36. The Patagonian Caper
In early 1904, a cart carrying goods from the coast to English settlements near the Andes was robbed in Patagonia’s plains. Police captured two Americans, named Wilson and Evans, with the stolen money. Although Butch Cassidy had an airtight alibi, being in Cholila, about 350 miles from the robbery, the authorities suspected that he had something to do with it.
The evidence has since vanished, but something linked Cassidy to the crime. Perhaps a horse bearing his ranch’s brand, or a firearm linked to him. Or perhaps it was his and the Sundance Kid’s reputation. Their affinity for guns and sharpshooting skills, the way they carried themselves, the fact that even as they befriended the governor, they also hung around with thugs, or Cassidy’s reported drunken boasts of his criminal exploits back in the US. There was something about the new gringos that added a halo of danger to their otherwise friendly aura.
