Butch and Sundance. Butch Visits The Pen, Courtesy of the State

Howdy folks and greetings from the Great Plains of North Texas where we have sunny skies and 65 degrees. In other words, the perfect winter day in Texas!

I've been talking about Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, two of America's most famous outlaws. They didn't meet each other until later in life so I'm giving the history of their careers up to then separately.

Yesterday Butch had gotten his nickname by working in a butcher shop and he'd been living a normal, law abiding life when suddenly he and his partner, Al, sold their livestock rode away from their ranch.

That boy didn't let no moss grow on him that's for sure, he moved every 6 months or so. He and Al rode to Horse Creek, Wyoming and bought a little ranch.

Horse Creek country, Wyoming:
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It was here that they set up another cattle and horse rustling business. The only problem was...the local town was small and people noticed things. Like they had very few head of cattle or horses on their ranch so it seemed like a small, poor, operation.

But for some reason they spent a great deal of time in the town's saloons able to spend large sums of money gambling and drinking the time away.

It wasn't long before the local ranchers were certain they were rustling livestock so they set up a Sting operation. They had a young man who was known to ride with rustlers approach Butch and Al with three horses to sell.

He should have known

Butch should have been suspicious because no one sells horses for $5, he HAD to have known they were stolen but he bought them anyway. Shortly after the sale the boys heard that the local Sheriff was investigating them so they packed up and rode out.

They made their way to a remote ranch in another part of the state. Unbeknownst to them they were being tracked. When the boys were found, a Sheriff and posse moved in on the ranch.

Al was found working at a small saw mill on the property and was quickly taken into custody. They knew Butch was in the cabin and he heard them approaching. The Sheriff shouted that he had a warrant for his arrest.

Butch's capture

Butch shouted back "Well, get to shootin!"

This response surprises me because Butch had always been a calm head, but he must have been severely frustrated at that moment.

The Sheriff bursts in through the door followed by his deputies. He aims his six shooter at Butch's stomach and pulls the trigger! That part surprises me too but Butch DID say to start shootin so the Sheriff did just that.

Divine intervention?

But his gun didn't fire. The other deputies grabbed Butch when he went for his gun and the Sheriff kept pulling the trigger with no results until the 4th try, which shot a bullet and grazed the side of Butch's head!

I find this to be one strange encounter, don't you guys? First of all, obviously Butch wasn't actually going to have a shoot out in a "kill or be killed" desperate blaze of glory or else he would have had his gun out and started shooting as soon as the Sheriff came through the door.

As far as the Sheriff's gun not firing...all I can say is Butch's wonderful mom, Annie, must have been praying hard for him because that was a miracle.

So Butch and Al are in jail, bail is set at $400 but they don't have the money so they sit in jail. After 2 months the local community came up with the bail money and they were released. This is another sign of how likeable Butch was, everyone in town like him. Well, except the local ranchers who knew he was rustlin.

The wheels of justice turn slowly

Oddly enough there was a long delay in the trial because they were having trouble finding witnesses and such, so the trial date was on hold and the boys were supposed to come back to court when the court was ready. It was a whole year before the court date was set. Butch got a job riding shotgun for a stage coach line while he was waiting.

What's amazing is that Butch really did show back up for court when the date was finally set. He could easily have disappeared. His lawyer was a very successful and well known one even though he didn't have any money.

A good deed gets repaid

That's because years before when he was in Rock Springs his lawyer had been in a bar room brawl and was about to be killed when Butch stepped in and rescued him, saved his life. The man told Butch if he ever needed legal representation he would help him and he did indeed keep his word and traveled to Horse Creek to defend him.

His lawyer won the case for him but the ranchers immediately filed charges about the theft of another horse and again Butch was released on his own until a court date was issued. He came back for this trial too but this time the jury found him guilty.

The judge was lenient, he could have gotten 10 years but instead he got just 2 years of hard labor in the Wyoming State Penitentiary. In fact, it still stands today but I think it's a museum now:
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It's a pretty impressive building if you like that sort of thing.

The town was in an uproar, Butch was so popular that they believed he was innocent. lol.

I may be wrong but I think the reason he came back for those trials was because the townspeople had bailed him out with their hard earned money and he didn't want them to lose that cash. I think he had some honor left.

How he spends his last night of freedom

There's another very strange thing that happened which demonstrates that Butch had some honor left. He asked the jailer to let him out the night before he was to be transferred to the penitentiary. He promised that no one in town would see him and that he would show back up at dawn, he just had something he needed to tend to.

The jailer asked the Clerk of Courts who said "If Cassidy said so, he'll keep his word." So they let him go. The Sheriff was out of town, otherwise I don't think they would have.

What did he do? He went to the home of the prosecuting attorney, who wasn't there, and visited with the attorney's wife and daughter. Why did he want to go there? No one knows. But it was unheard of to allow such a thing.

The attorney himself was in hiding all night, fearing Butch had retribution on his mind. Sure enough, Butch showed up at dawn and was shipped off to the Big House for two years. We even have a mug shot:

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Not a bad looking kid but he needs to get that mustache goin. A different hairstyle wouldn't hurt none either.

Tomorrow we'll catch up with Sundance and see if he's still living on the right side of the Law.

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

PS- ya know....you might just be a redneck if:

You've ever used coolers and grocery bags for luggage!