Butch Cassidy

Butch Cassidy and his gang of outlaws have had a profound effect on America during the late 1800s. Because of this infamous “Wild Bunch,” the famous Pinkerton National Detective Agency produced many wanted ads for these criminals. One of these timeless works was made by the Pinkerton Agency and ended up in the hands of Tarrant County College Library. This piece of historical literature dates back to about hundred years ago which has descriptions of each of Butch Cassidy and others who rode with him on his adventurous, risk taking journeys around the country.

This antique piece of paper is very significant for it’s time period and is in still decent shape. Other than some tears around the corners, you can still read the entire page without a problem. This document has aged well, but still has changed its color to a brownish-beige. It also looks as if it was in either a book or a newspaper made to notify Americans of the crazed outlaws on the loose. A printing press was used to make this notification for the Pinkerton Agency, which was an astounding invention of its time to speed up the process of getting newspapers out to the public. To track down the famed “Wild Bunch,” the Pinkertons set this document with detailed descriptions of each outlaw with their picture and name underneath it. This particular antique was produced on Opera House Block in Denver Colorado. With the Pinkerton’s report, this helped catch some of the most vicious outlaws of their time. There were many men in the gang that terrorized the western frontier, but the most notorious six were named and described on the

document. George Parker, Harry Longbaugh, Camilla Hanks, Harvey Logan, Ben

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Kilpatrick, and William Carver were all mentioned with their infamous nicknames.

George Parker was known as the legendary “Butch Cassidy,” Harry Longbaugh’s nickname was “The Sundance Kid,” Camilla Hanks went by “O.C. Hanks,” Harvey Logan’s alias was “Kid Curry,” “The Tall Texan” was Ben Kilpatrick’s nickname, and lastly William Carver’s was “B.L.” Carver. These six men caused havoc for banks everywhere during the late 1800s and into the early 1900s.

The organization the created this ad was the Pinkerton National Detective Agency which started in 1850. A Scottish Immigrant, Allan Pinkerton, is credited for the finding of this secret service. The Pinkerton National Detective Agency is the country’s largest and oldest of its type of organization. Two thirds of all of their documents were about Butch Cassidy and the Wild Bunch which included mug shots and personal information. In addition, the Pinkerton Agency had the most abundant assortment of mug shots in the world. Among these photographs, the most infamous was the one of the gang in Fort Worth, Texas that was taken professionally. Butch and his posse wanted to show off there new derby hats, but eventually their egos and their thoughts of being invincible caught up to them when a police officer recognized the picture on the shop window where the photo was taken. Allan began his career with an unintentional contribution to finding counterfeit criminals which led him to be appointed as a deputy sheriff for Kane County and then a police detective in Chicago. Then around the same time, Pinkerton and another created the North-Western Police Agency. A year later this agency disbanded, which led

to his partnership with his brother to make the Pinkerton National Detective Agency we

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know today. They specialized in helping private companies with detective work and

seized robbers and counterfeiters. Butch Cassidy and the Wild Bunch were not the only famous outlaws that the Pinkerton Agency chased after. Trying to capture Jesse James and the Reno brothers took up some the time of the Pinkertons as well. The Pinkertons had a three story building in Chicago where they took care of business. Their motto was “We Never Sleep” and to go along with that motto was a logo of a black and white eye. “We Never Sleep” came from the expression private eye. As their Agency began to grow, the Pinkertons had more agents than the United States Army. In 1884, the founder, Allan Pinkerton, passed away so his two sons took over the family business. The Pinkerton National Detective Agency has become a well known name around the world which is has been mentioned not just in history, but in distinguished films as well.

Another important detail of this historical record, is how in depth the Pinkertons know who they are looking for. At this time it was hard to send and receive news regarding the descriptions,