You can catch this episode of ISO on YouTube (for the moment).

Warning: This episode contains major spoilers for the film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. 

Let's be honest - this episode of ISO wouldn't exist if it weren't for the classic film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. - certainly ended up with a bitter attitude towards them and accused them of all manner of shenanigans.

Butch doesn't favor Paul Newman much, but it's good acting in the film.  Here's Butch's mug shot:

And here's Sundance and his girl Etta Place:

 

History of Raindrops Keep Falling on My Headand its role in BC&TSK.

We joke but you can actually get Manos Hands of Fate in HD streaming now on Amazon!?

And you can catch the MST3K version (with all hilarity included) on YouTube.

We talk a bit about the Pinkerton's and James McParland.  There is a very, very mixed history around this company with some viewing them as heroes and others as despicable villains. The agent who hunted Butch & Sundance - Charlie Siringo - certainly ended up with a bitter attitude towards them and accused them of all manner of sheenanigans.

Q-Ships of WWII.

The amazing history of the Bandana.

Average heights around the early 1900s.

Ward Hill Lamon - Lincoln's bodyguard and biographer

Female Pinkerton detective Kate Warne

The Baltimore Plot - the first attempt to kill Lincoln?

The Hole in the Wall 

 

Some of the "action" takes place in Baggs, Wyoming. 

Go drive around Baggs on Google's maps if you like.

William Alfred Brassell (1897 - 1979) - we joke about him a bit because he reminded us of Torgo... but Brassell and his wife had 8 kids - some of whom may still be alive. His son Ray just passed away in 2017.

From his photo on Ancestry.com - I assume he let his sideburns go after his wife passed in 1963. (Assuming they got their photo correctly associated with his file.)  The Internet is a funny place - you can't meet Alfred but you can see his grave.

 

Butch's sister Lula Parker Betenson (1884 - 1980) 

According to her obituary she: "...was active in politics and served as Piute County  Democratic chairwoman for 28 years. In 1962 she was appointed by Gov.  George Dewey Clyde to fill an unexpired term as state senator from Piute  County. In earlier years, she worked with a traveling theatrical  company and spent several years as drama director in local Mormon church  auxiliaries. Born April 5, 1884, in Spry, she married Joseph A. Betenson Jan. 1, 1907. She had been a widow since 1949."

Don't worry - here's a shot of the real star of the episode (below) and a beautiful example of the Model-T Ford (above).

 

Okay - the big claim in the episode is (Per Larry Pointer) that Butch Cassidy looks a lot like William T. Phillips.  Let's see them side-by-side.  Cassidy (Left) and Phillips (Right):

 

Now - in the 2012 book (also by Larry Pointer) the claim is that perhaps Cassidy's old fellow inmate William T. Wilcox was really the author of the Cassidy book The Bandit Invincible and later took on the name of Phillips.   Let's see them side by side:

The mouth shape, ears and chin are good matches.  I'm not going to go full "Anastasia" arrow-crazy, but these two have more in common.

There is a lot of heated criticism of Pointer's book - but you can read about that on your own.