Famous Outlaws of the Wild West

Jesse James (1847-1882)

Who was he?
Jesse James was an outlaw, bank and train robber, guerrilla, and leader of the James–Younger Gang.

Early life:
He was born into a farming family in Missouri.
During the Civil War (1861-5), the family had strong Confederate (pro-slavery) sympathies. Jesse and his brother Frank became ‘bushwhackers’ – guerrilla fighters (i.e. not official military soldiers) who attacked and murdered Union supporters, often in violent ambushes and one notorious massacre in 1864. They were banished from Missouri as punishment.

Jesse James

Career:
Jesse and Frank became outlaws involved with various gangs. In 1865 they robbed the First National Bank in Liberty, Missouri of $15,000 in what was the first bank robbery in the United States. They continued to rob more banks and then began to rob trains and stagecoaches.
They formed own gang, the James-Younger Gang, from about 1866 until 1876. The gang became nationally famous. There were large rewards offered for their capture or killing, and they often carried out their crimes in front of crowds who enjoyed the show. However, most of the gang was eventually caught or shot, and Jesse and Frank went into hiding.

A wanted poster
for Jesse James

Death:
On April 3rd, 1882, Jesse James was shot and killed by Robert Ford, a new recruit to the gang who hoped to collect a reward on James’ head and a promised amnesty for his previous crimes.

Legacy:
Jesse James was very famous in his own lifetime, and since then has been portrayed in many films – sometimes as a Robin Hood figure, when in fact there is no evidence he gave any of his money away! He is a legendary figure of the Wild West.
Billy the Kid (1859-1881)

Who was he?
Billy the Kid’s real name was Henry McCarty. He was an outlaw and gunfighter who killed eight men before he was killed at the age of 21.

Early life:
Born in New York City, his family moved to Indiana, Kansas and finally New Mexico. McCarty was orphaned at the age of 14, and was given a room in a boarding house in exchange for work. However, he was arrested aged 16 for stealing food there. Ten days later, he robbed a Chinese laundry and was again arrested, but escaped shortly afterwards. He fled into neighboring Arizona, making him an outlaw.

Billy the Kid

Career:
After murdering a blacksmith during an altercation in August 1877, McCarty became a wanted man in Arizona and returned to New Mexico, where he joined a group of cattle rustlers. He went to jail several times, but often escaped.
McCarty took part in the Lincoln County War (a violent feud between rival groups) of 1878 and killed several men.

Death:
In 1878, the governor of New Mexico offered safety for Billy if he would surrender – but when he did, in 1881, they arrested him. Once again, Billy escaped from jail, killing two sheriff’s deputies. Three months later, he was shot by a lawman while sneaking into a house at night.

Legacy:
Billy became notorious for committing violent crimes at such a young age. His legend also grew after rumours began that he had survived, and a number of men claimed to be him. His life has been dramatized for films and TV shows.
Belle Starr (1848 – 1889)

Who was she?
Belle Starr was a notorious outlaw, whose real name was Myra Maybelle Shirley Reed Starr.

Early life:
Starr was born on her father’s farm in Missouri on February 5, 1848. She was learned piano and was highly educated, graduating from Missouri’s Carthage Female Academy, a private institution that her father had helped to found.
Belle married and moved to Texas, where she began to associate with criminals, including Jesse James and the Younger brothers, who she had known back in Missouri. Her brother was a bushwhacker with them and her husband was also involved with local gangs.

Belle Starr

Career:
In 1880, after her husband was killed, she married a Cherokee man named Sam Starr and settled with the Starr family in the Indian Territory. There, she learned ways of organizing, planning and fencing for the rustlers, horse thieves and bootleggers, as well as hiding criminals and using bribery to free them if they were caught.
Belle was convicted of horse theft in 1883. She was freed in 1886 but got involved with criminal activities again. She was later wanted for murder.

Death:
Belle’s death was very mysterious. She was fatally shot on February 3rd, 1889, and was ambushed while riding home from a neighbor’s house. A man was arrested for her murder, however many thought he was innocent. Other suspects included various boyfriends, enemy criminals and even her own son.

Legacy:
She became famous for a strong sense of style, which became legendary. Belle used to ride sidesaddle while dressed in a black velvet riding habit and a plumed hat, carrying two pistols.
Her story became famous through a dramatised novel and she later became a popular character in television and films.
Butch Cassidy (1866-1908)

Who was he?
Butch Cassidy’s real name was Robert LeRoy Parker. He was a U.S. train robber and bank robber, and the leader of a gang of criminal outlaws known as the “Wild Bunch” in the American Old West.

Early life:
Cassidy was born April 13th, 1866 in Beaver, Utah. He was the first of 13 children of British immigrants Maximillian Parker and Ann Campbell Gillies. (Anne had emigrated from Tyneside aged 14!)
Parker fled his home as a teenager and, while working on a dairy ranch, he met Mike Cassidy, a horse and cattle thief. He subsequently worked on several ranches, and was apprenticed to a butche. Here he got the nickname “Butcher”, which later became ”Butch” to which he added the last name Cassidy in honor of his old friend and mentor. In 1880 he had his first brush with the law. He travelled to a shop but found it shut, so stole a pair of jeans and some pie and left a note promising to pay next time he came – but the owner pressed charges. Fortunately the jury let him off. In 1884, he moved to Colorado, where he may have been delivering stolen horses to buyers. He led a cowboy’s life in Wyoming and Montana before returning to Colorado a few years later.

Butch Cassidy

Career:
On June 24th, 1889, he and some friends robbed the San Miguel Valley Bank in Telluride, Colorado. They stole approximately $21,000 (equivalent to $598,000 in 2019), then fled to a remote hideout in southeastern Utah. In 1890 he bought a ranch in Wyoming which he probably used as a base for criminal activities and a hideout for outlaws. His circle of outlaw friends became known as the Wild Bunch. They robbed banks and trains for over a decade, while being unsuccessfully pursued by the law. In 1901 the gang was falling apart, and Cassidy, one of his gang, Harry Alonzo Longabaugh (also known as The Sundance Kid) and Longabaugh’s girlfriend Etta, escaped to Argentina, where they robbed banks and went into hiding. Later the two men (Etta had had enough and left) went to Bolivia.

Death:
Bolivian authorities, realizing they had two wanted criminals, surrounded the lodging house of Cassidy and Longabaugh. As they approached, the bandits began to fire and a gunfight raged. Both outlaws were killed, though may have shot themselves rather than be taken by the lawmen.

Legacy:
The pair were famously rumoured to have survived, as some thought the bodies found were not them. Also some people back in Wyoming claimed to have seen Cassidy in later years. Their story has been told on TV and in film many times, most famously in the 1969 film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid where Cassidy is played by Paul Newman and Sundance is played by Robert Redford.