Butch and Sundance: Another Railroad Offer Blown Up

in #history5 years ago (edited)

Howdy folks and greetings from the Great Plains of North Texas!

We're in the middle of a series about two of America's most famous and successful outlaws, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. In yesterday's post we found out that Butch was a bit of a sore loser because he threw a tantrum when he thought the Union Pacific railroad officials blew him off for a meeting they all had scheduled.

Recap

In reality it was a storm which delayed the train and then their escort got lost getting them to the rendezvous point. (boy that's a strange word, what's that z doin in there? took me forever to figure out how to spell that thing, must be French or some such thing. We don't use that word around here much. We just say meetup)

Anyway, Butch took it real personal like and was highly offended so he robbed another train right away and made off with a bloody fortune. This was the robbery where they ran into their old friend Charles E. Woodcock, the car messenger.

lol...I found that scene on youtube if anyone is interested in seeing it again, highly entertaining and I bet it's an accurate portrayal of how it went down.. except in the movie they didn't get much cash but in reality they got a fortune:

And I love it when Butch tells Woodcock that the railroad isn't paying him enough!
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What Butch didn't know, is that at the exact same day that he robbed the train another train was carrying one of his old friends, Matt Warner, to meet up with him on behalf of the railroad.

What had happened is that the same lawyer who arranged the first meeting (that didn't happen) kept at it. Orlando Powers was his name. He knew the railroad was desperate to stop this long string of robberies that Butch seemed to be able to execute flawlessly and at will. This put a great deal of leverage in Butch's hands.

So what Powers did was contact an old friend of Butch, Matt Warner. Matt was with Butch on his first big bank robbery in Telluride, Colorado. He's the friend who Butch robbed a bank to pay his lawyer fees when he got into trouble. But Matt still got sent to prison. When he got out though, he had turned his life around and was an honest, law-abiding citizen.

Side bar

It was very unusual for an outlaw to go straight and have a productive life so I wanted to honor Matt Warner. See, here he is in his prison outfit:

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And here he is after he got out and got his act together. He got married again, had kids and lived a successful life. He looks like a nice guy doesn't he? He just needs a hair stylist. I don't that hair style was in vogue even in 1900. Plus no mustache.

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Ok, back to the story...Orlando knew that Butch would trust Matt Warner so he sent Matt to talk to him. Matt was carrying an apology from the Union Pacific railroad and an explanation of why they didn't show up for the rendezvous.

When the train made a stop at Bridger Station in Wyoming there was a telegraph waiting for Matt which read "All agreements off. Cassidy just held up a train at Tipton."

I still think it wasn't too late to give up on the negotiations. I mean, yes Butch pulled off another perfect robbery but that just proved that he could do that whenever he wanted.

Plus he could have sent word to the railroad through his lawyer saying "lets talk...if we make a deal I'll give you back the money." He still had tons of leverage at this point and no one was being killed in his robberies, at least not when he was involved personally.

Man I'd like to go back in history and slap some sense into that boy!
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Butch and Sundance pull off more brazen robberies in the next post.

Thanks for reading folks, God bless you all!
-jonboy Texas
the gentleman redneck

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PS- ya know...you might just be a redneck if:

You know how many bales of hay your car will hold!

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Not hay, but with the backseat folded down it will hold six bales of straw. Makes great mulch for around the plants!

Yeah, it seems like Butch had plenty of options, but I suspect that no matter what he might have agreed to, they still would have put him in jail.
That movie clip with Woodcock is great, but I remember the scene where they came upon him again in the next train robbery as being more memorable. They demand the door be opened and Sundance recognizes Woodcocks voice and says 'Woodcock, is that you?' and it's like he has come across an old friend!

Matt’s hairstyle is far out ...or I should say far up. 😊 Butch does need something to put some common sense in his head...maybe anger management.

haha! Yes Ma'am, anger management. Good luck getting him corraled for that though!

I feel like a more well rounded American reading your history posts. Those were some interesting characters.

Howdy ginnyannette! I agree that those guys were very interesting, too bad they chose the wrong profession, they could have helped the country and been assets. I suppose you never watched the movie? Thanks for your kind words!

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Hi janton, maybe they did have the most creative hair stylists in those days you know. Since Matt was so successful he could have the best, haha.

haha! Well it's interesting to see the old photos from the 1800's and most of them have terrible hair styles so I don't think anyone had hair stylists except the wealthy. I need to look that up!

Good idea, but have you noticed no-one smiled in photos back then? The models look like criminals getting mug shots taken at the police station, lol.

haha! I read a long article recently about why people never smiled in photos taken in the 1800's. Most of the time it was because getting one taken was a very special deal since they were so rare and they were almost always coached to look somber and serious.

Another thing were the predominance of bad or missing teeth because of a lack of good teeth hygiene and of course they didn't have modern dentistry where they could replace missing teeth with implants or other methods.

Oh dear, the drawbacks to living in the 1800's. We are not allowed to smile for car licence or passport photos now in Australia. !

howdy again angiemitchell! oh really? wow, I wonder why that is, was that ever explained? You'd fit right into the 1800's!

Haha, I will. So you can smile in US passports? I am sure that there is a perfectly logical explanation but our photos do look like mugshots, lol.

well I don't know if we can smile or not, I never had a passport but I should research that and see. I've just never heard of that but it's probably standard proceedure these days!

If you were able to go back in time, and slap some sense into that boy, you wouldn't have a nice story to tell, a story that makes you rich in Steem! lol

howdy sir Vincent! haha good point! Very true but there are so many other colorful characters that I could write about who didn't have such a great opportunity to go straight like he did. Who ever heard of a big company so powerful that they can give him amnesty in the whole country? lol. Anyway thanks so much for reading and commenting, heading over to your blog later. just thought I'd warn ya!

I am forewarned. Bring it on my friend. :-)

lol! I came over sir Vincent but I'll have to finish another day when I have some more voting power!

Howdy Janton! This was another of your masterpiece writings, which means I am laughing from the start to the end, lol. Opening with the video was a good call that got the fun rolling. And than the tantrum and rendezvous topped with vogue. LMAO!!! You and your fashion expertise on hairstyles and mustache. Not to forget the redneck joke. Good one too, lol.

On the serious note, I completely agree with you! They shot themselves in the foot just like Butch did. Bunch of big EGOS!!! All of them! Oh yeah, you need a time machine to teach them a lesson, lol.

Howdy tonight Miss Lena! thanks so much and I'm glad that you appreciated the humor. I don't know if anyone else did but at least we did huh? lol.. Yes, you are so right, Butch threw a tantrum like a little 2 year old and decided to make them pay instead of giving them another proposal or at least talking to his lawyer. Too bad they didn't have cell phones back then, he might have been able to work things out.

You know,I tell you, things could have been different if they had cell phones back then, lol. How could we live without them before??? LOL!!!

It's very true Miss Lena, that huge misunderstanding could have been totally avoided! I like our luxuries that we have now. I think I was born in the right time period regardless of those people who call me a dinosaur! lol.

Hello (;
@janton
Lol.... He definitely needed someone to do just that..!!!!!
"Man I'd like to go back in history and slap some sense into that boy!"

howdy annephilbrick! haha! I'm glad someone else sees it the same way! That's what he needed. lol.

He got so traumatized after having his mustache shaved that he never grew the thing again... life was so hard for the mustache criminals catch by the police in those days!

haha! howdy blacklux! yes it was, you are so right, "the mustache criminals" lol.

LOL I love how we all check out his pics and judge him on them. BUT yes, barring the funky hairstyle he looked like a normal down to earth guy :)

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