“Butch Cassidy Came Back”

From Jim Nielson via the private MyFamily.com Bodily website.

By Kerry Ross Boren with Lisa Lee Boren

When I founded the National Outlaw-Lawman Association (NOLA) in 1974, with headquarters at Utah State University, Logan, Utah, one of the first members – and later a member of the board of directors – was Clinton Vernon. Mr. Vernon was formerly Attorney General of Utah, and a nephew of Tom Vernon, mayor and virtual owner of the town of Baggs, Wyoming.

In 1975 I had the unique opportunity of introducing Clinton Vernon to Duane Moran, a grandson of Harvey Logan, alias Kid Curry. Duane Moran, reminiscent of his grandfather’s attitude, upon shaking Mr. Vernon’s hand, remarked: “Are you a lawyer, or a liar?”

At about the same time, Clinton Vernon donated many of the old buildings from Baggs, which he had inherited upon the death of his uncle, Tom Vernon, for the erection of a western theme-town on the campus of USU, in conjunction with NOLA. Portions of the old Vernon Hotel and Jack Ryan’s “Bulldog Saloon” – both associated with the Wild Bunch – were among the structures donated.

Tom Vernon was no stranger to me; I had heard stories about him since my childhood. He was, in fact, my grandmother’s brother-in-law..of sorts. Tom’s brother, Andrew Vernon, married one of the Bodily girls of Vernal, whose sister, Mary Ann Bodily, married James N. Jones, my grandmother’s brother.’ My grandmother, Lovina Jones, was the wife of William C. Boren, life-long friend of Tom Vernon.

I first met Tom Vernon in the mid-1960’s, when he was an octogenarian, on a hot summer day at his home in Baggs, Wyoming. He lived in an apartment at the rear of the building which once housed the Vernon Hotel. He was a large man, by the standard of his years, a little stoop-shouldered, but strong.

I came by way of introduction from Josie Bassett Morris.’ When I mentioned her, Tom’s countenance lit up. “Did you know Josie?” he asked. I told him that I had talked with her at length, and she had spoken of him with fondness.

“Hell, yes,” he said. “Josie and me was close friends for years. When she was hard up, with two small boys to raise, I brought her here from Rock Springs to work for me in the hotel.”

Using Josie’s stories of her own acquaintance with Butch Cassidy, I plied Tom for information on his own friendship with the amiable outlaw. What follows is Tom Vernon’s own account (paraphrased) of his dramatic first meeting with Cassidy, his continuing friendship with him, and his final encounter with the leader of the Wild Bunch after his supposed death in South America.

In 1896, Tom Vernon was a young man eighteen years old, residing with his family near Vernal, Utah. He was no better or worse than he should have been for a youth of his time, involving himself in a few exciting adventures which bordered on the limits of the law. His worst record, that he could recall, was when he and Joe Steinaker, with Erastus Workman (who married Eliza, daughter of William Boren), were arrested for rustling horses.

“We could easily have gone to prison,” Tom said, “but Sheriff Pope went to bat for us and talked the owner of the horses out of pressing charges. Pope thought we was just ‘misguided youths,’ as he was prone to say, and not dyed-in-the-wool outlaws. I guess I owned him one for that.”

But Tom still had visions of becoming a full-fledged outlaw. As he talked with me about his youth, he laughed, recalling how naive he had been. “I had big dreams about being a famous bank and train robber, and Butch Cassidy was my idol.” The more he listened to Sheriff Pope using examples of Cassidy’s life as a deterrent to crime, the more Tom wanted to be just like him.

Then one day his brother Andrew, who spent most of his time hanging around the Jim Jones ranch in Maeser Ward where he could be close to Miss Bodily, came to him out of breath.

“Guess who’s renting one of Jim’s cabins?” Andrew asked. Tome avowed that he couldn’t guess. “Butch Cassidy and Elzy Lay, that’s who,” retorted Andrew, as though he had made an important coup. In fact, Elzy Lay had only recently married Maude Davis, the pretty twenty-two-year-old daughter of Allen Davis, whose ranch adjoined the Jones place on Ashley Fork. Butch Cassidy was only recently released from Wyoming State Penitentiary and, according to Tom, was sharing the same cabin with Elzy and Maude, and another beautiful twenty-year-old girl named Etta Place.

“They had a wire stretched across the middle of the cabin,” Tom explained. “They hung blankets on this wire to make a room divider. Elzy and Maude slept on one side, Butch and Etta on the other.”

The cabin which adjoined theirs was occupied by William C. Boren and his family, including the three-year-old twins, Edward and Ezra (Edward was my father). Butch made himself extremely popular with the children by bringing them candy whenever he rode into town.

Butch and Elzy had rented the cabin to afford the Davis family some privacy, for they were mourning the recent death of Maude’s sister, Belle.’

Tom found every excuse possible to visit the Jones place, in the hopes of striking up a friendship with Cassidy, but little opportunity afford itself. Cassidy and Lay, who had only recently (August 13, 1896) robbed the bank at Montpelier, Idaho, were “laying low.” When the opportunity did avail itself, it occurred in a most dramatic fashion, which would alter Tom’s life forevermore.

Sometime in October 1896,’ Sheriff Pope received a warrant for the arrest of Cassidy and Lay for the Montpelier bank robbery. Accompanied by Joe Moore, Nat Hunting, Dick Pope, and Pete Dillman as a posse,’ Pope proceeded to the Davis ranch one evening after dark to effect the arrest.

Pete Dillman entered the Davis house first, alone, on the ruse that he wanted to hire twenty-four-year-old Albert Davis to work for him for a couple of weeks. He noted that the parents, Allen and Matilda Davis, appeared to be in the house alone; but as soon as he went out the front door, Allen Davis slipped out the back door, and ran right into the arms of Sheriff Pope. He admitted that the outlaws had been there earlier, but had since gone.

In the meantime, seventeen-year-old Frank Davis slipped out of the house and ran up the creek trail to the Jones cabin and aroused Lay from his sleep and warned him that the Sheriff was looking for him. Lay hurriedly dressed and departed, escaping into the darkness.

After searching around the Davis place and finding nothing, Pope and his posse rode back to Vernal. As they passed the Antler Saloon, Pete Dillman noticed young Albert Davis sitting on the steps. As soon as he saw the posse, he got up and quickly ran inside. Cassidy, who was inside the saloon, escaped out the back.

Cassidy and Lay soon got together again and prepared to go south for a protracted period to let things cool down; but before leaving, Butch had some unfinished business to take care of.

Between the Davis ranch and Vernal was the home of the Coltharp family, where Butch often stopped to pass out candy to the children. He noted that Mrs. Coltharp, a big, kind-hearted woman, had nothing in her house – no furniture, bedding, or food.

When he inquired about it, he was surprised to learn that her husband was the owner of Coltharp’s store in town, and was one of the wealthiest men in Vernal. Mrs. Coltharp said charitably that her husband was very “frugal,” but Butch remarked that frugality was no excuse for neglect of his family. Additionally, there were indications that both the woman and her children had been physically abused.

Butch Cassidy and Elzy Lay acquired a team and wagon and appeared in front of Coltharp’s store after hours, as Mr. Coltharp worked late on his books. Their saddle horses were tied behind the wagon. At precisely that moment, Tom Vernon came riding down the street.

“Hey, Kid!” Butch called out to him. “How’d you like to earn a twenty dollar gold-piece?” Tom avowed that he would. Butch asked him to take their mounts and hold them ready across the street from the store.

Butch and Elzy they entered the store, guns drawn, and confronted Coltharp. They forced him to load the wagon with groceries, bedding, a new heating stove, candy and toys for children, clothing, and sewing material for Mrs. Coltharp. All of this was witnessed with great interest by Tom Vernon a few yards away across the street.

“Butch forced old man Coltharp to take the reins of the wagon team,” said Tom. “Then he commenced to give him a stern lecture about the treatment of his wife and kids. Butch told him that he planned on stopping by every now and then, unannounced, and if there was no food in the cupboards, of if even one of those kids or his wife complained on
being mistreated, there would be hell to pay. As far as I know, the family never had another problem.”

Butch and Elzy watched the wagon leave, then walked across the street to retrieve their horses from Tom. Butch thanked him, flipped him the $20 gold-piece, and mounted to ride away.

“What about me?” Tom called out. “I can’t stay in town now. Coltharp might bring charges. Let me ride along with you guys.”

Cassidy refused, citing that he was too young and inexperienced to ride the Outlaw Trail; but he did feel responsible for getting the youth into trouble. He asked Tom if he had any preference as to where he would like to go. Tom replied that he had once driven a herd of sheep to Baggs, Wyoming, and kind of liked the place. Butch handed Tom a roll of bills amounting to $500 and instructed him to look up Jack Ryan, owner of the
Bulldog Saloon at Baggs, who would help him get a start there. “I asked Butch how I would ever pay him back for the loan, and he hollered back over his shoulder as he rode away: ‘We’ll be partners. I’ll look you up in a few months and see how you’re doing.”‘

Tom Vernon rode directly to Baggs and looked up Jack Ryan, as instructed. Ryan helped him to invest the $500 as down-payment on an old hotel next to the Bulldog Saloon.

Tom next saw his mentor in August 1897, when Butch rode at the head of his newly organized gang and took over the towns of Dixon and Baggs in a celebration which earned them the sobriquet “Wild Bunch.” The entire going stayed in the Vernon Hotel and drank at the Bulldog Saloon, paying $1.00 for every bullet-hole they shot into the bar.

The lobby of the Vernon Hotel supplied the back-drop for a mot unusual event. During the wild celebration, Old Man Dick Bender took suddenly ill and died – probably due to alcohol overdose. As a result, the attending physician was brought before a kangaroo court. John “Jack” Bennett, one of the Brown’s Park boys, was appointed as “Judge” and
Butch played the part of “prosecuting attorney,” while Elzy was “defense attorney” on behalf of the unfortunate doctor.

“The whole thing was nothing but a joke, and the doctor was never in any danger,” said Tom, “but he didn’t know that. He was told that if he was found guilty, they was going to hang him, and he believed it.

“I remember old Harve Logan, after the trail was ever, walked up to Butch and says, ‘God, Butch, you was good. I almost believed you was a damned prosecutor and it was all I could do to keep from shooting you!” The doctor was found guilty of “gross incompetence” and he trembled as sentence was passed by “Judge” Bennett: “The court sentences you to buy a round of drinks for the house!” When the sentence was passed, some of the disgruntled inebriates shouted, “Hang the judge!” Ironically, less than a year later, an angry mob hanged Jack Bennett from the gatepost of the Bassett ranch in Brown’s Park Before Cassidy left Baggs, Tom tried to repay the $500 Butch had loaned him, with which he had purchased the hotel, but Butch refused to accept it. Tom persisted, saying that he owned the debt and intended to pay it.

Tom said: “At last Butch took the money, sticking it in his shirt pocket. Then he scared me to death by drawing his six-shooter and firing a shot right by my head! I thought he was mad ’cause I made him take the money. But he just grinned. The bullet shattered a mirror on the wall behind me. Butch said, ‘Hell, this here gun’s got a hair trigger. It’s
always going off like that. Look at what I’ve gone and done with my carelessness. Here – this had ought to cover the damages,’ and he slapped the $500 on the table and walked out. That’s the way Butch was, you know.”

I asked Tom when he next saw Cassidy, and he related a series of encounters during the period of 1897-1900 too lengthy to recount here. However, his accounts of Cassidy following the turn of the century bear repeating.

“Butch came to Baggs to see me in 1905,” Tom told me. “He had been in South America, but come back to try to help get Elzy Lay out of prison.” Almost as an after-thought, Tom said, “Well, hell, here’s the proof!” He set a dozen whiskey shot glasses on the table in front of me. “Butch brought me these,” he said proudly. “He got them at the St. Louis
World’s Fair in 1904.” Sure enough each glass was inscribed: “World Exposition – St. Louis – 1904.””

That wasn’t the end of the story:

“Butch pulled som strings, and Elzy was released from prison in New Mexico before Christmas that year (1905).7 In the spring of 1906 Elzy come here to Baggs looking for Butch, but he had gone back to South America. Elzy was using the name Maginnis when he come here – everybody called him Mae -but he went back to his own name after a while. He
bought up the old Bulldog Saloon and ran it up until the time he married one of the Calvert girls (Mary). They had two children by the time he moved away from Boggs…”

I asked Tom if he was familiar with the account of the death of Cassidy and Longabaugh in South America. He smiled wryly and acknowledged that he was, but that he didn’t believe it. I asked him if he had any information about Cassidy returning to the United States after his supposed death; it was a loaded question, for my old fiend and author John Rolfe Burroughs had already informed me that Vernon knew something. Tom didn’t hesitate to respond. He told me he had seen Cassidy several times after he returned, but he seemed reluctant to talk about all except the last time he had seen him – in 1924.

“I got a telephone call from Josie,” he said. “She lived in Rock Springs at the time. She said, ‘You’ll never guess who’s here to visit with me – Butch and Elzy. They want to drive over to Baggs and see you. Butch wants to know if you’ve still got his old room for him to stay in.’ Butch had a favorite room, up on the second floor overlooking the street, with access to the back stairs…”

They came to Baggs, said Tom, driving a Ford touring car a pulling a two-wheeled trailer loaded with camping equipment. They stayed about two weeks, and Butch occupied his old room. A few old friends came by to see them and they drove down to the Little Snake River to visit others. “It was quite a reunion,” Tom told me, “but it was all kept pretty quiet at the time. Elzy was using his own name, but he introduced Butch as an oil geologist, looking for prospects.”

In fact, Tom Vernon’s account of the 1924 visit of Butch Cassidy is verified by half a dozen other notable sources, including Josie Bassett Morris, Tom Welch, Ada Calvert Piper, Bert Charter, John Taylor, and Butch’s own sister, Lula Parker Betenson.

Josie Bassett Morris recalled that she was living at Rock Springs at the time when Bert Kraft, bartender at the South Pass bar, called her up and told her to come down; several friends were in town to see her. She had a fond reunion with Butch and Elzy. “Both were packing a little too much weight,” she recalled.’

Tom Welch, who had once ridden with the Wild Bunch as a fringe member, claimed that Cassidy picked him up one day in 1924 at his ranch near Burnt Fork, Wyoming, driving a Model T Ford with a two-wheeled trailer loaded with camping gear. They toured some of their old haunts, including Brown’s Park, and met Elzy Lay at the Park Hotel in Rock Springs.’

Ada Calvert Piper, of Lander, Wyoming, was sister-in-law of Elzy Lay. She learned about Cassidy’s return from Lay himself.” Bert Charter, who had helped Cassidy rob the bank at Telluride, Colorado, on June 24, 1889, operated the Spring Gulch Ranch in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, in 1924-25. In 1925, according to Bert’s son, Boyd Charter, Butch Cassidy drove into the ranch in a Model T Ford pulling a two-wheeled trailer loaded with camping gear. He set up his tent in a grove of trees near the main house and remained for part of the summer.”

John Taylor, retired auto dealer, who was a mechanic at Rock Springs during the 1920’s, told author John Rolfe Burroughs, that “one day in 1922 Butch Cassidy drove into the shop in a Model T to get some work done on the car. He was pulling a two-wheel trailer loaded with camping gear. He asked me a lot of questions about old-timers around Rock Springs. He didn’t tell me who he was, but I recognized him.” 12 John Taylor – from whom I brought my first car – often told me this story, and elaborated that he had known Butch when the outlaw used to stay on the Taylor ranch in Bridger Valley.

Finally, Cassidy’s sister, Lula Parker Betenson, revealed that Butch came home to visit his family at Circleville, Utah, in 1925. 13 Tom Vernon assured me that the last time he saw Butch Cassidy was in 1924; but it was not the last he heard from him. From a metal box he produced several letters, worn from countless folding and unfolding. One
of these was postmarked Las Vegas, Nevada; another was postmarked Goldfield, Nevada; another Baltimore, Maryland. There were others which he was careful that I didn’t see.

I visited Tom Vernon several times thereafter. My final question to him was whether he knew what happened to Butch Cassidy. He didn’t hesitate to tell me.

“Butch died about twenty years ago down in Pahrump, Nevada. Ann (Bassett) Willis was the one told me about it; she had been to his grave. He spent his last days prospecting in the Death Valley country.” After a long pause, during which he seemed to be watching mental pictures of days gone by, Tom sighed and summarized what I had so often heard from others who knew Butch Cassidy: “..He was the fairest man, and the best friend I ever had.”

FOOTNOTES

1. Information provided by Alma Leroy Boren and Edward Boren, formerly of Manila, Utah; LDS Genealogical Archives, SLC, UT

2. Author’s interview with Josie Bassett Morris at her home near Jensen, Utah, in 1960. Isabelle “Belle” Davis was born Jan. 7, 1877, and died Oct. 14, 1896.

3. It must have been after October 14 when Belle Davis died, inasmuch as the Davis family was in mourning.

4. The Life and Times of Peter Dillman, by Peter Dillman, Art City Pub. co., Springville, Utah, 1954, p.84; see also: “Sheriff John Theodore Burton, The Outlaw Trail Journal, Summer 1991 vol.1 no.l.

5. The Pinkerton files contain a report by a Los Angeles “criminal informant, Number 85,” dated March 21, 1909, which says, in part: “Jim Lowe (Cassidy) went there (Argentina) with Harry Longabaugh and another man in the summer of 1901. Harry came back in 1903. 1 think Lowe remained until 1905 when he pulled out for the United States. I think it was the month of May. The last I heard of him by letter was from Baggs, Wyoming, and he said he wanted Longabaugh to sell his part of the stuff and send him the money as he was going to the northwest territories.”

6. The official release date is listed as January 10, 1906, but there is some evidence that he was actually released more than a month earlier.

7. Author’s interview with Josie Bassett Morris, Jensen, Utah, 1960.

8. Interviews with Tom Welch, Green River, Wyoming, 1960-1964. (for additional information on the accounts of both Josie Bassett Morris and Tom Welch, see: Where The Old West Stayed Young , John Rolph Burroughs, Bonanza Books, New York, 1962.

9. Letter, Ada Piper to Blythe Stillwell, June 28, 1967; Blythe Stillwell was sister-in-law of outlaw Bill Carver.

10. Letter, Boyd Charter to Janette M. Musgrave, Jan. 7, 1969. Where The Old West Stayed Young , Burroughs, p.135.

11. Butch Cassidy, My Brother, Lula Betenson as told to Dora Flack, BYU Press, Provo, Utah, 1975.