Born: April 6, 1866
Died: ?
AKA: George Cassidy, Jim Ryan
A likable and intelligent young man, Butch Cassidy participated in a number of successful bank and train robberies in the American West at the end of the nineteenth century. He was a member of a group of outlaws known as the Wild Bunch—most of whom were either killed or imprisoned.
Robert Leroy Parker was born in 1866 in the Sevier River country near Circleville, Utah. Ten years before he was born, his father and grandparents had crossed the Great Plains as “handcart pioneers.” They carried their possessions across the plains by walking and pulling carts behind them. One of ten children, Robert was raised on a small ranch. Like many of the people who settled in Utah, his parents were Mormons—a group of Christians that follows strict moral guidelines. (Although Parker’s father, Maximillian Parker, was said to have had a rebellious streak.)
Growing up, Parker received no formal education. Instead, he was “educated” in the art of cattle rustling by Mike Cassidy, a cowboy-rustler who worked for his father. Under Cassidy’s supervision, Parker learned how to rope and brand animals, and he became an expert rider and marksman.
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