A series of images showing the notorious ‘Wild Bunch’ that helped Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid pull off a string of heists across the United States have resurfaced this week on the 99th anniversary of the outlaws’ deaths.
Cassidy, born Robert LeRoy Parker in 1866 in Utah, robbed his first bank in 1889 in Telluride, Colorado, and fell in with cattle rustlers who hid out at The Hole in the Wall, a refuge in northern Wyoming’s Johnson County.
For 20 years, he and his Wild Bunch gang held up banks and trains across the Wild West and in South America – making them one of the most notorious group of outlaws to come out of the American west.
Butch Cassidy, born Robert LeRoy Parker in 1866 in Utah, robbed his first bank in 1889 in Telluride, Colorado, and fell in with cattle rustlers who hid out at The Hole in the Wall, a refuge in northern Wyoming’s Johnson County. For 20 years, his Wild Bunch gang held up banks and trains across the Wild West and in South America. Pictured above is the ‘Fort Worth Five’, front row from left to right is Harry A. Longabaugh, alias the Sundance Kid, Ben Kilpatrick, alias the Tall Texan, Robert Leroy Parker, alias Butch Cassidy; Standing: Will Carver, alias News Carver, & Harvey Logan, alias Kid Curry in Fort Worth, Texas, in 1900
Cassidy (left in 1894) and the Sundance Kid (right, with Etta Place) evaded detection for several years after the Wild Bunch fell apart by fleeing to South America with Etta Place. But the pair soon returned to robbing, and they were eventually recognized by law enforcement officials in Bolivia, who surrounded the farmhouse they were staying in as part of a standoff that eventually led to the outlaws’ deaths on November 7, 1908
The Wild Bunch’s main target was often trains, stealing upwards of $60,000 in two raids on Union Pacific trains in the summer of 1899. Pictured above, officials survey the damage to an Overland Flyer train car caused by an explosion that allowed train robbers to escape with $30,000 in Wyoming in 1899
Images of the group have been restored to color as part of a new book titled Retrographic: History in Colour, and one shows Cassidy and the ‘Sundance Kid’, real name Harry Longabaugh, posing for a picture with other members of the gang.
Wild Bunch members ‘Tall Texan’, real name Ben Kilpatrick, ‘News’, real name Will Carver, and ‘Kid Curry’, real name Harvey Logan can all be seen in the photos.
Another image shows Cassidy posing for a mug shot in 1984 following an arrest for theft. Other images show Laura Bullion and Etta Place, the latter whom was romantically involved with the Sundance Kid.
The Wild Bunch’s main target was often trains, stealing upwards of $60,000 in two raids on Union Pacific trains in the summer of 1899. Gang member Sam Ketchum was killed in a gunfight following one of the train robberies.
Elzy Lay, reportedly Cassidy’s best friend and the man responsible for the deaths of two law enforcement officials in previous gunfights, was wounded and captured following the second robbery.
Wild Bunch members ‘Tall Texan’, real name Ben Kilpatrick, ‘News’, real name Will Carver, and ‘Kid Curry’, real name Harvey Logan can all be seen in the photos. Pictured above, Ben Kilpatrick in a mugshot shortly after being imprisoned for robbery in 1901
Laura Bullion (left), a member of the gang who was said to be romantically involved with the ‘Tall Texan’, was convicted of robbery for her part in the Great Northern train robbery in 1901. Jesse Linsley, a member of the gang, is pictured right in 1902
Despite this, Cassidy and the remaining members of the Wild Bunch persevered.
On August 29, 1900, Cassidy, the Sundance Kid, Kid Curry and one other gang member held up another Union Pacific train, and followed this up with the theft of $32,640 from the First National Bank of Winnemucca, Nevada on September 19, 1900.
It was in December of the same year that members of the gang posed for the now infamous photo of the ‘Fort Worth Five’.
On July 3, 1901, Kid Curry and a group of men robbed a Great Northern train near Wagner, Montana, taking over $60,000 in cash.
The gang split up shortly after, with News Carver killed in a shootout. On December 12, 1901, Ben Kilpatrick was captured in Knoxville, Tennessee along with Laura Bullion.
On August 29, 1900, Cassidy, the Sundance Kid, Kid Curry (right, with Annie Rogers) and one other gang member held up another Union Pacific train, and followed this up with the theft of $32,640 from the First National Bank of Winnemucca, Nevada on September 19, 1900
On July 3, 1901, Kid Curry (left) and a group of men robbed a Great Northern train near Wagner, Montana, taking over $60,000 in cash. Elzy Lay (right), reportedly Cassidy’s best friend and the man responsible for the deaths of two law enforcement officials in previous gunfights, was wounded and captured following a train robbery in 1899
But Cassidy and the Sundance Kid evaded detection for several years after the Wild Bunch fell apart by fleeing to South America with Etta Place.
But the pair soon returned to robbing, and they were eventually recognized by law enforcement officials in Bolivia, who surrounded the farmhouse they were staying in as part of a standoff that eventually led to the outlaws’ deaths on November 7, 1908.
‘The pair most likely shot themselves after being wounded and pinned down in a farmhouse by local police and soldiers,’ says Michael Carroll, author of Retrographic.
‘Other accounts and rumours allege that they were not involved in this incident and in fact survived in South America, and even returned to America.
‘Whatever Cassidy’s eventual fate, with the advent of urbanization and industrialization of the West, this last great outlaw came to symbolize the end of the American frontier and the cowboy way of life.’