James Baquet If you say “Butch Cassidy” to older Americans, they may reply, “... and the Sundance Kid!” A 1969 movie by that name, starring dreamboats Paul Newman and Robert Redford, brought these two small-time crooks to national and even international fame. Let’s focus on the leader of the “Wild Bunch,” also sometimes mistakenly called the “Hole in the Wall Gang.” (The Wild Bunch were only some of the many outlaws that operated out of the hideout near the remote Hole-in-the-Wall pass in Wyoming; they also used a Utah hideout called the Robbers Roost.) Robert LeRoy Parker, whose aliases included “Butch Cassidy” among several others, was born in what was then Utah Territory in 1866. The first of 13 children of English immigrants who had converted to Mormonism before leaving the U.K., he grew up on the family ranch near Circleville. In his teens, he met cattle rustler Mike Cassidy. A brief stint as a butcher, along with his “mentor” Cassidy’s name, provided his most common alias. In 1880 he was arrested for stealing a pair of jeans and a pie from a closed clothing store — and left an IOU! He was acquitted by a jury. He may have been rustling horses in Colorado in 1884, but mainly worked as a cowboy. He robbed his first bank in 1889; he and three accomplices netted US$21,000, worth over half a million today. With some of the money he bought a ranch near the Hole-in-the-Wall hideout. In 1894 he served 18 months in prison for stealing horses; he formed the Wild Bunch when he got out. They robbed banks, trains, and payrolls, attracting pressure from the Pinkerton Detective Agency. In 1899 Cassidy approached the governor of Utah in a failed attempt to negotiate an amnesty. In 1901, Cassidy and Longabaugh fled to Argentina with Longabaugh’s girlfriend and bought a large ranch. In 1905 they started robbing again, but in 1906 they took honest jobs working in a mine. After committing another robbery in 1908, the two men were surrounded in a lodging house in Bolivia, where history says they died of wounds received after a long gunfight. Other evidence suggests he returned to America, where he died of old age in 1937. Vocabulary: Which word above means: 1. stealing (horses or cows) 2. fake name used by criminals 3. official forgiveness from the government 4. good-looking people 5. person who helps a criminal 6. place for criminals to hide 7. money used to pay employees 8. period of time spent doing something 9. thieves 10. declared not guilty | 