On this day, June 24, in 1889, Butch Cassidy robbed a bank in Telluride, Colo., the first major heist for the outlaw later romanticized as the Robin Hood of the West.
Cassidy and three cowboys made off with about $21,000, escaped to Robbers’ Roost, a remote hide-out in Utah.
By 1896, Cassidy recruited Harry Longabaugh, “The Sundance Kid,” and the partners put together the longest streak of robberies in the history of the West. As the heat increased, Cassidy and Sundance moved to South America as ranchers, but returned to a life of crime.
The facts surrounding their deaths are murky. Some believe the duo were killed by Bolivian troops, but there is evidence that they returned to the United States.
— Scott McCabe
