Harry longabaugh biography

Harry Alonzo Longabaugh, better known as the Sundance Kid, was an outlaw and member of Butch Cassidy&#;sWild Bunch. During his wild days in the Old West, he also went by the names of Frank Smith, H.A. Brown, Harry A. Place, and Harry Long.

Longabaugh was born in Mont Clare, Pennsylvania, in , the youngest of five children of Josiah and Annie G. Place Longabaugh. When he was only 15 years old, he headed west with a cousin. By the time he was 20, he had stolen a gun, a saddle, and a horse from a ranch in Sundance, Wyoming, only to be almost immediately captured. He was convicted and spent 18 months in jail, when he took on the nickname of the Sundance Kid.

After his release, he worked as a cowboy before being implicated in an train robbery, and by , he had hooked up with Harvey Logan, a member of the Wild Bunch. The two then robbed a bank at Belle Fourche, South Dakota, on June 27th. Both men were captured but managed to escape from a Deadwood jail three months later. Afterward, they hid in a log cabin at Old Trail Town in Cody, Wyoming, as they planned to rob a bank in Red Lodge, Montana.

He soon met up with Butch Cassidy, joined the Wild Bunch, and moved to the Robber&#;s Roost in Utah.

On June 2, , the gang, including Butch Cassidy, Sundance Kid, Harvey Logan, and Elzy Lay, robbed a Union Pacific Overland Flyer passenger train near Wilcox, Wyoming. This year, he is thought to have met up with Etta Place in San Antonio, Texas.

On August 29, , Cassidy, Longabaugh, and others robbed Union Pacific train No. 3 near Tipton, Wyoming, of about $55, Less than a month later, on September 19, , three or four bandits, including the Sundance Kid, struck the First National Bank of Winnemucca, Nevada, stealing $32,

In December , Cassidy posed alongside Longabaugh, Harvey Logan, Will Carver, and Ben Kilpatrick in Fo

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Who Was Sundance Kid?

American criminal Sundance Kid was originally named Harry Longabaugh. At age 15, he headed west and received his nickname when was arrested for stealing a horse in Sundance, Wyoming. After a couple of years in jail, Sundance Kid resumed a career in crime, robbing trains and banks. Named the Wild Bunch, he and his conspirators went on the longest crime spree in the history of the American West. Sundance Kid eventually fled to South America where he continued his life of crime. Historians disagree on his death with some citing a shootout in Bolivia on November 3, while others suggest he returned to the U.S. under the name William Long and lived there until

Early Years

Harry Alonzo Longabaugh was born in in Mont Clare, Pennsylvania. He was considered the fastest gunslinger in the Wild Bunch, a well-known gang of robbers and cattle rustlers that roamed the American West during the s and s.

Longabaugh was just 15 when he left home for good. He took his nickname from the Wyoming town of Sundance, where he was arrested for the only time in his life after stealing a horse. For the crime, Sundance served nearly two years in jail. Upon his release in , he attempted to create an honest life for himself as a cowboy.

The Wild Bunch

By the early s, Sundance was back to being an outlaw. Authorities fingered him for a train robbery in , and five years later for a bank heist that he pulled off with a group that came to be known as the Wild Bunch. The gang largely consisted of Robert Parker (aka Butch Cassidy), Harry Tracy (“Elzy Lay”), Ben Kilpatrick (the “Tall Texan”) and Harvey Logan (“Kid Curry”). Together, the group embarked on the longest stretch of successful train and bank robberies in the history of the American West.

Among the men, Sundance was considered to be the fastest gunslinger, though historical evidence indicates he never killed anyone during the Wild Bunch’s run. The gang’s robberies were scattered around part

American train robber (–)

Harry Alonzo Longabaugh ( – November 7, ), better known as the Sundance Kid, was an outlaw and member of Butch Cassidy's Wild Bunch in the American Old West. He likely met Butch Cassidy (real name Robert LeRoy Parker) during a hunting trip in or earlier. The gang performed the longest string of successful train and bank robberies in American history.

Longabaugh fled the United States along with his consort Etta Place and Butch Cassidy to escape the dogged pursuit of the Pinkerton Detective Agency. The trio fled first to Argentina and then to Bolivia, where most historians believe Parker (Cassidy) and Longabaugh were killed in a shootout in November

Early life

Longabaugh was born in Mont Clare, Pennsylvania, in to Pennsylvania natives Josiah and Annie G. (née&#;Place) Longabaugh, the youngest of five children. At age 15, he traveled west in a covered wagon with his cousin George to help settle George's homestead near Cortez, Colorado. While there, he found work as a wrangler at a neighboring ranch, and he learned to buy and breed horses. He left Cortez in and struck out on his own, drifting north and working on ranches. He found work on the N Bar N Ranch in Montana Territory, but the hard winter of – forced the ranch to lay off wranglers, including Longabaugh. Longabaugh drifted to the Black Hills before turning back to try to find work again at the N Bar N.

Career

In , while traveling across the Three V Ranch near Sundance, Wyoming, he stole a gun, horse, and saddle from a cowboy. He was captured by authorities in Miles City, Montana, and sentenced to 18 months in jail by Judge William L. Maginnis. He adopted the nickname "Sundance Kid" during this time in jail, having derived it from the Wyoming town of the same name and the fact that he left home at the age of After his release, he went back to working as a ranch hand, and he worked

As soon as we came to a standstill, Conductor Storey went forward to see what was the matter and saw several men with guns, one of whom shouted that they were going to blow up the train with dynamite. The conductor understood the situation at once and, before meeting the bandits turned and started back to warn the second section. The robbers mounted the engine and at the point of their guns forced the engineer and fireman to dismount, after beating the engineer over the head with their guns, claiming that he didn't move fast enough, and marched them back over to our car.

In a few moments we heard voices outside our car calling for Sherman and looking out saw Engineer Jones and his fireman accompanied by three masked men with guns.

They evidently thought Clerk Sherman was aboard and were calling him to come out with the crew. Burt Bruce, clerk in charge, refused to open the door, and ordered all lights extinguished. There was much loud talk and threats to blow up the car were made, but the doors were kept shut. In about 15 minutes two shots were fired into the car, one of the balls passing through the water tank and on through the stanchions.

Following close behind the shooting came a terrific explosion, and one of the doors was completely wrecked and most of the car windows broken. The bandits then threatened to blow up the whole car if we didn't get out, so Bruce gave the word and we jumped down, and were immediately lined up and searched for weapons. They said it would not do us no good to make trouble, that they didn't want the mail - that they wanted what was in the express car and was going to have it, and that they had powder enough to blow the whole train off the track.

After searching us they started us back and we saw up the track the headlight of the second section. They asked what was on the train, and somebody said there were two cars of soldiers on the train. This scared them and they hastened back to the engine