Butch and Sundance: Bitter Butch Strikes Back

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Howdy folks and greetings from the Great Plains of North Texas!

We're in the middle of a series about two of America's most famous and successful outlaws, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. In yesterday's post we discussed the quest for amnesty that Butch was engaged in and whether he might be repentant for his crimes... or was he just out to save his own skin?

Unfortunately it was the latter because he immediately started stealing again. From the Union Pacific railroad of course. Obviously he was angry and bitter because he thought he'd been snubbed when the railroad officials didn't show up for the "peace talks" that had been arranged.

Of course, Butch couldn't have known that the officials were delayed by a storm and their escort had gotten lost on the last leg of the trip.

The Tipton job

At 2:00 AM a Union Pacific passenger train was pulling out of the station after taking on water at Tipton, Wyoming. About a mile out of town the engineer felt the barrel of a Colt 45 against his ribs. He turned to see a masked man who ordered him to stop when he saw a bonfire alongside the tracks at the next mile marker.

Waiting at the bonfire were three more men with Winchester rifles. They ordered the conductor to unhook the passenger cars from the engine, mail, and express cars. That order was followed and the passenger cars were left behind as the train pulled ahead for awhile before being ordered to stop again.

They meet up with an old "friend"

The robbers escorted the conductor and engineer back to the express car where the safe was kept and ordered the messenger inside to unlock the door, which he refused to do. Does this sound familiar? lol. The boys put a stick of dynamite under the door and gave the messenger one last chance to comply.

The door slid open and the gang burst out laughing. It was their old friend Charles E. Woodcock from the other train robbery who had refused to open the door. The whole car was blown up when they set off the dynamite to open the door! lol.

I guess he didn't want to go through that again, it was a bloody miracle that the guy survived such a terrible blast.

Here's what that car looked like if you missed the other post:

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The boys blew the safe open with more dynamite and unloaded bags of cash and jewelry.

The getaway

The boys mounted up and rode off along the railroad tracks. When the train reached the next town the conductor used a telephone to alert authorities who dispatched a Sheriff and an engine on the tracks where the boys had been seen riding.

That turned out to be a ruse to misdirect them though, the boys changed direction out of sight. More posses were alerted and sent out, communications were much improved. One posse got close but after riding 120 miles from the hold up site they were exhausted and had to stop for the night. They had seen three men and a pack horse climbing up the side of a mountain.

No one did it better

They got up at dawn but after they'd ridden most of the day, 35 miles, they came upon a group of tired, worn out horses. It was Butch's classic strategy of stationing fresh horses along the escape route and the boys were long gone. Dratts! Outsmarted by Butch again.

The gang members for this job were Butch, Sundance, Harvey Logan and Ben Kilpatrick. Four of the core members of the gang. And here's a photo of them here. Back row on the right is Harvey Logan. Front from left to right is Sundance, Ben Kilpatrick and Butch:

Lets get the calculator out again

The amount stolen? An amazing $55,000. Amazing because translated to today's value it would be equivalent to an incredible $1,700,000! The year was 1900. In a time when cowboys and ranch hands made $50 a month, you can see why that was a breath-taking haul.

For Butch this was payback for the railroad rejecting his offer, which they didn't but he didn't know that.

If he really wanted to send them a message and let them know he was serious about reforming, he should have let the train go after the safe was opened and tell Charles Woodcock to let them know they could do this all year long unless they wanted to come to the table.

Or, take the money and send them a message saying lets talk and I'll bring the money back. But no...at this point he was in no mood to negotiate.

In the next post Butch and Sundance continue their crime spree.

Thanks for reading folks, God bless you all!
-jonboy Texas
the gentleman redneck

PS- things you would never hear a redneck say:

Has anybody seen the sideburns trimmer?

PSS- that joke is so funny to me. The other day when the internet repair guy showed up he was the quintessential Redneck. The guy had a full, red beard which was grown out about 3 inches starting from the top of his ears on his sideburns. Slow Texas drawl. Jack was going crazy smelling his overalls because his dogs are Hound Dogs. lol.