I saw comparison photos of Etta Place and Ann Bassett, and they look identical to me. Was Ann Etta?
Mike King
Middletown, New Jersey
You are not the first person to raise that theory. Doris Karren Burton published a booklet in 1992, Queen Ann Bassett Alias Etta Place, arguing that the Brown’s Park pioneer was the Sundance Kid’s girlfriend known to us as Etta Place.
Wild Bunch historian Daniel Buck dismisses her theory. A physical resemblance is not enough (a lot of

January 2014
In This Issue:
More In This Issue
- Curtis’s Big Dream
- Hard Living: Elmore Leonard’s West
- The Lawman & the Land Rush
- How do we know the tintype photo is really of Billy the Kid?
- Did some cowboys dig up a corpse and pour whiskey down his throat?
- I have seen several photos on the Internet claiming to be of Doc Holliday, however, many of the facial features don’t match up. What gives?
- In the Pancho Villa photograph, who is the man peering over Gen. John “Black Jack” Pershing’s left shoulder? Huge wager on this! Your input, please.
- How common was postmortem photography in the Old West?
- True West’s Best Western Books of 2013
- I saw comparison photos of Etta Place and Ann Bassett, and they look identical to me. Was Ann Etta?
- Rough Drafts 1/14
- True West’s Best Western Wear for 2014
- True West’s Best Art & Collectibles of 2013
- True West’s Best Heritage Travel for 2014
- Buffalo Gal
- True West’s Best of the West 2014 Winners
- Shoot-out at Stinking Springs
- True West’s Best Firearms for 2014
- Forrest Fenn’s Other Treasure
- Robert G. McCubbin
- January 2014 Events
- 100 Best Historical Photos of the American West
- True West’s Best Movies, TV Series & DVDs of 2013
- Who are the men in the “mystery photo” that claims to feature some of the Old West’s most famous gunfighters at Hunter’s Hot Springs in Montana?