Wyoming Territorial Prison – Part 3
The most infamous prisoner at the Wyoming Territorial Prison was Robert LeRoy Parker, also known as Butch Cassidy.
*Clicking on a photo will give you a closer look!
Maximilian and Annie Parker, Robert’s parents. Robert was the eldest of 13 children.
Parker Ranch near Circleville, Utah.
By the age of 13, Robert clashed with the law. He stole a pair of trousers, and left an IOU. The store owner called the authorities who issued Robert a warning.
Cassidy hit a patch of bad luck when he bought a stolen horse for five dollars from a rustler name Billy Nutcher in Fremont County, Wyoming. Authorities caught Cassidy with the stolen horse and arrested him. His trial was held in Lander, Wyoming, where he was convicted for grand larceny and sent to the Wyoming State Penitentiary in Laramie City. Sentenced to two years of hard labor, Cassidy was incarcerated at the Wyoming Prison at Laramie on July 15, 1894.
This would be the only prison to ever hold Butch Cassidy.
George ‘Butch’ Cassidy’s (Robert LeRoy Parker) actual mug shot:
There is no record of who shared Cassidy’s cell. There were convicts incarcerated at the same time as Butch who probably knew him from his rustling days. Cassidy took every opportunity to network with these outlaws and other men while he was imprisoned, ensuring the success of his future gang, the Wild Bunch.
A lot of people wanted to be part of Butch’s gang. He was successful and seen as a celebrity among outlaws. Butch chose his gang carefully. He knew most outlaws were neither trustworthy nor reliable. He didn’t look for the hard drinkers, braggarts, bullies, and the hot-tempered. He chose with purpose…wranglers, gunslingers, sharpshooters, teamsters, safecrackers, scouts, powder men, railroaders…he chose skills. The locals, who were unhappy with the big cattlemen, railroaders, bankers and miners, all of whom took advantage of the common people, hid Butch when he was on the run. They also supplied him with fresh horses and food.
The big banks, the railroad, and the Stock Growers Associations all played a role in shrinking the West and its way of life. There was no room for open range cowboys, like Butch Cassidy, who made a living traversing the grasses and foothills of the Wild West, or for the homesteader with his fences. The outlaw, Cassidy, and his Wild Bunch targeted the powerful – the railroad, the Wyoming Stock Growers Association, and their strongest allies, the banks and the mining companies.
Upon his release he would establish the most successful band of bank and train robbers this country has ever seen. Butch and his gang, the Wild Bunch, would steal over $233,905.00 from trains, banks, and mining payrolls all over the West in five years. Cassidy, the Sundance Kid (Harry Alonso Longabaugh), Kid Curry and other Wild Bunch gang members were some of the most wanted men in four states with Pinkerton detectives, posses and bounty hunters dogging their steps. Butch and the Wild Bunch would become the country’s last horseman outlaws.
*Clicking on a photo will give you a closer look!
Harry Alonso Longabaugh (Sundance Kid):
Pictured below is an actual safe dynamited by Cassidy and the Wild Bunch. It is difficult to get a good photo without reflections, so you just might want to go and see it for yourself. In fact, the prison has quite a large display with lots of information about this gang…too much for me to share here!
The popular Bowler hat:
*Clicking on a photo will give you a closer look!
In 1901 the gang dissolved. On February 20, 1901, Butch, the Sundance Kid and Etta (also known as Ethel) Place set sail for South America from New York aboard the British steamer Herminius.
Cassidy may have died in a gun-fight with local law enforcement authorities in San Vicente, Bolivia, in 1908, or he may have returned to the United States under another identity. There is lots of conjecture, but his fate remains a mystery.
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