Butch and Sundance Are Forced To Make A Fateful Decision

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 the last post the Wild Bunch had successfully held up a bank in Winnemucca, Nevada and made off with another fortune in gold and cash.

That job seemed easy for them but the world was changing fast in the year 1900 and the Wild West was pretty much gone forever. The boys could see the writing on the wall as far as their outlaw days, that's why Butch had tried to gain amnesty for himself and the gang.

The dawning of a new era

Technology in communications, transportation and security were advancing at a fast pace. They were now facing an organized system of connected branches of law enforcement that could throw a net over the entire country.

And to make things worse, they had just taken that famous photo of the core group in Fort Worth which was being distributed to every law enforcement agency in the country, not to mention hundreds of Pinkertons and bounty hunters.

This gave their current identities to the whole world. Here it is again and to those who haven't seen it before...standing in back are William "News" Carver on the left, Harvey Logan on the right. Seated from left to right is the Sundance Kid, Ben Kilpatrick and Butch Cassidy.

In fact, that photo was sent to the bank in Winnemucca to confirm who was in on the robbery, because remember, they didn't wear masks. The bank had it blown up and they had it hanging on their wall for many years! lol. I reckon they were a little proud of being robbed by America's most successful outlaws!

Their success forced increased security

The banks were finally starting to increase their security, for the first time in a hundred years. They finally thought about using security guards and keeping the vault locked.

Railroads were becoming harder to rob because trains which were wide open targets were becoming rare. The railroads were hiring guards and even mounting Gatling guns on some of their trains.

The express cars were being armored with fancy new anti-robbery features like steam or hot oil shooting out or electrified doors. Yikes! Hardened assets.

I'm sure they could still get in with dynamite but getting to that point would be harder with enclosed engine compartments instead of being totally open designs where anyone could jump up on the engine.

A mounting threat

After the Tipton railroad and Winnemucca bank robberies the railroads and bankers were furious and assigned more special agents and Pinkertons to hunt the Wild Bunch exclusively.

Plus the main hunter who was like a relentless blood hound and followed them where ever they went, Charles Siringo, was still on their trail and gathering more and more information.

Here's a photo of old Charlie on the left with his partner but I think his partner dropped out of the hunt:

source

A line they didn't want to cross

After discussing all these things Butch and Sundance decided they had no choice but to leave the country and start a new life somewhere else. One of the major concerns they both had, and I think this goes back to the way they were both raised by Godly moms, was the aspect of killing someone.

They were both very good with their guns, especially Sundance who was fantastic, but they had never shot anyone. They knew if they were captured they would spend the rest of their lives in prison or executed for murders that were blamed on them but which they didn't commit.

But with it becoming increasingly difficult to pull off robberies, how long would it be before they were forced to shoot their way out of a bad situation if they were cornered?

As big of criminals as they were, they just did not accept the idea of killing people. I still like these guys! Maybe I have low standards.

In the next post Butch and Sundance, with Etta Place, rendezvous in New York City.

Thanks for reading folks, God bless you all!

-jonboy Texas
the gentleman redneck

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

You think French onion dip is an exotic tobacco product!