I would like your opinion on the deaths of outlaws Billy the Kid, Jesse James, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

I would like your opinion on the deaths of outlaws Billy the Kid, Jesse James, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

Dan Clutter a.k.a. “Outlaw Dan”

Denison, Iowa

Unless one dies in bed of old age like Frank James, there’s always going to be those who believe that the outlaw didn’t die when history records it but instead rode off into the sunset. All of the famous outlaws you mentioned, Jesse, Billy, Butch and Sundance, died with their boots on.

Years after their deaths, men came forward claiming to be the famous outlaws. J. Frank Dalton claimed to be Jesse; Brushy Bill Roberts said he was Billy. William T. Phillips said he was Butch Cassidy. And while no one claimed to be the Sundance Kid, historian Ed Kirby once believed Hiram Bebee was the Kid.

Most respected Western historians agree that Jesse was gunned down by the Cowardly Bob Ford in St. Joseph, Missouri, on April 3, 1882; Billy died at the hands of Pat Garrett in Fort Sumner, New Mexico, on July 14, 1881; and Butch and Sundance were killed while resisting arrest on November 6, 1908, in San Vicente, Bolivia.