BUTCH CASSIDY, BEYOND THE GRAVE, W. C. Jameson

If you follow my blog, you know I read some quirky books now and then.   My interests are so eclectic that you just never know what will appeal to me.  This one I can't really explain very easily though.  I was a huge fan of Paul Newman and Robert Redford, yet I've never seen the movie where they starred as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.  Still, I am interested in outlaws of the Old West and wanted to know more about their real story.

The author of this little book is one of many people who have researched Butch Cassidy's real life story and tried to figure out whether he was killed in Bolivia or made it back to the U.S. and lived to be an old man in the State of Washington under the alias William T. Phillips.

There are photographs in the book and although they didn't look at all like Newman and Redford, it was fascinating to see the real men.  Their wives, legal or common law, are pictured too.  There are also facts about his early life.  He was born Leroy Parker, Jr. and used many aliases during his outlaw life.  He loved children.  People found him charming and anyone who got to know him loved him.  He never robbed an employer, no matter how easy it would have been.  

If you're looking for definitive answers, though, you'll be disappointed.  This book presents the different theories and the "proof" behind them.  I'm a born researcher so this really caught my interest.  I'm almost convinced that the two men killed in Bolivia were misidentified, and that Cassidy did live in the U.S. until he died between 1937 and 1941.  However, I'm not totally convinced and neither are most people who have looked into it.  Guess it's one of those mysteries that will never be solved.  I think Cassidy would get a kick out of that; he had a great sense of humor.

Source:  Win from LibraryThing
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