Howdy folks and greetings from the Great Plains of North Texas! We are in a series about two of America's most famous outlaws, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
Yesterday we talked about just a few of the men who were major players in the Wild Bunch gang so today I wanted to talk about the women. Unfortunately there isn't much in the way of details about the women that we know had relationships with the crazy men of the gang.
We know who a few of them are, but they weren't exactly sitting down for People Magazine interviews like today's couples.
Hard to pin down
Plus, the men came and went and most of them didn't have permanent relationships because they moved around the country alot. Doing various "jobs" and running from the law. These weren't the type of men who were looking to settle down, get married and have kids.
So for that reason, most of the women in their lives were prostitutes that they met in brothels. Now, Butch and Sundance and Elzy May were a little different. Well, Elzy was very different in that he was married and he's the only gang member that I'm aware of who was.
Butch had a steady girlfriend for a long time, or would be considered a long time for those kind of guys, he went with her for about 7 years. Her name was Ann Bassett from the Bassett Ranch which was the social headquarters for the gang. Here she is:
I don't know what happened to the relationship but it's easy to see why she would get tired of the unstable lifestyle. She was there for Butch but I don't think she was part of any criminal activity.
The same for Elzy's wife, Maude. She had nothing to do with the gang's activity but was just there for Elzy. Here she is:
I can't comprehend why so many girls and women pursued men of the Wild Bunch, like groupies waiting to fling themselves at members of a Rock band after a concert. If any of you ladies out there can explain this phenomenon to me I'd be grateful! lol.
I get the "bad boy" attraction in high school but what's the attraction of mean, dangerous and violent, nasty, grungy murderers? A few of the women were local ranch girls looking for adventure and excitement I reckon but most of them were "working girls" from brothels.
THE place to go for a good time
There was a famous brothel in San Antonio, Texas called Fannie Porter's and it was a favorite of the Wild Bunch. She ran the most successful establishment of it's kind and it was known throughout the entire West.
It was the most popular not just with outlaws but also Sheriffs and the Pinkerton detectives! lol. The lawmen got "special treatment" but I'm not sure what that means.
But the reason it was so successful is because whatever happened there stayed there, just like the Las Vegas commercial What Happens In Vegas Stays in Vegas! Fannie had strict rules. By the way, here's her picture:
Anyway, Fannie had strict rules about no one talking about anything to anyone and no information was to be to given about any clients, no matter who they were. Total confidentiality. It was also called the Wild Bunch's dating service because so many of the girls ran off with those guys.
One of them was Annie Rogers who for some reason fell for the vicious, psychotic killer that I talked about yesterday, Harvey Logan. Here they are together:
Annie actually tried to talk him out of the outlaw lifestyle. She wanted to leave her occupation and get married and start a family with him. He didn't much care for the idea. She followed him around and wrote him letters for years trying to change his mind.. to no avail.
Laura Bullion was a Texas gal who was born into an outlaw family. Her dad was killed robbing a stagecoach and she worked at Fannie Porter's until she fell for one of the gang, News Carver.
Most people think she was his common law wife but later was with the Tall Texan, Ben Kilpatrick, after he won her from News in a card game! lol. You can't make this stuff up!
We have a picture of her, it's a mug shot, she got arrested for laundering money from one of the robberies.
Another girlfriend of News was Lillie Davis, one of the Fannie Porter girls. She became famous for betraying the Wild Bunch. She spilled her guts to the Pinkertons, telling them everything about the organization like alias's, descriptions, locations of hideouts, who participated in what crimes. Practically everything they knew about the gang was because of her. Couldn't find any photos.
Last but certainly not least is the mysterious Etta Place. No woman in the West has been researched more diligently by more historians than Etta. We still have no idea who she was, what she did, or where she came from. All we know is that Sundance courted her for years and was smitten with her.
In the movie she was portrayed as an innocent school teacher and she may have been. I think it's more likely that she was a local girl from Brown's Park near Robbers Roost or that she was even a working girl from Fannie Porter's place.
Her name wasn't really Etta Place, that's just the alias she used. When her and Sundance traveled together they would sign into hotels as Mr. and Mrs. Harry Place. Here they are..there is only ONE photo of her, and this is it:
Very elegant, she looks like pure class and refinement.
Thanks for joining me in a look at some of these women, there were many more because it was a revolving door type of situation but these are the main ones. Tomorrow we'll continue with the gang's activities.
-jonboy Texas
the gentleman redneck
PS- ya know...you might just be a redneck if:
There are more fish on your wall than pictures!