On the Trail of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

Time ^ | Thursday, December 31, 2009 | Jean Friedman-Rudovsky

[SunkenCiv]

The red canyons and parched planes surrounding the new Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid Memorial Museum might make you think you're in the Old West. But the electrical wiring and a searing altitude headache tell you this is not California circa 1900, but high-up the mountains in present day Bolivia. Here in the tiny town of San Vicente (population 800), the world's most famous outlaws are supposed to have been gunned down 101 years ago, days after robbing the payroll of a Bolivian mine. Offing the bandits would seem to have been sufficient revenge but area residents still think the dead gringos have to pay.

[SunkenCiv]

Butch Cassidy's grave appears in San Vincente, Bolivia. [Noah Friedman-Rudovsky]

[JoeProBono]

[JoeProBono]

The tale is a winding one. Butch and Sundance, born LeRoy Parker and Harry Longabaugh in 1866 and 1867 respectively, together with their Wild Bunch Gang found infamy via lucrative yet humane bank and train robberies at the end of the 19th century in the US. In 1901, with the Pinkerton Detective Agency on their trail, the outlaws headed to South America, lured by the region's silver wealth. (The movie places them directly in Bolivia but they actually spent five years in Argentina and Chile). On November 4, 1908 they hit up a Bolivian mining company payroll delivery, expecting half a million dollars but finding only a few thousand. Two days later they arrived in San Vicente but were recognized by locals and trapped in a house without sufficient ammunition.

[JoeProBono]

[SunkenCiv]

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	Gods Graves Glyphs	An unusual modern history ping. It has been pointed out that, despite claims by a few people including BC's baby sister that he escaped and lived under an assumed name in the US, the letters from Butch *all* antedate the events in Bolivia. To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother, and Ernest_at_the_Beach
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[GSP.FAN]

bookmark for later

[walford]

Interesting. Thanks for the post.

[john drake]

Hey, if latinos can’t come to the U.S. illegally and make money, then they might as well stay home and make money off dead Americans. I wonder if the relatives of these two characters know about this? They should complain about it or at least move the bodies back to the U.S. and make money off them up here.....morbid sense of humor I have today, I guess.

[PzLdr]

I think that was the town they did a Discovery channel special on, because two North Americans were buried there. Turns out the one wasn’t Sundance for sure, and “Cassidy” was most likely not Butch, either.

[Mmogamer]

Parched planes?

[Iowa Granny]

I noticed that, too.

I reread it twice, just to make sure there was no reference to an airplane.

[Raul Raul]

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks, and welcome to FR.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks!

[mad_as_he$$]

Ok it has been a long time ago and I was fairly young but we used to spend time around the feed and hardware store (yes the small South Dakota town still had one). There was this cowboy who claimed to have ridden with Butch and Sundance. He said they did not die in Bolivia but did indeed rob the mine and came back to live long and quite prosperous lives. One in New York and the other in San Fransisco(forget which was which). I always kinda hoped they did. But of course if they didn't you live by the gun you probably will die by the gun.

[bert]

I think the great writer Tony Hillerman placed Butch Cassidy
in a crime with loot found near Shiprock Arizona that involved Lt Leaphorn and an ex South Vietnamese officer and southwestern historian

[Freedom4US]

Parched Planes? Thirsty Boeings?

[GSP.FAN]

Yeah i just read it very interesting i did not know suicide was involved...
I read about it at wiki to,and they claim the bodies are buried near the grave of Gustav Zimmer

Time article
“His testimony led to a 1991 exhumation in the spot Rizo said his father helped bury Sundance. The remains ended up being those of German man named Gustav Zimmer”

and from Wiki

“The bodies were buried at the small San Vicente cemetery, where they were buried close to the grave of a German miner named Gustav Zimmer. Although attempts have been made to find their unmarked graves, notably by the American forensic anthropologist Clyde Snow and his researchers in 1991, no remains with DNA matching the living relatives of Parker and Longabaugh have yet been discovered”

[GSP.FAN]

They do not have any bodies,the bones on display are Gustav Zimmer,as determined by DNA testing....

[mad_as_he$$]

Interesting.