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Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Butch Cassidy was Robert LeRoy Parker, and the Sundance Kid was Harry Longabaugh. Both identities are well documented. What is not documented is how the two men ended their lives. A 1908 shootout at San Vicente, Bolivia, is widely reported as their deaths, but the two men killed there were never positively identified as Cassidy and Longabaugh, and the family accounts that Cassidy came home to the United States remain unproven.
Who they were
Butch Cassidy: Robert LeRoy Parker
WyoHistory identifies Butch Cassidy as Robert LeRoy Parker, born April 13, 1866, in Beaver, Utah. He grew up in a large family. After the family moved to Circleville in 1879, he met Mike Cassidy, a ranch hand who taught him riding, roping, shooting, and livestock rustling. Parker later adopted his mentor’s surname, which is where the name Butch Cassidy comes from.
The Sundance Kid: Harry Longabaugh
PBS American Experience gives the Sundance Kid’s birth as Pennsylvania in 1867, under the name Harry Longabaugh. He was jailed for horse theft near Sundance, Wyoming, and picked up the nickname after that prison stint.
Wyoming, prison, and the Wild Bunch
Cassidy was convicted in Wyoming in 1894 after buying a stolen horse and was sentenced to two years. According to WyoHistory, he was released early in 1896 after serving 18 months. Officials were uncertain about what he would do next. WyoHistory reproduces a letter from Governor William Richards to Judge Jesse Knight in which Richards asks, “The question is, will Cassidy do as we tell him to?” That line shows the doubt surrounding his early release, not a verdict on his character.
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Within months of his release, WyoHistory says, Cassidy formed a gang that became known as the Cassidy Gang or the Wild Bunch. The group’s train and bank robberies are the basis of the outlaw reputation that followed both men.
When the partnership began
PBS places Longabaugh’s association with Cassidy after Cassidy’s release and says he likely met Cassidy in this period. No firm first-meeting date is established in the record, so any dramatized account of how they met is invention. WyoHistory describes Longabaugh as Cassidy’s frequent partner.
Which robberies can be pinned to them
Attribution varies by incident. WyoHistory describes train robberies at Wilcox and Tipton and notes disagreement about whether Cassidy was present at Tipton. His participation in the Wilcox robbery has never been fully established. For Wilcox, WyoHistory cites a contemporary newspaper account of more than $50,000 taken. That figure is a press report of the time, not a verified total, and it describes the crime rather than Cassidy’s role in it.
South America, 1901 onward
According to WyoHistory, Cassidy, Longabaugh, and Etta Place left New York for Argentina in 1901. The group bought a ranch in Cholila. They later left under pressure from authorities investigating a holdup. The pair then worked for mining companies and, by WyoHistory’s account, also took part in robberies. The surviving record therefore mixes legitimate work with alleged crimes, and the line between them is not always clear.
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San Vicente, 1908
The reported Bolivia account says authorities found two dead foreigners after a gunfight with police at San Vicente in 1908. This is the event most often described as the outlaws’ deaths. The men were not positively identified as Cassidy and Longabaugh, and no photographs of the bodies established who they were.
One version of the story has Cassidy killing Longabaugh and then himself. This is one reported version of the event, not an established finding, and it should be presented as such.
The 1991 exhumation
According to History.com, researchers obtained permission in 1991 to exhume the purported graves. Forensic anthropologist Clyde Snow examined the remains and found they did not match relatives of Cassidy or Longabaugh. History.com says the skeleton was likely that of German miner Gustav Zimmer, while acknowledging the outlaws’ bodies could be elsewhere. The exhumation did not prove the Bolivia victims’ identities in either direction. It ruled out a family match for the remains examined, and nothing more.
The family survival accounts
Cassidy’s family later said he returned to the United States. His sister, Lula Parker Betenson, claimed he visited family in 1925 and lived under an alias until 1937. These are recollections offered decades after the events. They are disputed testimony, not identification evidence, and they do not establish where or when either man died.
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How to weigh a survival claim
When a new account says one of the men lived on, three questions separate evidence from story:
- Was a body or person positively identified against a reliable reference?
- Is the evidence a contemporaneous record, a forensic result, or a later recollection?
- Does it establish identity, or only that two outlaws died somewhere in the region?
What is and is not established
| Claim | Type of evidence | What it establishes | Status in the record |
|---|---|---|---|
| Robert LeRoy Parker was Butch Cassidy | Biographical record cited by WyoHistory | Real name, birthplace, and adopted surname | Established in the sources reviewed |
| Harry Longabaugh was the Sundance Kid | PBS American Experience | Real name, birth in Pennsylvania in 1867, nickname tied to a prison stint | Established in the sources reviewed |
| Cassidy and Longabaugh died at San Vicente in 1908 | Reported shootout; bodies found | Two dead foreigners | Not established; men not positively identified |
| The San Vicente remains were the outlaws | 1991 exhumation examined by Clyde Snow | Remains did not match relatives | Not established; History.com says the skeleton was likely Gustav Zimmer |
| Cassidy returned and lived under an alias until 1937 | Family recollection, including Lula Parker Betenson’s claim of a 1925 visit | Family testimony | Disputed; no independent identification |
| Cassidy killed Longabaugh, then himself | One reported version of the Bolivia story | A version of events | Not established |
Where the story stands
The historical identities are settled. Cassidy and Longabaugh’s South American years are documented in outline. Their fate is not. The Bolivia deaths are a reported event that no positive identification has tied to them, and the family survival accounts are testimony that the surviving record cannot confirm. Dramatic retellings often compress the ending into a single confident scene; the documentary record does not support that certainty.
Further reading
History.com points to Anne Meadows’s Digging Up Butch and Sundance, which recounts researchers’ work with South American archives and police reports. It is a useful next step for readers who want the evidence behind the Bolivia question.
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