Flyer train is heading toward a tiny settlement on the vast open plains. It's a passenger train, but it also carries mail and valuable cargo, including a significant sum of money.

The driver keeps his eyes on the steel track that disappears into the darkness in front of him. Next to him, the train's fireman feeds the roaring furnace, casting flickers of red light across the cab. It's hard to keep concentration on long journeys like this, and the driver's eyes are getting tired from the nighttime journey. But now, as he scans the landscape, for a moment he's sure that there's a flicker of

light in the distance. He peers out into the night, straining to see. There it is, just a faintest glint on the track. He grips the throttle tighter and lets out a long blast from the whistle, hoping that whoever it is will have the sense to clear the line. But the light doesn't move. Something about it, in this isolated place at the dead of night makes him feel uneasy. It feels like a warning or even a trap.

He gets closer and makes out a few men standing with lanterns flagging him down. Maybe the bridge up ahead is down. He makes a decision and pulls the brake, the screech cutting through the night. It takes just seconds to realize his mistake. The men, bandanas across the lower halves of their faces and wide brimmed hats pulled low are all armed. One of them climbs aboard, pointing his gun at the driver. The bandit seems calm, almost relaxed.

He tells the pair to get moving again and keep driving. Once they've passed the bridge, just outside the tiny settlement of Wilcox, he orders them to pull up. The driver throws the lever. Now, out of the shadows, more men spring from the brush along the tracks, guns drawn, glinting in the moonlight. Cool and composed, the bandit in the cab orders the two men out of the train. The men do as they're told and climb cautiously down the rungs onto the dusty ground, where they now see a clutch of horses emerging from the bushes,

each one harnessed with big, empty saddlebags. The Union Pacific employees are told to lie on the earth, face down, and can only listen as the bandits stride over to the mail car. There are raised voices as the clerks guarding it realize what's going on. When they refuse to open the carriage, the bandits have a muttered discussion and then, just moments later, the ground shakes with the sound of an explosion. Though he's been told to stay still, the driver can't help but lift his cheek off the stony earth to look up. The car's door now blown off.

As the dust clears, he can make out the bandits climbing inside. The sky is just beginning to lighten by the time the bandits have loaded up with as much as they can carry. Climbing into their saddles, they spur their horses, riding off in a cloud of dust. Tentatively, the driver, the fireman, and other railroad employees get up off the ground, brushing themselves down. Though they don't yet know it, they've just been robbed by members of the notorious Wild Bunch. In a heist likely masterminded by one of the most famous outlaws in history, Butch Cassidy. Butch Cassidy was a legendary American criminal. As the leader of the Wild Bunch Gang, he engineered a number of infamous bank and train robberies

across the American West in the late 19th century. Known for his charisma, the careful plotting of his heists, and a relatively non-violent approach, Cassidy eluded capture for years. In 1901, with law enforcement close on his heels, he fled to South America for a new start with his partner, the Sundance Kid. And while official accounts claim the pair died in a Bolivian shootout in 1908, for some doubts linger. Could Cassidy have survived quietly living out his days back in the United States? Stories about his life, both then and now, remain a mix of fact and legend, immortalized in books and films.

Can we ever know the truth? Was Butch Cassidy the kindly gentleman rogue some would have us believe? I'm John Hopkins from the Noiser Network. this is a short history of Butch Cassidy. In early April 1866, in Beaver, Utah territory, British couple Maximilian Parker and Anne Campbell Gillies are preparing for the birth of their first child. The baby, a son, arrives on the 13th, and though they name him Robert Leroy Parker, he will later become better known as Butch Cassidy. His parents both converted to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints while still living in the United Kingdom.

So Bob Parker, as he is then known, grows up in a devoutly religious Mormon household. He is soon joined by younger siblings, a lot of them. Best-selling novelist Amy Harman is the author of The Outlaw Noble Salt, a novel inspired by the life of Butch Cassidy. Butch Cassidy is the oldest of 13 children. And it's interesting, he was born on April 13th, Friday the 13th. And he was really in charge at home with the kids because his parents were farmed out working trying to make ends meet. And so he had that sense of being the oldest and being the leader is something that carried over from his growing

up years to then being the leader of a wild and woolly gang. In 1879, when Bob is around 13, his parents move to a ranch in Circle Valley in south central Utah. His father, Max, finds temporary work with various mining companies, leaving Anne and the children to work the ranch. But the family struggles in the farm's early years with the loss of crops and cattle. Still in his early teens, Bob finds work with a Utah rancher, who notices the boy can do the work of a grown man. He also has a special way with horses.

But even in these early years, there are signs he has trouble keeping to the rules. While working on the ranch, Bob rides into town for a much needed pair of new overalls. Discovering the general store is closed after his long, dusty ride, he finds a way in, takes what he needs, and scratches out an IOU note. This does not go down well with the store's owner who complains to the town's marshal. The matter is settled, but it is a sign of things to come.

The matter is settled, but it is a sign of things to come. Concerned, Bob's mother finds him work at the ranch where she herself works in the dairy. Though she's able to keep a better eye on him here, she's concerned about the developing friendship between her boy and a horse wrangler by the name of Mike Cassidy. She fears that this older, tougher cowboy is a bad influence on her son. Bob, though, idolizes his new friend, who teaches him how to shoot and how to use a branding iron to change the brands of livestock he has stolen. At 18, Bob decides to leave home. At eighteen, Bob decides to leave home. Though she is reluctant for him to go, his mother helps him pack a little food, bread, cheese, and his favorite treat, a jar of Bulbary Preserve. She wraps them in his blue, woolen blanket and ties it behind his saddle.

On his mare, Babe, Bob leaves for life on the open road. Except, unbeknownst to his mother, he has an appointment. Likely, through his friendship with Mike Cassidy, he has been introduced to an infamous horse-russler who needs help with the delivery of around 20 stolen horses to Telluride in Colorado, around 300 miles from Bob's Utah home. The delivery of horses goes smoothly, and now Bob needs more work, and there's plenty of it in Telluride. The Colorado town is surrounded by gold and silver deposits and is growing, swelling with

the ranks of new arrivals keen to make their fortune. Bustling with saloons, gambling dives, and dance halls, it's an exciting place for a young Mormon cowboy. In one saloon, Bob gets talking to another Utah native named Matt Warner, who runs a local horse racing operation. He moves from place to place in Colorado, looking for individuals who own horses they believe are faster than his swift-footed mare, Betty.

He hits it off with Bob, and the pair join forces, touring the local towns, setting up horse races, and more often than not, collecting Betty's winnings. For a while, it is a lucrative business. But the pair are as good at spending their money as they are at making it. Teaming up with Warner's brother-in-law, Tom McCarty, a man with a criminal past and another bad influence,

they come up with a get-rich-quick scheme, robbing a bank. quick scheme. Robbing a bank. Their target is the San Miguel Valley Bank in Telluride. In the weeks before the robbery, Bob spends hours teaching his horse to stand calmly while he runs and vaults into the saddle. The gang also constructs special leather bags to the loot, and painstakingly plan an escape route in advance, including relay teams of fresh horses. For Bob, this will become a lifelong trick. On June 24, 1889, the trio spend their morning in a saloon near the bank,

watching the customers come and go. When they're ready, Tom McCarty holds the horses, while Bob Parker and Matt Warner enter the bank as casually as they can. While Warner holds a gun to the head of the lone bank teller, Bob Parker fills their sack with money. Then the pair notice the vault is open. They make off with $21,000 in total, the equivalent of $600,000 today.

But as they leave, they encounter a hitch that will perhaps change Bob's life even more than the money. When he was leaving town, he was seen by a rancher that he knew that he'd had a good relationship with. And I think it was after that time where he realized he couldn't go by his real name anymore without causing problems,

because he'd been seen by someone that knew him by Robert Leroy Parker. So I believe that was the time when he started using different aliases. And that was one of those things, again, one of the turning points in his life where, uh-oh, I've gone and done something that now someone that I know has seen me do and put him on the path of no return.

Hit pause on whatever you're listening to and hit play on your next adventure. A woman struck dead after hearing a haunting whistle. A series of childlike drawings scrawled throughout a country estate. A prize horse wandering the moors without an owner. To the regular observer, these are merely strange anomalies. But for the master detective, Sherlock Holmes, they are the first pieces of an elaborate puzzle. I'm Hugh Bonneville. Join me every Thursday for Sherlock Holmes Short Stories. I'll be reading a selection of the super sleuth's most baffling cases, all brought to life in their original masterful form. The game is afoot and you're invited to join the chase.

From the Noiser Network, this is Sherlock Holmes Short Stories. Search for Sherlock Holmes Short Stories wherever you get your podcasts. Or listen at Noiza.com. A wanted man for the Telluride robbery. At this point, Bob Parker starts using the surname Cassidy, which he takes from his mentor Mike Cassidy. The name Butch is added later, many believe from a stint working at a butcher's shop. Over the years Bob Parker uses a wide variety of aliases, but it's Butch Cassidy that survives the test of time.

the test of time. With a posse from Telluride, including the local sheriff in hot pursuit, the trio of thieves make their escape on a long, convoluted journey. They head first to what will become a favorite hideout, Robber's Roost in southeastern Utah, a desolate place of vertiginous canyons and narrow gorges. After that, they lie low in the mountains of northeastern Wyoming, and then onto Brown's Park, a rugged no-man's land on the borders of Wyoming, Utah, and Colorado.

Here, Butch finds work at a ranch owned by the Bassett family. The Bassetts quickly grow fond of this good-natured young man with his winning smile and a fondness for pranks. Cassidy enjoys the reading material he finds in the father's study and escorts 15-year-old Josie Basset to dances, while her little sister Anne also develops a soft spot for the cowboy. When it feels safe to start spending his money, he buys his own property with fellow cowboy Al Hayna on Horse Creek, just north of where the Wyoming town of Dubois stands today.

He is popular with his neighbors, the life and soul of every party. During an influenza epidemic, he rides around the neighborhood, distributing medicine to the sick. Eventually, though, the road calls again. He sells up his ranch and returns to the life of a horse-russler. Then in 1894, the former bank robber gets a taste of life behind bars. He was actually served a prison sentence for a small stint reportedly for horse theft. He claims he never stole this horse. He says it was my horse.

I left it in the stables at a ranch. I paid for its upkeep when I went back to get it. He had a little bit of a squabble with the rancher, but he said it was my horse. But they believe that he was prosecuted because he had kind of ruffled some feathers of some big money men. But he was arrested in Lander, Wyoming,

which is a beautiful little nowhere spot still in the world. Butch is sentenced for two years at Wyoming State Penitentiary in Laramie, known in that town as the Big Stone House across the river. But 18 months into his term, it's time for the next chapter of his life to begin. It is January the 19th, 1896. Butch Cassidy's steps echo for the last time through the corridor of Wyoming State Penitentiary. He's dressed in the same cheap suit all convicts are issued for their release, And though there are a few dollars in his pocket, he's only too aware how that kind of money doesn't last for long. As he walks, he takes a last look around the unforgiving building, constructed like a fortress

with its walls of limestone and sandstone two feet thick. Butch knows men who've made their escape, fleeing a life of hard labor. But for his good behavior, he is leaving six months early. He grins at his fellow inmates as he passes their cells. A few wish him luck and rattle their tin mugs against the bars to send him off. Most though know better than to say anything in front of the two guards that flank him on his walk to freedom. Now they come to a heavy steel door, and with some sense of ceremony, one of these uniformed

men slides a key into the keyhole. The door groans open, and the low winter light hits their eyes. Butch squints, allowing his pupils to adjust to the wide open skies he has missed so much. Out in the yard, the guards accompany him to the high wooden stockade running around the prison. Before they open the second gate to freedom, one warns him to stay out of trouble. Butch stays quiet. He has no intention of taking the advice.

Outside, his old racing pal, Matt Warner, is waiting for him with a horse. A smile spreads across his weather-beaten face. Butch slaps him on the back, and with a practiced motion, he swings himself up into the saddle. The horse snorts, tossing its head, eager to be off. He's not the only one. First, the plan is to put as much distance as they can between Butch and the jailhouse. They travel south to Warner's cabin on the side of a mountain in Brown's Park. While Warner needs to return to work, Butch is keen to celebrate his freedom and heads

for the local saloon. The low hum of conversation quiets as he pushes through the swinging doors. His reputation has preceded him, but Butch walks tall, hat low over his eyes. There at a far table he spots a familiar face, William Ellsworth Lay, whom everyone calls Elzie. He's a tall, wiry man with striking dark eyes and an easygoing charm. Lay tips his hat at Butch. They met a few years back at the Bassett Ranch and have worked together on a horse-rustling heist or two.

With a nod, Butch slips into the seat across from Lay and offers to buy him a drink. As the pair get chatting, before long the talk turns to past jobs, escapes, and near misses. A few more drinks in, they begin to share ideas for new heists and hideouts. By the time the bartender calls time, Butch and Elzie are firm friends. They stagger out into the moonlight, and though it's the end of the evening the legend of the Wild Bunch is just getting started. Every outlaw needs his gang and after his release from prison Butch Cassidy

meets the men who will become known as the Wild Bunch. Chief among them initially is LZ Lay, whose family come from Ohio. Like Cassidy, he has the reputation of being something of a gentleman among rogues and popular with the ladies. Soon the pair get to work, plotting crimes. After dabbling with a scheme that involves counterfeit money, they start to map out their first serious heist. On August 13, 1896, Cassidy, Lay, and a man called Bub Meeks ride into the town of Montpellier in the southeastern corner of Idaho. Leaving their horses with Meeks,

Cassidy and Lay pull their bandanas over their faces and stride into the bank, rounding up a few members of the public who are loitering just outside. There, one of them orders the crowd to face the wall with their hands up, while the other tells the cashier to empty the drawers of money, scooping up cash and gold and silver coin into his sacks. When they leave the bank, they instruct everyone to stay exactly where they are for 10 minutes. The cashier waits until the sound of hoofbeats fades away and then raises the alarm. A manhunt immediately gets underway. The sheriff and his deputy round up a few local volunteers and pursue the thieves.

But soon, the trail goes cold. Back in Montpellier, stories about the robbery are spreading like wildfire. The superstitious assistant cashier notes that the theft took place on the 13th day of the month, at 13 minutes after 3 p.m., just after he had made the 13th deposit of the day, a sum of $13. It is reported they may have taken as much as $16,500, more than half a million dollars today. $16,500, more than half a million dollars today. Some of Cassidy's share goes towards paying the legal fees of his old friend Matt Warner, who has been charged with murder in an unrelated incident. Perhaps, thanks to Cassidy's contribution, the jury settle on voluntary manslaughter

instead of first-degree murder, and Warner gets five years at Utah State Penitentiary. Meanwhile, for the rest of the year, Cassidy and Lay hide out in Utah. Alongside them are a couple of female companions, Lay's girlfriend, Maude Davis, and Cassidy's old pal, 18-year-old Anne Bassett. By late 1896, the pair have been officially named as suspects in the Montpellier robbery. Cassidy spends Thanksgiving with the Bassett family, who have a bustling gathering for 35 guests. It's here that he's thought to meet a man called Harry Longabugh, also known as the Sundance Kid. His nickname comes from the Wyoming town of Sundance, where he was imprisoned in the late 1880s for stealing a horse.

The Sundance Kid was a Pennsylvania boy and ended up coming to the West when he was 15 years old. He was the youngest of five, very industrious kids, interesting family dynamic. And I also thought it was really interesting that he was the youngest in his family, and Butch Cassidy is the oldest. And their personalities, their temperament

was very much formed by where they were in their families. He definitely had that a look after myself, you know, which is definitely a youngest kid kind of trait. You know, they don't feel the same kind of responsibility for the rest of the crew because they've always been the baby. But he had a little bit of that temperament, and it's interesting that they kind of ended up together and that their names have been joined through history.

It's around this time in the late 1890s that a group of outlaws centered around Cassidy begins to develop into a loosely knit gang, including the Sundance Kid and Elsie Lay. Often, they work in small groups, pairs, or trios, to rob banks or trains or rustle horses. But in total, the gang numbers up to 19 men. The Wild Bunch, as they become known, gets its name from the antics of the friends as they ride into towns, whooping and hollering, looking for fun. Elsie Lay was reportedly Butch's best friend. He was not a Utah boy.

Kid Curry, who was probably the most feared of the Wild Bunch, killed nine law men, two civilians in shootouts, definitely the most feared member. There were a couple of brothers, Will Carver and George Carver, Ben Kilpatrick, who is known as the Tall Texan, Harvey Logan, those are just a few names. In April 1897, Cassidy and Lay ambush a small group of men carrying the payroll of the

Pleasant Valley Coal Company in the mining town of Castle Gate, Utah. They steal a sack of silver coins, with which they escape back to Robber's Roost. The following year, something strange happens. In Carbon County, Utah, the newly appointed sheriff and a group of his men ambush an outlaws camp while on the trail of some horse rustlers. In the resulting shootout, one of the bandits is killed, and the sheriff is convinced it's Butch Cassidy, who is a wanted man. His death is duly announced, and a fascinated crowd file in to view the body. A crowd that includes, as the story goes, the actual Butch Cassidy.

It's not until after the remains are buried that an argument breaks out about whether it really was the notorious outlaw. So, the remains are duly exhumed, and a sheriff who knows him from his time in prison is summoned. Sure enough, the lawman confirms the error. It's not Cassidy. But it's episodes like this that help to develop the legend, with his exploits brought to life in the pages of dime novels and sensational newspaper stories. The real Cassidy, meanwhile, has a new alias.

He's living as Jim Lowe and working with Lay at a ranch in southwest New Mexico, 400 miles from Robber's Roost. Here, as ever, he has made himself popular. The manager William French likes this Jim Lowe, whom he later describes as solidly built with an ability to handle himself when things get tough. Cassidy often returns to more conventional ways of making a living. He is great at stealing money but he's just as good at spending it. Not just in saloons and gambling dives, but also on helping fellow outlaws when they're caught for their crimes.

And while he is known to bury some of his loot, there is also at least one occasion when he is unable to identify exactly where that was, leaving him perpetually in need of another score. From late May to early June, Cassidy and Lay take a week or two off from their day jobs at the ranch. And as coincidence would have it, on June the 2nd 1899 a Union Pacific passenger train near Wilcox, Wyoming is held up by a gang of masked robbers just before it crosses a wooden bridge. That night the bandits escape with as much as $50,000, a fortune in cash and valuables. After news breaks of the holdup, a massive manhunt

is launched by local law enforcement, drawing attention across the country. Things escalate further when a sheriff is killed in a gunfight with three outlaws during the pursuit, around 50 miles from Wilcox. But Cassidy and Lay are soon back at their day jobs at William French's New Mexico Ranch. While some historians still debate whether Cassidy was even on the scene that day, what is true is that after the Wilcox holdup and the killing of the sheriff, he becomes a national figure. His photograph is published in the New York Herald, and tales of his exploits reach the ears of a broader audience.

It was bigger than any local sheriff could handle. You know, the wild bunch, people that were robbing trains. The trains, the rails went through several states. They went all the way across the states. So who handles that? Who handles it when a crime is committed on tracks on the Union Pacific in the middle of nowhere? So it makes sense that some of these people with vested interests like the railroad or

big landowners, degranchers, would bring in somebody to be their enforcers. It is at this stage that the Pinkerton National Detective Agency is contracted to find the outlaws. The organization plays a significant role in both law enforcement and private security in the U.S., often contracted to work on high-profile cases. Its slogan, We Never Sleep, is symbolized by the iconic logo featuring an unblinking eye. The Pinkerton Agency was established around 1850 in the U.S.

And it has a very interesting back story. The founder or co-founder was a man by the name of Alan Pinkerton. And he was of Scottish descent. But he claimed to have foiled the Baltimore plot, which was an earlier assassination attempt on President Lincoln in 1861. And it was after he foiled this plot that Lincoln hired his agency to conduct espionage against the Confederacy during the Civil War, and then also act as his personal security. So because they were acting as the security of the president, it is believed that the

Pinkerton Agency is kind of the forerunner of the U.S. Secret Service. With the Pinkertons on their trail, it is the beginning of the end for the Wild Bunch. For now, Cassidy has returned to the quiet life of his alias, the rancher Jim Lowe. But as ever, peace doesn't last long. Soon, his best friend, Elsie Lay, is in trouble. Lay, and a few other members of the Wild Bunch, rob a train in Folsom, New Mexico. But after the holdup, the group is pursued by law enforcement. In the ensuing gunfight, Lay is wounded and a sheriff is

shot dead. When Lay is eventually captured later that year, he is sentenced to life in prison for the shooting. Cassidy is devastated. He keeps his head down, but one day when he is away from the ranch, a Pinkerton detective comes knocking. He tells French, the ranch manager, that he's following the trail of some banknotes which have shown up in the local town, their tips blown off by dynamite. The detective also shows French photographs of Butch Cassidy, who looks remarkably like his employee Jim Lowe.

French confronts Cassidy when he next sees him, but Cassidy just smiles a relaxed smile and admits he knew the detective was snooping around. By this time, Cassidy has developed a strong relationship with French, so he reassures his employer that he plans to move on soon. Yet, as luck would have it, when the detective is having a drink in the local saloon during his stay in the town, things turn nasty. And it's the man who still calls himself Jim Lowe, who steps in to save his life.

Cassidy and the detective strike a deal, and the latter promises his silence. When Cassidy eventually leaves French's ranch, he does so on his own terms. But something in him has shifted. Maybe the glimpse of a calmer life at the ranch makes him want to change his ways. Or perhaps the incarceration of his best pal has been a wake-up call. Either way, in 1900, he turns up in the office of lawyer Orlando Powers in Salt Lake City to discuss the possibility of giving himself up. In return, he says he can offer a unique set of skills.

If you want to hack into a system, you hire a hacker. And it was the same kind of idea that he thought, well, you know, I can protect the trains and it's a way that I could maybe get amnesty. I could start over. It was the only way he could think of to have a fresh slate and be valuable enough that maybe that they would give him amnesty if he agreed to police the trains. And it's believed that he went to Orlando Powers and tried to arrange amnesty with the

governor of the state of Utah and then the owner of the Union Pacific Railroad. And we don't know exactly what happened in the meeting. All we know is that it didn't happen. It's believed that he waited all day at the designated spot and that there was some flooding that had happened the day before, some big storms. And, you know, they were traveling on horses and wagons in mud. And so they didn't make the designated time. The meeting never happens. And whatever change of heart Cassidy had doesn't last.

When he and his gang rob a Union Pacific train near Tipton, Wyoming, any chance for amnesties off the table. On the way to their next heist at a bank in Winamucca, many believe the robbers bury the hole from the previous job. There are treasure hunters looking for it to this day. In Winamucca, Cassidy, Sundance, and a few others draw their guns and force the bank president to open the vault. They fill their sacks with close to 33,000 in gold coins and head to Fort Worth in Texas.

A bustling frontier town, it's known for its rough and tumble district, Hell's Half Acre, which is filled with saloons, gambling dens and brothels. One of the gang, Will Carver, is getting married and the wild bunch are in high spirits. Spiffed up in their smartest suits, five of them, including Cassidy and Sundance, decide to have their picture taken at the Swartz View Gallery on Main Street. The photographer, John Swartz,

is so pleased with the resulting photograph that he later displays it in his waiting room. But for the Wild Bunch, this one unguarded moment will prove fateful. It is early 1900 in Fort Worth. Charles R. Scott, a veteran of the local police department, is making one of his regular trips to John Swartz's Main Street photography studio. Scott began his career as a beat cop, but is now chief detective in Fort Worth. One of his jobs is to manage the so-called Rogues Gallery, the photographic archive at the police department that includes mugshots from local arrests. archive at the police department that includes mug shots from local arrests.

Prisoners are escorted by city officers to John Swartz's studio for these mug shots, and Scott regularly accompanies perps for their sittings, and then returns later to pick up the photos, which is what he's doing now. Arriving at the studio, Scott finds he has a few minutes to kill in the waiting room, while the photographer finishes up with another client. While browsing, the detective's eye is drawn to a photo of five men. Dressed to the nines in well-tailored suits, the camera has captured them posing with a natural swagger. But it's more than that.

At least one of them looks familiar. As he leans in closer, the hair on his arms begins to rise. Something clicks in his memory. Taking the photo from Schwartz's waiting room, he rushes out to the street and mounts his horse, returning to headquarters to check it against his files. In his search to find a match for the photograph in his hands, he turns the rogue's gallery archive upside down. He opens drawer after drawer, emptying files onto his desk.

At last, he has the identities of three of the men in the photograph, William Carver, Ben Kilpatrick, and Harvey Logan. The last of the three, Logan, is nicknamed Kid Curry, the wildest of the wild bunch and a known killer. With the help of a sharp-eyed colleague, Scott finally identifies the last two faces, Robert Leroy Parker and Harry Longabar, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

He raises the alarm at headquarters and leads a group of a few men on a sweep of hell's half acre looking for the five men in the photograph. But this search only confirms his worst fear. The birds have already flown the coop. All he can do now is spread the word and hope it reaches the right ears. His next stop is the telegraph office where he wires the nearest outpost of the Pinkerton National Detective Agency in Denver.

It's not long before he hears back that the Pinkertons are interested in his find. Very interested indeed. Soon, the first wanted circulars using the Fort Worth Five photograph are published, with the outlaws' mugshots, names, and vital information. Before long, every law officer in the country, as well as hundreds of vigilante civilians, will see copies of the famous image. It is the breakthrough the Pinkertons have been waiting for. Every good card player knows when to fold, and with the Pinkertons closing in, Cassidy and Sundance now flee to New York City.

The pair of them have grown closer. Unlike some members of the Wild Bunch, neither of them has blood on his hands yet. They make plans to leave the country, along with Sundance's girlfriend, Etta Place. Some say Cassidy also shares a romantic connection with her, or at the very least, a deep fondness. In photographs, she is a petite woman with an intelligent, watchful face. Not much is known about her, though some say she met Sundance at the Wild Bunch's favorite brothel in San Antonio. Either way, clearly she is close enough to Cassidy and Sundance to be persuaded to leave New York on board a ship bound for Buenos Aires. He ends up going to Argentina

with Sundance, so Harry Longabaugh, Sundance kid, and Harry's girlfriend, who is known by the name of Etta Place or Ethel Place. It was not her real name. Name Place was the name of the Sundance Kid's mother. And so we think that's why she used that name, but very little is known about her. She's a fascinating figure as well, but just the three of them, the last of the bunch, they leave for South America in January of 1901. Their destination of Argentina is on the verge of an economic boom, and it's a good place

for cowboys with its exports of beef and mutton. They buy a piece of land in the valley of Cholila in Patagonia. Situated in the foothills of the Andes Mountains, it's near the border with Chile. In a 1902 letter written to Ley's mother-in-law in Utah, Cassidy refers to the setup as, our little family of three, and explains how they're living in a four-room house with 300 cattle, 1500 sheep, and 28 horses. But in such letters, Cassidy is careless about revealing his whereabouts, which makes the

Pinkerton's job much easier. Back in the States, the agency approaches some of Cassidy's victims, such as the railroad companies and the American Bankers Association. Could they fund a trip to bring the outlaws back to face justice? But unsurprisingly, their victims are happy to leave them where they are, far away. Still, the Argentinian quiet life doesn't last for long. On February 14th, 1905, two English-speaking bandits hold up a bank in Rio Gelegos, many miles south of Cholila. The pair disappear north, across the Patagonian grasslands.

It is never proven that these two are Cassidy and Sundance. But not long afterwards, perhaps fearing law enforcement has located them, they have packed up affairs at the ranch and are on the move again. Their next probable public appearance is at a bank in Villa Mercedes, 450 miles west of Buenos Aires in December 1905. There, a trio of robbers, brandishing knives and guns, make off with up to 14,000 pesos, a huge amount. This well-organized heist has all the hallmarks of a Cassidy robbery, with a relay of horses

waiting for their escape across the Andes into Chile. But the life of an outlaw isn't for everyone. The following year, Etta Place decides she's had enough and returns to San Francisco, while the men she was close to find honest work for a time at a tin mine in Tres Cruces, Bolivia. Cassidy, now working under the alias of Santiago Matan, is admired by the manager, who entrusts him with supervising the company payroll as it travels from La Paz to the mines. And despite the huge sums he's often guarding, Cassidy doesn't break this trust.

As usual, he makes himself popular, always carrying candy for the local children in Tres Cruces, while Sundance initially keeps more to himself. On a trip to Santa Cruz, 300 miles east, where the pair are looking to buy a piece of land, they drop in at the local sheriff's office. There, on the wall, are wanted posters with their faces on them. Cassidy, who has grown a long, bushy beard, tells the sheriff he'll look out for the shady-looking pair. Then, back at the mines, Sundance goes out drinking with colleagues

and begins to boast of his past crimes in the States. The secret is out once again. Not long after Sundance has given the game away, the pair settle up their affairs and hit the road again. But they can't keep running forever. On November the, 1908, a courier carrying a payroll from a silver mine near the small mining town of San Vicente in southern Bolivia is attacked by two masked American bandits believed to be Cassidy and Sundance. When they ride into San Vicente not long afterwards, a well-armed pair of Americans arouse suspicion, and a nearby cavalry regiment is alerted. They are surrounded in a small adobe house under sustained gunfight in seals.

After a period of quiet, the Bolivian authorities go in and they found two bodies. One believed to be Longabaugh, who had sustained several bullet wounds in his arms, and one to his head. And then the man they believed was Butch Cassidy was found in another room, dead from a shot to the temple, which was believed to be self-inflicted, with his revolver still in his hand. The bodies are buried in unmarked graves in the local cemetery, and for a long time this is considered to be the end of their notorious story. But is it? The human remains found in San Vicente are never positively identified as Cassidy and Sundance,

and accounts from witnesses are inconsistent. Moreover, rumors begin to spread that Cassidy survived the shootout and returned to the United States. The interesting part of all of it is that his family, Butch Cassidy's family, swears he came back after they swear he did not die. And that's pretty good collaboration. You know, there is no real evidence that they died in Bolivia, except we know that two bandits, two gringo bandits died in Bolivia,

but we don't know who they were. And there is no evidence, no DNA evidence. They have since gone back and the place that they were believed to have been buried, that has been excavated and DNA samples have been taken. There's no evidence that at least the bodies they dug up, that that was Butch Castey or Sundance. The family says he came back and lived in Washington State. It's believed he was there until his death in the 30s. the 30s. The ambiguity surrounding Cassidy's fate has become an integral part of his legend.

While many historians accept the Bolivian shootout as the most plausible account, the lack of conclusive evidence leaves room for alternative theories. Even the famous 1969 film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford gives them an ending that's open to interpretation. Another frequently debated topic concerns Cassidy's character

and the extent of his criminality. Despite his life as an armed criminal, his loyalty, charm, and wit earned him a reputation as a gentleman rogue in the public imagination. I think the only way you can gauge is the fact that such stories were not told about the other members of the Wild Bunch Gang. Their sins and their crimes and their histories are very much painted in the colors that they lived. They were criminals and they were violent and lawmen lost their lives

and left their widows and their children behind. Those stories seem to be true and they are not romanticized in the same way. And so having run with those men and often of being the leader of certain heists and robberies, the fact that the romance and the fact that the stories of his goodness have kind of risen to the stop, I think gives it more credence, because they don't exist for the other men.

And the life of crime catches up with many of the other members of the Wild Bunch eventually. Kid Curry dies by his own hand during a shootout with law enforcement, while Ben Kilpatrick, the tall Texan, is killed during an attempted train robbery. But not all of them meet in glorious ends. After seven years in prison, Elsie Lay is released in 1906 and retires from crime, living a law-abiding life until his death in 1934, aged 67. As for Butch Cassidy, the legacy of his life, death, and buried treasure endures as one of the Wild West's most intriguing mysteries.

One that might never be truly solved. Next time on Short History of, we'll bring you a short history of Pablo Picasso. He wanted to forge a new path that was going to transform the whole of the history of art, which at that juncture, we're talking 1906, 7, with the invention of photography. And it's not clear how much further one could go within that realm of a realistic rendering of the world. And so he decides to frankly turn it on a tad. In Picasso's own sense, it's revolution, right? He has decided that he's going to burn the whole history of art

and he's going to provide a new path forward. That's next time. If you can't wait a week until the next episode, you can listen to it right away by subscribing to Noiser Plus. Head to www.noiser.com forward slash subscriptions for more information.