On October 10,1899, Elzy Lay was sentenced to life imprisonment for killing Sheriff Farr. And then in January 1906, Lay was unexpectedly pardoned and released from the New Mexico Penitentiary — and evidence suggests that he was actually released earlier, in December 1905. These developments suggest that Butch’s share of the loot from the Wilcox robbery was put to good use — at least good for Lay.

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Soon, stolen bank notes began to turn up throughout the West, again proving the gang’s ability to disperse, in spite of the numerous posses and agencies chasing after them. Lonnie Logan tried to cash in Wilcox money through a deposit from his Curry Brothers Saloon in Harlem, Mont. Although the Pinkertons quickly tracked down the bills, Lonnie had sold his saloon and hit the road in a hurry. Torn bills also surfaced in the town of Alma, New Mexico Territory, where Butch was working at the WS Ranch. When Pinkerton agent Frank Murray arrived in town, a kind and likable bartender named Jim Lowe suggested that Murray leave Alma before he was recognized and gunplay resulted. Later, the Pinkertons discovered that Lowe was none other than Butch Cassidy himself.

In an oral history of New Mexico’s Mogollon and Alma, Elton Cunningham related the same story of the Pinkerton agent who had met Jim Lowe. Cunningham also said that some of the Wild Bunch gang in the area had once cached stolen money from a train robbery. They later returned, he said, ‘and got that money, but the corner of the bills was blowed off when they blasted the safe…they put those bills through with the corner blowed off…they took that money back there [New York] and got good money for it.’ In another oral history, Montegue Stevens claimed that it was Cunningham who had in fact signed some of the unsigned Wilcox bank notes.

Unsigned bank notes also appeared in Monticello, Utah, and Durango, Mancos and Cortez, Colo., near where Sundance’s cousin George Longabaugh homesteaded and near the La Sal Mountains hideout often used by Harvey Logan. However, by the time the money was traced, the Pinkertons were already at least three weeks and hundreds of miles behind the outlaws.

Finally, Wilcox bills began appearing in Cripple Creek, Colo., and in Dodson (later absorbed by Kansas City), Mo. When Lonnie Logan left Montana, he went home to his aunt and uncle, Mr. and Mrs. Hiram Lee in Dodson. There, Lonnie and his cousin Bob Lee visited and liberally spent Lonnie’s Wilcox money. When Bob returned to his job in Cripple Creek, he had a pocket full of Wilcox bills, which ultimately led to his arrest early in 1900.

On February 28, 1900, the Pinkertons and local police surrounded the Lee farm, looking for Lonnie. Seeing the armed men gathering outside, Lonnie tried to escape out the rear door, only to be shot dead by the Pinkerton agents.

Flatnose George Currie was killed by Sheriff Jesse Tyler near Moab, Utah, in April 1900. Tyler, who was tracking cattle rustlers and happened upon Flatnose, was later murdered under suspicious circumstances. One commonly held belief is that Harvey Logan had avenged the death of his mentor, George Currie.

Will Carver was killed in Sonora, Texas, on April 2, 1901, while resisting arrest for the murder of a pig farmer. Harry A. Longabaugh, aka the Sundance Kid, headed for Argentina with Ethel (or Etta) Place and Robert LeRoy Parker, alias Butch Cassidy. In 1908, after robbing a silver mine payroll, Sundance and Butch died in a shootout in San Vicente, Bolivia.

Harvey Logan and Ben Kilpatrick were caught separately and jailed in the early 1900s for passing stolen bank notes from a 1901 Montana train robbery. Harvey escaped and was done in by a posse tracking Colorado train robbers in 1904. Kilpatrick was released from prison in 1911 and shortly thereafter attempted to hold up a train in Sanderson, Texas, but the express messenger killed both Kilpatrick and his partner. In less than a dozen years, every Wilcox outlaw had died with his boots on and his guns blazing.

This article was written by Donna B. Ernst and originally appeared in the June 1999 issue of Wild West.

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