In Search of Butch Cassidy

Rating:
Summary: I Believe Pointer
Review: Author Larry Pointer gives overwhelming evidence that Butch Cassidy did not die in Bolivia, but returned to the U.S. under the alias of Wm. Phillips. Showing correspondence between Cassidy and his former girlfriend, an opal ring, a .45 Colt revolver and a photo of Phillips that is a dead-ringer for Cassidy, as well as verified recognition of Butch Cassidy by former acquaintances,Pointer made a believer out of me and I'm normally a skeptic. I'm a former resident of Cassidy's old haunts in Wyoming and it was almost a given amongst long time Wyoming natives that Cassidy had returned. Buy this book for the excellent detective work by Pointer. Its full of intrigue, with excellent photos and research. All the archeological digs and DNA tests on remains found in a Bolivian cemetary have not confirmed that Butch Cassidy died there, so Pointer still appears right!

Rating:
Summary: Reach for the sky, pardner!
Review: If a romantic and treasured perception of Western banditry stems from having seen the 1969 film BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID, perhaps you'd better not read IN SEARCH OF BUTCH CASSIDY, first published in 1977.

Author Larry Pointer's working hypothesis is that Butch Cassidy didn't die in 1908 amidst a hail of Bolivian gunfire. Rather, he returned to the United States and lived in Spokane, WA, as William T. Phillips before dying of cancer in 1937. Pointer spent 5 years building the case, and his arguments are compelling. Indeed, the basis around which the author constructs this story of Cassidy's life is William's unsold manuscript "The Bandit Invincible", an unsuccessful commercial attempt by Phillips to capitalize on his adventures. Pointer quotes lengthy passages from the document, and used it as the starting point for his own research of events after determining to his satisfaction, through handwriting analysis and eyewitness testimony, that Cassidy and Phillips were indeed the same person - a process completed by the end of chapter 3.

IN SEARCH OF BUTCH CASSIDY is a competently told, if somewhat dry, biographical narrative by a writer obsessed with his subject. The amount of detail provided is a tribute to Pointer's investigatory labors. Though not really the author's fault, the near-confusion surrounding the names of places and individuals almost compelled me to make out a score card for reference. In his manuscript, Phillips admits to changing some names of people and places. This, plus the outlaws' penchant for using aliases and inaccurate reporting by contemporary newspapers, makes the going occasionally tricky despite Pointer's best effort to keep identities straight.

The volume is nicely sprinkled with B&W photographs of the many individuals mentioned in the text. However, Pointer got too cute with three images of very extensive sections of terrain taken from space upon which he indicates the location's of Cassidy's hideouts. While first thinking these were clever additions to the whole, I then decided that they were virtually worthless as purveyors of useful information. A suitably annotated, modern highway map would have perhaps served better, or even the same photos with the critical areas enlarged much more.

For me, the book's best single feature was an extensive quote from outlaw Matt Warner's memoirs on the rigors of being pursued by a posse. This included:

"... if one of us got sick, or nearly died with rheumatism or toothache, or got a leg broke; he had to grit his teeth and trail right along ... If he died he died just like a horse or dog along the trail ... and his body would be eaten by the coyotes."

Yup, I think I'll saddle up Old Hoss and go hold-up a train.

Rating:
Summary: a case of mistaken identity
Review: Larry Pointer has made a valiant attempt at proving that Spokane, Washington engineer and businessman William T. Phillips was, in fact, Butch Cassidy. Unfortunately for him, this theory has now been disproven by hard evidence (see DIGGING UP BUTCH AND SUNDANCE by Anne Meadows). In any event, he fails to adequately explain how a thrill-seeking, restless outlaw could suddenly settle down to become a respectable and successful engineer, inventor, and businessman. Legends die hard.

Rating:
Summary: a case of mistaken identity
Review: Larry Pointer has made a valiant attempt at proving that Spokane, Washington engineer and businessman William T. Phillips was, in fact, Butch Cassidy. Unfortunately for him, this theory has now been disproven by hard evidence (see DIGGING UP BUTCH AND SUNDANCE by Anne Meadows). In any event, he fails to adequately explain how a thrill-seeking, restless outlaw could suddenly settle down to become a respectable and successful engineer, inventor, and businessman. Legends die hard.

Rating:
Summary: Lot's of proof, but is there enough?
Review: Larry Pointer lays a provocative, convincing argument before the reader. Yet due to the vast amounts of controvesy over the matter, I have to be very critical of the text. All of his evidence points to Butch Cassidy returning to the US and taking up the alias William Phillips. However, through my own research, I have found that he tends to "tell" and not "show". He makes a lot of assumtions regarding "evidence" but doesn't back it up with documentation. Granted, I feel he had a valid argument, yet an argument that is still in need of further support. The subject is so controversial and much of the evidence on both sides conflict so in order to convince me, I must be shown, and not merely told.

Rating:
Summary: The Old West ends not with a bang, but a whimper
Review: Robert Leroy Parker, a/k/a Butch Cassidy, the last famous outlaw of the Old West, vanished in Bolivia, according to many. This riveting book of real Western history shows otherwise.

In a work evidencing considerable personal research and scholarship, Larry Pointer shows, beyond all but the most skeptical doubt, that Butch was not killed in Bolivia, unlike the Sundance Kid, Harry Longbaugh, but that Butch returned to the United States after having some reconstructive surgery, married, and then took an alias, Harry T. Phillips, and lived a somewhat respectable life until dying of cancer in Spokane in 1937.

The book is replete with anecdotes by witnesses, photographs, quotes from a manuscript started by Harry T. Phillips, and other physical evidence to show that Harry was, in fact, Butch Cassidy, and that his actions, especially in later life would not have occured unless he was Butch Cassidy.

The book is well written, well organized, nostalgic, and poignant. It paints a picture of a man out of time who assumed a different, if frustrating, life. It starts a bit slowly, but once it takes root in your consciousmess, cannot be put down until its too-soon finish. I prize the book, and rate it highly. I believe any student of the Old West will do likewise.