Cassidy Bank Into The Wild

🛑 ALL INFORMATION CLICK HERE 👈🏻👈🏻👈🏻

Cassidy Bank Into The Wild

Members of the Wild Bunch, the robbers' life and death inspired the 1969 movie starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford.
© 2022 Biography and the Biography logo are registered trademarks of A&E Television Networks, LLC.
Photo: John Swartz/American Stock/Getty Images
Members of the Wild Bunch, the robbers' life and death inspired the 1969 movie starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford.
It’s one of the most famous endings in film history. In the 1969 movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid , the two outlaws, played by Paul Newman and Robert Redford respectively, appear to go out in a blaze of glory during a gun battle in Bolivia in 1908. But the film’s ambiguous ending points to a murkier truth. Many – including members of Cassidy’s family – believe that the real-life Butch Cassidy , the jovial, charismatic leader of the Wild Bunch, lived for decades after the legendary South American shoot-out.
Few criminals have reaped as much goodwill – in life and death – as Cassidy. According to Richard Patterson, author of Butch Cassidy: A Biography , Cassidy was born Robert LeRoy Parker on April 13, 1866, in Beaver, Utah Territory. His loving parents, Ann Gillies and Maximillian Parker, were members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Robert, the oldest child in a large family, grew up playing harmonica on “home evenings” when the family would read the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints doctrine and play games.
When Robert was eight, his family homesteaded a large ranch outside of Circleville, Utah. Here, he became an expert cowboy and was a playful older brother to his younger siblings. The Parker family were not the most devout members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, but it is believed that they may have been involved in an illegal “underground railroad” sheltering polygamous Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints families from the U.S. government.
While working on a nearby cattle ranch as a teenager, Robert met a man who would alter the course of his life forever. Mike Cassidy, cowboy by trade, outlaw cattle rustler by choice, seems to have indoctrinated the restless Robert into the lucrative business of stealing of livestock. At the age of 18, Robert – probably on the run from crimes committed with Cassidy or alone – left the family home, telling his mother;
Ma, there’s not much here for me. No future. Pay in Utah is low – you know that. Maybe twenty or thirty dollars a month with board – and the board’s not much to brag about in most places. There’s no excitement around here. I’m not a kid anymore. Gotta be thinking about my future.
Robert would soon enter a life of Wild West crime – cattle rustling and other petty offenses. But in 1889, he would ride into the big leagues, successfully robbing the San Miguel Valley Bank in Telluride with associates Matt Warner and Tom McCarty. “A witness recalled seeing Butch, in the weeks before the robbery, spend hours teaching his horse to stand calmly while he ran and vaulted into the saddle,” Richard Patterson writes in the magazine Wild West . “Butch and his pals also constructed special leather bags to carry the loot, and they painstakingly laid out an escape route in advance, bolstered by relay teams of fresh horses.”
This shrewd attention to detail would become a hallmark of robberies committed by the Wild Bunch. With his entry into serious crime, Robert changed his name to protect himself – and his family’s honor. He chose Cassidy in honor of his mentor Mike Cassidy, but Butch was not his personal choice. “I took a job in Rock Springs in the butcher shop when I needed to lay low for a while,” he told a friend years later. “Matt Warner nicknamed me Butch, he thought it was a big joke.”
Cassidy, “a big dumb kid who liked to joke” according to friend Josie Bassett, continued his life of crime. In 1896, after a stint in jail, Cassidy went right back to his old ways. It was sometime after his release when Cassidy met a stoic, handsome East Coast-born former cowboy turned outlaw named Harry Longabaugh, aka the Sundance Kid . Cassidy now had a posse of outlaw acolytes who liked to rob banks and trains and also liked to party. During one celebration, the members of the Wild Bunch dressed as waiters, much to the amusement of friend Ann Bassett:
Poor Butch, he could perform such minor jobs as robbing banks and holding up pay trains without the flicker of an eye lash but serving coffee at a grand party that was something else. The blood curdling job almost floored him, he became panicky and showed that his nerve was completely shot to bits…the boys went into a huddle in the kitchen and instructed Butch in the more formal art of filling coffee cups at the table. This just shows how etiquette can put fear into a brave man’s heart.
Cassidy and the Wild Bunch’s notoriety grew as they racked up a staggering average of $35,000 per robbery. Although Patterson thinks the bunch probably only robbed four banks, four express trains and a coal company payroll office, they were soon blamed for every robbery in the Northwest.
It was Cassidy’s meticulous planning that made his robberies so successful. According to Patterson:
Little was left to chance. Butch and a few selected gang members would spend days, sometimes weeks, scouting a robbery site and the best escape route. Wisely, they always chose the summer months for all their holdups, when the weather was favorable for eluding posses. It appears that Cassidy also avoided killing. Although shots were fired during escapes, Butch was never known to have shot anyone during a holdup. The closest Butch ever came to harming a robbery victim was when he used explosives to force his way into an express car. A few express messengers were injured in the blasts, but none seriously. The gang always warned them when they would use dynamite, and they were wise enough to protect themselves by hiding behind the cargo.
The powerful railroad companies were soon hot on the Wild Bunch’s trail. Pinkerton detective Charlie Siringo, who called Cassidy “the shrewdest and most daring outlaw of the present age,” trailed the gang all over the West, often posing as an outlaw to search for the robbers.
A break for the Pinkerton agents seems to have been the result of one of Cassidy's legendary larks. In 1900, some of the Wild Bunch was in Texas to visit their favorite brothels and blow off some steam. They decided to get a formal portrait taken as a joke. This picture of the Sundance Kid, Will Carver, Ben Kilpatrick, Harvey Logan (Kid Curry) and Cassidy was a rare misstep for him. It is said a Wells Fargo agent recognized the outlaws when the photo was displayed in the photographer’s Fort Worth studio window. It was soon on wanted posters throughout the West.
By 1900, it appears Cassidy was tired of life on the run. A lawyer claimed Cassidy came to visit him, curious if he could get a pardon and settle down for good. When he was told it would be impossible, Cassidy was understanding. "You know the law, and I guess you're right,” he said. “But I'm sorry it can't be fixed some way. You'll never know what it means to be forever on the dodge."
The Wild Bunch pulled their last major robbery at the First National Bank of Winnemucca, Nevada, on September 19, 1900. According to Patterson, Cassidy managed to charm the populace yet again, even in the midst of planning and executing the robbery:
One boy, 10-year-old Vic Button, whose father managed the CS Ranch east of town where the outlaws camped, remembered Butch as a likable man with a broad grin. He said the outlaw gave him candy. Button also said that one day when he told Butch how much he admired his horse, Butch replied that someday he might give it to him. A few days later, Butch kept his word. Following the robbery, as the three outlaws were changing to fresh horses, Butch told the cowboy who had been attending the animals to give his winded horse to the young boy at the CS Ranch.
This robbery may have been to fund a new life in South America, far from Pinkerton detectives. In 1901, Cassidy and the Sundance Kid bought property in Cholila, Argentina under assumed names. They were joined on their new ranch by the mysterious, beautiful Etta Place – Sundance’s girlfriend – and according to some, Cassidy’s unrequited love. In his typical glib manner, Cassidy wrote to his friend Mathilda Davis back in America about his new setup:
Another of my Uncles died and left $30,000 to our little family of three so I took my $10,000 and started to see a little more of the world. I visited the best cities and best parts of the countries of South A. till I got here. And this part of the country looked so good that I located, and I think for good, for I like the place better every day.
It was not long before the trio were accused of bank robberies in South America. Place eventually returned to the States (disappearing into history), and Cassidy and Sundance ended up in Bolivia. On November 6, 1908, the pair were said to have stolen payroll from a mining company’s courier in San Vicente, Bolivia. A few days later, the Bolivian Cavalry surrounded the house where they were staying. A subsequent shootout left a man believed be Sundance injured. That evening, soldiers heard two shots coming from inside the house, and found the two men dead with bullet wounds in the head. The men were buried in a nearby Indian cemetery.
When news filtered back to the U.S. that Cassidy and Sundance had been killed, none of their friends seemed to have particularly believed the story. Sightings of Cassidy began almost immediately.
In Cassidy's nephew Bill Betenson’s book Butch Cassidy: My Uncle , the author points to around 20 well-documented sightings of Cassidy after 1908. In 1925, Cassidy, driving a shiny new Ford and sporting the “characteristic Parker grin,” was said to have visited family in Utah. His sister Lula Parker Betenson claimed he told the family of his exploits and kept in touch with them until is alleged real death in 1937.
For many years, it was believed that a Spokane engineer named William T. Phillips was in fact Cassidy. He seems to have done everything possible to encourage this theory, even writing a book – Bandit Invincible – about Cassidy’s exploits. He also died in 1937, though Lula claimed he was not Cassidy.
It does appear that Phillips was an imposter. Historian Larry Pointer has uncovered two mugshots – one of Cassidy and one of Phillips, from the same period in Wyoming. It appears the two men probably served time together in the penitentiary, and that Phillips may have ridden for a time with the Wild Bunch.
In the early 1990s, two bodies believed to be Cassidy and Sundance were exhumed in Bolivia. DNA tests conducted by Clyde Snow, one of the nation's foremost forensic anthropologists determined they were not Cassidy and Sundance.
According to Bill Betenson , his family knew exactly where Cassidy was buried after his alleged real death in 1937: “My great-grandmother, Butch’s little sister Lula, was very clear. She said that where he was buried, and under what name, was a family secret; that he was chased all his life and now he had a chance to finally rest in peace – and that’s the way it must be.”
Hadley Meares is a historical journalist based in Los Angeles. 
Take a look at the real-life events and people that inspired the Cold War movie starring Tom Hanks.
Learn about the real inspiration behind the 2017 movie about the Pentagon Papers.
The epic romance between the Egyptian Queen and Roman statesman inspired the tragic Shakespearian play.
These are the real-life mobsters and events that inspired the books and movies.
Secretive in both life and death, the playwright has remained an elusive figure.
After a deal went sour, the automotive brands went head-to-head at Le Mans in 1966.
The siblings from Ohio successfully launched the first airplane into the skies in 1903.
Instead of throwing a big party to celebrate Muhammad Ali's 1964 win over Sonny Lison, Ali, Malcolm X, Sam Cooke and Jim Brown quietly met to celebrate the victory.
Petit's "artistic crime of the century" inspired the films 'Man on a Wire' and 'The Walk.'


Legends of America
Traveling through American history, destinations & legends since 2003.

Copyright © 2022 Legends of America . All Rights Reserved
Robert Leroy Parker, better known as Butch Cassidy was a train and bank robber who led the Wild Bunch gang of outlaws who operated throughout Utah , Nevada , Wyoming , Colorado , and New Mexico .
Robert Leroy Parker was born on April 13, 1866, in Beaver, Utah, the first of 13 children of British immigrants Maximillian Parker and Ann Campbell Gillies. The Parker and Gillies families had converted to the Mormon faith while still living in England and Ireland before immigrating to America.
In 1879, the Parker family moved to a piece of property near Circleville, Utah, where they farmed and raised cattle. Robert left home during his early teens and went to work on a dairy farm where he formed a close relationship with a cowboy and known cattle rustler who called himself Mike Cassidy (an alias for John Tolliver “J. T.” McClammy). Later, Parker worked on several ranches as well as being briefly employed by a butcher in Rock Springs, Wyoming, where he acquired the nickname “Butch.” Later, he borrowed his friend’s last name and began to go by the name of Butch Cassidy.
Willard Christianson, aka: Matt Warner
Butch continued to work on area ranches until he turned 18 in 1884. He then moved to Telluride, Colorado, telling his family that he was going to seek work in the town’s silver mines. However, he didn’t mention that he would be driving a herd of stolen horses down to Colorado. There, he took a few honest jobs while continuing to rustle horses. He also met a man named Matt Warner , the owner of a racehorse, and Cassidy was soon immersed in the horse race scene.
Cassidy’s first bank robbery took place on June 24, 1889, when he, Matt Warner and the McCarty brothers — Tom and Bill, robbed the San Miguel Valley Bank in Telluride, Colorado stealing approximately $21,000. Fleeing into the rough country, they lost their trackers in a wilderness of canyons, hidden valleys and high peaks known as Robber’s Roost .
In 1890, with his share of the loot stolen in Colorado, Cassidy purchased a ranch on the outskirts of Dubois, Wyoming where he was known to have rustled cattle and horses. This location is across the state from the notorious Hole-in-the-Wall , a natural geological formation and a popular hideout for outlaw gangs including Cassidy’s, so some historians surmise that the ranch was never economically successful, but rather, was a facade for clandestine activities.
In early 1894, Cassidy became involved romantically with outlaw and rancher Ann Bassett . Bassett’s father, rancher Herb Bassett, did business with Cassidy, supplying him with fresh horses and beef. That same year, Cassidy was arrested at Lander, Wyoming, for stealing horses. He was sentenced to two years in the Wyoming State Prison in Laramie but was released after 18 months.
Upon his full release in 1896, Cassidy resumed his life as a criminal. With several other well-known outlaws, including his best friend, William Ellsworth “Elzy” Lay , Harry “Sundance Kid” Longabaugh , Ben “Tall Texan” Kilpatrick , and Harvey “Kid Curry” Logan , they formed nucleus of the group known as the “Wild Bunch”, Cassidy embarked on what is considered the longest stretch of successful train and bank robberies in American history . Others in the group included Harry Tracy, William “News” Carver , Laura Bullion , and George “Flat Nose” Curry. The group took its name from the Doolin–Dalton gang , who were also known as the “Wild Bunch”.
Their first robbery occurred on August 13, 1896, when Cassidy, Lay, Logan and a man named Bob Meeks robbed the bank at Montpelier, Idaho , escaping with approximately $7,000. It would be followed by numerous robberies in South Dakota , New Mexico, Nevada Utah, Wyoming and Montana . Between their robberies, the men hid out at the Hole-in-the-Wall Pass, located in Johnson County, Wyoming, where a number of outlaw gangs had their hideouts. It was shortly after this robbery that Cassidy recruited the Sundance Kid into the Wild Bunch.
Robbers Roost, Utah, courtesy Mountain Photography
In early 1897, Cassidy was joined at Robbers Roost by Ann Bassett and Elzy Lay’s girlfriend Maude Davis. The four hid there until early April when Lay and Cassidy sent the women home so that the men could plan their next robbery. On April 22, 1897, the pair ambushed a small group of men carrying the payroll of the Pleasant Valley Coal Company in Castle Gate , Utah. Making off with some $7,000 in gold, before fleeing back to Robbers Roost. The outlaw loot was never recovered and many believe it was hidden by the gang somewhere near Robbers Roost located along the Outlaw Trail, in southeastern Utah . (See story HERE )
On June 28, 1897, six bandits, including Kid Curry, George “Flat Nose” Curry, Sundance Kid, Tom “Peep” O’Day , Harvey Logan, and Walt Punteney, robbed the bank at Belle Fourche, South Dakota. This robbery was obviously not well-planned, as the gang got away with only $97 and Tom O’Day was caught hiding in a saloon privy. He was later tried but acquitted. Walt Punteney was also captured but the charges were dropped.
On June 2, 1899, the gang, including Butch Cassidy, Sundance Kid, Harvey Logan, and Elzy Lay, robbed a Union Pacific Overland Flyer passenger train near Wilcox, Wyoming. They wore masks made from white napkins, possibly pilfered from a Harvey House restaurant. This holdup, which yielded between $30,000 and $50,000, made the gang nationally famous and resulted in a massive manhunt. The New York Herald stated: “They were lawless men who have lived long in the crags and become like eagles.”
Witnesses reported six masked men. The two additional men may have been George Currie, Lonnie Logan or Bob Lee. The gang split up afterward, a common ploy to throw off pursuers, and several fled to New Mexico.
Many notable lawmen of the day took part in the hunt for the outlaws, but they were not found. During a shootout with lawmen following the train robbery, both Kid Curry and George Curry shot and killed Sheriff Joe Hazen. Tom Horn , a killer-for-hire employed by the Pinkerton Agency , obtained information about the Hazen shooting and then passed this information to Pinkerton detective Charlie Siringo , who was assigned the task of capturing the outlaws. Siringo became friends with Elfie Landusky, who was using the last name Curry after allegedly becoming pregnant by Kid Curry’s brother, Lonny. Through her, Siringo intended to locate the gang.
On July 11, 1899, some of the gang members robbed a Colorado and Southern Railroad train near Folsom , New Mexico , without Cassidy’s presence. After camping at the head of Dry Canyon in northeast New Mexico, Sam Ketchum , Bill Carver , and Elzy Lay made off with some $50,000. They were soon pursued by a posse to a hideout near Cimarron , New Mexico. The outlaws were better armed with high-powered rifles and smokeless powder, while the posse had conventional black powder guns, the smoke of which, gave away their positions. However, Sam Ketchum and Elzy Lay were both wounded in the gun battle and captured. The posse faired even worse, with two of its members, including Sheriff Edward Farr, killed and another posse man injured. Sam was taken into custody but developed gangrene from his wound. On July 24, 1899, he died in the Santa Fe penitentiary and was buried in the Odd Fellows Cemetery. On August 16th, Elza Lay was arrested and was later tried and convicted for the murder of Ed Farr and sentenced to life in prison. Carver escaped to ride with the Wild Bunch.
With each new robbery, the
Ex Wife Cum
Nsa Grindr Definition
Midget Swallows Cum