The True Story of Butch Cassidy
The True Story of The Sundance Kid
The True Story Of Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid
The True Story of Butch Cassidy
BUTCH CASSIDY
Of all Western outlaws, none are more fondly remembered in story and folklore than the "Robin Hood of the West," Butch Cassidy--the alias of Robert LeRoy Parker. Parker was born 15 April 1866 in Beaver, Utah, and was raised by Mormon pioneer parents on a ranch near Circleville, Utah. While a teenager, Parker fell under the influence of an old rustler named Mike Cassidy. Parker soon left home to ride the outlaw trail.
For the first several years after leaving home, Parker rode the fringe between being an outlaw and a migrant cowboy. He worked several ranches as well as one time in a butcher shop at Rock Springs, Wyoming, from which he took the name "Butch"; and to not bring shame upon honest parents, he added the name Cassidy, most likely in respect for his old mentor. Moving from rustler, for which he served a two-year stint in a Wyoming jail from 1894 to 1896, to master planner of the robbery of trains, banks, and mine payrolls came naturally for Cassidy. With his quick wit and native charm, coupled with his fearlessness and bravery, he never lacked for willing companions to assist in his plans. By 1896 his gang had dubbed themselves the "Wild Bunch." This gang consisted of several well-known Western outlaws including Harry Longabaugh, known as the Sundance Kid; Harvey Logan, alias Kid Curry; Ben Kilpatrick, the Tall Texan; Harry Tracy, Elzy Lay (who was Butch's best friend), and several others. Operating around the turn of the century, Cassidy and his partners put together the longest sequence of successful bank and train robberies in the history of the American West.
Successfully eluding the law became ever harder as the West grew more populated and law enforcement became better organized, however. When the railroads hired the Pinkerton Agency to chase down Cassidy, he and Harry Longabaugh, along with Etta Place (who was likely a Browns Park girl named Ann Bassett), went to South America and purchased a ranch in Argentina. After a few short years of trying to make it as honest ranchers, the pair again turned to easier methods of obtaining money. After robbing banks in several South American countries, the pair was finally trapped by troops in Bolivia.
What happened afterwards is the central myth surrounding Cassidy. Some claim he and Sundance were killed, others emphatically believe that another pair of outlaws were killed by the troops and that Cassidy and Longabaugh purposefully let it be known they had been killed. The oft-told stories relate that the pair returned to the West and lived out their lives under alias names and identities. Like many other Western figures, Butch Cassidy has become larger than life. His name still generates fond recollections from many Utah old-timers who love to tell stories about him. Whether he died in South America or died of old age under one of the several identities that are attributed to him may never be fully proven.
The True Story of The Sun Dance Kid
THE SUNDANCE KID
Harry A. Longabaugh, alias the Sundance Kid, aka Harry Place, shown here with his wife Ethel, aka Etta Place. This photo was taken @ January, 1901, at the DeYoung Photography Studio, located at 826 Broadway in New York City, probably as a Wedding momento, The picture then became part of the Pinkerton Detective Agency picture gallery. A copy was mailed by Sundance to his friend David Gillespie back in Wyoming, in a letter stating that this was his wife who he had met on a previous trip to Texas.
Harry A. Longabaugh was born in the spring of 1867 at 122 Jacobs Street, Mont Clare, Pennsylvania. His parents Josiah and Annie (Place) Longabaugh welcomed their fifth and last child as did brothers Elwood and Harvey and sisters Samanna and Emma. Young Harry left home for the west on August 30, 1882, from the family’s rented home at 354 Church Street, Phoenixville, Pennsylvania. Harry was arrested in 1887 for stealing a horse in the town of Sundance, Wyoming, and thereafter was known as the outlaw, the Sundance Kid. He died in San Vicente, Bolivia, in November, 1908, along with his partner, Butch Cassidy. His wife Ethel, better known as Etta Place, then disappeared.
As relatives of the Sundance Kid, Paul D. and Donna B. Ernst have done extensive research and have traveled out West on more than twenty occasions to visit anywhere that ever claimed ‘Sundance slept here’. The Ernsts have written over fifty articles for many publications, including True West, Old West, and Wild West magazines as well as the NOLA Quarterly and the WOLA Journal. Donna B. Ernst also wrote the book Sundance, My Uncle, published in 1993 by the Early West in Texas; and the book From Cowboy To Outlaw, published in 1996 by the Sutton County Historical Society in Texas. Harry A. Longabaugh, Alias The Sundance Kid, of Chester County and Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, written by Donna B. Ernst, is a self-published booklet which details the numerous homes still existing in which Sundance and his family lived.
Two physical descriptions of Sundance are known today. Charles Ayers, a rancher along the Little Snake River near Baggs, Wyoming, was an informant to the Pinkerton Detective Agency. Ayers’ description of Sundance reads, “32 – 5 ft 10. 175 – Med. Comp. Firm expression in face, German descent Combs his hair Pompadour, it will not lay smooth – erect, but carries his head down not showing his eyes. Eyes Blue or gray. Bowlegged – walks with feet far apart. Carries arms straight by his side. Fingers closed, thumbs sticking straight out. Eats Ralston food, asks for it, and discusses its merits he uses knife & fork awkwardly very quiet, cowboy. Good Rider, marks his clothes ‘H L’ with worsted thread – had catarrh badly.” (Catarrh is a sinus condition.)
The second description was provided by Dr. Pierce’s Invalid’s Hotel which was located at 653 Main Street in Buffalo, New York. The location is currently a McDonald’s restaurant. Both Sundance and Ethel, aka Etta Place, sought treatment for unknown ailments from the holistic-style medical center. In May, 1902, a hospital report was filed with the Pinkerton Detective Agency which reads, “About 35, 5 ft 9, 185 or 190. Med Comp. Brown eyes, Lt Bro hair. Lt Bro or Sandy Mustache, feet Small, not bow legged – both feet turns in walking. Face much tanned with the Sun.”
Spring, 1867 -- Harry Alonzo Longabaugh is born to Josiah and Annie (Place) Longabaugh in Mont Clare, a small village about thirty miles northwest of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He is the youngest of five children in a poor but strongly religious family.
August 30, 1882 – Soon after his oldest brother Elwood leaves home to become a whaler out of San Francisco, young Harry travels out west by covered wagon with his cousin George Longenbaugh. The Longenbaugh family homesteads in Durango and Cortez, Colorado; Harry’s future partner Robert Leroy Parker, aka Butch Cassidy, is living just a few miles away in Telluride, Colorado. By 1886, however, Harry grows restless and heads north, where he works for the N-N Ranch near Culbertson, Montana.
February 27, 1887 – Out of work and money, Harry steals a horse, gun, and saddle outfit from an employee of the VVV Ranch in Sundance, Wyoming. After a four-month chase, Sheriff James Ryan finally captures him in Miles City, Montana, and returns him to Sundance for trial. On August 5, 1887, Harry pleads guilty to horse stealing and is sentenced to eighteen months, which he serves in the Sundance town jail. On February 4, 1889, Governor Thomas Moonlight grants a pardon to Harry, and he is released the next day from jail. Harry A. Longabaugh leaves town, taking with him a new name – the Sundance Kid.
1890 – 1892 – During this two-and-a-half-year period, Sundance works breaking horses on the Bar U Ranch near Calgary, Canada; he is recorded at the Bar U during the Canadian Dominion Census on April 6, 1891; he is arrested and immediately released for ‘cruelty to animals’ on August 7, 1891; he serves as the best man at his foreman Ebb Johnson’s wedding; he saves the life of his good friend Fred Ings in a freak blizzard during a cattle roundup; and he enters into a short business venture at the Grand Central Hotel Saloon in Calgary.
November 29, 1892 – Three outlaws hold up the Great Northern westbound train #23 just outside Malta, Montana. Bill Madden and Harry Bass are captured and imprisoned, and they implicate the Sundance Kid, who is accidentally released, as being the third outlaw.
1896 – 1897 – Sundance, using the name Harry Alonzo, lives and works for various ranchers around Baggs and Dixon, Wyoming, along the Little Snake River. He develops close and long-lasting friendships with a number of the local citizens, as well as with the outlaws who use the nearby Powder Springs hideout. The area is later used by Sundance as a safe haven when he is on the run after some robbery.
June 28, 1897 – After five outlaws hold up the Butte County Bank in Belle Fourche, South Dakota, two of them race for the Powder Springs hideout where they encounter Sundance. Together with Harvey Logan and Walt Punteney, Sundance heads north where a posse trails them to Lavina, Montana. After a shootout on September 19, 1897, results in their capture, they are taken to the Lawrence County jail in Deadwood, South Dakota, and held for the Belle Fourche robbery. However, they escape on October 31, 1897, and Sundance heads for the Little Snake River Valley, where he is again well received.
June 2, 1899 – In traditional Wild Bunch fashion, six outlaws, including Sundance, stop the Union Pacific Overland Flyer #1 just past the old Wilcox station house. They detach the passenger cars, dynamite the bridge, and blow open the safe, netting about $34,000 and some jewelry. Sheriff Josiah Hazen leads the posse which corners the gang at Jumbo Water Hole outside Horse Ranch, Wyoming; but during the ensuing shootout, Hazen is killed and the outlaws escape on foot.
September 19, 1900 – Sundance, Will Carver, and Butch Cassidy hold up the Winnemucca National Bank in Winnemucca, Nevada. Sundance’s share of the stolen $32,640 is going to be his spending capital for a new life in South America, away from the pursuing Pinkerton Detective Agency, Union Pacific Railroad detectives, and American Bankers Association detectives.
November 21, 1900 – The Wild Bunch gathers in Fort Worth, Texas, for a last hurrah, and foolishly they have their photo taken at the John Swartz Studio. The picture of Sundance, William R. Carver (Will Casey), Ben Kilpatrick (The Tall Texan), Harvey Logan (Kid Curry), and Robert Leroy Parker (Butch Cassidy) soon lands in the hands of the law, thus enabling an identification of the Wild Bunch outlaws. The Pinkerton Detective Agency, United States Marshals, local sheriffs, and the Wells, Fargo & Company detectives are all on the alert for this band of outlaws.
Winter, 1901 – Shortly after the Fort Worth Five photograph is taken, the gang splits up. Sundance reunites with his Texas girlfriend Ethel and takes her to meet his family in Pennsylvania. It is his first trip home since heading West as a teenager. His parents have both died, but he and Ethel visit with his brother Harvey and his sisters Samanna and Emma. When he leaves, he promises to keep in touch with his family once he has a home address in Argentina. Sundance and Ethel head up to Buffalo, New York, where he enters Dr. Pierce’s Invalid’s Hotel for treatment, possibly for a gunshot wound to his left leg. On February 1, 1901, he and Ethel register as Mr. and Mrs. Harry A. Place at Mrs. Taylor’s boarding house in New York City. Butch joins them, registering as Mrs. Place’s brother James Ryan. While in New York City, Sundance and Ethel purchase a lapel watch and a stickpin at Tiffany’s Jewelers and have their picture taken at the De Young Photography Studio on Broadway in Union Square. Sundance mails a copy of the photo back to friends in Wyoming with a letter explaining that this is his wife Ethel who he knew from a previous trip to Texas. Then on February 20, 1901, the trio sails out of New York aboard the ship Herminius, bound for Buenos Aires, Argentina.
1902 – 1908 – Sundance, Ethel, and Butch live peaceably on a small ranch in Cholila, Argentina, for about three years before the arm of the law finally finds them again. Ethel returns home to the States and disappears around 1905; and Sundance and Butch return to their old outlaw ways. They hold up banks, trains, and mine payrolls and become as infamous in South America as they had been earlier in the United States.
November 4, 1908 – Sundance and Butch hold up the Aramayo, Francke & Cia payroll near Tupiza, Bolivia. They escape into the mountains with about 15,000 bolivianos and the mining company pack mule. As they arrive in San Vicente, Bolivia, two days later, someone recognizes the mule and alerts the town mayor, who gathers four armed townsmen to help. Both Sundance and Butch are wounded during the short gunfight, and they opt to commit suicide rather than be captured and jailed. The next day the town buries the two unidentified banditos yanqui in their local cemetery.
1909 – 1911 – Someone (Ethel?) asks American Consul Frank D. Aller in Antofagasta, Chile, to obtain a death certificate for one of the Aramayo outlaws, Frank Boyd, a known alias Sundance used, in order to settle his estate. After two years, communications apparently stop with nothing settled and no death certificate. However, all letters to his family home in Pennsylvania also end, and he is believed to be dead.
@ 1880 – She is born, possibly in Texas. Her given name is possibly Ethel, since she later signs her name as Ethel. As an adult, she is described as 5’ 5” tall, 110 pounds, with medium complexion, medium dark hair, blue or gray eyes, regular features, without marks or blemishes.
@ 1899 – 1900 – Ethel is living in Texas and being courted by Harry A. Longabaugh, alias the Sundance Kid, aka Harry A. Place.
@ December, 1900 – Soon after Sundance parties in Fort Worth, Texas, and poses for the Fort Worth Five Photograph, he reunites with Ethel. According to his family, they marry, possibly in Texas. Because he is using the alias Harry A. Place, she becomes Mrs. Ethel Place. Later, in South America, the pronunciation of her name becomes Etta because of the inflections of the Spanish language. Thus she becomes known as ‘Etta Place’.
@ January, 1901 – Ethel and Sundance visit his family in Mont Clare, Pennsylvania.
February 1, 1901 – With Sundance, Ethel signs Mrs. Taylor’s New York City boarding house register as Mr. And Mrs. Harry A. Place. While visiting Union Square in New York City, they visit Tiffany’s Jewelers and have their photograph taken together at De Young’s Photography Studio.
February 20, 1901 – With Sundance, Ethel boards the British Ship Herminius as Mr. And Mrs. Harry A. Place, and they sail for Buenos Aires, Argentina. From there they travel to Cholila and begin a lawful, peaceful existence on their new ranch along with Butch Cassidy, Sundance’s partner in crime.
March 3, 1902 – Ethel and Sundance sail on the ship S. S. Soldier Prince from Buenos Aires to New York City for a visit to the States. The Pinkertons later find evidence of their visit and declare that she is homesick and visiting her family.
April 2, 1902 – Ethel and Sundance register at Mrs. Thompson’s rooming house in New York City. Together they tour Coney Island, visit his family in Atlantic City, New Jersey, and possibly travel to Dr. Pierce’s Invalid’s Hotel in Buffalo, New York, for unspecified treatment.
July 10, 1902 – Ethel and Sundance sail aboard the Steamer Honorius from New York to Buenos Aires, posing as stewards.
August 9, 1902 – Ethel registers with Sundance at the Hotel Europa in Buenos Aires. On August 15, 1902, they travel aboard the steamer S. S. Chubut and return to their ranch in Cholila, Argentina.
@ summer 1904 – Together with Sundance, Ethel again returns to the States for a visit to her family. The Pinkertons track them in Fort Worth, Texas, and at the St. Louis World’s Fair, but do not discover them before they return to Argentina.
May 1, 1905 – According to files recently discovered in South America, Ethel, Sundance, and Butch decide to sell the Cholila Ranch and leave to avoid the law. On June 30, 1905, Sundance writes a letter to a friend stating that they are leaving from Valparaiso, Chile, for San Francisco.
@ 1907 – According to files recently discovered in South America, Ethel is living in San Francisco, where Sundance took her two years previously.
July 31, 1909 – Ethel possibly tries to obtain Sundance’s death certificate after the San Vicente shootout in order to settle his estate. There is no further evidence or activity which can be traced to the existence of Ethel Place; she disappears from all records.
Conrad Langenback was born in the 1750’s in Germany. He immigrated to America as an indentured servant, arriving in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 24 December 1772 aboard the Brig Morning Star. His contract was bought by John Hunter of Coventry Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania; and it called for Conrad to work for five years as an apprentice or buy his freedom for 28.2 pounds. Conrad later served two months in the militia in Northampton County, Pennsylvania, during the Revolutionary War. In 1781, Conrad married Catharina and settled in New Hanover, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. Conrad and Catharina had at least eight children including:
Jonas Longabaugh was born @ 1797-1798 in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. He married Christiana Hillbert, daughter of Michael and Elizabeth Hillbert, on 6 December 1821 in Pennsylvania. She was born 30 January 1800, and died 12 September 1852, of uterine cancer. Jonas died 28 June 1864 in Upper Providence Township, Pennsylvania, and they are both buried in the St. Luke Reformed Church Cemetery, Trappe, Pennsylvania. Jonas and Christiana had six children including:
Josiah Longabaugh was born 14 June 1822 in Pennsylvania; he married Annie G. Place on 11 August 1855 in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, the Rev. J. S. Ermentrout presiding. Annie was born 27 September 1828, the daughter of Henry and Rachel (Tustin) Place; she died of heart disease 18 May 1887. Jonas died of heart disease 9 August 1893, and they are buried in the Morris Cemetery in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania. Josiah and Annie had five children – Elwood Place Longabaugh, born 1858 Pennsylvania; Samanna Longabaugh, born 1860 Pennsylvania; Emma T. Longabaugh, born 1862 Pennsylvania; Harvey Sylvester Longabaugh, born 1865 Pennsylvania; and Harry A. Longabaugh, born in the spring of 1867 Pennsylvania.
6 November 1908
Using newspaper accounts of the time period, family records, inquest papers from the San Vicente shootout, mine business records, etc. we believe that there is absolute evidence that both Sundance and Butch died in San Vicente, Bolivia, on 6 November 1908.
Nearly every outlaw supposedly came back alive – kind of like the Elvis lives stories of today. So, it doesn’t surprise us that someone would claim that Sundance lived also.
Robert Leroy Parker (a.k.a. Butch Cassidy) had his first with the law, when on June 24, 1889, he joined Tom McCarty, Matt Warmer, and Bart Madden in a robbery of the Telluride, Colorado bank for $10,000. they got away cleanly. The following spring, the group was joined by Tom's brother Bill and Bill's 17-year-old son Fred. They robbed the Wallowa National Bank at Enterprise, Oregon on October 8, 1891. Butch wasn't along for that ride. Nor was he along when on September 3,1893, McCarty and his band robbed a bank at Delta, Colorado. Bill and Fred were killed by citizens of the town and Tom escaped and was never heard from again. All this was enough to put a taste in his mouth for the outlaw life.
Butch worked as a ranch hand in Utah and Wyoming after that and saved enough to buy a horse ranch in Wyoming. In 1893, he was arrested for stealing horses but he was never charged. In 1894 he was caught with a stolen herd and sentenced to two years in the Wyoming State Prison in Laramie. He was pardoned after 1½ years with a promise not to commit any more crimes in Wyoming. He was released on January 19, 1896. From there he went to Brown's Hole where he formed his own band, later called the Wild Bunch, and joined up with Kid Curry.
The following men were the core of the Wild Bunch:
Harry Longbaugh (a.k.a. Sundance Kid), nicknamed possibly from Sundance, Wyoming, where he was caught as a horsethief
Ben "The Tall Texan" Kilpatrick, known as the lady killer of the group
Bill Tod Carver, the quickdraw
Camila "Deaf Charlie" Hanks, partly deaf in one ear
Elza Lay (a.k.a. William McGinnis), one time geology student
Tom "Peep" O'Day, court jester; Joe Chancellor, skilled safecracker and poker player
Jim Lowe, bartender
Jesse Lnsley, the dapper dresser
William "Bill" Cruzan, best horse thief
Dave Atkins, already on the lam when je joined the group
Walter "Wat the Watcher" Punteney, jack of all trades
Willard E. Christiansen (a.k.a. Matt Warner), part of McCarty's gang
Bob Meeks, cowboy
Laura Bullion, rode for a while
Etta Place, a prostitute
Annie Rogers, a favorite of Kid Curry
Lillie Davis, a prostitute
The first job they pulled was robbing the bank at Montpelier, Idaho. This robbery, on August 13, 1896, was to finance an attorney to defend Matt Warner in a murder trial. They hired Douglas V. Preston. Warner was still convicted but he got a relatively light sentence of five years. After this they robbed the bank at Belle Fourche, South Dakota. On June 28, 1897, Kid Curry, Sundance, O'Day, and Punteney only got $100 from the bank. O'Day was captured at the scene; the others were caught a month later by a posse. After each robbery the gang would hole up at Fanny Porter's Sporting House (a brothel) in Texas.
Their next target was the Overland Flyer train near Wilcox, Wyoming. They pulled the job on June 2, 1899. They got $30,000 this time. There was a shootout, but the bunch got away. They next robbed the Union Pacific train at Tipton, Wyoming on August 29, 1900. There was only $50.40 on the train. This time the robbers were identified by people on the train as Butch, Sundance, Kid Curry, Tall Texan, and Bill Cruzan. By this time Butch had going to South America in mind, for fresh pickings and no barbed wire. To finance the plan, he took the Bunch to Winnemucca, Nevada to rob the bank. One September 9, 1900, they got $32,640 from the bank.
The Winnemucca bank was to be the last robbery. Perhaps Butch felt they didn't have quite enough money yet to flee the country. So they pulled one last job. Butch, Sundance, Kid Curry, and Camilla Hanks robbed the Northern Pacific Train. On July 3, 1901, they robbed the train near Wagner, Montana for $40,000. After that, the Bunch scattered. On February 20, 1902, Sundance and Etta sailed for Buenos Aires. The Tall Texan was arrested and got 15 years in Atlanta. He was later killed in 1912 while holding up a train in Texas. Deaf Charlie was killed in San Antonio, Texas, on April 17, 1902. Carver was killed in Texas. Three former members were state penitentiaries. In November 1902, Kid Curry escaped from the Knoxville, Tennessee penitentiary. He was later killed in a shoot out.
Butch then went to Argentina. The Pinkertons knew where he was, but it wasn't until March 8, 1903 that they made their move. Agent Frank Dimaio was dispatched to find them. He found their banks and their home easily. He started distributing wanted posters up and down the coast. He believed that Butch and Sundance were just biding their time before they started banditry in South America. For the next three years, they increased their horse, cattle, and sheep herds and improved their land.
On March 1906, they robbed the bank at Villa Mercedes. Many other desperadoes from the U.S. and elsewhere were hiding out in South America, so it was easy to get partners. A young Texan named Dey helped them. The police raided their ranch at Cholito, but they were already gone. They robbed the bank at Bahia Blanca a month later. They robbed another bank at Eucalyptus in Bolivia. Then they hid out for awhile in Rio Gallegos in Argentina. Next they robbed a train at Eucalyptus. A man named McVey helped on that job.
Percey Seibert, a mining engineer at the Concordia Tin Mines in Bolivia supplied the story for the rest of their lives. Butch and Sundance had hired on at the mines. They never robbed the mines, but from time to time, the owners heard of robberies elsewhere. At one point, Etta returned to the states for an appendectomy and never returned. After awhile, the army started putting pressure on all the outlaws. Butch and Sundance robbed the Chocaya Tin-Silver Mine, their last robbery. They stole the loot while it was strapped to a mule in a convoy heading for San Vicente, Bolivia. After a short standoff at San Vicente, Sundance was killed, and Butch committed suicide. They were buried there about 1922.