ask the marshall true west

The Wild Bunch often hung out at Fannie Porter’s bordello in Texas. Where was it? Movies say Fort Worth or San Antonio.

Terry Priddy – Pipe Creek, Texas

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid biographer Daniel Buck says Fannie Porter was based in San Antonio, Texas. Mary Porter ran a house of ill repute in Fort Worth, which is why some movies get the locale confused.

fannie porter the wild bunch true west
Texas Madam Fannie Porter made a small fortune hiding outlaws. Pinkerton detectives suspected that the Sundance Kid’s girlfriend Etta Place had worked at Porter’s brothel, but could never prove it.
– Courtesy Library of congress –

Marshall Trimble is Arizona’s official historian and vice president of the Wild West History Association. His latest book is Arizona Outlaws and Lawmen; The History Press, 2015. If you have a question, e-mail him at marshall.trimble@scottsdalecc.edu

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