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THE WILD BUNCH
Seated left to right- Harry A. Longabaugh, alias the Sundance Kid, Ben Kilpatrick, alias the Tall Texan, Robert Leroy Parker, alias Butch Cassidy; Standing- Will Carver & Harvey Logan, alias Kid Curry; Photo taken in Fort Worth, Texas, 1901.
Butch Cassidy
Butch Cassidy, the famous western outlaw, was born Robert Leroy Parker. While Cassidy was a rancher by trade, he was also a noted train and bank robber. In 1894, Cassidy was arrested and spent two years in prison for stealing horses. After he got out of prison, he formed a band of outlaws that included the famous Sundance Kid.
Sundance Kid
Harry A. Longabaugh is also known as the Sundance Kid. Young and out of work, Longabaugh was arrested in 1887 for stealing a horse, gun and saddle from a ranchall the things a self respecting cowboy needed in that day, could you blame him? In any event, he was sentenced to 18 months in jail in a town called Sundance in Wyoming. While in jail, he earned the name Sundance Kid for his bravery. After his release, he teamed with Butch Cassidy and they lead a spree of bank and train robberies. Longabaugh died in November of 1908.
Emmett Dalton
Emmett Dalton, one of the infamous Dalton gang, roamed the Indian Territories with his brothers Bob and Grat, robbing banks and trains and generally raising all sorts of hell. In an ill-conceived attempt to rob two banks on the same day in Coffeyville, Kansas, the gang was shot to pieces by local town folk. Bob and Grat and six other people were killed, Emmett Dalton was seriously wounded. Sentenced to life in prison, Emmett was later pardoned by Kansas Governor Koch in 1907. He and his wife returned to Coffeyville in 1931, and were treated like celebrities. Emmett died of old age in July 1937 at his home in Long Beach, CA.
Jesse James
Perhaps the most famous lawbreaker to come out of the Old West, Jesse Woodson James was a cold-blooded killer to some, a heroic and kindly figure to others. Born in Missouri before the Civil War, Jesse James grew to detest what the North stood for, and what it did to the South during and after the war. Embarking on a long career as a bank and train robber, James gained folk hero status and the assistance of the local population who saw him engaged in a gallant struggle with the railroads and banks who sought to destroy the economy of the South. With his ever-shifting gang of cohorts, he remained at large for 16 years, until he was shot in the back in 1882 by an associate, Bob Ford, for the large reward money. He remains a cult hero to this day.
John Harvey
John Harvey was born as Harvey John Bailey in 1887, but apparently they couldnt keep his names straight, so they switched them around. Harvey began his criminal career in 1918 when he started running whiskey, but soon graduated to hijacking and burglary. Harveys real talent, however, was bank robbery. Between 1922 and 1924, Harvey participated in a number of bank robberies, including one at the Denver Mint, where the take was over $200,000. Harveys total take was somewhere in the $1,000,000 range during the 1920s alone. In 1929 he opened two filling stations in Indiana with a partner from his crime days and did so well they began investing in real estate. The crash of 1929 brought his house of cards down, however, and he returned to the criminal life.
Thomas James
Thomas James and his band of merry men decided to rob the Wild Rose State Bank and Post Office the night of October 13, 1905, using two charges of nitroglycerin that failed to open the inner doors of the burglar-proof safe. They did succeed, however, in completely wrecking the post office, and looting it of a variety of valuables. Chased into the hills by a posse of local folks, the gang was surrounded in a ravine and the chase deteriorated into a gun battle, after which the bad guys surrendered. James, a.k.a. Rambler, was wounded in the head but not seriously injured. He is reputed to be one of the best nitro men in the bank robbery business.
 Harry Longabaugh, alias the Sundance Kid, was born in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. In 1887 he was convicted of stealing a horse from the VVV ranch in northeastern Crook County, Wyoming. Sheriff Ryan of Crook County apprehended him near Miles City, Montana, and he spent eighteen months in jail in Sundance, the county seat of Crook County. After his incarceration in Sundance, he took on the alias of the Sundance Kid.
From Sundance he went on to ride with the Wild Bunch, a rather large gang, organized by Robert Leroy Parker, alias Butch Cassidy. From their hide-out at Hole-in-the-Wall near Kaycee, Wyoming, the gang robbed banks and railroad trains all over the west. Most historians agree that Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid died in Bolivia in 1909, when they were surrounded and gunned down after robbing the payroll shipment of a Bolivian mine.
The court docket containing the signature of Harry Longabaugh is on display in the lobby of the Crook County Court House in Sundance , Wyoming.
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