The Notorious Kid Curry

THE OVERLOOK

By Tom Clavin

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          It might be hard for some of you to believe that the film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, with Paul Newman and Robert Redford in the title roles, premiered 55 years ago this week. I bring this up because my book Bandit Heaven -- to be published on October 22 by St. Martin’s Press – is the full and true story of Butch and Sundance and the Wild Bunch who hid out in Hole-in-the-Wall and other havens for bad hombres.

          Hmm, “full and true”? Yes. No doubt, the movie was very entertaining and contained some events that really happened but it was narrowly focused on the two main characters and a lot of wonderful characters and events were left out. One example is right at the beginning of the film: Kid Curry, played by the rather large Ted Cassidy (probably not related), loses a rules-less fight to Butch and then we never see him again. In fact, Kid Curry was often in Butch’s band of bandits and was one of the baddest of the bad guys in the waning days of the Wild West.

          He was born Harvey Logan in Richland, Iowa, in 1867. When his mother died, he and his three brothers were raised by relatives in Missouri. Events that changed the course of his life began when his brother Hank and friend Jim Thornhill bought a ranch at Rock Creek in Montana. The ranch was near the site of a mine owned by "Pike" Landusky. One day, Landusky confronted Harvey Logan and attacked him, believing Logan was involved romantically with his daughter Elfie. On December 27, 1894, Logan caught Landusky at a local saloon and hit Landusky, stunning him. Logan, evidently believing the fight was over, began walking away. Landusky pulled his pistol and began threatening Logan, who pulled his own pistol and shot Landusky dead. Fearing he would not get a fair trial, Logan left town.

          Calling himself Kid Curry, he and his brother Lonie began riding with the outlaw Tom “Black Jack” Ketchum, but after a dispute over the proceeds of a train robbery, the brothers left the gang and joined a circus. That did not last very long because there was no robbing to do, so they went freelance. On April 15, 1897, Curry was reportedly involved in the killing of Deputy Sheriff William Deane of Powder River, Wyoming, as he and his gang rustled horses. It was decided that heading to South Dakota was a good idea.

When they robbed a bank in Belle Fourche, they met resistance from the townspeople. One of their friends, Tom O'Day, was captured when his horse spooked and ran away without him. The others escaped, but while planning a second robbery a posse from the town caught up with them. During a shootout, Curry was shot in the wrist and his horse was shot from under him, resulting in his capture. George “Flatnose” Currie and Walt Putnam were also captured. All three were held in the Deadwood jail, but only until they overpowered the jailer and escaped. They headed back into Montana and robbed two post offices.

It was around this time that Kid Curry began riding with Butch Cassidy. On June 2, 1899, the Wild Bunch robbed a Union Pacific Railroad train near Wilcox, Wyoming, which created national headlines.  Many notable lawmen of the day took part in the hunt for the robbers, but they were not captured.

During one shootout with lawmen following that robbery, Kid Curry and “Flatnose” Currie shot and killed Converse County Sheriff Joe Hazen. Tom Horn, a noted killer-for-hire and contract employee of the Pinkerton Agency, obtained information from explosives expert Bill Speck that identified Hazen's murderers, which Horn passed on to Pinkerton detective Charlie Siringo. But Curry and Currie escaped to the Hole-in-the-Wall hideout.

When the commotion died down, Kid Curry accompanied Butch and the Sundance Kid to Alma, New Mexico. It must have been too peaceful there because on  July 11, 1899, Curry robbed a train near Folsom, accompanied by Sam Ketchum (Black Jack’s brother) and Cassidy pal Elzy Lay. A posse led by Sheriff Ed Farr cornered the gang near an area called Turkey Creek, which resulted in two gun battles over a period of four days. Lay and Ketchum were both wounded and later captured, with Lay killing the sheriff and mortally wounding Deputy Henry Love in the process. Ketchum died from his wounds days later while in custody, and Lay received a life sentence for the murders. Curry escaped, but he, Cassidy, and other members of the gang were forced to leave New Mexico. Curry traveled to San Antonio, where he stayed briefly. While there he met prostitute Annie Rogers, with whom he became romantically involved. At the time of their meeting, she was working in Fannie Porter’s brothel, which was a regular hideout for the Wild Bunch gang.

On February 28, 1900, lawmen attempted to arrest Lonie Curry at his aunt's home in Dodson, Montana. When Lonie was killed in the shootout that followed, Kid Curry was now the last surviving Logan brother. Meanwhile, Curry was identified in Arizona as he was passing notes suspected of being from the Wilcox robbery. Sheriff Edward Beeler gathered a posse and began tracking Curry, who was accompanied by Bill “News” Carver. The posse shot it out with Curry and Carver on March 28. The outlaws killed Deputy Andrew Gibbons and Deputy Frank LeSueur. On May 26, Kid Curry rode into Utah and killed Sheriff Jesse Tyler and Deputy Sam Jenkins in a brazen shootout in Moab. Both killings were in retaliation for Tyler and Jenkins having killed Lonie and “Flatnose” Currie.

Kid Curry then returned to the Wild Bunch. On August 29, 1900, they robbed a Union Pacific train near Tipton, Wyoming, collecting around $55,000. The gang again split up, with Kid Curry and Ben Kilpatrick heading south to Fort Worth, while Cassidy, the Sundance Kid, and Bill Carver immediately pulled off another robbery in Winnemucca, Nevada. When Curry returned, the gang robbed a train near Wagner, Montana, with $60,000 being the take. During the pursuit following the robbery, Bill Carver was killed.

In October 1901, Annie Rogers was arrested in Nashville for passing money tied to an earlier robbery involving Curry. The hunt was on. During it, Curry shot two Knoxville policemen and escaped. Despite being pursued by Pinkerton agents and other law enforcement officials, Curry returned to Montana, where he shot and killed rancher James Winters, who was responsible for the killing of his brother Johnny years before.

Unwisely, Curry then traveled back to Knoxville. In a pool hall on November 30, 1902, Curry was captured after a lengthy physical fight with lawmen. He was convicted of robbery because facts in the murder of the two policemen were not definite and no witnesses would testify, and he received a sentence of 20 years of hard labor and a $5,000 fine. On June 27, 1903, Curry escaped. Rumors spread that a deputy had received an $8,000 bribe to allow his escape, but this was never proven.

On June 7, 1904, Kid Curry was tracked down by a posse outside of Parachute, Colorado. He and two others had just robbed a train nearby. As they escaped, they stole fresh horses owned by Roll Gardner and a neighbor. The next morning, when Gardner and the neighbor discovered their horses had been stolen, they set out in pursuit of the gang. They joined up with a posse and continued tracking the outlaws. The gang shot Gardner's and his neighbor's horses from under them; Gardner found cover while his neighbor started running. Kid Curry took aim at the neighbor and Gardner shot Curry. The wounded Curry fatally shot himself in the head to avoid capture.  

Harvey “Kid Curry” Logan was buried in the Pioneer Cemetery. As you’ll see when you obtain a copy of Bandit Heaven next month, he was much more than a bit player in the Wild Bunch saga.

Tom Clavin is the bestselling author/co-author of 25 books, including the just-published trade paperback edition of The Last Outlaws. Please go to your local bookstore or to Bookshop.org, Amazon.com, BN.com, or tomclavin.com to order a copy.