Butch and Sundance: Butch Pulls Off Another Daring Robbery

And here's a map of some of Butch's hideouts, most of them in Utah, so you can see where Robbers Roost and Brown's Park are located:

This time going into hiding is different though because Butch took his girlfriend and Elzy took his wife. Photos in yesterday's post. source

How they all made it out there in the wilderness is beyond me, I think it would be just surviving. But then, we're used to luxuries that we call essential. Butch was not one to sit idle though. They spent the winter out in that cabin but Butch had plans for another heist as soon as Spring came.

Actually, I think most of that reasoning was the weather. It's easy to track someone in the snow so they were waiting for the snow to melt. At least that's my opinion but I'm no expert.

Should get the opinion of @ganjafarmer, who is Shoshone-Bannock. (For those who don't know, the Shoshone-Bannock is one of our great indigenous people tribes here in America)

At any rate Butch planned this new job for April. How he found out about all this stuff I don't know, perhaps when he was in prison.

Butch's daring new plan

The plan was to hit the Pleasant Valley Coal Company in Castle Gate, Utah. Castle Gate was a mining town and Pleasant Valley pretty much owned the town and employed every working man there.

Butch knew the payroll for the workers arrived every week by train but the company varied the days that it arrived so as to make it difficult for thieves to plan a heist. Since he didn't know what day the payroll came into town Butch and Elzy would have to hang around town and try to blend in until the train showed up with the payroll.

Blending in

Given that the town was composed of almost 100% miners and many of them being foreign workers it wasn't the most ideal circumstances to blend in but they dressed in denim overalls and brown work coats like the miners wore and and I'm sure they had to dirty them up too, to make them look worn and worked in.

Butch was such a careful planner that I'm sure every detail was thought out.

One day there was an extra large crowd of workers hanging around the station, over one hundred, so Butch knew this was payday. He hung around the staircase leading up to the company offices which was close to the train station. He knew the money bags would have to go up those stairs.

The money arrives

The train pulls in and the Paymaster and his clerk came down the stairs and walks over to the train station to collect their bags. When they get back they're carrying two bags. One has $1,000 in silver and the other has $860 in silver and $1,000 in coins. They also have a leather pouch holding $7,000 in gold. That gold was some serious money.

Let's break that down in today's equivalent values: $1,000 back then was like $30,000 in today's dollars so those two bags of silver and coins was worth $86,000. But the big one was the gold...that 7grand was worth the equivalent of $209,000 today.

So in a time when $90 to $100 a month was a good wage and cowboys were earning $30 to $40 a month...geez..they were rich!

The hold up

When the men get to the stairs Butch steps up and puts his gun to the Paymaster's head and tells him to drop the bags and raise his hands. (He asked him very politely though, lol.) By this time Elzy had saddled up and idled his horse in Butch's direction, being as nonchalant as he could, holding the reins of Butch's horse also and bringing it along.

When Butch pulled out his gun the Paymaster's clerk panicked and ran into another building with one of the bags holding $1,000 in silver. Butch kept calm and focused on the Paymaster who was frozen in time.

Minor glitch

Butch reached down and grabbed the two bags and dashed toward Elzy and the horses. When he got close enough he tossed the bags up to Elzy who inadvertently dropped the reins of Butches horse when he caught the bags. The startled horse galloped down the street with Elsy riding after him.

Butch faced the crowd of amazed and confused miners and brought up his six gun, announcing in a calm voice "Don't anybody make a mistake, everything's going to be all right." Elzy was able to catch Butch's horse and had brought him back in just a few seconds so Butch swung into the saddle and they charged down the street.

Excellent planning, clean get away

There were a few shots that rang out and bullets flew over their heads but they were out of site in mere moments on their fast mounts. The Paymaster ran to the telegraph office to alert others but Butch had cut the lines.

As was his usual plan he of course had fresh horses stationed along the route so they easily outdistanced the posse that was formed. Plus they kept cutting telegraph wires along their way and made it safely back to Robbers Roost. Oh, and they had dropped the bag containing silver to lighten their load and just kept the gold.

They were so far ahead of any posses that they didn't need to drop the silver but that was playing it safe, they didn't know how good or bad the posse would be. This was another perfect heist with the exception of the little delay with the dropped reins and spooked horse. Very brazen too, among a hundred workers!

The story continues tomorrow as Butch begins to form his infamous gang known as The Wild Bunch.

Thanks for reading folks, God bless you all!
-jonboy Texas
the gentleman redneck

PS- ya know...you might just be a redneck if:

You don't know anyone who has less than ten guns!