Butch Cassidy: A Biography

Born to a devout Mormon family in Utah, Robert Leroy Parker demonstrated early on the acquisitiveness and restlessness that would lead him into a criminal life. As a teenager, he was arrested for stealing a saddle. In this same period, he met Mike Cassidy, a cowhand skilled in using a running iron to change livestock brands. Eventually Parker drifted into Telluride, where he met Tom McCarty and Matt Warner. McCarty taught them how to rob banks and trains, laying out for Parker a career path that would lead him to a new name—Butch Cassidy —and eventually force him from the country.

Patterson has followed every lead to provide a vivid account of Cassidy’s life and has scrutinized the stories of men who claimed to be Butch. Butch Cassidy brings together diverse anecdotes, providing both a wonderful tool for researchers and a lively read.

Separating mythology from actual events in the life of Butch Cassidy has been made extremely difficult by the many stories told about him by family members, acquaintances, and writers after his presumed death in a Bolivian village. In an exhaustive search of reminiscences, newspapers, and books, Richard Patterson has written the definitive biography of the outlaw whose legend is rivaled only by that of Billy the Kid.

Born to a devout Mormon family in Utah, Robert Leroy Parker demonstrated early on the acquisitiveness and restlessness that would lead him into a criminal life. As a teenager, he was arrested for stealing a saddle. In this same period, he met Mike Cassidy, a cowhand skilled in using a running iron to change livestock brands. Eventually Parker drifted into Telluride, where he met Tom McCarty and Matt Warner. McCarty taught them how to rob banks and trains, laying out for Parker a career path that would lead him to a new name—Butch Cassidy —and eventually force him from the country.

Patterson has followed every lead to provide a vivid account of Cassidy’s life and has scrutinized the stories of men who claimed to be Butch. Butch Cassidy brings together diverse anecdotes, providing both a wonderful tool for researchers and a lively read.

Publishers Weekly

Butch Cassidy had many names. Born into a devout Mormon family in 1866 as Robert Leroy Parker, he became George Cassidy in 1889 and, a few years later, Butch Cassidy. It was under the last name that he served a two-year prison term in Wyoming and, on his release, became one of the leaders of the gang dubbed the Wild Bunch by law enforcement officials and the press. The original crew, consisting of eight or nine outlaws, robbed trains and banks from South Dakota, Idaho and Montana south to Wyoming and Colorado; they also rustled cattle and stole horses. Eventually, Cassidy was wanted in so many states that he fled to South America with fellow holdup man Harry Longabaugh ("The Sundance Kid") and Harry's wife, Etta. They lived in Argentina and then traveled to Chile, Bolivia and Peru, resuming their criminal careers along the way. Butch was presumably killed after a robbery in a 1908 shoot-out; Patterson examines and dismisses most of the conjectures about Cassidy's survival. While there is no denying that Patterson has done an enormous amount of research (there are almost 100 pages of notes), the book has one big flaw: it cries out for maps. Even a standard atlas does not give enough detail to guide the reader through the almost impenetrable jungle of geographical detail here. Patterson, author of the Historical Atlas of the Outlaw West, obviously knows the material, but it may prove too daunting for others.

Richard Patterson is a retired lawyer now working as a freelance writer and editor. His many publications include Historical Atlas of the Outlaw West.