Kid Curry had a 'reverse outlaw' problem

Bessie was a lovely child from West Tennessee
Leroy was an outlaw hard and mean
One day she saw him starin' and it chilled her to the bone
And she knew she had to see that look on a child of her own

__ Waylon Jennings, opening stanza, Ladies Love Outlaws

Harvey Logan and Della Moore.

Logan loved ladies, touched babies like banker touches gold

By Rob Carrigan, robcarrigan1@gmail.com

The real 'Kid Curry,' Harvey Logan, was an off-and-on member of the 'Wild Bunch' comprised by Butch Cassidy, Sundance Kid, and other notable outlaws of the early 1900s and it seems, had "reverse outlaw" problem. Though the 'soiled doves' probably cared for him — but loved his loot more, Logan, as an outlaw, loved the ladies.

Reports said he would often return from a train or bank robbery, get drunk and lay up with prostitutes until his share of the take was gone.  

Logan, contrary to the reputation of most of the rest of the 'Wild Bunch,' was also a wicked bar-room brawler and a cold-blooded killer, reportedly killing as many as nine law enforcement officers, and several others.

Until at least 1883, Harvey made his living breaking horses on the Cross L ranch, near Rising Star, Texas. While there, he met and befriended a man named "Flat Nose" George Curry, from whom he took his new last name. His brothers soon adopted the same last name. The Logan brothers were known as hard workers until they got paid. Money did not stay in their pockets for long. All the brothers were also known to have a taste for alcohol and a weakness for cavorting with wild women.

The events that changed the course of his life began when his brother Hank and friend Jim Thornhill bought a ranch at Rock Creek, Montana. The ranch was near the site of a mine strike made by local miner and lawman Powell "Pike" Landusky. Landusky, according to some reports of the day, confronted Curry and attacked him, believing Curry was involved romantically with his daughter Elfie. Landusky then filed assault charges against Kid Curry, who was reportedly arrested and beaten.
Two friends of Curry's, A.S. Lohman and Frank Plunkett, paid a $500 bond for Curry's release. Landusky's daughter Elfie later claimed it was Curry's brother, Lonny, with whom she had been involved. However, the confession came much too late. On December 27, 1894, Curry caught Landusky at a local saloon and hit Landusky, stunning him. Curry, evidently believing the fight was over, began walking away. Landusky pulled his pistol and began threatening Curry, who was unarmed. Curry's friend and his brother's partner, Jim Thornhill, gave Curry his pistol. Landusky's gun jammed and Curry shot him dead.
Curry was arrested, but was released at an inquest when it was judged that he acted in self-defense. However, a formal trial was set. Curry believed he would not get a fair trial because the judge was close friends with Landusky. For this reason, Curry left town.

Curry started riding with outlaw Tom "Black Jack" Ketchum. Pinkerton detectives began trailing Curry shortly after his departure from Montana. In January 1896, Curry received word that an old friend of Landusky's, rancher James Winters, had been spying on him for the reward offered in his arrest. Curry and two of his brothers, Johnny and Lonny, went to Winters' ranch to confront him. However, a shootout erupted. Johnny was killed, while Curry and Lonny escaped. Shortly after, Curry and Lonny argued with Black Jack Ketchum over the take in a train robbery. The two brothers left the gang and joined the circus, according to W.C. Jameson,  (2019), in "Rocky Mountain Train Robberies: True Stories of Notorious Bandits and Infamous Escapades." 

The Wild Bunch, From left to right: Harry A. Longabaugh, a.k.a. "The Sundance Kid," William Carver, Ben Kilpatrick, a.k.a. "The Tall Texan," Harvey Logan, a.k.a. "Kid Curry" and Robert Leroy Parker, a.k.a. "Butch Cassidy." The photo was taken Nov. 21, 1900, at John Swartz's studio in Fort Worth, Texas.

The brothers then received employment on a cattle ranch, arranged by their cousin, Bob Lee, near Sand Gulch, Colorado. Pinkerton agents trailing Curry gave up his trail briefly. Curry, Lonny, Walt Putnam and George Curry formed their own gang around this time. Curry temporarily left Colorado, intending to scout good targets for potential robberies. On April 15, 1897, Curry was reportedly involved in the killing of Deputy Sheriff William Deane of Powder River, Wyoming, as he and his gang gathered fresh horses on a ranch in the Powder River Basin. After this, he returned to Colorado to the ranch where he was working.

By June 1897, the cowboy job had ended, and Curry ventured north with the rest of the gang. They robbed a bank in Belle Fourche, South Dakota, and met resistance outside the bank from the townspeople. One of their friends, Tom O'Day, was captured when his horse spooked and ran away without him. The others escaped, but while planning a second robbery a posse from the town caught up with them in Fergus County, Montana. During a shootout, Curry was shot through the wrist, and his horse was shot from under him, resulting in his capture. George Curry and Walt Putnam were also captured. All three were held in the Deadwood, South Dakota jail, but only briefly; they overpowered the jailer and escaped. They headed back into Montana and robbed two post offices.

Kid Curry (Logan) also had a reputation of loving and leaving. As mentioned, reports said he would often return from a train or bank robbery, get drunk and lay up with prostitutes until his share of the take was gone. Numerous prostitutes would name him as the father of various "love childs" that sometimes were referred to as "Curry Kids." Some sources credit Kid Curry with as many as eighty-five children, though the real number was probably closer to five or six.

To complicate things on the Kid Curry front, in addition to the Wild Bunch, the Kid, Harvey Logan, also rode with Sam Ketchum, who was the brother of Tom "Black Jack" Ketchum and Ezra Lay.
Also muddying the water, was the fact that Curry (Logan) liked to hide out in San Antonio, Texas.
While there he met prostitute Della Moore (also known as Annie Rogers or Maude Williams), with whom he became romantically involved. At the time of their meeting, she was working in Madame Fannie Porter's brothel, which of course, was a regular hideout for the Wild Bunch gang. In October 1901, Della Moore was arrested in Tennessee for passing money tied to an earlier robbery involving Curry. The gunman is credited shortly afterwards with killing two policemen in Knoxville in a shootout and escape on Dec. 13, 1901.

On February 28, 1900, lawmen had attempted to arrest Lonny Curry at his aunt's home. Lonny was killed in the shootout that followed, and his cousin Bob Lee was arrested for rustling and sent to prison in Wyoming. Kid Curry was now the last surviving Logan brother. Meanwhile, Curry was identified in St. Johns, Arizona, as he was passing notes suspected of being from the Wilcox robbery. Local Apache County Sheriff Edward Beeler gathered a posse and began tracking Curry, who was accompanied by Bill "News" Carver. The posse shot it out with Curry and Carver on March 28. Curry and Carver killed Deputy Andrew Gibbons and Deputy Frank LeSueur. On May 26, Kid Curry rode into Utah and killed Grand County Sheriff Jesse Tyler and Deputy Sam Jenkins in a brazen shootout in Moab, according to the Officer Down Memorial Page. Both killings were in retaliation for Tyler and Jenkins having killed George Curry and his brother Lonny.

Curry then returned to the Wild Bunch. On August 29, 1900, they robbed Union Pacific train No. 3 near Tipton, Wyoming,from which newspaper stories claimed the gang got more than $55,000. The gang again split up, with Kid Curry and Ben Kilpatrick heading south to Fort Worth, Texas, while Cassidy, the Sundance Kid, and Bill Carver immediately pulled off another robbery in Winnemucca, Nevada.
Siringo, still working the case for the Pinkertons, was in Circleville, Utah, where Butch Cassidy had been raised. Curry rejoined the gang, and they hit a Great Northern train near Wagner, Montana, on July 3. This time, they took over $60,000 in cash. Gang member Bill Carver was killed in Sonora, Texas, by Sutton County, Sheriff Elijah Briant during the pursuit following that robbery.
Again the gang split up. In October 1901, Della Moore was arrested in Nashville, Tennessee, for passing money tied to an earlier robbery involving Curry. On November 5 and 6, gang members Ben Kilpatrick and Laura Bullion were captured in St. Louis, Missouri.  On December 13, Kid Curry shot Knoxville, Tennessee, policemen William Dinwiddleand Robert Saylor in a shootout and escaped, according Officer Down Memorial Page. Despite being pursued by Pinkerton agents and other law enforcement officials, Curry returned to Montana, where he shot and killed rancher James Winters, who was responsible for the killing of his brother Johnny years before.

Curry later traveled back to Knoxville. In a pool hall on November 30, 1902, Curry was captured after a lengthy physical fight with lawmen. He was convicted of robbery because facts in the murder of the two policemen were not definite and no witnesses would testify, and he received a sentence of 20 years of hard labor and a $5,000 fine. On June 27, 1903, Curry escaped. Rumors that a deputy had received an $8,000 bribe to allow his escape spread, but this was never proven.
On June 7, 1904, Kid Curry was tracked down by a posse outside of what is now Parachute, Colorado. Curry and two others had robbed a train and they stole fresh horses owned by Rolla Gardner and a neighbor. Gardner and the neighbor set out after them and joined up with a posse and continued tracking, caught up the outlaws, who then shot Gardner's and his neighbor's horses from under them. Gardner found cover while his neighbor started running. Kid Curry took aim at the neighbor and Gardner shot Curry. The wounded Curry then fatally shot himself in the head to avoid capture. 

Rulon Gardner, Olympic Gold- and Bronze-medal winner and celebrity.

Incidentally, Rolla Gardener's descendent, Rulon Gardner (Olympic Gold- and Bronze-medal winner and celebrity) was stand-out Wyoming high-school wrestler, reality TV star, pro wrestler and coach, who spent years in Colorado Springs at the Olympic Training Center.

The rifle Gardner used is still in the family today. Rumors persist that Curry was not killed in Parachute and was misidentified, having actually departed for South America with Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Charlie Siringo resigned from the Pinkertons, believing they got the wrong man.
Curry is buried in Pioneer (Linwood) Cemetery overlooking Glenwood Springs, Colorado, a short distance from gunfighter Doc Holliday's memorial.

Harvey Logan in death photos.

Telling tales and Butch's first bank

The inexperienced outlaws led the teller outside with his hands up, and in the process, alerted the entire town.

By Rob Carrigan, robcarrigan1@gmail.com

“An honest tale speeds best being plainly told,”
_ William Shakespeare

Back East, the story is usually some variation of “George Washington slept here.” In the Wild West, however, we seem to carry more respect for the violent and hardnosed. The best yarns usually have some element of “‘Butch’ and ‘Sundance’ robbed the train here,” or members of “the ‘Wild Bunch’ knocked off the bank over there,” or “this fellow was killed on the ‘Outlaw Trail’ while shooting at so-and-so...”
There is a metal plaque on the outside of the Mahr building at the corner of Pine and Main Streets in Telluride. It reads, simply, “Mahr Building. Site of the San Miguel Valley Bank. Butch Cassidy’s first bank robbery. June 24, 1889.”
The bank building burnt down long ago, but stories are still being told about what transpired there one summer day shortly after noon, when three outlaws rode into to the mining town wearing “silver-studded bridles, spurs, saddles and artillery, five-gallon hats, red bandanas, flashy shirts, chaps and high-heeled cowboy boots,” according to an account by one of the men involved, Matt Warner.
Warner took credit for having the idea to rob the bank. Both riders with a regional reputation for winning horse races, Warner said he approached his friend and fellow racer Butch Cassidy — and then, his own brother-in-law Tom McCarty. According to his version, Butch was excited by the prospect, while Tom was more reluctant. After riding into town and up to the bank, Warner says he placed his gun under the teller’s nose, while Cassidy gathered the cash, and Tom McCarty held the horses outside.
An account reported by a teller was slightly different, having one man coming into the bank, initially pretending to cash a check but then grabbing the teller by the neck, and then calling in his accomplices from outside.
According to reports the haul was nearly $20,000.
Perhaps because it was their first bank job, the inexperienced outlaws led the teller outside with his hands up, and in the process, alerted the entire town.
After firing a few shots to back off the crowd, the three made a beeline out of town, eventually ending up in the mountains near Mancos. Running so fast that they left the fresh horses behind, they ran into one of their former employers, Harry Adsit, who later helped the posse identify them and tell the pursuing group what direction they were headed.
Interestingly enough, Telluride Town Marshall, Jim Clark later confessed to Gunnison County Sheriff to being involved — by not being involved.
Clark reportedly told the Sheriff he received $2200 of the stolen money as payment for being out of town during the robbery and later acquired one of the horses used in the robbery.
Certain accounts speculate that the two horse racing friends, and now, bank robbers, along with McCarty and perhaps additional accomplices, changed horses in the Cortez area (perhaps even at Longabaugh ranch south of Cortez, home of Harry Longabaugh’s father. Harry, (a.k.a. ‘The Sundance Kid”) would later befriend Cassidy and famously ride with the “Wild Bunch,” in Wyoming, Montana, Utah, Texas and New Mexico.
One longtime resident of the area related the following tale, before her death.
“My grandparents were John and Clementa Sagrillo,” said Sandra Watkins, a few years ago. “They had a place down around Lakeview. When Butch robbed the bank at Telluride the gang ended up in Mancos but Butch headed for his friends here in Cortez area, but it got dark and he had to stop. He ended up staying with my grandparents. I have a story written up in the family history that was told Aunt Jessie by her mother, she is the oldest child to John,” Watkins said then.
“Grandpa was so impressed with Butch's six shooter that when he could afford it, he bought one just like Butch's. Butch told him that he and his gang had robbed the bank but, being new to this country, they kept their mouths shut. Grandma bragged that he liked her cooking and really liked polanta.”
The bank robbery at Telluride is cited as a turning point in Warner and Cassidy’s career as outlaws, as the Adsit identification allowed them to no longer dabble in the outlaw business — they began running from the law full time. They are given credit for various criminal activities in that area near Telluride, and all over the Western United States in the years to come.
Anecdotally, stories of them robbing the Rio Grande Southern train at Stoner, holing up in the Dunton area (one report has (Robert Leroy Parker’s initials, Butch’s given name, carved in the bar up there) and various deeds and misdeeds in the canyon country from Hole in the Wall, Brown’s Hole, Robber’s Roust, and all along the “Outlaw Trail” that connects them.
From information about the only train robbery at Stoner Creek that I can find record of, it didn’t sound like them. But then again, that is another story.
Undoubtedly some of the tales are true, and some are not.
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Not in Love, but still a Wild Bunch

A while back, I wrote a speculative column wondering why the Wild Bunch, considering their time of operation and amount of activity in the Cripple Creek District, never were given credit for jobs in the “World’s Greatest Gold Camp.” After all, that is where the money was.
I wrote that perhaps the answer was Love.
Love was a small village at the far east end of the district, made up of ranchers, a few miners, sawmill workers and such. I thought it possible that is was also a hideout for itinerant bank and train robbers. One of the sources I referenced in that article, Jan MacKell, who has served for years as the director of the Cripple Creek District Museum, set me straight a few weeks ago.
“I just ran across your Maybe the answer was Love. Restless Native piece about the Wild Bunch hiding out in Love. You referenced something I had written about it. Well alas, further research revealed that the Bob Lee I found in Love was not the Bob Lee of the Wild Bunch. (Bob was a cousin to Harvey Logan and was implicated in the 1899 robbery at Wilcox, Wyoming - the one where they blew the train car to smithereens). Still, the Wild Bunch did hang around in these parts, particularly after the robbery, and Bob Lee was arrested at the Antlers Saloon (formerly Uncle Sam's Casino) in March of 1900. Just thought you would want to know.”
Of course I would, and I asked about where her information originated.
“Some of it came from Pinkerton files and other came from books about the wild bunch, I had many sources when I researched this. The Pinkerton files are tricky - some have been lost, some are open to the public and some are closed files. I got some information from Wyoming since that is where the Wilcox robbery was. J. Maurice Finn was Bob Lee's lawyer and a newspaper account I read had him huffing and puffing all over the courtroom. Funny to picture.”
Indeed it is.
And while we are in the speculation mode, I have always wondered about whether Etta Place (Harry Longabaugh, a.k.a. Sundance kid's love interest) might really be Ann or Josie Bassett as some historians have postulated. The Bassetts, of the Brown's Hole area in Northern Colorado and Utah and famous for their interaction with Tom Horn, had numerous connections to the gang, but for whatever reason, have never been definitively linked and most discount the possibility. The first photo above is Ann Bassett and the second is image of Longabaugh and Place taken in New York.
Incidentally, MacKell is the author of several books about rough and tumble times in the mining districts including “Brothels, Bordellos and Bad Girls,” and has a new title scheduled to appear in March called “Red Light Women of the Rocky Mountains,” but I guess that is all together a different kind of “love.”
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Wild Bunch in Love?

Sutton's Law is related to legendary 1930s outlaw Willie Sutton's often quoted (and probably falsely attributed) response to a reporter who asked why he robbed banks.
"Because that's where the money is."
I have often wondered why that law didn't seem to apply for the "Wild Bunch" and the Cripple Creek District.
As a kid growing up in southwestern Colorado, nearly every wide spot in the road down there claimed some connection to the heralded outlaws. With the gang holding up the San Miguel Valley Bank in Telluride, robbing the train at Stoner, holing up at Dunton Hot Springs, and several associated robberies in the Grand Junction, Delta and Vernal, Utah, areas, in addition to Harry "Sundance" Longabaugh's stint working on his uncle's ranch near Cortez as just some of the historically possible links - the stories were difficult to dispute.
Then there is the haunting photograph of the five dapperly dressed fellows at the turn of the century, three seated, two standing behind. From left to right: Harry A. Longabaugh, a.k.a. "The Sundance Kid," William Carver, Ben Kilpatrick, a.k.a. "The Tall Texan", Harvey Logan, a.k.a. "Kid Curry" and Robert Leroy Parker, a.k.a. "Butch Cassidy." The photo was taken Nov. 21, 1900, at John Swartz's studio in Fort Worth, Texas, near the Hell's Half Acre section of town the gang was known to frequent, and probably has appeared on more "wanted" posters than any photo in the last century.
But the outfit is given credit for robbing trains, mines, banks and other businesses all over the West - Colorado, Wyoming, New Mexico, Utah, Montana, South Dakota, Arizona, Texas, Nevada and Oregon. And their height of operation corresponds perfectly with the Cripple Creek District's heyday. Why didn't the "Wild Bunch" knock over any easy targets in the wild district?
It was where the money was.
Maybe the answer was Love.
According to the information submitted to the Colorado Archives by the Pikes Peak Genealogical Society and posted by USGenWeb, "Love was the last community to officially debut in the Cripple Creek District, acquiring a post office in 1894."
Research by Jan MacKell at first indicated, that village located at the far east end of the district was made up of ranchers, a few miners, sawmill workers and maybe dairy workers. But, notes the archive project, "Love was remote enough, however, that members of outlaw Butch Cassidy's notorious Wild Bunch also felt secure in procuring a hideout there shortly after the community was founded."
Not only is that possible, I would guess, with the amount of money flowing around these parts at that time, it would be silly for an outlaw not to locate nearby.
But Parker, Longabaugh, Logan and the others, for whom history has had a devil of a time keeping track of anyway, likely were among the neighbors next door. But we may never know because Butch might have been going by George Cassidy, Tom Gillis, James Ryan, Santiago Ryan, Santiago Maxwell, J.P. Maxwell, James Lowe, Santiago Lowe, George Ingerfield. And Sundance maybe he took up the name Harry Alonzo, Harry Place, Enrique Brown, H.A. Brown, Frank Smith, J.E. Ebaugh, J.E. Thibadoe, Frank Jones, Frank Bozeman, Harry Brown or Frank Boyd.
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