Cassidy, Butch

Cassidy, Butch

 orig. Robert Leroy Parker

(born April 13, 1866, Beaver, Utah, U.S.—died 1909?, Concordia Tin Mines, near San Vicente, Bol.?) U.S. outlaw. Taking his name from an older outlaw mentor, Cassidy was a cattle rustler and a robber from the mid-1880s. In 1900 he became the criminal partner of Harry Longabaugh, the “Sundance Kid” (1870–1909?), whose nickname derived from a town where he had once been imprisoned. They became the foremost members of the Wild Bunch, a group of bank and train robbers. The two eluded Pinkerton detectives by escaping to South America in 1901. They bought a ranch in Argentina but returned to a life of outlawry in 1906. In 1909, trapped by soldiers in Bolivia, Sundance was mortally wounded, and Cassidy shot himself. The time, place, and circumstances of their deaths vary widely in different accounts.