History: 118 Years Ago, Butch Cassidy Reported Killed in South America

According to some accounts, in November of 1908, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Johnson County’s famous outlaws, were killed in South America. In the 1969 movie about the bandits, the last scene shows them running out of an old building, guns blazing at the dozens of soldiers that surrounded them. Were they killed in South America? No one really knows for certain, but here are some reports from the old newspapers.

Bill Barlow’s budget Douglas, Converse County, Wyoming, Thursday, May 29, 1913 – “Butch” Cassidy Killed – “‘Butch” Cassidy for many years the pet outlaw of Fremont County, is reported to have been killed the past winter in South America, says the Lander Journal. Cassidy was a bank robber and a horse thief on a big scale and was doubtless one of the Wilcox train robbers who killed Sheriff Hazen, of Converse County, north of Casper, while escaping into the Hole-in-the-Wall country. Sheriff Hazen was the father of Sheriff Scott Hazen of Hot Springs County and was killed on June 5,1899. Cassidy wintered for a long time near where Dubois is now located and made frequent excursions into Lander.

Most of his bad work has been done in Colorado. Pursuit finally became so close that he left the country and went to South America. According to the report Cassidy and another bank robber named Kid Curry who was raised in Crook County, had joined forces in the Argentine Republic. They held up a pack train and were wounded in the fight which followed, then, unable to get away, Cassidy killed his companion and then himself.

This is a story about Cassidy’s cabin near Dubois.

The Wyoming State Journal (Lander), July 4, 1913 – One Time Retreat Of Bad Men – In the ‘80s and later Dubois gained a reputation as the winter camping place of bad men. ‘Butch” Cassidy and his partners had a cabin for a number of years close to Dubois which is still standing.

Its peculiar feature was that it had no windows and the door was a heavy log affair that could be securely locked. “Butch” left for South America and according to reports was killed there last winter.

His partners in crime drifted away until today the members of the gang are all gone. Its isolated position and favorable winter weather had made it a desirable place for men with price on their heads. That is until the settlements became too strong and the officers more active.

It was well known that Cassidy, the Sundance Kid and other members of the gang went to South American to escape the law here in the United States.

Wyoming Semi Weekly Tribune (Cheyenne), April 1, 1904 –Back to the Farm Butch Cassidy and Harvey Logan are Said to Have Become Tillers of South American Soil – Joseph H. Forquer, at one time a United States marshal, but now a deputy sheriff, and who has done considerable to exterminate the lawless element of central Arizona, passed through Denver on his way to Cheyeinnne last night, to obtain new evidence against three rustlers who are under arrest in Arizona, says the Denver News.

Mr. Forquer was the leader of the posse in southern Texas when Bill Carver, a desperate character and a member of the Hole-in-the-Wall gang, was killed in that state. At present he is a deputy sheriff at Solomonville, Ariz., and is still a terror to all wrong doers. He told of the whereabouts of some of the notorious desperadoes of the country.

Butch Cassidy, together with Harvey Logan, leader of the old Curry gang, are now engaged in farming m South America. Harry Longbaugh, a member of the gang, who was mixed up in the holdup of the First National bank at Winnemueca, Nev., is with the other two desperadoes in South America. Cassidy has been in this country several times, according to Mr. Forquer, but few attempts have been made to capture him.

Worland Grit March 3, 1910

There, while starting out as ranchers and farmers, the gang was soon up to their old tricks and illegal activities.

The Riverton Republican, February 25, 1910 – Wyoming Outlaws In Charge- Hole-In-The-Wall Men Dictate To Government- Since the recent press dispatches from the department at Washington were made public in connection with the trouble existing between the government at Argentine and a number of famous old outlaws of central Wyoming the Republican office has been visited by an old Indian scout who at one time had his residence in the vicinity of the Hole-In The-Wall Country and who was personally acquainted with the history of those noted bad men.

According to his statements this part of the state was at one time controlled by the acts of George Leroy Parker, alias “Butch Cassidy,” Harry Longbaugh, alias “The Sundance Kid,” and Harvey Logan, alias “Kid Curry.”

Extending their acts of criminality over a wide range of territory and using the “bad lands” of Wyoming for their hiding places this “wild bunch” were finally jailed or driven from the country. Logan, whose special stronghold was the ‘buzzards’ roost,” near the Wyoming-Utah line, gained freedom from a Knoxville prison after one of the most notorious jail breaks in the history of crime and after the Union Pacific had spent nearly a quarter of a million in his capture. Just now it is reported at Washington that these men have drawn around them a strong force of brigands so powerful that the government of Argentina itself is forced to pay tribute.

Cassidy reportedly met his fate in November of 1908, but in The Wyoming Press, Evanston, on January 21, 1911, we find this story.

Butch Cassidy Caught – Helena, Montana – In John Davis, one of two alleged post office robbers in jail in Bozeman, the authorities believe they have “Butch” Cassidy, famous as an outlaw. According to the statement of Glenn Henderson, the fellow prisioner of Davis, the man is none othr than the former bandit who operated in Montana, Wyoming, Utah and Idaho ten or twelve years ago, and who has been reported living in South America with ‘Kid’ Curry.

However, that was debunked later as we see in this story.

The Daily Enterprise, Sheridan, February 6, 1911 – Wyoming Criminal Caught in Montana Upon Investigation it is Definitely Decided He is not the Famous Outlaw Butch Cassidy –Bozeman, Feb. 6. — Information from Wyoming sources, withheld by the authorities, tonight practically shattered any hopes that one of the two men under arrest here for post office robberies in Montana and Wyoming, is “Butch” Cassidy. The famous outlaw companion of “Kid” Curry, for whom the officers have been searching for a decade. Henderson and Davis are the two names given by the prisoners, and in the course of Henderson’s confession to post office robberies at Logan, Montana, and Monarch, Wyoming, he asserted that his companion was Butch Cassidy giving the name of a Wyoming man to corroborate his statement.

The Wyoming man declared that he knows both Butch Cassidy and Davis and, although Davis resembles Cassidy in a stature and in the matter scars on his face, the latter is in Argentine, South America on a big ranch.

After their reported deaths in 1908, there is anecdotal evidence from friends and relatives that Cassidy, at least, survived and came back to the United States. No one knows for sure. But, during this month in 1908, it was reported that Wyoming’s most infamous outlaw was killed in South America.