Butch Cassidy (9 page)

Much to the dismay of lawmen, Butch Cassidy was still alive.

Seven

Enter the Sundance Kid

The Sundance Kid, whose real name was Harry Alonzo Longabaugh, has been inextricably linked to Butch Cassidy, most likely as a result of the popular 1969 Western movie
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
. In the film, as well as in subsequent print and film treatments, the two outlaws appear as boon companions, participating in bank, train, and payroll robberies together throughout their bandit careers, in both the United States and South America. At least, so goes a major Western mythology that has been created in recent years.

In truth, Cassidy and Longabaugh were involved in a number of holdups, and, along with the woman known as Etta Place, traveled to South America where they participated in a series of adventures. The development of the close friendship and bond between Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid was created for the film, but it nevertheless forged public perception as it related to the two outlaws, even though it was overstated and often exaggerated.

For the better part of Cassidy’s outlaw career in the United States, the Sundance Kid was a relative latecomer. Most of the time, Cassidy’s more or less constant companion and best friend was Elzy Lay.

Butch Cassidy researchers are unsure about when he met Longabaugh, and there are a number of possibilities to choose from. Most agree, however, that the two became well acquainted in Brown’s Park a short time after Butch returned from prison.

Longabaugh was born near Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, in the year 1867, the last of five children of Josiah Longabaugh and Annie Place. Phoenixville is located just a few miles northwest of Philadelphia. The elder Longabaugh was the son of German immigrant Conrad Langenbach who came to the United States as an indentured servant. (Surnames were often changed on purpose by immigrants or accidentally by immigration officials.) According to writer Donna B. Ernst, Langenbach served in the Revolutionary War.

Josiah Longabaugh was a common laborer who found it necessary to relocate often in order to find work. For the most part, the family was poor. Much of Harry’s youth was spent leaving one location and settling in another, and remaining in none of them long enough to consider them home or make many friends. One of the few constants in the lives of the Longabaughs was church—Josiah and Annie were devout Baptists and encouraged their children to participate in worship services regularly. Besides Harry, who was the oldest child, the Longabaugh’s had four other children—two boys, Elwood and Harvey, and two girls, Emma and Samanna.

By all accounts, Harry Longabaugh’s youth was unsettled and characterized by instability, and he often found refuge in reading books. In fact, during this time one of his proudest possessions was his library card.

When he was thirteen years old, young Harry went to live with the Wilmer Ralston family in West Vincent, Pennsylvania, about ten miles from Phoenixville. Though technically in the employ of the Ralstons, Harry was little more than a servant. After Samanna married in 1880, Harry sometimes lived with her and her husband, Oliver Hallman, a blacksmith. Harry was never close to his family, save for Samanna.

According to research, when Harry was fourteen, with only a few years of education, he left home and began wandering from one sorry job to another.

During this time, it is believed that Harry Longabaugh discovered dime novels and used any and every spare coin he could save to purchase the books. He quickly became engrossed in the subject of the Civil War and in the adventures and escapades of outlaws and desperadoes of America’s Wild West.

It has been written that, likely as a result of the influence of the novels, Longabaugh purchased a pistol and learned to shoot. In a short time, he became quite skilled with the weapon and manifested a deadly aim.

In the process of looking for work, Longabaugh traveled to Philadelphia, New York, and Boston. Here and there he managed to hold down a menial job for a time but had no success in securing work that held his attention for long or that paid him a living wage. In 1882, when he was fifteen years old, Harry moved to Illinois to live with his cousins, George and Mary Longenbaugh. (Different clans of the Longabaugh family spelled the surname different ways.) On the Longenbaugh farm, many believe, Harry began learning the horsemanship skills for which he was later known.

George and Mary Longenbaugh perceived greater opportunities for making a living in the West, so they sold their Illinois farm, packed up, and moved to Colorado. After settling near Durango, George raised horses and hired Harry to break and train them. After two years, George and Mary decided life would be better for them in Cortez, forty miles to the west, so they moved again. Around this time, Cortez was little more than a tent city.

Harry continued to work for George breaking and training horses while at the same time holding down a job at a nearby ranch. George and Mary Longenbaugh grew quite fond of cousin Harry, even naming one of their sons after him. During his early residence in Cortez, Harry grew even more proficient with his horsemanship.

During this time, a number of outlaws, including Butch Cassidy, Matt Warner, Dan Parker, and the McCarty brothers, lived in the area, and though there is no record, it is likely Longabaugh encountered them.

A short time later, it is believed, Longabaugh hired on with a cattle drive to Montana. He arrived near Miles City in 1886 and found a full-time job on the N Bar N Ranch. He was nineteen years old. During his stay in Montana, some researchers contend that Longabaugh met Butch Cassidy and Matt Warner. He also became acquainted with another member of the Wild Bunch, Harvey “Kid Curry” Logan.

Like many other cowhands, Longabaugh suffered the consequences of the disastrous winter of 1886–1887, the worst ever in the history of Wyoming. Throughout much of the American West, cattle froze to death and cowhands were laid off. Out of work and out of money, Longabaugh traveled to the VVV Ranch near Sundance, Wyoming, on the Belle Fourche River. On February 27, 1887, hungry and desperate, Longabaugh stole a horse, saddle, bridle, a pair of chaps, and a pistol from two cowhands named Alonzo Craven and Jim Widner and fled back toward Miles City.

Before he could effect a complete escape, the now twenty-year-old, out-of-work cowboy was overtaken and arrested by Crook County sheriff James Ryan on April 8. Locked in handcuffs and leg irons, Longabaugh was placed aboard a train to be returned to Sundance. Since Ryan had a previous business appointment in St. Paul, Minnesota, the prisoner was forced to accompany the sheriff on the long journey before being turned in to the authorities at Sundance. At one point during the train ride near Duluth when Sheriff Ryan went to the bathroom, Longabaugh slipped out of the shackles and leapt from the moving train. Ryan ordered the train halted immediately and led a search for the fugitive, even offering a $250 reward. It was all for naught, for the slippery Longabaugh was nowhere to be found. It has been suggested that Longabaugh was aided in his escape by a confederate and that the ally was Butch Cassidy. No evidence to verify this notion, however, has been forthcoming.

Illogically, Harry Longabaugh headed straight back to Miles City after escaping. Along the way, it is believed he stole seven horses and sold them in the small town of Benton, Montana. Longabaugh was finally located and arrested again in June, this time by Deputy Sheriff E. K. Davis and stock inspector W. Smith. Shortly thereafter, he was taken to the Sundance jail in shackles and chains. There, he was tried for horse theft, found guilty, and subsequently sentenced to serve eighteen months of hard labor.

Since Longabaugh was a young man and his crime was borne of desperation, the judge proved relatively lenient. He allowed the cowhand to serve out his sentence in the county jail rather than the overcrowded Wyoming Territorial Prison in Laramie. During his incarceration, Longabaugh, along with other prisoners, made at least two attempts to escape, each one a failure. In spite of his spotty prison record, Longabaugh was finally released on February 4, 1889, and granted a full pardon by Wyoming governor Thomas Moonlight. While in jail, as one story goes, Longabaugh had acquired the nickname by which he was known for the rest of his life and throughout history—the Sundance Kid. Others have suggested a fellow Wild Bunch member provided the nickname weeks after he was released from prison.

Now twenty-two years of age, the ex-convict was once again on his own. Blond, blue-eyed, and sporting a mustache, the tall and straight Longabaugh was often described as “handsome.” He was generally well dressed and well groomed, wearing monogrammed shirts, a vest, a clean and pressed suit, and a Stetson derby.

A Pinkerton National Detective Agency file on Longabaugh referred to his hair as combed into a “pompadour, it will not lay smooth.” The same file stated Longabaugh “carries his head down not showing his eyes . . . bowlegged . . . walks with feet far apart. Carries arms straight by his side, fingers closed, thumbs sticking straight out.”

For a while, he had a gold tooth but eventually replaced it with one made of porcelain. Women found him attractive, and they constantly sought his attention. Longabaugh was known to frequent houses of prostitution.

Longabaugh’s personality has remained somewhat elusive and often contradictory to researchers. People close to him described the outlaw as “likeable,” “friendly,” “loyal,” and “kind-hearted.” On the other hand, others have referred to him as “sullen,” “morose,” and “mean-tempered.” It was well known that, when Longabaugh was drinking, he tended to become irritable and short. Lula Parker Betenson called the Sundance Kid a “killer,” but it remains unclear how she arrived at that description.

Several who have studied Longabaugh in depth believe that, rather than sullen, he was simply very reserved, perhaps even aloof, and maybe even a bit defensive in the company of people who were not his close friends.

Still in need of work, Longabaugh traveled by stagecoach to South Dakota but had little luck in finding a job. He eventually came to the town of Deadwood, a bustling mining town filled with saloons and gambling dens. Here Longabaugh likely learned the tricks of the gambling trade.

Also in Deadwood, the Sundance Kid took up company with a number of outlaws, including the killer, Bob Minor, also known as Buck Hanby. Longabaugh was with Minor when lawmen caught up with the outlaw and shot him dead. Incensed by the act, Longabaugh threatened to kill Deputy Sheriff James Swisher in revenge for Minor’s death. In turn, Swisher, presumably out of fear that Longabaugh would kill him, filed complaints against the Sundance Kid. Believing his life was in jeopardy if he remained in the area, Longabaugh returned to Cortez, Colorado, to go back to work breaking horses for his cousin George.

After working for a short time with his relatives in Colorado, Longabaugh began running with Butch Cassidy, Matt Warner, and Tom McCarty. Though no solid evidence exists, it is believed by some that Longabaugh may have been involved with the robbery of the San Miguel Valley Bank in Telluride.

Longabaugh eventually returned to Montana and worked on ranches for a time. He also ventured into Alberta, Canada, where he broke and trained horses for the H2 Ranch near Fort Macleod. It is believed he also worked for a short time for the Calgary and Edmonton Railway near High River. While employed at Alberta’s Bar U Ranch, Longabaugh was described by a fellow wrangler as “thoroughly likeable, a general favorite . . . a splendid rider, and a top-notch cowhand,” according to Edward M. Kirby in
The Rise and Fall of the Sundance Kid
.

By autumn 1881, Longabaugh had returned to Montana. As he was broke with no prospects of finding work, he decided to rob a train. On September 29, 1892, Longabaugh, along with two companions named Bill Madden and Harry Bass, robbed the Great Northern Number 23 train near the town of Malta. The robbery was a disaster—the take was tiny, only $19, and the three outlaws, who apparently never got far from town, were arrested two days later. Bass and Madden were apprehended while drinking heavily in a Malta saloon. The two were eventually tried and sentenced to prison. A short time after Bass and Madden were apprehended, Longabaugh was arrested at the Malta train depot but soon escaped and fled southward, finally arriving weeks later at the Hole-in-the-Wall hideout near Kaycee, Wyoming.

During the next few years, the Sundance Kid pursued his outlaw career, which mostly involved cattle rustling and horse theft. His escapades may have paralleled many of those he had earlier read about in the dime novels, and his adventures carried him to Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, and even into Canada. In 1895, he was back working for the N Bar N Ranch, which had moved from Miles City to Oswego.

Sometime during this period, Longabaugh met Etta Place, a mysterious woman of great beauty and poise. By 1897, Longabaugh and Place had arrived at Robber’s Roost, where they reportedly lived in a canvas tent next to ones occupied by Butch Cassidy and Elzy Lay and their respective female consorts. Here, the Sundance Kid became part of the Wild Bunch that, at the time, included Cassidy, Lay, Harvey and Butch Logan, Ben Kilpatrick, Charley Hanks, Will Carver, and George “Flatnose” Currie.