Butch Cassidy (7 page)

Butch Cassidy was officially pardoned on January 19, 1896. As he rode away from Laramie, he pointed his mount in the direction of Brown’s Park. The long journey gave him time to think, and the more he thought about his previous year and a half in prison and the circumstances that led to it, the angrier he became.

Cassidy was convinced that his prison sentence was the result of a conspiracy to get him off the range. While he had certainly taken horses and cattle, the ultimate conviction and sentence had been based on what he considered a made-up charge over a five-dollar horse. Once again, he was certain, it was a case of the powerful and wealthy manipulating the laws to place those with lesser means at a disadvantage.

Butch Cassidy’s time for revenge would come.

Six

Robberies

Over the years there has been discussion among researchers as to when Butch Cassidy actually became committed to pursuing the life of an outlaw and the reasons behind the decision. While many of his earlier illegal escapades may have resulted from some level of roguish or prankish behavior, many believe his eighteen-month-long prison sentence oriented him toward the bad, the experience turning him into a hardened outlaw.

Others—those who lean more toward ascribing a certain idealism and a Robin Hood image to Cassidy—maintain there were altruistic reasons for his outlaw adventures, that he perceived the existence of an imbalance of justice in the world between corporate powers and the small rancher who toiled to make a living. Still others suggest his outlawry was simply a kind of revenge against established authority, by whom he, Cassidy, himself had been affected. His retaliation against existing powers, some have speculated, was simply Cassidy’s method of making a statement to the effect that the common man was not going to lay down and allow the rich and powerful to run over him.

Regardless of his motives, real or suspected, Butch Cassidy turned to bank robberies with a certain zeal heretofore not applied to his misdeeds, and he accomplished these, as well as other crimes, with a style and competence heretofore unknown in the history of American outlawry.

Shortly after returning to Brown’s Park, Cassidy renewed his friendship with Matt Warner and Elzy Lay. By this time, Warner had married Rose Morgan, the eighteen-year-old daughter of a Star Valley Mormon family. Not long after giving birth to their daughter, Hayda, Rose was diagnosed with cancer. In order to receive proper treatment, she moved to Vernal, Utah, while Warner held down a job in Brown’s Park. Warner and Lay shared a cabin, and shortly after arriving in the area, Cassidy moved in with them.

Sometime during 1896, Warner was hired by E. B. Coleman and Bob Swift to keep trespassers and potential claim jumpers and thieves away from their gold mining enterprise in the Uinta Mountains. Like Coleman and Swift, a trio of prospectors—Dave Milton, Dick Staunton, and Ike Staunton—was trying to locate the source of a rich mineral deposit. One afternoon, Milton and the Stauntons entered Coleman’s property and a brief gunfight resulted. By the time it was over, Milton and Dick Staunton were dead. Warner, Coleman, and another man named Bill Wall were arrested, charged with murder, and placed in the Vernal, Utah, jail.

Rumors soon spread through town that Butch Cassidy and Elzy Lay were going to break Warner out of jail. Whether this was true or not, no one knows, but the fact remains that the two men showed up in Vernal a few days later. While in town, Cassidy received a message from Warner that he was desperately in need of money to hire a defense lawyer.

In the meantime, several Vernal residents, outraged at what they considered the wanton killings of Milton and Staunton, threatened to break into the jail, remove the prisoners, and hang them from the nearest tree.

Concerned about the possibility of a lynch mob, or perhaps, as some researchers maintain, that Cassidy and Lay might attempt to break the prisoners out of their cell, the authorities transferred Warner and Wall to the jail at Ogden, Utah, to await trial. Ogden was located 140 miles in a direct line to the northwest.

On learning of the circumstances of Warner’s arrest, Cassidy and Lay were convinced their friend killed only in self-defense. The two immediately turned to lawyer Douglas A. Preston and asked him to represent their companion. Preston agreed and informed Cassidy and Lay that the trial could be long and involved and that his fee would be substantial. The two friends told Preston to begin his preparations and that they would make certain he was paid. According to Lula Parker Betenson, in order to come up with the money to pay Preston, Cassidy and Lay decided to rob the bank in Montpelier, Idaho.

Montpelier was a small town located in the southeastern corner of Idaho and about one hundred miles northeast of Ogden. Originally settled by Mormons in 1865, it was supposedly named after the Vermont birthplace of church leader Brigham Young. In truth, Young was born in Wittingham, Vermont.

The subsequent location of a railroad line through the town of Montpelier brought a number of non-Mormon laborers into the area. The town, located on the side of the tracks opposite the Mormon settlement, was similar to most new and rapidly growing towns of the time in this region—saloons, gambling dens, and dance halls provided a stark contrast to the conservative religious community nearby. The growing numbers of miners, trappers, hunters, gamblers, and drummers, along with their wild ways, troubled and angered the Mormons. Tensions remained high for a time. To make things worse, the railroad eventually brought in federal authorities to enforce monogamy laws on the polygamous Mormons. Soon, Montpelier teemed with saloons, mercantiles, and dance halls. It also had a bank.

During this time Butch Cassidy established a pattern for robbery that, with some few exceptions, he was to follow throughout most of the rest of his outlaw career. Several days prior to a holdup, whether bank or train, Cassidy and his gang would arrive early and study the work schedules, the comings and goings of employees, and generally become acquainted with the personnel and their habits. Furthermore, they cached food and fresh mounts at strategic locations along the escape route, thus ensuring they would easily outdistance pursuing posses, most of which were hastily assembled and poorly equipped. During subsequent train robberies, dynamite was often employed to open up locked payroll cars and safes.

During the first week of August, Butch Cassidy, Elzy Lay, and a friend named Bub Meeks (sometimes reported as Bob Meeks) arrived in the Montpelier area and found work cutting hay at a nearby ranch. When the opportunity arose, the three rode into town and familiarized themselves with the hours and operations of the bank. Like Cassidy and Lay, Meeks was another wayward Mormon.

A few minutes past three o’clock on the afternoon of August 13, 1896, Cassidy, Lay, and Meeks rode into Montpelier and reined their horses up in front of the town’s only bank. As Meeks held the horses, Cassidy and Lay, pulling bandanas over their faces and drawing revolvers, entered the financial establishment. Once inside, they noted a pair of cashiers and three or four customers. Hardly pausing, the two men announced that a robbery was about to take place and ordered everyone to raise their hands and place their faces against a nearby wall.

Some writers insist Meeks led the three mounts to the rear of the bank, while others are just as certain he remained near the front entrance. According to author Pat Wilde, an assistant cashier named A. M. “Bud” McIntosh observed a man holding horses at the front of the bank while the robbery was in progress.

Cassidy stood near the front door and guarded the customers as Lay, pulling a canvas sack from his belt, walked behind the cashier’s cage and ordered McIntosh to place all of the bills into the sack. McIntosh told the robber there wasn’t any currency. In response, Lay called him a liar and struck him across the forehead with the barrel of his revolver. Cassidy, witnessing the incident, admonished Lay and told him not to hurt anyone. Bleeding from his wound, McIntosh emptied the bills out of his cash drawer and passed them to Lay who, in turn, stuffed them into the sack. Lay then walked into the open vault, grabbed more currency, and added it to the rest. As he prepared to return to the front of the bank, he spotted some gold coins behind the counter and hurriedly scooped them into a cloth bank bag he found nearby. After adding a few silver coins he found on McIntosh’s counter, he rejoined Cassidy near the door.

While Cassidy held his gun on the customers, Lay walked out, tied the loot to his saddles, and mounted up. Cassidy then backed out, warning those inside not to move for ten minutes.

Once outside, Cassidy vaulted onto his mount. The three outlaws rode slowly out of town trying not to arouse suspicion. Once they passed beyond the town’s limits, they spurred their horses into a gallop and fled northeast toward Montpelier Canyon. A deputy sheriff named Fred Cruickshank jumped on a bicycle and gave chase but was easily outdistanced by the robbers.

Within an hour of the holdup, a somewhat unwilling posse was formed and set out in pursuit of the outlaws. In Montpelier Canyon, Cassidy, Lay, and Meeks switched to different horses they had hidden nearby the previous day. With fresh mounts, the trio quickly outdistanced the pursuing posse, which eventually gave up and returned to town.

The following day, Cassidy, Lay, and Meeks counted the take and discovered they were considerably richer. Estimates of the robbery loot range from $7,000 to more than $30,000, with most researchers leaning toward the higher amount. The outlaws then split up. Cassidy and Lay rode straight to Douglas Preston’s office in Rock Springs and paid him a handsome advance to defend Matt Warner. Preston, a Wyoming lawyer, was not allowed to practice in Utah, so he hired two able attorneys from that state—D. N. Straupp and Orlando W. Powers.

According to legend, Butch Cassidy buried some or all of his share of the Montpelier bank loot somewhere in the Wind River Mountains. The most commonly related version of the story maintains the outlaw dug a shallow hole in some sand with the butt of his pistol, deposited the money, and covered it up. Nearby was a lightning-struck stump to which he could refer as a landmark. Several years later when the tale of outlaw-buried loot spread throughout the region, treasure hunters and hikers came to the Wind River Mountains in search of this lightning-struck stump in hopes of finding the buried loot.

Charges immediately surfaced that Preston had received payment from bank robbery money. He steadfastly denied it, claiming he had been provided an advance by friends of Warner long before the Montpelier bank was robbed. He further maintained he was not retained by Cassidy or any of his gang members.

Despite the efforts of Preston, Warner was ultimately convicted of the killing and sentenced to a five-year term in the Utah State Penitentiary. While Warner was incarcerated, Cassidy often visited his wife and provided her with money until her husband was finally freed. Meeks was arrested a short time later, tried, convicted, and sentenced to prison for thirty-five years.

With the passage of a few months, Butch Cassidy began hanging out with a group of outlaws called the Hole-in-the-Wall Gang. From time to time, these men were involved in a variety of criminal activities, and it is believed Cassidy participated in many of them.

The Hole in the Wall was a well-known hideout for outlaws in central Wyoming and was located along the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains some sixty miles northwest of Casper. According to writer Gail Drago, the Hole in the Wall consisted, in part, of a “great cliff of red rock, a red wall composed of a fifty-mile sandstone ridge . . . divided only by a narrow, twisting V-shaped notch, barely wide enough for a man on horseback. The entrance to the Hole in the Wall could be easily guarded. With little difficulty, a man armed with a rifle could pick off a rider slowly making his way up the narrow, winding trail.”

The Hole in the Wall was, and still is, not a hole at all but a V-shaped notch in a high canyon rim. Even today, this region remains somewhat remote and isolated. It was these same geographic characteristics, however, that provided sanctuary to rustlers, robbers, and killers whose presence was more or less tolerated by the few ranchers and farmers scattered throughout the region. The Hole in the Wall has sometimes been referred to as the northernmost point along the so-called Outlaw Trail.

Researchers generally agree that Butch Cassidy grew to be the acknowledged leader of the Hole-in-the-Wall Gang, although the position was entirely informal. Occasionally, Harvey “Kid Curry” Logan served as leader, but more often than not he deferred to Cassidy when the latter was present. Cassidy, say some historians, apparently possessed natural leadership skills and appeared to get along well with practically everyone. Evidence suggests that, during the time Cassidy was in prison, the gang conducted its outlawry in a loose, careless, often bungling, and clearly leaderless manner.

According to most who have studied the Hole-in-the-Wall Gang, it was considered a loose-knit and often changing association of bad men. On various occasions Dave Atkins, Will Carver, Nate Champion, Bill Cruzan, Pegleg Elliot, O. C. “Deaf Charlie” Hanks, Ben Kilpatrick, Elzy Lay, Bob Lee, Harry Longabaugh (the Sundance Kid), Tom McCarty, Bob Meeks, Tom O’Day, Walt Punteney, Will Roberts, and Harry Tracy were members of the gang.

During this period Cassidy met Harry Longabaugh, who eventually gained a level of outlaw fame as the Sundance Kid. Longabaugh, originally from Pennsylvania, had recently arrived in the area and joined the gang of outlaws. Almost all of Longabaugh’s biographers refer to him as tall and handsome, and he was known to dress well and in the latest styles. A successful gambler, Longabaugh was also a skilled pistoleer. He was known to have killed men with his handguns. He was also a very talented horseman. These attributes, along with his short temper and latent meanness, did little to prevent him from fitting in with the rest of the outlaws.