Butch Cassidy (17 page)

Fourteen

The San Vicente Incident Revisited

Much of what most people know, or think they know, about the fate of outlaw Butch Cassidy is derived from Arthur Chapman’s 1930 description of the so-called San Vicente shootout. This article formed the basis of numerous subsequent treatments on Cassidy and his partner, and solidified in the minds of many the legend of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, along with their heroic yet ill fated confrontation with the Bolivian army.

A review of pertinent documents, however, suggests that something entirely different occurred, something quite contrary to the popular perception of the aforementioned South American events. Furthermore, the more one examines records of the time and region, the more one comes away impressed and dismayed with the overwhelming amount of conflicting and contradictory testimony, as well as a profusion of confusion relative to who, in truth, committed the payroll robbery, what actually happened at San Vicente, who was killed there, and who was buried in the San Vicente cemetery. With regard to each of the above, the identity of the participants has always remained in question. They are as much in question today as they were then.

It would be appropriate, therefore, to examine closely the circumstances surrounding the robbery of the Aramayo mine payroll, the incident at San Vicente, and the burial of the two victims who many believe were Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

The Robbery

According to various bits and pieces of information coming mostly from his own testimony, Carlos Peró, in the company of his son and a servant named Gil Gonzalez, was transporting the Aramayo payroll from Uyuni to Tupiza when he was held up on the road near Salo, located just north of Tupiza. Peró, one of the principals in the robbery and the official in charge at the time, was a man who, logically, would have and should have known as much or more about what transpired than anyone else, save for the robbers themselves.

Peró identified the bandits as Yankees who were hiding behind rocks a short distance off the trail. In one account, Peró refers to the bandits as “wearing masks.” However, according to Richard Patterson in
Butch Cassidy: A Biography
, in a subsequent letter Peró says they were wearing bandannas. Some believe “masks” and “bandannas” are synonymous, but they are not; they are quite different. Perhaps Peró misspoke. One may grant that he was unaware of the difference, but that is not likely. In any event, with hats pulled low over their heads and the lower portions of their faces apparently well covered with bandannas (or other parts of their faces hidden by masks), all Peró likely saw of the two robbers were their eyes.

Peró also said the robbers were carrying rifles cocked and ready to fire. Yet, in another report, Peró contradicts himself by saying one was unarmed.

Peró described the bandits as pleasant and well mannered. After taking the money, according to Peró, they tied up the three Bolivians and left with the payroll money, one dark mule, and a new hemp rope. Yet another report stated the Bolivians were not bound at all.

The bandits departed the scene of the robbery on foot, leading the mule. After freeing themselves (assuming they were ever tied to begin with), Peró, according to one report, walked to Cotani, where he sent a message about the robbery to officials at the Aramayo mines. An article in an Oruro newspaper called
La
Prensa
, however, stated Peró hurried back to Uyuni to report the incident. Perhaps he did both.

From Ann Meadows’s
Digging Up Butch and Sundance
, Peró is on record as stating the “two Yankees wore new, dark-red, thin-wale corduroy suits with narrow, soft-brimmed hats, the brims turned down in such as way that, with the bandannas tied behind their ears, only their eyes could be seen.” One of the bandits was “thin and of normal stature,” while the other was “heavyset and taller.” Peró also said the robbery took place at 9:15 in the morning on November 4, 1908.

The Shootout

According to an eyewitness named Remigio Sanchez, two gringos arrived in San Vicente on November 7 from the east, one riding “a dark brown and the other on a solid black mule” (in Patterson’s
Butch Cassidy: A Biography
). According to Sanchez, the “tall gringo was dressed in a light-brown cashmere suit, a grey hat, red gaiters, a belt with about twenty-eight bullets, a gold watch, a dagger, and a silk handkerchief. The smaller one wore a yellow suit, apparently cashmere, red gaiters, [and] a grey hat. . . . Both were unshaven blondes.”

If the two men who rode into San Vicente were the same ones who robbed the Aramayo payroll three days earlier, they must have changed their suits. This is a possibility assuming they were transporting a change of clothes in their saddlebags. On the other hand, for two bandits on the run and traveling light, this seems somewhat improbable.

Furthermore, it seems odd that payroll-robbing bandits on the run, traveling back roads, and living in the woods, would be dressed in rather expensive cashmere clothes and wearing gaiters. Garments made of cashmere were normally reserved for special and formal occasions such as cotillions and corporate meetings, not riding on mules along the poor and dusty back roads of the Bolivian countryside.

According to Sanchez, the two men, after arriving in San Vicente, asked him about lodging, and he referred them at once to the residence of Bonifacio Casasolo. The residence was part of the local police station and also served as an inn when necessary, a not uncommon association in small South American towns where travelers were concerned about their possessions.

The two strangers were provided a room that opened onto a small courtyard surrounded by an adobe wall. A short time later, “the police inspector, with two soldiers and the corregidor,” arrived at the room to learn the identities of the two newcomers. According to Sanchez, one of the four men, a soldier, passed though a gate, entered the courtyard, and approached the room in which the newcomers were eating and drinking. Suddenly, the smaller of the two, identified by some as Butch Cassidy, “appeared and fired one shot and then another.” The soldier was struck and ran screaming to a nearby house, where he expired.

A somewhat different version of the encounter was described in an article in
La Prensa
, which stated that a “posse of policemen” caught up with the bandits at San Vicente. On seeing the policemen, according to the article, the bandits drew their pistols and “unleashed a veritable hail of bullets at their pursuers, who answered with a blaze of fire as if hunting wild animals.” The gun battle was described as “intense . . . a tremendous din and the furious shouting of the bandits and the police were all that could be heard” (Patterson’s
Butch Cassidy: A Biography
). The gun battle, according to the article, lasted for more than an hour, with the two bandits being killed, “their bodies riddled with bullets.”

Another article, this one based on the notes of Percy Seibert, stated several patrols were sent out in pursuit of the gringo bandits shortly after the robbery occurred and that the supposed malefactors were captured in Salo, located a few miles north of Tupiza. In fact, in a November 5, 1908, letter, Peró wrote that two men—allegedly a North American named Ray Walters and an Englishman named Frank Murray—were both detained by Salo authorities. The two closely matched the descriptions of the bandits. Tupiza officials learned of the San Vicente shootout and the deaths of the two strangers three days after the event. A short time later, they provided for the release of Walters and Murray from their Salo confinement.

Who, exactly, were Walters and Murray? A few Cassidy researchers have wondered if the two men temporarily incarcerated at Salo were, in fact, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Though Cassidy and Harry Longabaugh were never known to use the aliases “Walters” and “Murray,” it is surprising that this aspect has never been thoroughly investigated. Walters and Murray remain a deep mystery to this day.

Yet another newspaper offered a different version of what transpired at San Vicente. The article stated that a military patrol traveled to San Vicente, where two North Americans were encountered. A ferocious gun battle ensued that lasted more than an hour. In the end, the two bandits and one soldier were killed. The same article also stated the Aramayo payroll robbery occurred on November 6 and the shootout took place on November 10.

A story related by the noted and intrepid explorer and archeologist Hiram Bingham III differed markedly from other accounts. Bingham came to Argentina on November 15, 1908, and learned from “reliable” sources that, approximately one week prior to his arrival, the bandits who robbed the Aramayo mine payroll were from Arizona and had been tracked by fifty Bolivian soldiers who ultimately surrounded the hut in which they were hiding. According to Bingham, the bandits killed “three or four of the soldiers” and wounded several more. The thatched roof of the hut in which they had taken refuge was set afire by the attacking forces, causing the bandits to flee into the open where they were shot down, “each with half a dozen bullets in his body” (in Patterson’s
Butch Cassidy: A Biography
).

So far, the only thing consistent about what happened regarding the two strangers who arrived in San Vicente is the inconsistency with which the details were related.

Inconsistency and contradiction likewise make a positive identification of the strangers difficult to impossible. In addition, the actual number of attackers who surrounded the house of Casasolo and shot at the bandits varies dramatically with different reports, the numbers ranging from four to several dozen. Furthermore, some accounts say they were Bolivian soldiers, other accounts say they were Bolivian police, and yet another claims they were mostly San Vicente citizens.

In still another version of the incident appearing in Sucre’s newspaper
La Manana
, four men—identified as Sheriff Timoteo Rios, Captain Justo P. Concha, and two soldiers—were in pursuit of the bandits and arrived in San Vicente around 8:00 p.m. on November 6 and, according to the article, confronted the strangers. If true, they must have waited at least a day to do so since most reliable accounts have the strangers arriving on the afternoon of November 7. Additionally, if the newspaper account is to be believed, it means the strangers rode into San Vicente after the arrival of the small posse. In any case, as the article continued, one of the newcomers shot and killed a soldier, initiating a half-hour gun battle in which the gringos were killed. Captain Concha stated in a letter dated November 7 that the two bandits, along with one soldier, were killed.

Even more accounts surfaced, one volunteered by a Walter Gutierrez, who is considered by some an authority on the holdup and the shootout. Gutierrez claims the bandits arrived at San Vicente around 7:00 p.m. and were approached by fifteen to twenty soldiers. There was no shootout says Gutierrez, none of the soldiers were killed, and the bandits simply surrendered. Moments after surrendering, they were shot and killed by the soldiers.

There is more. Another account claimed that when the bandits were approached by the soldiers, they tossed the payroll money onto the patio. As the soldiers examined the contents of the packs, the outlaws escaped through the thatched roof.

Yet another version of what happened at San Vicente comes from a man named Froilan Risso. Interviewed by Meadows (in
Digging Up Butch and Sundance
), Risso claimed his father, ten years old at the time, witnessed the shootout. Risso stated the two strangers were in a room that opened onto a patio when “twenty soldiers” approached. One soldier, Victor Torres, passed through the patio gate and was immediately shot by one of the outlaws. The soldiers started firing back. According to Risso, “everybody was firing their guns [and the] noise was incredible.” Following the gun battle, which lasted until nightfall, said Risso, the two gringos were killed.

The San Vicente corregidor, Cleto Bellot, also submitted a report, which Meadows includes in
Digging Up Butch and Sundance
. He wrote that the two Americans arrived on November 6, the same day he had been advised that the Aramayo payroll shipment had been robbed. As Bellot was walking toward his home, he noticed the newcomers stop at the home of Casasolo. Bellot approached the strangers, and they asked him about lodging and fodder for their mounts. Casasolo appeared moments later, and Bellot told him to provide both.

According to Bellot, the strangers unsaddled their mules and placed their gear and rifles in the courtyard. Afterward, they retired to the room where Bellot joined them. The pair asked Bellot directions to Santa Catalina, Uyuni, and Oruro.

Bellot left and went directly to see someone he called the “commission inspector” and informed him of the arrival of the two strangers. The inspector, along with Bellot and two soldiers, procured rifles, loaded them, and carried them when they went to Casasolo’s house and entered the courtyard. Apparently the newcomers did not like the sight of the Bolivians approaching their room with weapons, and one of them appeared in the door with a pistol and shot one of the soldiers, a man named Victor Torres. As Torres fell, he fired a shot and the other soldier fired two shots. While the wounded Torres was scrambling away, Bellot fled, and the second soldier took up a position in a doorway and shot at the Americans from there. The inspector, according to Bellot, also fired his rifle at the strangers.