Howdy folks and greetings from the Great Plains of North Texas! We are in a series about two of America's most famous outlaws, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. At this point in our series they haven't met yet.
In the last post a friend of Butch got into some legal trouble and was charged with murder so Butch went and robbed a bank so he could pay for a good lawyer. That's what good friends do right? lol. At least good outlaw friends.
Dang lawyer's cost a fortune even back then
So he did indeed pull off another perfect bank robbery and sent his old lawyer a $1,000 retainer fee for the defense of his friend. By the way, for some reason the bank couldn't come up with the exact amount taken from them, just an estimate of from $5,000 to $16,500! But anyway, it was enough to pay for the lawyer.
The newspapers had this figured out though. I mean, this was not the Wild West of old. This was almost to the year 1900 with improved communications, transportation, networking law enforcement, etc. So it was harder to keep things hidden.
Reporters were pretty darn smart
The Salt Lake City Herald put the connections together between the Montpelier bank job and Butch and Butch's old lawyer coming to defend Butch's old friend. Here's what the paper said:
"It is alleged that the bank was robbed by Cassidy and his gang to secure funds for Warner's defense and that one of the attorneys in the case had already received $1000 of bank money. Attorney Preston from Rock Springs says that inference is a malicious falsehood. He received his fee before the Montpelier robbery occurred. He was not employed by Cassidy or any of the alleged Cassidy gang."
I reckon there was no way to prove the allegation but it's interesting that they knew exactly what happened.
The trial came about and Matt's attorney got the charge reduced to manslaughter by proving that Matt didn't fire his gun first. Now, how in the world the attorney did that is beyond me since the only witnesses were the accused men, but then that's why lawyers get paid the big bucks!
The jury did find Matt guilty though and the judge sentenced him to 5 years of hard labor in the Utah State Penitentiary.
Here's a photo of Matt Warner at around that time, he's the one on the left:
If you remember the last post, Matt's wife was suffering from cancer and I think he took that $100 job to pay for medical bills. She died when he was in prison which must have been pure torture for him. An interesting note about Matt: when he got out he was a changed man and never committed another crime in his life, which was extremely unusual for an ex-con.
Back to Butch
After the Montpelier robbery Butch and Elzy stayed at a cabin out in the country somewhere around Vernal, Utah. Here's a photo of Elzy:
He looks a little too clean-cut for an outlaw don't he? No mustache...and that funky hat. He at least needs a more stylish hat.
Anyways I reckon Butch was tired of hiding out alone and so was Elzy. Most historians think that Ann Bassett was Butch's girlfriend and staying with him, she was one of the daughters from the Bassett ranch that he had worked and stayed at in Brown's Park. We even have a photo:
Elzy had married his long time girlfriend, Maude Davis and here she is, this photo is from the Uintah County Library:
These guys all stayed together in this cabin until they got word that the Law was coming for them so they moved to the Bassett Ranch in Brown's Park. That Thanksgiving the Bassett's had a big dinner and get-together and Butch worked as a waiter there. It turns out that Harry or Sundance, had also made his way to the Brown's Park area and was also a waiter at the same event.
I think this was the first time they met. We don't know if they talked alot or how they got along though and Harry didn't join up with Butch at that time. That's down the road a bit.
Another move
After awhile in Brown's Park Butch got word that law enforcement were going to raid the ranch to grab Butch and Elsy so once again they took off after verifying that the threat was real. The women went with them. This time they headed for Robbers Roost, Utah which is basically like the Outback of Utah.
The place is full of desert, canyons, scrub brush and cactus. It's a wilderness and a great place to disappear. The Law never even tried to find people there because it was such a vast, desolate wilderness. The cabin probably looked similar to this:
The state park service knows where Butch's cabin is, or the remains of it, but they don't really tell anyone the location, just vaguely the area. I read an article by a reporter who did alot of hiking and actually found it. The only thing left is a chimney.
Can you imagine what these ladies thought about running into the wilderness to hide out with these guys? I mean they were dedicated to their men!
In the next post Butch and Elsy pull off a daring robbery.
Thanks for reading folks, God bless you all!
-jonboy Texas
the gentleman redneck
PS- ya know...you might just be a redneck if:
You took your coon dog on your honeymoon!