The Wild Bunch or The Hole-In-The-Wall Gang

 

Outlwas camped inside the Hole-in-the-Wall

The Wild Bunch, or the Hole in the Wall Gang, was one of the last great outlaw gangs to terrorize the Old West. Butch Cassidy organized the gang, and membership changed as often as the wind, depending upon the specialties needed to perform the job at hand.

Butch’s friend, Elzy Lay, was the first member recruited into the gang. Other members included Harry Longabaugh, the Sundance Kid; Harvey Logan, alias Kid Curry; Ben Kilpatrick; Tom and Bill McCarty; Tom “Black Jack” Ketchum; Sam Ketchum; Bill Carver; and several others.

They made their hideout in the Hole in the Wall, a secret lair; lawmen dared not enter. “It is a spot where ten men can defy a thousand,” said a story in the Saint Paul Globe, “and one man can elude a hundred for months.”

“The only entrance and the only exit is the gorge through which the little stream rushes out again into the open lower country. Here, too, the walls rise abruptly, like the canyons in Colorado, and so narrow is the trail that not more than two horsemen may ride abreast.” All along the way, there are hideaways where one outlaw, armed with a shotgun, can make short work of a lone lawman or hold off a posse for days.

The outlaws would emerge from the Hole in the Wall—rob a bank or train—and dash back into hiding before a posse could catch sight of them.

The Wild Bunch’s first job was the San Miguel Valley Bank robbery at Telluride, Colorado, on June 24, 1889. Four armed men rode up to the bank about 10 a.m. as cashier C. F. Painter was out making collections. Three men walked into the bank; one stayed outside to hold the horses. The three robbers covered the lone teller with their revolvers and compelled him to hand over all the cash.

Butch Cassidy

The robbery went off without a hitch, and the outlaws rode out of town with their guns blazing. They made a clean getaway with nearly $22,000.

One of the gang’s boldest robberies occurred when they snatched the P. V. Coal Company’s payroll at Castle Gate, Utah, on April 21, 1897. Three gang members made off with nearly $7800, while nearly 100 miners milled about on the street nearby.

The outlaws watched and waited as the train delivering the coal company’s payroll pulled up to the platform. Cashier, E. L. Carpenter, walked across the tracks with T. W. Lewis, another employee.

As Carpenter and Lewis neared the Wasatch Store, a man walked up to Carpenter, shoved a six-gun in his face, and ordered him to “drop them sacks” and “hold up your hands.” The second robber whirled his guns in his hands, firing into the air.

The man with the money hopped on his horse and rode off at full speed, as did the outlaw holding the horses. The man firing his gun escaped, but his getaway appeared dicey when his horse got loose and wandered down the street. He had to chase after it for nearly 300 feet before he could jump on and ride away.

Several months later, on June 28, 1897, an off-shoot of the Wild Bunch robbed the Butte County Bank at Belle Fourche, South Dakota. Four masked men entered the bank with revolvers drawn and ordered the employees and customers present to throw up their hands. Cashier Arthur Marble hesitated for a moment. The next thing he knew, a shot rang out, and a bullet tore off much of his right ear. No one got in the robbers’ way after that. They grabbed what money they could quickly get their hands on, then rushed out the door and rode away.

A posse caught up with the robbers a few miles outside of town. After a running fight, outlaw Thomas Day threw up his hands and surrendered. Four more robbers got captured at the VVV Ranch in Crook County, Wyoming. George Currie, the two Roberts brothers, and Harvey Ray were captured.

The take from that robbery was a paltry $75 to $100—not worth the time they would spend in jail.

Harry Longabaugh, the Sundance Kid, and Etta Place

Butch Cassidy and the Wild Bunch netted a cool $46,000 when they robbed the Union Pacific Overland Flyer No. 1 near Wilcox, Wyoming. One robber hopped into the train’s cab and forced the engineer to pull across the bridge and stop. And then “just as the engine pulled off the bridge, there was a tremendous explosion that scattered the express car for a hundred feet in every direction.”

Mail clerk George Bruce testified that the robbers ordered him to open the door. The robbers began shooting into the car from both sides when he hesitated. The next thing he saw was a stick of dynamite sliding under the door. He slid the door open and beat it out of there as quickly as he could.

Inside the express car, messenger Ernest Woodcock was the last holdout. He refused to open the door, despite bullets flying all around him. Finally, the robbers blew the door and pulled Woodcock out. Woodcock said they piled twenty sticks of dynamite around the safe and ended up blowing everything to pieces—the express car, the safe, and all the booty they were after.

The robbery lasted a full two hours. Much of that time was spent gathering the money scattered everywhere after the explosion.

After the robbery, the bandits disappeared into the darkness. Their take was nearly $30,000. It was a job well done, except for blowing the hell out of the express car—and the safe.

Just after noon on September 19, 1900, three masked men, with revolvers drawn, entered the front door of the First National Bank of Winnemucca, Nevada.

“Cashier Nixon made a move as if to draw a revolver, but the weapon of one of the outlaws was aimed at him, and he threw up his hands just in time to save his life.” The robbers forced Nixon to open the safe from which they took three bags of gold coins containing $5,000 each.

After grabbing all the money in sight, the robbers marched the five men in the bank out the back door and into the alley where they had three horses waiting to make their escape.

The entire robbery took less than five minutes.

Townspeople exchanged a few shots with the robbers as they rode out of town, but no one was hurt. Then, a posse of fifteen men rode out in hot pursuit. A second posse of twelve men from Golconda set out shortly afterward. They planned to box the robbers in, but it didn’t work out as expected.

The Wild Bunch had relays of horses waiting at several points along their escape route. The first relay was located seven miles outside of Winnemucca. The second relay was at the Silva Ranch, about thirty-five miles northeast of the robbery. That was the “secret sauce” that allowed Butch Cassidy to escape so easily. Fast, fresh horses gave him an edge over his pursuers. It was a simple innovation in the robbery game. One it’s hard to imagine no one had thought of or used before.

Kid Curry covering the engineer during a train robbery

Shortly after 8:30 p.m. on August 29, 1900, the Wild Bunch robbed Union Pacific passenger train No. 3 near Tipton Station in Wyoming. A man crawled down from the tender with his revolver leveled and forced the engineer to stop the train.

Conductor Ed Kerrigan said he felt the train stop just outside Tipton. He saw a small fire and a group of men moving towards the baggage car. The robbers forced him to uncouple the mail, express, and baggage cars so they could roll them down the tracks.

Engineer Henry Wallerstein, expressman Woodcock, Conductor Kerrigan, brakeman Fred Nash, and flagman William Kuhns were forced to line up a short distance away from the train. One robber stood guard over them with a Winchester.

Kerrigan said, “They blew the roof, sides, and end out of the baggage car and demolished the next car to it. Then, they put three charges on the safe before they could break it open. After they got what they wanted, they went to their horses, which were tied nearby, and fled.”

The robbery was a major failure. Railroad officials said the gang netted less than $100.

Deputy Marshal Joe Lefors of Cheyenne, Wyoming, determined “the Tipton holdup and the Wilcox affair were managed in the same manner, and the robbery executed in precisely the same way.” There was no doubt in his mind; both robberies were the work of Butch Cassidy and the Wild Bunch.

By the end of 1900, the Old West was fading away. Civilization extended from coast to coast. Changing technology was making the West less isolated and more connected. Telephones and telegraphs made it easier to spread the alarm after a robbery. The Pinkertons and the railroads were determined to put the robbers out of business, so they arranged for a special train to rush detectives to the robbery scene. It had a sleeping car for the detectives on board and mobile stables stocked with fast horses, specially trained to help in the pursuit of outlaws. The Hole in the Wall and Robbers Roost were still impenetrable, but no one could say how long that would last.

Butch, Sundance, and Etta Place decided it was time to change scenery if they intended to stay alive. So they traveled to Texas and then to New York before hopping a steamer to Argentina on February 21, 1901.

They landed at Buenos Ayres, took a steamer to Bahia Blanca, and traveled by mule from Rawson to Chubut. They settled into a comfortable life ranching in the Cholila Valley for their first several years in Argentina.

After that, they slipped back to their old ways, robbing payroll trains and stage shipments. No one knows what made them pick up their guns again. Maybe their money ran out? Maybe they missed the excitement?

Information on Butch and Sundance during this period is sketchy at best. They robbed payroll trains and sometimes acted as guards for payroll shipments. Sometimes they played both sides—guarding the payroll until an opportunity arose to rob it.

In 1906, the New York Herald reported that Butch Cassidy, the Sundance Kid, and Kid Curry were robbing banks and trains in Argentina. A newspaper report said the boys robbed the Villa Mercedes Hotel in the province of San Luis. One man covered the clerk; the other two grabbed the cash and valuables. When the manager walked in, they shot him dead.

The New York Herald said, one robber is “a pretty little woman, 26 years old, with a gracefully girlish figure, flashing eyes, regular features, brilliant white teeth, and a mess of wavy hair.” She was presumed to be Mrs. Longabaugh. She held the horses during the Villa Mercedes robbery.

From the sound of things, Etta Place disappeared in 1907. No one is sure what happened—maybe life in South America wasn’t her cup of tea? Perhaps she died? No one is certain.

The accepted story is that Butch and Sundance died in a shootout with law enforcement authorities in San Vicente, Bolivia, on November 6, 1908.

The actual story isn’t as dramatic as in the movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. The boys most likely never made that mad last dash out the door, as portrayed by Paul Newman and Robert Redford.

Here’s the way it happened. Two masked Americans robbed a mining payroll near San Vicente, getting away with 15,000 Bolivian pesos. After dark, they made their way into town and spent the next few nights holed up in a boarding house there. The boarding house owner became suspicious of the two Americans, especially of their mule, and shared his suspicions with the local military.

On May 6, a group of law enforcement officials surrounded the boarding house and ordered Butch and Sundance to come out. When that didn’t happen, a gunfight broke out. Some witnesses say they heard a man’s scream, followed by two gunshots. When detectives entered the property the next morning, they found two-shot-up Americans with bullet holes in their heads. Speculation had it  that one robber killed his partner, then took his life rather than surrender.

Of course, old-timers in Wyoming and Montana say Butch and Sundance didn’t die that day in Bolivia. They returned to their old stomping grounds and lived well into the 1920s or 1930s.

A similar story is told about another member of the gang. Kid Curry was part of the gang that robbed the Denver and Rio Grande train near Parachute, Colorado, on June 8, 1904. The gang blew two safes and shot one employee before they made their getaway. The Havre Herald said that the posse shot Kid Curry during their pursuit. “As soon as he fell, he was seen to shoot himself in the head.”

The only problem was, stories abound about Kid Curry robbing banks and trains as late as 1908. And, if that isn’t confusing enough, the New York Herald placed him in South America with Butch and Sundance in 1906.

Another gang member, Elzy Lay, got killed in a fight with Mexican officers near Patro Migros, on the Mexico-Texas border. Seven men died in that fight, including Lay, two of his outlaw companions, and four Mexican officers.

The Wild Bunch had taken its final ride.

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