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Cassidy and Kid
“They dedicated a large part of their life to the vocation of banking which, as noted, can be affronted in two ways: to be a banker, or a bank robber. The two gringos opted for the latter choice, because, being gringos, had in their blood a puritanism that tied them to certain ethical principles, the same ones that obliged them to divide hastily with others the wealth gained by their holdups. They divided it with actors from Baltimore, opera signers from New York, Chinese cooks in San Francisco, chocolate colored prostitutes in the brothels of Kingston and Havana, fortune tellers and palm readers in La Paz, dubious poets from Santa Cruz, melancholic poetesses of Buenos Aires and sailors’ widows in Punta Arenas, and they finished by financing anarchist revolutions in Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego. Their parents gave them two names, Robert Leroy Parker e Harry Longbaugh, but they had many others: Mister Wilson and Mister Evans. Billy and Jack. Don Pedro and don Jose. In the infinite passage of legend however they were to be known as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid”
It would be absurd not to start with Sepulveda’s description (Patagonia Express) to introduce two characters immersed in history and legend that for some part of their lives found themselves in Patagonia. There the two outlaws devoted themselves to ranching like two model rancheros, and it is said that they are buried here. With them the Wild West turned towards the south to later come to a violent end in Bolivia. But their story, which in Patagonia remains extremely vivid, is also told in cinematic form in a famous film (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, 1969) with two outstanding actors, Paul Newman and Robert Redford.
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid are the respective pseudonyms of Robert Leroy Parker and Harry A. Longabaugh. The two nortemaricanos – as they were called by Patagonians at the time – started their criminal careers at the end of the 1800’s as cattle thieves and later became notorious train and bank robbers. Legend would know them as the “gentlemen bandits”, like Robin Hoods of the southwest who robbed from the rich and gave some to the poor (whatever was left after gambling, women and horses); and Cassidy boasted of having never killed a man.
It was Cassidy who assembled the so-called Wild Bunch, a group of bandits featuring the Sundance Kid, a wizard with a gun. In five years they robbed a dozen banks and trains. But in 1901, the two leaders of the gang, Cassidy and Kid (together with the female outlaw, ex-schoolteacher Etta Place, who was Kid’s partner at the time) arrived in Buenos Aires.
The three – using the false names James “Santiago” Ryan and the spouses Harry A. Place – joined other North Americans who requested land from the USA vice consulate. In the end they settled themselves in the rich valleys of Cholila, halfway between the modern-day towns of El Bolsòn and Esquel, an area which at the time was inhabited by about 14 families. In June 1901, Ryan and Place bought 16 stallions from Argentine Southern Land for 855 dollars; after a few months they added sheep and other farm animals. The metamorphosis was thus complete: from bandits to a life of ranching.
“You will probably be surprised to receive my updates from this country” – wrote Butch Cassidy to his friend Mrs. Davis, held in a United States jail – but in the last years the United States became too small for me. I had to see more of the world. (…) I saw the cities and the best parts of South America before I arrived here. And this part of the country was so beautiful I decided to stay, perhaps forever, given that I like the place more and more every day. I have 300 head of cattle, 1500 sheep and 28 good saddle horses, two men who work for me, a house with four rooms, storage, stable, hen house and chickens”.
In their new life as rancheros the three North Americans maintained good relations with their neighbors, particularly with the Welsh immigrants (and with a certain George Hammond, whose descendants, to this day, talk about how Butch and Sundance loved to gallop around shooting in the air with both hands, holding the reins in their teeth). And, since there are reports that a chief of police, Eduardo Humphrey, was in their circle of friends, they must have been well integrated. The most ironic moment of their stay was when they entertained the governor of the Chubut province, Julio Lezana, who was visiting territories under his jurisdiction in their house. The three most wanted outlaws in America entertaining a governor and a chief of police!
The idyll however did not last long. There were a number of holdups in the region, and the North Americans were suspected of being responsible, or at the very least of having protected those responsible. Slowly the arm of the law started stretching towards Patagonia. Investigators from the Pinkerton agency (hired by the United States bankers and ranchers who had been robbed by the Wild Bunch) started to pay attention. They published their photos (together with a reward value) in the Buenos Aires newspapers.
And so in March of 1905 Butch, Sundance and Etta left Cholila. From that moment they returned to their activities as outlaws also taking part in the robbery of the Banco de la Nacion in Villa Mercedes (San Luis), which was probably the only holdup in Argentina in which Butch and Sundance took part.
The two inseparable partners died in 1908 in Bolivia under army gunfire. (But some people believe that they returned to the United States after getting rid of all traces of their previous existence ….).
(19/10/2005)
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