One enduring phenomenon from the Wild West is its notorious gangs. The gangs appeared after the American Civil War, surfacing in hotspots like Missouri, Texas, and Arizona. These outlaws seldom stayed put but traveled far to hold up banks, stagecoaches, or raid trains.
The 1860s West was a period of lawlessness that only ended with the turn of the century. Traders, settlers, and people arrived ahead of any established laws. Laws tended to be enforced by corrupt officials or “frontier justice.” In this vacuum, gangs like the James-Dalton Gang were formed. They brazenly operated, supported by sympathetic locals. The outlaws were tough, experienced, and heavily armed.
Western Areas Became Hotspots
The Wild West gangs came about in locations marked by extraordinary situations. The James-Younger Gang hailed from Missouri, a state of the losing Confederacy.
After 1865, Union troops occupied Missouri, enraging many. This helped create sympathy for the outlaws and overlooking their deeds. The James gang took advantage of this antipathy. As ex-Confederate raiders, the James brothers had excellent survival skills. They traveled far afield, even committing an 1876 bank robbery in Northfield, Minnesota, hundreds of miles away.
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid’s gang, called the Wild Bunch, moved about four states: Colorado, Idaho, Utah and Wyoming. Their main hideout, called Hole-in-the-Wall, lay in Wyoming. The vastness of these big states aided their robberies; plus, like all the gangs, they used fast horse mounts called Quarter Horses. Combined with the Wild Bunch’s cunning, these steeds let them consistently evade the law.
As Western boomtowns magically sprang up, lawless hotspots followed. People arrived to build saloons, brothels, and gambling halls to cash in on the boom. Their simple goal: relieve prospectors, flushed with cash, of their coin.
With little to no laws, violence and death became commonplace. Tombstone, Arizona, and Deadwood, South Dakota, are examples of boomtown bust to dust.
The Most Feared Gang
Despite the period’s lawlessness and violence, particularly dreaded gangs stood above the noise. At the top stood the James Younger Gang. These men had a reputation for violent and aggressive methods. Serving as Civil War “bushwhackers” or guerillas, the gang used brutal tactics. Postwar, none hesitated from stealing, motivated now by money. The James Younger gang’s successful robberies continued until the 1876 Northfield raid.
Jesse James, America’s most famous outlaw, created a Robin Hood self-image. Unlike other gangs, he posted letters to newspapers. He proclaimed his innocence or the persecution he faced. This tactic only had limited success but did help.
How Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid Evaded Capture
Though late to the game, the 1890s Wild Bunch Gang still became (in)famous. Butch and Sundance evaded capture partly through a series of hideouts. The first was Hole-in-the-Wall in Wyoming’s Big Horn Mountains. This semi-valley has a narrow entrance, so anyone sneaking up would be spotted quickly. The second, aptly named Robber’s Roost, lay in Utah’s rugged territory and challenging to reach. Here, the gang could recuperate for the winter and carefully plan their next heists.
As experienced outlaws, Sundance and Cassidy knew how to plan and execute their robberies. Each one had an escape route. A willingness to fight their way out didn’t hurt either. Supportive ranchers aided the outlaws, giving them fresh horses and supplies or the occasional hiding place. Locals, like James and Daltons, gave them Robin Hood attributes. The image derived from their consistent robbing of banks and trains.
These two targets were seen as bastions of wealth and power. Butch and Sundance’s violent actions were ignored or romanticized.
When the Violent Times of the Wild West Ended
The Wild West’s decline started as the U.S. government declared the frontier closed in 1890. States like Missouri, Utah, and Wyoming began harshly cracking down on outlaws. As settlements turned into established towns, the people wanted law and order. Better telegraph communications sent word of robberies ahead of what any horse could run. Posses organized much faster, anticipating the gang’s moves. Even using paper checks instead of cash or gold coins ended train heists.
The times changed, too, with citizens fed up with violent robberies. The bounties, dead or alive, doubled by the 1890s. The outlaw gangs didn’t rest, as many kept looking over their shoulders. Very few Wild West outlaws died of old age. A new gang member, Frank Ford, ended Jesse James’s career with a headshot collecting a $10,000 bounty. Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid fled America to Argentina in 1901 due to law enforcement pressure. The states from where they’d emerged had changed with the time, too.
