Outlaws of Early Wyoming

The Outlaws of Early Wyoming

(Submitted by Kari~source: excerpts from Wanted Posters~additional data available upon request)

Sitting (l to r): Harry A. Longabaugh, alias the Sundance Kid, Ben Kilpatrick, alias the Tall Texan, Robert Leroy Parker, alias Butch Cassidy; Standing (l to r): Will Carver, alias News Carver and Harvey Logan, alias Kid Curry; Fort Worth, Texas, 1900.

THE WILD BUNCH~operated out of Hole-in-the-Wall area of Johnson Co, WY William Carver, Ben Kilpatrick, Harvey Logan (Kid Currie), Harry Longabaugh (Sundance Kid), Robert LeRoy Parker (Butch Cassidy). These men were often in the company of other outlaws who used the Hole-in-the-Wall as a hideout.

Harvey Logan~"Kid Currie"
Kid Currie was considered the most desperate and violent member of the Wild Bunch by Pinkerton Agent Lowell Spence. A wanted poster was printed and circulated in May, 1904 and a reward of $18,000.00 was offered by Union Pacific RR and Pacific Express Co for murder and train robbery. He is credited with at least 15 murders, some of which were deputies and sheriffs.

Harry Longabaugh~"Sundance Kid"
Harry was also known by "Kid" Longabaugh and Harry Alonzo. A wanted poster was printed and circulated in Sept, 1900 and a reward of $4,000.00 was offered by Union Pacific officials for bank robbery and train robbery. He started his criminal career in 1887 in Crook Co, WY and ended up spending 18 months in jail in Sundance, WY. He was pardoned by the governor in 1889, still under the age of 21. It is thought that the Kid was in the Hole-in-the-Wall country soon after this time and began running with the Wild Bunch then.

Robert LeRoy Parker~"Butch Cassidy"
Robert was also known as George Parker and George Cassidy. A wanted poster was printed and circulated in Sept, 1900 and a reward of $50,000.00 was offered by Union Pacific Express Co for bank robbery and train robbery. He began his outlaw career near Centerville, UT. His father had purchased a ranch known as a den for horse thieves and rustlers. Robert was tutored by outlaw Mike Cassidy and later adopted the Cassidy name. His first crime of note happened in 1897 in Colorado, but prior to that he was in Wyoming and involved in petty theft. His favorite haunts were Brown's Hole, Hole-in-the-Wall, Lander, Sheridan and Thermopolis~all these areas are in Wyoming except Brown's Hole, which was where Utah and Colorado met Wyoming.

Duncan Blackburn~"Dunc"
Blackburn was implicated in 3 holdups of the Cheyenne-Deadwood coaches. A wanted poster was printed and circulated in Nov, 1877 and a reward of $1,000.00 for an arrest and $200.00 for a body was offered by Cheyenne-Black Hills Stage Co for Federal Highway robbery, setting a prisoner free, grand larceny, assault with intent to kill, murder. Some believed that Calamity Jane took part in some of these robberies.

Dan Bogan ~Bill McCoy
Bogan was wanted for 2 Texas killings and implicated in 2 others before killing a constable in Lusk, WY. A wanted poster was printed and circulated in Oct, 1887 and a reward of $1,000.00 dead or alive murder of a peace officer and escape from jail. Notify Laramie County Sheriff Sharpless of Cheyenne, WY Territory.

Albert Bothwell
It was common knowledge that Bothwell had a feud with the two homesteaders he hanged. He considered them "nesters" and beneath him. A wanted poster was printed and circulated in July, 1889 and a reward of $5,000.00 for murder and kidnapping. Notify Carbon County Sheriff at Rawlins, WY Territory. Frank Canton He was a former Johnson County Sheriff, who became a Wyoming Stockgrowers Chief of Detectives. A wanted poster was printed and circulated in Dec, 1891 and a reward of $5,000.00 was offered by Johnson County Commissioners for the murder of a Buffalo area homesteader, referred to by the Stockgrowers as a "Rustler".

Bill Carlisle~"The White-Masked Bandit"
Carlisle was an orphan who came to the Powder River country and was a hard- working cowhand, but decided train robbery was a better way of life. A wanted poster was printed and circulated in Nov, 1919 and a reward of $5,000.00 was offered by Union Pacific Express Co dead or alive for train robbery and escape from penitentiary.

Richard Carr
Carr's gang gathered large herds of stolen horses for several years from the Wind River country to the Nebraska panhandle. A wanted poster was printed and circulated in May, 1895 and a reward of $3,000.00 was offered by Fremont County Commissioners for grand larceny, escape, resisting arrest and assault against peace officers. Carr was pursued and escaped capture in Sheridan and was caught in Casper and jailed, but escaped and was caught again in Lander only to escape again.

George Currie~"Flat Nose George"
George was widely quoted as being an outlaw was "just for the fun of it." A wanted poster was printed and circulated in Jun, 1899 and a reward of $3,000.00 was offered by the Union Pacific Express Co dead or alive for train robbery and cattle rustling. He ran with the Hole-in-the-Wall gang for a time and left taking several outlaws with him. The Gillette-Buffalo-Kaycee area of Wyoming knew George as a likable rancher who may have done a little rustling. The large cattle operations knew George as a man who did a lot of rustling and a little ranching on the side! He was implicated in an ambush murder of a Converse County Sheriff and 1897 murder of Johnson County deputy. Flat Nose has never known captivity and views any attempt to arrest him with deadly seriousness.

Harvey Gleason~"Teton Jackson"
Gleason was called the "premier horse thief of the mountains" by a Chicago newspaper. His gang stole horses from Wyoming and Idaho ranchman and sold them in eastern Wyoming and South Dakota and then on their return trip to Jackson Hole they would gather more stolen horses, winter them in the valleys of the Teton area, change brands and resell them. A wanted poster was printed and circulated in Oct, 1886 and a reward of $3,000.00 for murder, horse stealing and escape. Notify any Wyoming Sheriff or United States Marshall. Johnson County Sheriff Frank Canton caught Teton Jackson and jailed him in Buffalo and then transferred him to Boise, ID where he later escaped.

Tom Horn~"The Exterminator"
He served with distinction in the war with Spain, was an interpreter for the 5th Calvary, worked as a Pinkerton, tracked down Geronimo, and then became a selfstyled exterminator of "Rustlers". Horn allegedly stated that killing men was his specialty. He was convicted of slaying a 14 year old boy in Laramie County, WY and then escaped. A wanted poster was printed and circulated in Aug, 1903 and a reward of $5,000.00 was offered by Laramie County Commissioners for murder and escape from lawful custody.

Kinch McKinney
Kinch was the leader of a gang of cattle rustlers and received an eight year sentence for his activities in 1892. A wanted poster was printed and circulated in Oct, 1894 and a reward of $500.00 dead or alive for grand larceny and escape from the penitentiary. Notify Laramie County Sheriff or any Wyoming Police Officer. He had a long history of escape and trouble making but is not considered a killer.

Robert Meldrum~"Bad Bob"
Robert escaped after a bond of $18,000.00 was posted for him by some local ranchers after his murder trial ended in a "hung" jury. A wanted poster was printed and circulated in Jan, 1916 and a reward of $1,500.00 offered by Carbon County Commissioners for murder and unlawful flight. He is known for his cold and ruthless nature, reportedly having killed many men. He was also associated with Tom Horn as an assassin.

George Parrott~"Big Nose"
George was the leader of a gang who operated in the Medicine Bow and Carbon area. A wanted poster was printed and circulated in Jan, 1916 and a reward of $2,000.00 dead or alive for murder, attempted train robbery and various other crimes. Contact Carbon County Sheriff. While in Montana he boasted of the killings of a Deputy Sheriff and the sheriff's friend near Elk Mountain in WY.

Clark Pelton~"The Kid"
It is thought that Bill Bevins taught Pelton the ways of a road agent. He also ran with other noted outlaws who plagued the stage line that ran the Cheyenne River. A wanted poster was printed and circulated in Oct, 1877 and a reward of $1,000.00 for an arrest and $200.00 for his body was offered by Cheyenne-Black Hills Stage & Express Co for murder, rustling, Highway robbery and interfering with the mail.

James Wall
Wall was often confused with "The Kid" Pelton because of their high hairlines and the fact that they operated in the same gang. He disappeared from the Lander area after the arrest of his partner, Bill Bevins. A wanted poster was printed and circulated in Nov, 1877 and a reward of $1,000.00 for an arrest and $200.00 for the body was offered by Cheyenne-Black Hills Stage Co for Highway robbery, assault and attempt to kill, grand larceny, horse stealing and obstructing the mail.

Another interesting Hole in the Wall character was Bill Speck. Bill lived on top of the Red Wall in a dugout with a wood front and window just down the hill from the top of the Outlaw Trail. It was a convenient location for helping outlaws. He apparently had a homely, rough look about him that fit the part of an outlaw. He ran horses, which would disappear when the Hole in the Wall gang passed through. Speck claimed they were stolen of course. He had a leather gun and cartridge belt (possibly the one in this photo) that he said was given to him by Butch Cassidy. Speck had lived in Brown's Hole, another outlaw hangout for Cassidy, before moving to the Hole in the Wall area.

Bill Speck, thanks to these photos received by one of his descendants, Susan Newman.
The first shows Speck and his brother Frank as children, the second as a younger man, and then finally as an older man.
According to Thelma Gatchell Condit, Tom Horn ran across Bill Speck in the Hole in the Wall, and unwittingly provided a description of Bill, saying that man ought to be taken to Cheyenne and forced to talk for his outlaw associations. Bill replied, "Well I never heard before that a man could be hung on his looks, but if that's the law, I guess I'll get the limit, cause I can't transmogrify my looks."
Source: Annals of Wyoming, April 1959

2025 Picture of Bill Speck's homestead

Laura Bullion, born into a life touched by crime, was the daughter of a bank robber and grew up surrounded by outlaws. Immersed in this world from a young age, she eventually became a member of Butch Cassidy’s notorious Wild Bunch gang. Known as the "Thorny Rose," Bullion played an active role in the gang’s exploits, taking part in train robberies, forging documents, and even disguising herself as a man to aid in their escapes. She was also romantically linked to fellow gang member Ben Kilpatrick, known as "The Tall Texan," and the two became infamous partners in crime.
Their luck ran out in 1901 when both Bullion and Kilpatrick were arrested for their involvement in a train robbery. While Kilpatrick resumed his outlaw life after serving time, Bullion took a different path. After completing a three-and-a-half-year prison sentence, she chose to leave the Wild West behind. Reinventing herself entirely, she moved to Memphis, Tennessee, adopted the name Freda Bullion Lincoln, and built a quiet, respectable life as a seamstress and interior designer. She even fabricated a new identity, claiming to be a widow of a Confederate soldier, to maintain her low profile.
Laura Bullion lived out the rest of her years in obscurity, far from the gunsmoke and infamy of her youth. When she passed away in her 80s in 1961, she was buried under her assumed name, with few knowing the truth of her adventurous past. Her story remains one of the most compelling examples of transformation in the annals of Wild West history—an outlaw who found peace in reinvention.

Members of the Wild Bunch nicknamed Laura Bullion "Della Rose", a name she came by after meeting Kid Curry's girlfriend Della Moore. Often, Bullion also was referred to as the "Rose of the Wild Bunch". When her boyfriend Ben Kilpatrick and she fled east to evade the law after a train robbery in 1901, the couple traveled under the names "Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin Arnold".

In an arrest report following the train robbery, dated November 6, 1901, Bullion's name is filed as "Della Rose" and her aliases are stated to be "Clara Hays" and "Laura Casey and [Laura] Bullion". The arrest report lists her profession as prostitute. According to a New York Times article, she was "masquerading as 'Mrs. Nellie Rose' at the time of her arrest. The same article also mentions the suspicion that she, "disguised as a boy", might have taken part in a train robbery in Montana. The paper cites Chief of Detectives Desmond: "I wouldn't think helping to hold up a train was too much for her. She is cool, shows absolutely no fear, and in male attire would readily pass for a boy. She has a masculine face, and that would give her assurance in her disguise." Instead of "Clara Hays", Bullion also used "Clare Hayes" or "Clara Hayes" as a version of her alias. Other assumed names she used at that time were "Desert Rose", "Wild Bunch Rose", and "Clara Casey".

When Bullion turned up in Memphis in 1918, she used the names "Freda Lincoln", "Freda Bullion Lincoln", and "Mrs. Maurice Lincoln", claiming to be a war widow and her late husband had been Maurice Lincoln. She also made herself 10 years younger, claiming to have been born in 1887. On her grave marker at the Memorial Park Cemetery in Memphis, Bullion's name is inscribed as "Freda Bullion Lincoln" and "Laura Bullion", her birth name. The epitaph "The Thorny Rose" refers to her nickname in the Wild Bunch.

Bullion's death certificate lists Henry Bullion as her father and Freda Byler as her mother

Robin Hood of the West
Butch Cassidy, born Robert Leroy Parker, was a notorious train robber, bank robber and leader of the Wild Bunch Gang in the Old West. He was also known as the “Robin Hood of the West” for sharing his loot with people whose lives had been ruined by the cattle barons and bankers. Not your typical outlaw, Butch preferred bowler hats and a gentleman appeal of the finer things in life.

He was a charming thief, who was well liked and is believed to have never killed anyone.

Cassidy embarked on what is considered the longest stretch of successful train and bank robberies in American history as a member of the “Wild Bunch.” Members included such infamous bandits as Harry Longabaugh (the Sundance Kid), Harvey Logan (Kid Curry) and his brother Lonny Curry, “Laughing” Sam Carey, Ben Kilpatrick (the “Tall Texan”), Black Jack Ketchum, William Ellsworth Lay (Elzy Lay), and George “Flat Nose” Curry.

Portrait of Butch Cassidy and the Wild Bunch Gang The group hit banks and trains in South Dakota, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming. Robert Lawson, a mail clerk working on the Union Pacific Railroad, was in the mail car of a train stopped by the “Hole-in-the-Wall Gang” in the wilds of Wyoming. He recounted his experience in the June 8, 1899, issue of our local newspaper the Buffalo Bulletin.

Between robberies, the men would lie low at the Hole-in-the-Wall, one of the most famous hideouts located in southern Johnson County, Wyoming. This is also where several other outlaw gangs (the Logan brothers and Jesse James among others) holed up.

Named after a pass in an eroded rock wall mesa rising over the rolling plains and canyons, the name fits the location. A steep climb over loose rock to the top of the wall, with sweeping 360-degree views, the pass was well situated to spot approaching lawmen – and the narrowness of the approach made it easy to defend.

Today the area is a part of the Willow Creek Ranch, a working spread with a large herd of cattle. Accessible today by a series of dusty, two-track roads, the trail to the Hole-in-the-Wall attracts history buffs & tourists alike.

Butch Cassidy, John D. Rockefeller Jr,
my grandfather, me (Don M Ricks)

A narrative thread, slender but certain, weaves Butch Cassidy, John D. Rockefeller Jr, my grandfather, and me into the history of western Wyoming. n 1889, a few weeks after the bank in Telluride was robbed, Cassidy walked into the Amoretti bank in Lander and sat down with the young assistant manager, E. A. Amoretti Jr. When Cassidy left he had opened an account with a large cash deposit, had made a new friend, and had been hired to work on Amoretti’s EA Ranch, five miles north of Dubois. In 1922, the rough wagon road through Togwotee Pass was upgraded to a rough road for motor traffic. Amoretti established the Lander-Yellowstone Park Transportation Company. It hauled tourists from the new Chicago & Northwestern terminal in Lander to Jackson Hole. He built the Brooks Lake Lodge for his guests, as well as the Amoretti Inn at Moran, near the site of what one day would become the Jackson Lake Lodge. My grandfather, Cody Simonson, was one of the young men in Dubois who Amoretti hired to drive his motor stages.In 1926, John D. Rockefeller Jr visited Jackson Hole with his family, noticed the Grand Tetons, and was inspired to create a national park. The historical record confirms they travelled from Lander and stayed at the Amoretti Inn. It does not disclose the name of their driver. I wish I could report that, like Butch Cassidy and my grandfather, I once worked for Eugene Amoretti Jr. But that would not be true. In 1950, when I was 13, Francis Amoretti hired me for the summer as chore boy on the EA Ranch. That was in June. Her husband had died in March.

Photos: In this photo (above) the Dubois area at the time.—A motor stage like the one my Grandfather drove for Amoretti—The “upgraded” Togwotee Pass road. (Photos: Wyoming Tales and Trails)

On this date, July 19th, in 1897, the Star Tribune of Casper published CY Ranch Foreman Robert Divine's letter to the editor. It read:
“I have seen all sorts of reports bearing on the John R. Smith and Nolan gang stopping the round up from working the Hole In The Wall country. They will have a hard time of it. Neither the CY boys, the Keystone or the Pugsley outfits are hunting a fight. We are all working men and only want such cattle as belongs to our employers and is an undisputable fact that the Hole-in-the-Wall is a hiding place for thieves, and has been for years. Thousands of dollars worth of cattle have been stolen by these outlaws, brands burned out and their own brands substituted. Their friends then help them dispose of the burned cattle. Every year I have gotten back cattle from them that were taken from their mothers and lots of cattle on which the brands were changed. I am going to work that country and have to ask the sheriffs of Natrona and Johnson counties to work with us and see that everybody is treated right. The time has come for all honest working men to declare themselves in favor of law and justice. And, if those men want to fight us, when we know we are right, I say fight,” R.M. Divine.
A few days later the Hole in the Wall Fight occurred.
Photo of Robert Divine and sons courtesy Casper College Archives and Special Collections (Western History Center)

July 23 in 1897 the Hole in the Wall Fight occurred between the CY Ranch Crew and three Hole in the Wall gang ranchers (and part time rustlers). Hole in the Wall rancher, Bob Smith was killed and Hole in the Wall rancher Al Smith (not related) had his gun shot out of his hand as he was leaning over the side of his horse and shooting. The gun lay on the ground for thirty years, until George Smith, witness to the fight and brother of Al Smith, told the story of the fight to Bunny Taylor while they were fencing at that location. George searched the ground for a few minutes and picked it up.
Bunny was the son of Robert Taylor, another Hole in the Wall rancher involved in the fight. He was captured in the fight.
Top Photo: Al Smith gun now at the Wyoming State Museum, which has been on loan to the museum at times.
Bottom Photo: Robin Taylor (son of Bunny), his wife Sunny, and Bunny Taylor at the fight monument during a Hole in the Wall Fight commemorative tour by the museum in 1997.

Walter C Punteney - rancher / outlaw / businessman

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