Wild Bunch robs a Union Pacific train near Wilcox, Wyoming

Background. Butch Cassidy, known as Robert LeRoy Parker, was the leader of a gang called the 'Wild Bunch' in the Old West. The gang formed in the last decade of the 19th century. Cassidy associated with a wide circle of criminals, including Harvey Logan and Elzy Lay, who collectively became the so-called 'Wild Bunch'. The gang performed a long string of successful train and bank robberies in American history.

The Robbery. The Wilcox train robbery took place in the early morning of June 2, 1899, near Wilcox in Albany County, Wyoming. A Union Pacific train was flagged down before crossing a wooden bridge. Armed men forced the crew to separate the locomotive from the carriages. The robbery was initially considered unsolved but was later traced to Butch Cassidy and the Wild Bunch.

Aftermath. The robbery earned the gang a great deal of notoriety and resulted in a massive manhunt. Following the robbery, the gang's escape route took them north of the Union Pacific line, around the Powder River country, over the Big Horn Mountains, and down through the Wind River country to the Sweetwater before regaining the Union Pacific at Green River.