WEBVTT - The Wild West 1: Legends 0:00:04.960 --> 0:00:07.600 As the story goes, a young girl lived with her 0:00:07.640 --> 0:00:11.200 family deep in the woods of Wisconsin, and those woods 0:00:11.360 --> 0:00:14.720 were thick and dark. In fact, the woods were so 0:00:14.920 --> 0:00:17.560 dense that the trees existed as far as the eye 0:00:17.560 --> 0:00:21.520 could see, and beyond that more woods. A traveler heading 0:00:21.520 --> 0:00:24.200 north from the little gray Log cabin wouldn't come upon 0:00:24.239 --> 0:00:27.840 another house or road for nearly a month. The young 0:00:27.920 --> 0:00:30.440 girl and her family lived alone, with no one but 0:00:30.560 --> 0:00:33.640 trees and wild animals to keep them company. It was 0:00:33.720 --> 0:00:37.520 just Laura, her parents, sisters Mary and Carrie, and their 0:00:37.520 --> 0:00:42.000 devoted dog Jack. Life was an adventure, but hardly easy. 0:00:42.400 --> 0:00:45.320 The family had to grow or catch their own food. 0:00:45.960 --> 0:00:48.680 The story, which takes place in the late eighteen hundreds, 0:00:49.159 --> 0:00:52.920 is mostly true. You see, Laura, the author skillfully blended 0:00:52.960 --> 0:00:57.440 fiction with experiences from her childhood. Together with her daughter Rose, 0:00:57.760 --> 0:01:01.400 Laura's novel became one of America's mother read and loved 0:01:01.520 --> 0:01:05.360 children's books. Rose continued to be her mother's editor, and 0:01:05.600 --> 0:01:08.760 soon other books followed. Little House in the Big Woods. 0:01:09.200 --> 0:01:12.160 The third and most famous book follows the family as 0:01:12.200 --> 0:01:15.319 they moved to Independence, Kansas. In the third book, we 0:01:15.440 --> 0:01:17.760 learn of a different life for the family. One of 0:01:17.840 --> 0:01:21.520 peril and difficulties. Although the land belonged to the Osage 0:01:21.520 --> 0:01:24.120 tribe of Native Americans, the family and a handful of 0:01:24.120 --> 0:01:27.959 other settlers still built small farms, much to the disapproval 0:01:28.040 --> 0:01:31.160 of those who owned them. Eventually, though the family was 0:01:31.200 --> 0:01:34.360 forced to leave. This book and the six others that 0:01:34.440 --> 0:01:38.000 followed help establish America's view of life on the frontier. 0:01:38.520 --> 0:01:41.640 Decades later, the book would inspire the classic Western TV 0:01:41.760 --> 0:01:46.280 drama of the same name, Little House on the Prairie. 0:01:46.360 --> 0:01:49.520 The novels focused on the Ingles family and their struggle 0:01:49.640 --> 0:01:53.520 during tough economic times after the Civil War. Laura wrote 0:01:53.520 --> 0:01:57.320 about the homestead pushes westward, the forced displacement of Native 0:01:57.360 --> 0:02:03.040 Americans from their land, railroads, recession, and devastating illnesses. Laura 0:02:03.160 --> 0:02:06.560 Ingalls was born in eighteen sixty seven. Her earliest memories 0:02:06.560 --> 0:02:09.720 were of life in the woods, a few miles from Pepin, Wisconsin. 0:02:10.120 --> 0:02:13.680 At eighteen, Laura followed in her family's path. She married 0:02:13.720 --> 0:02:18.320 Almonzo Wilder, ten years her senior, and like her parents, Laura, Almonzo, 0:02:18.440 --> 0:02:21.480 and their daughter Rose moved from place to place seeking 0:02:21.600 --> 0:02:26.880 financial stability. When her husband suffered partial paralysis from complications 0:02:26.919 --> 0:02:30.760 of diphtheria. Laura took in borders and waited on tables 0:02:30.760 --> 0:02:33.800 to make ends meet until he recovered. She also wrote 0:02:33.840 --> 0:02:38.919 magazine articles for McCalls and Country Gentlemen. Her columns about politics, 0:02:39.040 --> 0:02:43.440 women's suffrage, and farm life were popular with readers. When 0:02:43.480 --> 0:02:46.360 the stock market crash wiped out her family savings, though 0:02:46.600 --> 0:02:49.240 Laura did what she always had. She climbed out of 0:02:49.280 --> 0:02:52.120 a tough situation. She began to write books based on 0:02:52.160 --> 0:02:56.520 her life experiences and the rest, as they say, is history. 0:02:57.520 --> 0:03:00.840 When we imagine the Wild West, we think of cowboys, 0:03:01.120 --> 0:03:05.040 Native Americans, and stage coaches filled with settlers heading west. 0:03:05.520 --> 0:03:09.720 And of course we picture saloons, shootouts and legendary outlaws. 0:03:10.280 --> 0:03:13.079 But how much is fact and how much is fiction? 0:03:13.840 --> 0:03:16.760 Like miners panning for gold, it turns out that even 0:03:16.800 --> 0:03:20.840 among legendary tales, there's always a little nugget of truth. 0:03:21.600 --> 0:03:24.359 So saddle up, partner, You're in for quite a ride, 0:03:24.520 --> 0:03:27.040 because this isn't the story of how the American West 0:03:27.160 --> 0:03:31.919 was won, but how it was spun. I'm Aaron Mankee, 0:03:32.680 --> 0:03:42.400 and welcome to the Wild West. It's rare when historians 0:03:42.400 --> 0:03:46.640 can agree that a particular ideology began on a specific date. 0:03:47.120 --> 0:03:50.640 Despite the oppressive hot temperatures of July twelfth of eighteen 0:03:50.720 --> 0:03:54.320 ninety three, thousands of people flocked to the Chicago World's 0:03:54.320 --> 0:03:58.280 Columbian Exhibition. Visitors were treated to the world's largest fair 0:03:58.440 --> 0:04:02.600 ever hosted with more shows, games, food, and lectures than 0:04:02.640 --> 0:04:05.920 any other before it. One of the most popular attractions 0:04:06.360 --> 0:04:10.040 was the ferris Wheel and the Other Buffalo, Bill Cody's 0:04:10.240 --> 0:04:13.680 Wild West Show. Cody knew how to draw crowds, and 0:04:13.720 --> 0:04:17.600 the grand stands were packed. Advertised as the greatest equestrian 0:04:17.640 --> 0:04:21.000 event of the century, over four hundred and fifty horseback 0:04:21.040 --> 0:04:26.640 riders participated, from trained military cavalry to cowboys, Native Americans 0:04:26.800 --> 0:04:29.919 and writers from other countries. The tricks and show that 0:04:29.960 --> 0:04:34.680 they put on were unrivaled. Before the exposition, Cody put 0:04:34.720 --> 0:04:37.560 on a parade and hosted a picnic for poor children 0:04:37.560 --> 0:04:40.680 who otherwise might not be able to see him. Billboards, 0:04:40.720 --> 0:04:44.680 illustrating an overly sensational portrayal of life in the Great Frontier, 0:04:44.880 --> 0:04:48.960 captured the attention of children and adults throughout Chicago. Hundreds 0:04:49.000 --> 0:04:53.240 of historians attended the exposition, eager to record and participate 0:04:53.320 --> 0:04:56.000 in the historic event. With so much to see and 0:04:56.040 --> 0:04:58.400 do few took note of a thirty one year old 0:04:58.440 --> 0:05:01.719 historian named Frederick Jackson Turner when he stepped up to 0:05:01.760 --> 0:05:05.359 the podium. The Midwest and West had been the driving 0:05:05.400 --> 0:05:08.080 force that brought the American people together as one. He 0:05:08.279 --> 0:05:11.720 told his peers, immigrants were freed from the stigma that 0:05:11.760 --> 0:05:14.880 they and their ancestors had brought across the Atlantic. When 0:05:15.040 --> 0:05:18.400 immigrants and descendants of earlier settlers made their way west, 0:05:18.960 --> 0:05:22.320 people across America had been determined to conquer and tame 0:05:22.400 --> 0:05:25.640 the West, regardless of the cost. He claimed that the 0:05:25.680 --> 0:05:29.600 white Americans duty was to bring customs, culture, and religion 0:05:29.640 --> 0:05:33.240 to the savage indigenous people. And I hope you can 0:05:33.279 --> 0:05:35.880 hear the massive air quotes I used there around the 0:05:35.880 --> 0:05:40.080 word savage. Over time, Turner's thesis on the frontier would 0:05:40.120 --> 0:05:43.640 be retold in political speech and taught in American academia. 0:05:44.000 --> 0:05:47.159 His speech helped define our beliefs on early settlement in 0:05:47.200 --> 0:05:51.400 the wild West. Soon tales of railroad expansion and bold 0:05:51.440 --> 0:05:54.919 train robberies were handed down. Stories of saloons and the 0:05:54.960 --> 0:05:59.279 gold Rush delighted listeners from cowtowns to ghost towns. Stories 0:05:59.320 --> 0:06:02.880 of the Wild West became popular fights with Native Americans, 0:06:03.120 --> 0:06:06.320 shootouts on dusty streets at high noon, and legends of 0:06:06.360 --> 0:06:09.680 the most notorious outlaws to ever live found their way 0:06:09.800 --> 0:06:13.520 to our history books. Ranchers to farm hands shared their 0:06:13.600 --> 0:06:18.240 experiences and perils, and like most tales, many were embellished. 0:06:18.680 --> 0:06:21.560 Even so, those living on the East Coast eagerly read 0:06:21.640 --> 0:06:26.599 magazine articles, memoirs, and newspaper stories all about the frontier. 0:06:27.320 --> 0:06:29.680 As with many a great story, they often have a 0:06:29.680 --> 0:06:32.799 way of twisting and turning. With each retelling of the facts, 0:06:33.200 --> 0:06:36.960 myth and legend become so entwined that it's nearly impossible 0:06:36.960 --> 0:06:40.400 to separate them. The Wild West Era, otherwise known as 0:06:40.440 --> 0:06:43.200 the Old West Era, began just at the end of 0:06:43.240 --> 0:06:46.480 the Civil War in eighteen sixty five and continued through 0:06:46.560 --> 0:06:50.279 the eighteen nineties. In those short twenty five years, we've 0:06:50.440 --> 0:06:53.920 romanticized a good portion of it. So before we dig in, 0:06:54.040 --> 0:06:57.600 there are a few creative, but slightly misguided beliefs about 0:06:57.600 --> 0:07:00.520 the area that we need to discuss. Today, we picture 0:07:00.560 --> 0:07:03.760 cowboys wearing large stetson hats. It's a great look, but 0:07:04.040 --> 0:07:07.839 mostly inaccurate. Stetson's weren't in style at the time. Instead, 0:07:07.880 --> 0:07:11.320 most men wore bowler hats, and those odd saloon doors 0:07:11.360 --> 0:07:14.880 that hung from chest height to knee length also not accurate. 0:07:15.000 --> 0:07:17.800 I'm sorry to say the doors were actually floor to 0:07:17.840 --> 0:07:21.520 ceiling length to keep out the dust. Hei noun. Shootouts 0:07:21.560 --> 0:07:25.600 weren't common either, and those bank robberies, well, historians speculate 0:07:25.640 --> 0:07:27.840 that you'd be more likely to witness a bank robbery 0:07:27.880 --> 0:07:31.680 today than back then. So what about all the stories 0:07:31.680 --> 0:07:34.800 of Butch Cassidy and Jesse James, Well, it comes down 0:07:34.840 --> 0:07:38.640 to fame, you see, bank robberies were challenging to pull off, 0:07:38.920 --> 0:07:44.080 so a successful heist made outlaws instantly famous. And speaking 0:07:44.200 --> 0:07:47.360 of these famous outlaws, there's probably no greater tale of 0:07:47.400 --> 0:07:50.040 the American West than the life and times of Robert 0:07:50.160 --> 0:07:54.000 Leroy Parker, although, as you might have already guessed, that's 0:07:54.040 --> 0:08:03.880 not the name most people remember him by. Robert Leroy 0:08:03.960 --> 0:08:07.480 Parker entered the world on Friday the thirteenth in April 0:08:07.520 --> 0:08:11.800 of eighteen sixty six in Beaver, Utah. His parents and grandparents, 0:08:11.840 --> 0:08:15.240 along with their founder, Joseph Smith, were devout Mormons who 0:08:15.280 --> 0:08:19.160 finally settled in Utah when Parker turned thirteen. The family 0:08:19.240 --> 0:08:23.400 eventually moved to a small, unassuming one room farmhouse near Circleville. 0:08:23.600 --> 0:08:26.960 For those who love odd facts, thirteen came up a 0:08:27.000 --> 0:08:29.720 lot in Parker's history because he was also one of 0:08:29.800 --> 0:08:34.360 thirteen children. For entertainment, the family sang and played music together. 0:08:34.800 --> 0:08:38.360 Parker and his siblings enjoyed each other's company, often creating 0:08:38.440 --> 0:08:42.040 new games to play. They were also mischievous. One day, 0:08:42.160 --> 0:08:45.480 Missus Parker noticed the chickens acting strangely. It turned out 0:08:45.520 --> 0:08:48.800 that the chickens were drunk. Her children had stolen some 0:08:48.880 --> 0:08:51.520 of the neighbor's wine and added it to the chickens 0:08:51.640 --> 0:08:55.679 water pans. Otherwise, life was typical for the family. They 0:08:55.760 --> 0:08:58.920 raised cattle, and while his siblings helped on his parents' ranch, 0:08:59.240 --> 0:09:02.040 Parker worked at other ranches to help support the family, 0:09:02.600 --> 0:09:05.280 and that work took Parker further and further away from 0:09:05.320 --> 0:09:08.040 his family and the church. It was at one of 0:09:08.080 --> 0:09:11.840 the many ranches in western Utah that Parker met Mike Cassidy. 0:09:12.080 --> 0:09:15.400 Part time cow hand and full time wrestler, Mike Cassidy 0:09:15.480 --> 0:09:18.960 frequently found himself at odds with the law. Parker shared 0:09:18.960 --> 0:09:21.720 his new mentor's distrust of the law. After a brief 0:09:21.800 --> 0:09:24.080 run in when he was young, he had run an 0:09:24.200 --> 0:09:26.480 errand to the general store, only to find it closed, 0:09:26.600 --> 0:09:29.040 and not wanting to make the journey back empty handed, 0:09:29.080 --> 0:09:31.560 he took a pair of pants and left a note 0:09:31.559 --> 0:09:34.640 to the shopkeeper promising to return with the money. He 0:09:34.800 --> 0:09:38.520 was arrested, but the ShopKeep eventually dropped the charges. Some 0:09:38.559 --> 0:09:42.679 say it was this experience and Cassidy's influence that soured 0:09:42.720 --> 0:09:46.839 Parker on law enforcement. Mike Cassidy took Parker under his 0:09:46.840 --> 0:09:48.720 wing and taught him how to shoot a gun and 0:09:48.800 --> 0:09:51.880 train horses. Not long after, though, he left the ranch, 0:09:52.080 --> 0:09:56.200 leaving Parker behind. So when Parker turned eighteen, he also left, 0:09:56.400 --> 0:09:58.880 hoping to find more in life than farming and cattle. 0:09:59.240 --> 0:10:02.800 He moved around for while before settling until You Ride Colorado. 0:10:03.559 --> 0:10:06.880 In eighteen twenty one, Parker met Matt Warner, who owned 0:10:06.920 --> 0:10:10.000 a race horse. With Parker's knowledge of training horses, the 0:10:10.000 --> 0:10:13.720 two paired up and split the horse's winnings. It wasn't enough, though, 0:10:13.880 --> 0:10:17.560 and Warner suggested a side job a bank robbery, and 0:10:17.679 --> 0:10:22.400 Parker agreed. Now it's unclear why Parker changed his name 0:10:22.440 --> 0:10:24.840 to Cassidy around this time. It could have been to 0:10:24.880 --> 0:10:28.040 honor his mentor to protect his family, or even to 0:10:28.120 --> 0:10:32.360 create a different persona regardless, Cassidy, Warner and two other 0:10:32.440 --> 0:10:35.240 men robbed the San Miguel Bank of twenty one thousand 0:10:35.320 --> 0:10:40.400 dollars worth approximately half a million dollars today. Unfortunately, the 0:10:40.480 --> 0:10:43.160 men spent a large portion of the money at saloons 0:10:43.240 --> 0:10:46.160 and brothels. Cassidy left till You Ride with what little 0:10:46.160 --> 0:10:49.080 money he hadn't squandered, and found work as a butcher 0:10:49.120 --> 0:10:52.079 in Rock Springs, Wyoming. Before long, the people of a 0:10:52.120 --> 0:10:56.120 small town began calling him Butcher Cassidy, and then just 0:10:56.200 --> 0:10:59.080 Butch Cassidy, as you might have guessed. Though, he grew 0:10:59.120 --> 0:11:01.480 tired of working at as a butcher and purchased a 0:11:01.559 --> 0:11:03.880 ranch in Du Bois. Though the ranch was more of 0:11:03.920 --> 0:11:06.880 a front for a Cassidy's rustling business than a place 0:11:06.920 --> 0:11:11.240 to actually raise cattle, the venture proved successful until eighteen 0:11:11.320 --> 0:11:15.480 ninety four, when the local sheriff arrested Cassidy for stealing horses. 0:11:15.880 --> 0:11:18.880 The eighteen month long sentence did little to deter him 0:11:18.920 --> 0:11:21.800 from returning to a life of crime, though. After that 0:11:22.160 --> 0:11:25.520 he banded together with best friend William elz Ellsworth, Lay 0:11:25.960 --> 0:11:30.720 Harvey kid Curry Logan, and Ben Tall Texan Kilpatrick among 0:11:30.840 --> 0:11:34.800 many others. Together, they called themselves the Wild Bunch, and 0:11:34.920 --> 0:11:37.520 in August of eighteen ninety six, they robbed a bank 0:11:37.600 --> 0:11:41.480 of seven thousand dollars, a fortune by today's standards. A 0:11:41.520 --> 0:11:47.120 whole string of other robberies followed in South Dakota, New Mexico, Wyoming, Utah, 0:11:47.280 --> 0:11:50.120 and Montana. The gang used a place called the Hole 0:11:50.160 --> 0:11:52.960 in the Wall Pass as their hideout, a popular stretch 0:11:52.960 --> 0:11:57.000 of land among outlaws in Wyoming. Their success also meant 0:11:57.040 --> 0:11:59.920 that they were wanted men, and many a town sheriff 0:12:00.080 --> 0:12:02.839 were eager to hunt them down. In eighteen ninety nine, 0:12:03.000 --> 0:12:05.559 local law enforcement arrested a few of the Wild Bunch, 0:12:05.760 --> 0:12:09.839 including Cassidy's best friend Elsie Lay. To fill the void 0:12:09.840 --> 0:12:13.720 in their lineup, Kid Curry brought in a newcomer, Harry Longabau. 0:12:14.280 --> 0:12:17.680 Don't recognize the name, Well, that's because his nickname is 0:12:17.760 --> 0:12:22.080 infinitely more famous. Harry Longabow, you see, was the Sun 0:12:22.160 --> 0:12:33.080 Dance Kid. Harry Alonzo Longabau was just a year younger 0:12:33.080 --> 0:12:35.880 than Butch Cassidy. Back when he was fifteen, he was 0:12:35.920 --> 0:12:39.880 sent to help his cousin George suttle out west in Cortes, Colorado, 0:12:40.040 --> 0:12:43.040 while helping his cousin settle in, Harry worked at a 0:12:43.080 --> 0:12:46.560 neighboring ranch, learning to buy and sell horses. That trade 0:12:46.600 --> 0:12:50.000 offered other opportunities for work, and he soon left Cortes 0:12:50.000 --> 0:12:52.560 in eighteen eighty six, taking on a job at a 0:12:52.640 --> 0:12:56.720 ranch in Montana. Now Montana winters are hard, and that 0:12:56.840 --> 0:12:59.360 year was worse than most. The ranch let go of 0:12:59.400 --> 0:13:02.440 many of its ranch hands, so Harry drifted for a while, 0:13:02.600 --> 0:13:05.760 but finding work seemed harder than the winter itself. Now, 0:13:05.760 --> 0:13:08.640 his travels took him to a ranch near Sundance, Wyoming, 0:13:08.800 --> 0:13:11.839 where he stole a horse, a saddle, and a gun. 0:13:12.360 --> 0:13:15.679 The theft landed him an eighteen month prison sentence. Then 0:13:15.720 --> 0:13:18.520 the story of it all gave him his nickname, the 0:13:18.600 --> 0:13:21.840 Sun Dance Kid. It was in eighteen ninety seven that 0:13:21.880 --> 0:13:24.559 he met the Wild Bunch member Kid Curry, and they 0:13:24.640 --> 0:13:28.160 robbed bank together in South Dakota. Authorities did capture them, 0:13:28.160 --> 0:13:31.000 but the outlaws escaped a few months later. After that, 0:13:31.040 --> 0:13:33.320 the pair made their way to the Wild Bunch's hideout. 0:13:34.000 --> 0:13:37.000 While Cassidy and Sundance weren't the best friends that the 0:13:37.080 --> 0:13:39.960 legends would have us believe, they did work well together 0:13:40.240 --> 0:13:43.160 and they began making a name for themselves, although not 0:13:43.320 --> 0:13:47.200 just as outlaws. You see, Cassidy never resorted to violence, 0:13:47.440 --> 0:13:50.040 at least he claimed that he never shot anyone. And 0:13:50.120 --> 0:13:52.080 another thing that made the pair stand out was that 0:13:52.120 --> 0:13:55.200 they occasionally gave some of their stolen money to those 0:13:55.240 --> 0:13:58.679 in need, like a Wild West version of Robin Hood. 0:13:59.320 --> 0:14:02.280 Cassidy's read mutation for helping those in need made the 0:14:02.320 --> 0:14:06.200 Outlaws popular among the common folk across several states. Soft 0:14:06.200 --> 0:14:10.200 hearted and shrewd marketing plan, this alliance between townsfolk and 0:14:10.240 --> 0:14:14.160 outlaws made capturing them a lot more difficult, and the 0:14:14.160 --> 0:14:18.080 Wild Bunch had another ally at a place Sundance met 0:14:18.080 --> 0:14:20.840 Ella sometime in the eighteen nineties, and the bond that 0:14:20.880 --> 0:14:25.800 they formed helped to romanticize the legend. But heroes are outlaws, 0:14:25.920 --> 0:14:29.360 the gang presented a growing problem to the authorities. The 0:14:29.400 --> 0:14:32.520 Wild Bunch robbed a Union Pacific Railroad train on June 0:14:32.600 --> 0:14:36.200 second of eighteen ninety nine of around fifty thousand dollars, 0:14:36.200 --> 0:14:38.920 which would be worth over one point eight million today. 0:14:39.360 --> 0:14:42.720 The gang had successfully pulled off the most incredible train 0:14:42.840 --> 0:14:47.320 robbery in history. A month later, Cassidy stayed behind while 0:14:47.320 --> 0:14:49.320 the rest of the Wild Bunch robbed the Colorado and 0:14:49.360 --> 0:14:52.880 Southern Railroad for a similar amount. This time, though authorities 0:14:52.920 --> 0:14:55.560 caught up with the gang. The ensuing gun battle killed 0:14:55.600 --> 0:14:58.880 men on both sides. Els A Lay was arrested and 0:14:58.960 --> 0:15:01.320 sentenced to life in print in for killing a sheriff. 0:15:01.680 --> 0:15:04.200 As for the rest of the Wild Bunch, Federal authorities 0:15:04.240 --> 0:15:07.840 called in the Pinkerton Agency for assistance, offering a thirty 0:15:07.920 --> 0:15:11.920 thousand dollars reward. In nineteen hundred, Cassidy wrote a letter 0:15:11.960 --> 0:15:15.560 to Utah's governor asking for amnesty. The governor suggested that 0:15:15.600 --> 0:15:19.880 Cassidy ask the Union Pacific Railroad to drop the charges instead, 0:15:19.960 --> 0:15:22.720 butch Cassidy and the Sundance kid robbed another one of 0:15:22.760 --> 0:15:26.000 their trains on August twenty ninth of nineteen hundred, noting 0:15:26.000 --> 0:15:29.720 them fifty five thousand dollars, hardly the letter the railroad 0:15:29.800 --> 0:15:33.440 was expecting. I'm sure Cassidy and Sundance fled to New 0:15:33.520 --> 0:15:36.360 York after that. In nineteen oh one, the men, along 0:15:36.360 --> 0:15:39.280 with at a Place, headed to Buenos Aires to settle 0:15:39.320 --> 0:15:42.000 into a new life there. The trio even purchased a 0:15:42.040 --> 0:15:45.840 fifteen thousand acre ranch on Rio Blanco's East bank and 0:15:46.160 --> 0:15:49.840 Here's where Cassidy and Sundance made a fatal mistake. They 0:15:49.960 --> 0:15:53.120 went back to a life of crime. The men you see, 0:15:53.160 --> 0:15:56.120 sold everything and went on the run once again. By 0:15:56.200 --> 0:15:59.440 nineteen oh four, word of English speaking outlaws had reached 0:15:59.480 --> 0:16:02.000 the United Slime States. They were wanted by the South 0:16:02.040 --> 0:16:05.480 American government, and now the Pinkerton Agency had sent their 0:16:05.520 --> 0:16:06.640 best to track them down. 0:16:06.680 --> 0:16:06.880 There. 0:16:07.320 --> 0:16:10.000 A courier for a silver mine claimed that two American 0:16:10.040 --> 0:16:13.160 bandits had robbed them, and witnesses told authorities that they 0:16:13.200 --> 0:16:15.640 spotted the men at a boarding house. Three days later. 0:16:16.040 --> 0:16:19.640 Bolivian soldiers and the local police surrounded the house on 0:16:19.680 --> 0:16:23.280 the evening of November sixth of nineteen oh eight. Bolivia's 0:16:23.280 --> 0:16:27.880 mayor also showed up, intent on personally handcuffing the outlaws himself. 0:16:28.360 --> 0:16:30.440 I'm sure it was a great plan, but it didn't 0:16:30.520 --> 0:16:33.440 work out that way. Shots rang out, killing one of 0:16:33.440 --> 0:16:36.960 the soldiers. The other soldiers and the police returned fire, 0:16:37.360 --> 0:16:40.440 not stopping until they had riddled the walls with bullet holes. 0:16:41.000 --> 0:16:44.360 After a brief moment of quiet, screaming erupted from within 0:16:44.400 --> 0:16:48.440 the house. The crack of two gunshots followed, and then silence. 0:16:49.240 --> 0:16:52.440 Soldiers burst into the house and found two men dead 0:16:52.480 --> 0:16:56.800 on the floor. After a legendary career, Butch Cassidy and 0:16:56.840 --> 0:17:08.760 the sun Dance Kid had reached the end of the line. 0:17:08.840 --> 0:17:12.359 Both bodies had several gunshot wounds. The man believed to 0:17:12.359 --> 0:17:15.639 be Sundance had been shot between the eye's execution style. 0:17:15.960 --> 0:17:18.440 The other body had a fatal bullet wound in the head. 0:17:18.920 --> 0:17:22.080 It appeared that Cassidy had shot Sundance to put him 0:17:22.080 --> 0:17:24.320 out of his pain from the other wounds, and then 0:17:24.359 --> 0:17:28.080 turned the gun on himself rather than be captured. Bolivian 0:17:28.119 --> 0:17:31.560 officials buried the bodies in the San Vicente Cemetery in 0:17:31.720 --> 0:17:36.040 unmarked graves. With that, both countries moved on. But there 0:17:36.080 --> 0:17:39.160 was a problem. The men who robbed the courier might 0:17:39.240 --> 0:17:43.320 not have been Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Eventually, 0:17:43.440 --> 0:17:47.760 whispers of their escape began to spread. Rumors soon became legend, 0:17:48.040 --> 0:17:51.080 arguably one of the most famous stories of the Wild West. 0:17:51.760 --> 0:17:54.280 So what happened to the outlaws? Did they die in 0:17:54.320 --> 0:17:57.040 a blaze of glory as depicted in the nineteen sixty 0:17:57.119 --> 0:18:01.000 nine films starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford, or did 0:18:01.040 --> 0:18:04.800 they escape in the nineteen nineties, researchers set out to 0:18:04.840 --> 0:18:08.040 find their graves and put the long standing rumors to rest. 0:18:08.520 --> 0:18:11.520 They tested the remains of the men buried in several graves, 0:18:11.840 --> 0:18:15.520 but none of them was a genetic match. Another researcher 0:18:15.560 --> 0:18:19.120 in twenty seventeen tried it again with the same results. 0:18:19.480 --> 0:18:22.440 Whoever the men buried in the unmarked graves were, they 0:18:22.440 --> 0:18:26.720 were not related to the infamous outlaws. Today, some historians 0:18:26.760 --> 0:18:29.000 think that it's possible that the men inside the boarding 0:18:29.040 --> 0:18:32.600 house weren't Cassidy or sun Dance. They theorized that the 0:18:32.640 --> 0:18:36.200 Bolivian authorities killed two run of the mill robbers instead. 0:18:36.680 --> 0:18:40.520 But it gets even more intriguing. Residents of Bags, Wyoming 0:18:40.720 --> 0:18:44.280 say Cassidy visited there in nineteen twenty four, driving a 0:18:44.359 --> 0:18:48.119 Ford Model tee around town. Cassidy's surviving family said that 0:18:48.160 --> 0:18:50.960 they had seen him several times, and those in Cassidy's 0:18:51.000 --> 0:18:53.600 hometown of Circleville claimed that they saw him and his 0:18:53.680 --> 0:18:57.800 brother Mark driving around in the same Ford. Cassidy's sister 0:18:57.880 --> 0:19:01.399 Lula told reporters that she remembered his return clearly. It 0:19:01.440 --> 0:19:03.919 was nineteen twenty four and he had driven up in 0:19:04.000 --> 0:19:06.879 a Ford Model tea. Later that day, she and her 0:19:06.920 --> 0:19:10.560 brother sat together eating blueberry pie. Lula said that her 0:19:10.640 --> 0:19:12.879 brother regretted the mess that he had made of his 0:19:12.960 --> 0:19:16.359 life and for disappointing their mother. And when he died 0:19:16.440 --> 0:19:19.159 on an autumn day in nineteen thirty seven from pneumonia, 0:19:19.480 --> 0:19:22.080 the family made a pact tell no one where they 0:19:22.119 --> 0:19:25.000 had buried him. He'd been chased all his life, and 0:19:25.040 --> 0:19:27.879 they thought that he deserved to rest in peace. Now 0:19:27.920 --> 0:19:30.600 there's no word on whatever happened to Sundance Kid or 0:19:30.600 --> 0:19:34.000 his girlfriend at a place. In her book, Butch Cassidy 0:19:34.080 --> 0:19:37.480 my brother, Lula claims that the pair went straight after 0:19:37.520 --> 0:19:40.720 that night in Bolivia. The truth remains a mystery to 0:19:40.760 --> 0:19:43.800 this day. Tales of Butch Cassidy living out the rest 0:19:43.800 --> 0:19:47.000 of his days under a fake name still circulate like 0:19:47.080 --> 0:19:50.360 dust in a sandstorm, passed along from family to family 0:19:50.760 --> 0:19:55.280 and generation to generation. Wherever Butch Cassidy is buried, we 0:19:55.400 --> 0:19:59.119 may never know. Lula was his last surviving sibling. She 0:19:59.200 --> 0:20:01.399 passed away at the the ripe old age of ninety 0:20:01.440 --> 0:20:04.960 six back in nineteen eighty, taking the answers to the 0:20:05.040 --> 0:20:15.320 mystery to the grave. There are few legendary characters that 0:20:15.400 --> 0:20:18.160 embody the Wild West. Like Butch Cassidy and the Sun 0:20:18.240 --> 0:20:22.920 Dance Kid. Between their robin hood esque reputation, massive success, 0:20:23.320 --> 0:20:27.680 and mysterious ending, their story has all the ingredients necessary 0:20:27.800 --> 0:20:30.480 to make a legend. But they aren't the only ones. 0:20:30.840 --> 0:20:33.160 And if you stick around through this brief sponsor break, 0:20:33.560 --> 0:20:37.080 my teammates Ali Stead will tell you all about one 0:20:37.200 --> 0:20:38.880 more Wild West legend. 0:20:44.640 --> 0:20:48.920 Prospector Ed Schefflin had been warned. Soldiers at an Arizona 0:20:49.000 --> 0:20:52.200 Army outpost told him he'd find nothing except his own 0:20:52.280 --> 0:20:56.200 tombstone near the Dragoon Mountains in eighteen seventy seven. They 0:20:56.200 --> 0:20:59.879 called the area goose Flats, and Ed ignored their warning. 0:21:00.840 --> 0:21:03.760 As it turned out, he didn't find his tombstone out there, 0:21:04.280 --> 0:21:08.560 he did find something else, something better. He found silver 0:21:09.320 --> 0:21:14.200 and soon founded a mine, ironically naming a Tombstone. By 0:21:14.240 --> 0:21:18.280 eighteen eighty, settlers named a nearby town Tombstone after Ed's mine. 0:21:18.560 --> 0:21:22.280 Home to over one hundred saloons, fourteen gambling houses, a 0:21:22.400 --> 0:21:25.600 dance hall, and a popular red light district, the town 0:21:25.640 --> 0:21:30.120 became one of the West's wealthiest and most populated. Tombstone 0:21:30.160 --> 0:21:33.080 was very new, and like many Western mining towns, the 0:21:33.160 --> 0:21:36.080 influx of outlaws and wrestlers made it difficult for lawmen 0:21:36.200 --> 0:21:40.080 to keep the peace. Everyone carried a gun and the 0:21:40.080 --> 0:21:43.720 townsfolk were no strangers to violence. To make Tombstone a 0:21:43.760 --> 0:21:46.280 safer place to live, the town decided to name a 0:21:46.359 --> 0:21:50.919 new marshal in eighteen eighty one, and they chose Virgil Irp. 0:21:51.520 --> 0:21:54.800 Virgil and his brothers Wyatt, Morgan and James, had moved 0:21:54.800 --> 0:21:59.360 to Tombstone in December eighteen seventy nine. Wyatt loved boomtowns 0:21:59.440 --> 0:22:01.960 and gambling, so it was little surprised that the brothers 0:22:02.000 --> 0:22:05.520 opened a few saloons and brothels, though Virgil also found 0:22:05.520 --> 0:22:08.199 work as a bank guard. Wyatt brought his friend and 0:22:08.320 --> 0:22:11.000 fellow gambler, Doc Holiday, into the fold, and the group 0:22:11.080 --> 0:22:14.520 quickly gained a reputation for their ruthlessness and determination to 0:22:14.600 --> 0:22:18.600 keep the peace by any means necessary. But not everyone 0:22:18.800 --> 0:22:20.639 liked the IRPs or the way they ran the town. 0:22:21.359 --> 0:22:24.439 On the outskirts of Tombstone were ranches belonging to the 0:22:24.480 --> 0:22:28.159 Clantons and the mclory's. The two groups loosely formed a 0:22:28.160 --> 0:22:31.880 band of outlaws known as the Cowboys. Being thieves and rustlers, 0:22:31.920 --> 0:22:35.480 the cowboys constantly challenged the Rps for control over the town. 0:22:35.960 --> 0:22:39.159 The townsfolk knew this and watched a storm brewing between 0:22:39.160 --> 0:22:43.879 the lawmen and the outlaws. One night in late October 0:22:43.920 --> 0:22:46.439 of eighteen eighty one, Doc Holliday and one of the 0:22:46.440 --> 0:22:51.359 cowboys got into a heated argument. Outnumbered and underprepared, Ike 0:22:51.480 --> 0:22:54.800 Clanton stormed off, telling Wyater that he and the others 0:22:54.840 --> 0:22:58.040 would be ready for him, his brothers, and Holiday in 0:22:58.080 --> 0:23:01.040 the morning. It was a threat that Clantons made good on. 0:23:01.400 --> 0:23:04.439 They arrived the next morning with the full intent of 0:23:04.520 --> 0:23:08.920 causing trouble, and fully armed. Gunfights broke out across the town. 0:23:09.280 --> 0:23:12.280 Virgil and Morgan caught and disarmed Ike and dragged him 0:23:12.320 --> 0:23:15.720 before a judge, but he was only fined and then released. 0:23:16.560 --> 0:23:19.960 Ike's younger brother and the Mcloryes arrived later that day. 0:23:20.320 --> 0:23:24.080 Intent on retaliation. The group headed to the Ok Corral, 0:23:24.200 --> 0:23:27.280 where witnesses heard them talking about killing the IRPs and Holiday. 0:23:27.720 --> 0:23:30.040 The IRPs decided they'd had enough of the gangs and 0:23:30.119 --> 0:23:33.040 made their way to confront them. The weather was cold 0:23:33.080 --> 0:23:36.119 that afternoon as the IRPs and Holidays strode down the street, 0:23:36.240 --> 0:23:39.920 their long black coats rustling in the wind. Residents stood 0:23:40.000 --> 0:23:43.399 quietly as the lawmen passed. Others peeked out from cracks 0:23:43.440 --> 0:23:46.760 and doorways and behind curtains at the windows. Under a 0:23:46.760 --> 0:23:50.480 clear sky, a storm was brewing. As the two groups 0:23:50.520 --> 0:23:54.040 faced each other, witnesses held their breaths. No one was 0:23:54.080 --> 0:23:56.760 expecting the confrontation to end well, as the IRPs and 0:23:56.800 --> 0:24:01.760 Holiday were easily outnumbered. Completely undeterred, Virgil demanded the cowboys 0:24:01.840 --> 0:24:07.520 drop their weapons. The cowboys scoffed and refused, not so politely. 0:24:07.920 --> 0:24:11.320 Clinton drew his gun. The IRPs and Holiday quickly drew Theirs, 0:24:11.640 --> 0:24:15.240 and the shootout began. No one knows who fired first, 0:24:15.600 --> 0:24:18.280