Butch Cassidy
Editor's note: Bill Lambdin wrote this article years ago.
The outlaw Butch Cassidy is remembered mainly because of the movie “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” starring Robert Redford and Paul Newman.
But the movie’s ending that had Cassidy killed in South America might not have been accurate. His sister and numerous others said he returned to the U.S.
Cassidy (Robert Leroy Parker) was born at Beaver, Utah, in 1866. He was a likeable young man and hardly seemed the outlaw type. Even the wanted posters described him as cheerful.
In 1889 he and a group called the Wild Bunch robbed a bank in Telluride, Colorado, and Cassidy began his outlaw days. In 1901 he left the United States for South America and bought a ranch, hoping to stop being an outlaw. Joining him were the Sundance Kid and Sundance’s girlfriend Ethel Place.
They apparently attempted to lead a quiet life, but in 1908 Bolivian authorities recognized them. Some historians say a few soldiers surrounded a room where Cassidy and Sundance were sitting. An officer walked toward them, Cassidy pulled his gun and shot him.
The soldiers began firing into the room and continued into the night. The next morning, soldiers entered the room and found two men dead.
That was how many historians said it ended in 1908. But some people were not sure.
Butch Cassidy is seated on the far left.
In 1968 during the filming of the movie with Redford and Newman, the director learned that Cassidy had a sister still living in Utah and invited her to visit the movie set.
Her name was Lula Parker Betenson. She was 86 years old, a former Utah state legislator and a well respected member of her community. She talked with Redford and Newman, and she said Cassidy had not died in Bolivia in 1908. He had visited his family in Utah in 1925 and died quietly in 1937 at age 71. She would not reveal where he was buried.
Was she telling the truth? Redford appeared to believe her. He later visited her several times and said she was “spry, witty, strong-willed...tall and elegant, a proud person who enjoys living.”
And what of the Sundance Kid?
He was born Harry Longabaugh in Pennsylvania in 1868. At age 14 he came to southwestern Colorado and worked on a ranch near Telluride.
Later he stole a horse and spent time in jail at Sundance, Wyoming. From that, he got his nickname “Sundance.”
He joined Butch Cassidy’s Wild Bunch in the late 1880s. He sailed for South America in 1901 with his girlfriend Ethel Place and Cassidy.
Sundance was reported killed with Cassidy in 1908 in Bolivia. But did he also return? Some historians think he did; others do not.
And what happened to Sundance’s girlfriend Ethel (or Etta) Place? Researchers are fairly sure the tall, beautiful woman returned to the U.S. before Sundance and Cassidy did or before they were killed in Bolivia.
No one was able to trace Ethel after that. Some said when Sundance first met her she was a teacher in Denver. Others said she was a prostitute in Fort Worth, Texas. Whatever she was, she knew two of America’s most famous outlaws.
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