Butch Cassidy Read Online Free PDF

mother worked together to plant a row of poplars along the path that led to the main road. As he now rode down the path, Robert remembered that time of planting as he passed the line of trees.
    The incident was to be recalled forty years later.

Three

    Telluride
    Robert LeRoy Parker had been gone from Circle Valley for several months when Maxi rode into the town of Circleville one day to purchase some supplies. While there, he received some troubling news. Maxi learned that several of the area cattle ranchers had discovered some of their stock had turned up in a herd belonging to two companions of Mike Cassidy. The two men, however, produced bills of sale for the cattle. According to the documents, the seller was none other than Robert LeRoy Parker.
    Maxi met with area constable James Wiley, who offered some explanation. Robert, knowing he was going to be leaving the area, apparently agreed to put his name on the phony bills of sale. The two friends who had possession of the herd had families to support and wished to remain living in the region, and Robert may have simply wanted to help them. As it eventually turned out, the stolen cattle were returned to their rightful owners, the two friends of Cassidy were not suspected of doing anything illegal, and Robert Parker had fled the jurisdiction of the state. There was little the constable could, or wanted to, do.
    In signing the phony bills of sale, Robert may not have overtly intended anything illegal. Perhaps the rather naïve youth was completely unaware of the ultimate consequences of his act. It is doubtful that criminal mischief was his motivation, but at the very least his action indicated a serious lack of judgment. Because of the incident, however, Robert was now known in the community as a criminal. A seed for his eventual reputation as an outlaw had been planted.
    When Robert LeRoy Parker rode into Telluride, Colorado, in the summer of 1884, he was eighteen. Once known as Columbia, the town was reveling in a successful gold mining boom. Tons of ore were being dug from the mountainsides, and poor men became wealthy almost overnight. The name Telluride came from tellurium, a semimetallic element related to selenium and sulphur and considered one of the most important elements found in combination with gold. Telluride was located at the bottom of a deep canyon in a location known as San Miguel Park.
    During its peak, the town of Telluride was referred to by many as the Sodom of the American West. Telluride offered numerous diversions for the hardworking miners—saloons, dance halls, whorehouses, and gambling dens abounded. Killings and robberies were a common occurrence, many of them going unsolved. Mercantiles and supply stores were everywhere, and large amounts of money changed hands around the clock.
    In a short time, Robert, who by this time was calling himself Roy, secured a job some distance from Telluride. He was hired to pack ore onto mules and escort them from the mines to the mills. The days were long and hard, but Roy, always a hard worker, reveled in it at first. He also made good money for the first time in his life. A portion of his paycheck was sent home, but the saloons and women of Telluride accounted for much of the rest.
    Not long after his arrival in Telluride, Roy sold his mare and made an arrangement with a local rancher to keep his unbroken colt, Cornish. The demands of his job prevented Roy from spending much time with the colt, and his visits to the animal were rare.
    During the first spring following his arrival, Roy decided it was time to break the colt, so he visited more and more. With each visit, the rancher made an offer to purchase the animal, but Roy always turned him down.
    One evening after work, Roy went down to the pasture, removed the three-year-old colt, and took him elsewhere to break. The rancher charged Roy Parker with horse theft and asked the town police chief to place him under arrest. The rancher stated that the colt