Butch Cassidy

Era: 19^th Century

Importance: Robber and Gang-leader

Module: American West

Butch Cassidy

Butch Cassidy was the son of Mormon pioneers, his fellow gang-member, the Sundance Kid, was born Harry Longabaugh.

The Wild Bunch as their gang was called robbed banks and held Union Pacific railroad trains in the 1890s.

Pursued by the law they fled to Argentina in 1901. Along with Sundance’s girlfriend they hid in a ranch in the Cholila Valley. Soon they were back to bank robbing, Butch and Sundance were shot and killed in a shoot-out in San Vincente, in Southern Bolivia where they had been forced to move to after they relieved a mule of the burden of carrying the Aramayo Mining company’s wages. A patrol uncovered them hidden in a hut. The ensuing gunfight ended with nightfall. The bad wounded outlaws then chose to shoot themselves.