Did Butch Cassidy rob the Castle Gate payroll? As I research this incident I find that in almost every account it’s just assumed Butch Cassidy was part of the robbery.
The legend is that Butch Cassidy was one of two men who, on April 21, 1897 robbed the Pleasant Valley Coal Company in Castle Gate. But did Butch really do it?
Two men made off with $8,800 from the robbery. Nearly a year passed and the bandits had not been captured. On May 13, 1898 four men were surrounded by lawmen at their camp in the Bookcliff Mountains. A gunfight ensued and two of the bandits were killed. The other two were brought back to Carbon County. E.L. Carpenter identified the two dead men as the ones who robbed him at gun point. One of the dead men was identified as Butch Cassidy. The only problem is, that dead man was not Butch Cassidy.
When questions arose about the identity of the man, Sheriff J.H. Ward, of Evanston, Wyoming, was brought to Price to identify Cassidy. He was familiar with Butch, because Butch spent two years in jail in Wyoming for rustling cattle.
Sheriff Ward took one look at the dead man and said, “That is not Butch Cassidy.”
So, either Carpenter was wrong in his identification of the dead man, or it was not Butch Cassidy who was part of the daring robbery. Legend also has it that Butch actually came to Carbon County to see the dead body that was supposedly his. But, that legend also cannot be corroborated.
The implications are significant. If Carpenter was wrong about the identification, then perhaps an innocent man (at least of the Castle Gate robbery) was killed. If he was correct in his identification, then it wasn’t Butch Cassidy who committed the robbery.
The truth, as with many western history legends, will never be known. Perhaps that is part of the appeal to all the armchair historians out there.
Another legend is that the money was never found. Perhaps it was hidden along the trail, hidden somewhere near Robbers Roost . . . . or spent.
Lots of people have looked for it, all coming away with nothing except disappointment.
The truth is often lost very quickly. If someone says it was Butch Cassidy who robbed the Castle Gate payroll, everyone wants to believe it. So rumor becomes legend and, as we all know, legends never die, they just get better with time.
To this day most accounts of the robbery list Butch Cassidy as the culprit. It’s history. Probably not true, but history nonetheless.
There are as many legends about Butch Cassidy as anyone in history. That’s probably because he was very well liked. Many of the rumors, turned legend, are of a good man doing good things.
One such story tells of 16-year-old Harry Ogden, who saved his money to buy a horse and saddle. On a ride shortly after acquiring the horse the boy was stopped at gunpoint and relieved of his horse. About three weeks later, Butch Cassidy showed up at the Ogden home in Escalante. He was with the outlaw who had stolen Ogden’s horse. He was still riding it. When Cassidy asked Ogden if he had lost a horse, the boy quickly identified it. Butch then ordered the outlaw off the horse and told him “to start walking.”
Rumor turned legend turned history — who knows?
Butch Cassidy was born Robert Leroy Parker. As a young man he met Mike Cassidy, who is believed to have led Butch into a life of crime. Parker changed his name to avoid embarrassing his family. Didn’t really work out that way.
The Cassidy family lived on a farm just south of Circleville, UT. The farm is in the process of being turned into a tourist attraction.
Everyone wants a piece of Butch. In dozens of communities in the Intermountain West something is named for Butch, like Beaver, where he was born but had no other connection. Also Wayne County; Piute County; Sevier County; Montpelier, ID; Laramie, WY; and even in places where Butch never set foot, like the Butch Cassidy Cafe in Mobile, AL.
Of course the movie with Paul Newman and Robert Redford did much to further the legend of Butch Cassidy. Much of the movie takes artistic license, and in some cases information given is totally false. But, we love it, and that’s what we come to believe about Butch Cassidy.
That’s not so much the case with other outlaws. Perhaps Cole Younger should have been played by Paul Newman . . .
RECREATION & TRAVEL: Did Butch Cassidy really rob the Castle Gate payroll?
The Wild Bunch. Butch Cassidy is in the front row, right.