Did Soapy Smith meet Butch Cassidy?

THE BANK ROBBER
Courtesy of
Bank Terrorists and Major Crime Up-dates

April 7, 2012

Some of you might recall that I have mentioned reading Denver newspapers page-by-page, year-by-year, in order that I not miss anything regarding Soapy Smith. It is a long tedious, and sometimes pretty boring process but the wealth of information I found has filled a four-drawer office filing cabinet with xerox copies of articles that were used in publishing my book. It's easy to imagine missing a few items over the years, but a Denver bank robbery? In Soapy's own branch no less!  

Today while browsing on Facebook I came across the following.

Butch Cassidy accompanies the McCarty brothers on another raid on this date [March 30] in 1889. This time the gang picked out the First National Bank in Denver, Colorado, robbing it of $20,000. Tom McCarty approached the bank president and with his odd sense of humor, stated: "Excuse me, sir, but I just overheard a plot to rob your bank." The bank president appeared visibly shaken and managed to ask "Lord! How did you learn of this plot?" "I planned it," McCarty said, pulling his six-gun. "Put up your hands." Four men, Cassidy, Tom and Bill McCarty, and Matt Warner rode out of Denver with $5,000 a piece from the robbery.

Anyone who has read my book will know that 1889 was a big year (good and bad) for Soapy Smith. They might also remember that Soapy had an account with the First National Bank. I have to wonder if Soapy might have caught a glimpse of the robbers, and if not actually, then why he didn't say he did anyway. He always seemed to be at the right and wrong place at the right and wrong times.

MARCH 30

1889: Butch Cassidy accompanies the McCarty brothers in robbing the First National Bank in Denver, Colorado of $20,000.

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