Volume 16 , Issue 7

Salt Lake City, Utah, 17 May 1898

The Salt Lake Herald, dated 17 May 1898, Tuesday, reported this frontpage headline: Butch Cassidy Is Still Alive. The King of outlaws was not killed on that day in 1898, as the Wyoming sheriff examines the body and asserts positively it was not that of Cassidy. The body bore none of the marks or scars that the sheriff had seen on the outlaw. He believed it to be Bob Culp, a notorious cattle thief.

Price, May 16, (1898) -- Butch Cassidy, the famous outlaw, was still alive. The body of the man who was killed by the posse and buried with Walker was exhumed in order to forever settle his identity, and it was certain that the body was not that of Cassidy.

Sheriff J. H. Ward of Evanston, Wyoming, who was probably the best posted man in the inter mountain states upon criminal matters, reached Price the morning of May 16, 1898, in response to a telegram calling him there to identify the men in jail, and the corpse supposed to be that of Cassidy. Sheriff Ward for 13 years past had bee a sheriff in Wyoming, and during that time had Cassidy in his jail for three months and was with him daily.

On inspecting the body, Sheriff Ward positively asserted that ti was not Cassidy, and that while the complain and build of the men were very similar, the body in no other particular resembled Cassidy, and bore none of the battle scars of the famous robber. Sheriff Ward was of the opinion that the body was that of Bob Culp, Alias Red Bob, a notorious cattle thief, from Wyoming. Cassidy was in jail awaiting trial for horse tearing, and a close description was made by Sheriff Ward of all his peculiar marks, and he was absolutely positive that this was not the man.

Special Agent Shores of the Rio Grande Western railway, who had many experiences in criminal matters, and who possesses a good picture of Cassidy and had an accurate description taken from the penitentiary records of Wyoming, where Cassidy was formerly confined, concurred in the opinion of Sheriff Ward and your correspondent, that Walker's companion in the Price graveyard was not Cassidy.

The citizens expressed their regret, and had hoped Sheriff Allred would be more adequately rewarded for his daring and bravery in going into the lair of the outlaws, through strange passes and dangerous trails, in the darkness of night, and so completely surprising the band of assassins, whose retreat would in all probability have never been trespassed upon had it not been for the intrepidity and determination of Sheriff Allred.

The two men who gave their name as William Schultz and S. H. Thompson who were captured alive, were not so far fully identified, but Sheriff Ward was of the opinion that they belong to the Hole-in-the-Wall gang of cattle thieves in Wyoming, and would investigate their records further upon his return home.   |  View or Add Comments (0 Comments)   |   Receive updates ( subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

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