Back to the front page
American History

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid’s Escapades, and Other Lesser Known Historic Events

William Carver - Butch Cassidy
Butch Cassidy, far right, The Sundance Kid, far left, and other members of the Wild Bunch gang. Wikimedia

37. The Friendly Norteamericanos

The Sundance Kid, his wife Ethel, and Butch Cassidy, in front of their log cabin in Argentina. Daily Beast

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid fit in smoothly in tiny Cholila, in a region that contained numerous other American and British citizens. They soon built a reputation as gregarious gringos, made friends with the local police, and even befriended the governor. Indeed, when a local cop needed a character witness, the Sundance Kid was happy to oblige and testify on his behalf.

Their log cabin hosted many of the region’s expats, and it did not take long before the duo were quite popular. Within three years of their arrival, by dint of their hard – and for a change, honest – work, the former outlaws amassed about 900 head of cattle, and 20 bulls. The infamous Wild West outlaws had successfully reinvented themselves. Then a robbery hundreds of miles away, that the duo might have had nothing to do with, brought it all crashing down.

Written by

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.

Keep reading

Advertisement