I found this to be a difficult book to follow at times, I had to stop and start it a few times before I got through with it and when I did I looked at it as more of a look at the old west than as at the man. I had a problem with how many of the facts or stories could be proven and some just seemed to be stories past down. Not saying that the author did not research but I just could not wrap my head around everything.

A great biography of the famous western outlaw. Well researched I found it easy to read and it left me wanting to read more

SYNOPSIS

Butch Cassidy, The Story of an American Outlaw is a historical look into the one of the Wild West’s most notorious outlaws. The book covers Robert Leroy Parker’s origins thru his infamous career and eventual death.

Robert, aka Butch, was born into a Mormon family in Utah. He grew up in poverty, but was said to be a charismatic soul. Born on Friday the 13th of April, 1866 as the first born to Maximilian and Ann Parker. During his early years, his father was gone a lot working a variety of jobs to support the growing family. This left Robert largely unsupervised; he had a dozen younger siblings that needed looking after.

Robert was a natural showman and incredibly intelligent. He organized kiddie rodeos, built rafts and gave rides. He got some chickens drunk for the amusement of his family, etc. As an outlaw, he planned his robberies and escapes with precision and engineering. He pioneered the relay escape…..he would station fresh horses along his escape route, so he and the gang would be able to transition to fresh mounts and outrun any possie.

As Robert began his working career, he bounced between outlawing and cowboying. He was such a charismatic man, that ranch owners stood by him even though they knew he was an outlaw. Butch never stole from the people he worked for nor the patrons in any bank or on a train. He only wanted the money from the big companies and the Banks.

As Butch’s notoriety grew, it became increasingly dangerous to remain in the United States. Eventually, he had to move to South America where he went straight for several years. Circumstances forced him to try again at outlawing, but he and Sundance paid the ultimate price in the end.

CONCLUSION

Overall, I enjoyed Butch Cassidy, The Story of an American Outlaw. The historical look into the American West was fascinating and intriguing. Charles Leerhsen obviously did a lot of research for this book. He covers Butch’s life in detail and brings the notorious character to life.

Some of the distractions, I found, were the authors liberties. The book is interposed with innuendo and the authors guesses. I prefer my historical books to be factual and backed by proofs, not supposition. The whole line of Butch’s supposed sexuality was a great distractor for me. Also, the constant comparing of the real life of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid with the movie version did not add anything but pages.

If you can filter out all the unnecessary movie comparisons, the innuendos, the authors liberties; then this is a great book. The actual historical and factual information contained within the pages is an eye-opening experience into life in the Historical West.

⭐⭐⭐

My thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the ebook Butch Cassidy: The True Story of an American Outlaw by Charles Leerhsen.

When I started this ebook I remember thinking, "Ah, to be back reading what I love best." With the American West of the late 1800s - early 1900s being my favorite place and era to learn about and nonfiction my favorite genre, I was thrilled to see this ebook available on NetGalley.

The author presents the life and times of Robert Leroy Parker (Butch Cassidy) from his Mormon childhood through his drifter years to his outlaw days in a comprehensive unembellished manner. It is clear that he performed in depth research with the goal of finding the truth. And if he couldn't find the truth in all the stories and overdrawn myths, he said so. I always thought outlaws chose the life because they were essentially sociopaths, but gained a better understanding through this book of why an individual would choose the outlaw life during this time period.

Sometimes, I found myself somewhat irritated by the author's jumping back and forth in Butch's life. I also didn't appreciate his snideness in expressing opinions regarding other biographer's books about Butch, but that didn't seriously detract from my overall opinion of the book.

If a reader's goal is to learn Butch's ultimate fate, he/she will be disappointed. This book doesn't do that because it isn't possible unless some spectacular, totally verifiable information is discovered in the future. Obviously this isn't a book for the general reader, but lovers of Old West history will enjoy it.

I thought Charles Leerhsen's Butch Cassidy: The True Story of an American Outlaw to be a good biography. I am giving it three and a half stars.

Most of us know Butch Cassidy from the iconic film. Leerhsen goes behind the movie to uncover facts about Cassidy and his life. His meticulous research shows us how other biographies and the movie got the true story both right and wrong.

I found it fascinating,

Really enjoyed this book. Author has done his research and there are so many details and so much information that you feel you've met Butch Cassidy-- hubby and I agreed to look for more of his books because of this. Comparing the story that's presented in the movie we've all seen multiple times to what the actual facts was a neat approach. If you're a fan of biographies, westerns, or True West, this is the book for you!

Butch Cassidy is a name that almost everyone has heard, but no one really knows much about him. For example, I had no idea his real name is Robert Leroy Parker. The author did a great job researching this book and wrote a really interesting book. I enjoyed it far more than I thought that I would!

I am going to start this review in an unusual way. Usually I write about the contents of the book, but this exception is about the author’s style of writing. In my opinion, the reader is either going to like it, or hate it. I don’t think there are going to be many neutral opinions. The author, Charles Leerhsen, is rather snarky, with many asides about the movie “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” other writers and researchers on the topic, and is not shy about declaring his own superiority when his views are in conflict with anyone else’s. I rather enjoyed Leerhsen’s writing style, as I am somewhat snarky myself. If you don’t like it, you will know right away.

Butch Cassidy was born Robert LeRoy Parker to an impoverished Mormon family in Utah in 1866. I was surprised to discover that one of his siblings died as late as 1961! He turned to a life of crime relatively early, but he was a “gentleman bandit.” Although he robbed stagecoaches and trains, he never robbed the passengers. Well-spoken and bookish, one wonders what his life would have been if he had been born in more auspicious circumstances.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I didn’t know much about Cassidy before, and I was carried along by the author’s style. Other outlaws, say for example Jesse James, had much darker histories than Butch, but have been more thoroughly researched. This is an interesting book and deserves its five stars.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC. The opinions are my own.

This biography of Butch Cassidy will join my considerable library of westerns of all genres. While this author does seem to take himself a little too seriously for polite society, the meat of the book is fascinating in the breadth and depth of research done on this well known character. Most of what is known of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance kid came from the popular movie starring Redford and Newman. Charles Leerhsen shows us the three dimensional picture of a man born during a time where getting ahead in the world was not easy and many men resorted to criminal activities to survive and prosper. As Butch became more famous and earned the bounty placed on his head, his story turns into a race to stay ahead of his fate. Leaving the states was his only option. His criminal activities remain the stuff of legends and will have you humming the Raindrops song at the end.

Ever since I was a little kid, I have been fascinated by the Wild West—and Butch Cassidy, the Sundance Kid, and the Wild Bunch are on the long list of Wild West icons that I am interested in. From what I have read in the past, I understand that there is a lot that we both do and do not know about the life of Butch Cassidy. And some of what we think we know was born out of legend and not real life.

In BUTCH CASSIDY: THE TRUE STORY OF AN AMERICAN OUTLAW, Leershen examines not only Butch’s life as an outlaw but his stints as a ranch hand and (sometimes mostly) law abiding citizen, his family, and his upbringing in the Mormon church. Leersham shows how all these early influences on a young Robert Leroy Parker helped shape him into Butch Cassidy. The book is an interesting take on one of the American West’s most famous outlaws, but the author’s periodic need to criticize other Butch aficionados (and brag about how he knows more and is more reliable than them) left a bad taste in my mouth.

I have read many books about the west during the 1800’s and have also read about the characters that inhabited it. Butch Cassidy is one of my favorites. This book gave me so much more than other accounts and men I have read. It took me awhile to get through it because I kept stopping to look up different scenarios that I had never heard of. The occasional quirky story was a fascinating sideline that I found intriguing. An example was when Governor Osborne of Wyoming ( being a doctor as well as Governor) performed an autopsy on Big Nose George Parrot after he had been hanged for cattle rustling. He had Parrot’s skin tanned and made into a pair of shoes!. II had to find out if this incredible and horrifying story was true! There are many other stories that sprinkle through the meat of the story that gives this more than just a story about Butch Cassidy. It really gives the reader a feel for the real harshness of living in that era. So many things I learned that I didn’t know.. if you like the old west this is the book for you!

I love books about history and especially famous and intriguing characters like Butch Cassidy.

When this book popped up I eagerly responded for a chance to review. Since it was going to be an up-to-date, meaty, biography on the man.

However, I instantly knew that this was going to be a different sort of 'biography' as soon as I started reading Chapter 1. Chapter 1 read like a forward. It focused on a person who was infatuated with Billy and died in the 1960's. The author focuses on various media adaptations of the character, most particuarly Butch Cassidy and the Sundance kid. Now, I don't know if the author (who, by appears to be, famous in various types of media reviews and non-fiction write ups of entertainment) was sitting at home one day, and then watched the film and said 'Yes, that is exactly what my new book will be about!' decided to write this, but that's what I feel happened here.

So on to Chapter 2. Naturally we would given a bit of a basis of the time period, maybe a woven story about the parents or the hardships. We ... sort of get that? We get some sporadic moments of the person Billy was around his late teen years to mid twenties. We get some anecdotes about his personality, and again, some strange fascination with Butch Cassidy and the Sundance kid film.

Also, there was the weird asides and or commentary by the author that seemed almost as if he was given his bipartisan or input on the information he gleamed from these sources (which seemed to feel like Wikipedia quotes and points). I realized this was not going to be your normal biography and that this book and I were going to have one mighty fine problem.

For those, like me, wanting a nice up-to-date biography about Butch Cassidy - this guy is no Ron Chernow or David McCullough, The writing, the pacing, the overall obsession with the film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid was enough to make me skim and realize that there are other authors out there who could and would give you a nice book. It's just a shame we have to wait longer.

I should preface this review by saying that I’m not that wild about Wild Wild West. Never have been. I don’t ponder where have all the cowboys gone. I’d never direct a time machine to that setting. For me nothing much about the dusty dirty era of sharpshooters and sheriffs and cattle and settlers and saloons holds any specific fascination. Although every so (blue moon) often a story will find a way to shine through the aforementioned dust. Usually cinematically. With Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid movie shining the brightest. It might have been the first western I’ve ever enjoyed, it’s certainly my favorite. Who can resist the twin charisma of Redford and Newman. But the thing is, I watched it a really long time ago, so much so that in my memory somehow Redford played Butch. It would have worked too from the purely physiological casting perspective. Butch was shorter and stockier than Sundance for one thing. But at any rate, now I remember it was Newman and in retrospect upon reading this bio…that’s perfect. Because the role demands that spark and immense likeability, because apparently Butch Cassidy was an immensely likeable man. This biography certainly presents him as such. I mean I found the bookish gentleman bandit positively irresistible. Obviously. The man wasn’t born Butch Cassidy, not even close, neither was Sundance for that matter, but who wants to see a movie Parker and Longabaugh. It took many years and many permutations of name and character for boy born into a large and impoverish Mormon Utah based Parker family to transform himself into the legend we know of today. But a legend he became, by all accounts a man of genuine class, a man of strict morals, good manners and friendly outgoing disposition. Immensely likeable, well read, somewhat melancholy, Butch seems to have spent his years alternating between a high voltage life of bank and train robberies and a desire to settle down on a ranch of his own and live quietly. In fact, he was driven by these twin passions, one constantly getting in the way of another. It’s tragic in a way, though it can be said that he lived a fairly long time for an outlaw and left it by his own gun, there’s still a thought that maybe it wasn’t an ideal life for him, though he may have been good at it. Smart, rebellious youth, Parker, wanted to circumvent the law, get out of poverty, etc., as an adult Cassidy made numerous efforts to lay low and enjoy it, but by then he was too famous or infamous to just retire, plus there was always a question of money as in there was never enough and what was there never lasted. Sundance was similar in some ways, but more sullen and at the same time more attached to his ladylove (cue in the silly bicycle scene from the movie), but there was something so tragically lovely about their collective attempt to make a life for themselves in South America, because it might have been Butch Cassidy’s happily ever after, but tragically it wasn’t meant to last. It’s difficult to judge a life, was it good or otherwise, accomplished or wasted, did it matter. All that. Biographies present us with facts and we are left to make our own judgements. I weighted the facts as presented and found Butch Cassidy to be a fascinating character well worth getting to know. Moreover this book was a sheer pleasure to read, a huge surprise to someone who isn’t all that into outlaws, the time or the place, and relatively new to bios. But this book…it read like an adventure, it was exciting, erudite, interesting, compelling, clever and (awesomely, weirdly, strikingly) funny. I mean laugh out loud at numerous instances funny. Who would have thunk? Awesome indeed. The author put in some exhaustive (and must have been exhausting) research into this and there’s also some amusing speculation. What would Butch have thought of the homosexual insinuations? Maybe the man was just very discreet or not romantically disposed. After all, ladies loved Butch, the accounts of his charm, good looks and manners abound. But at any rate, this book was a pleasure to read and Butch Cassidy was a delight to get to know. Recommended. Thanks Netgalley.

Who doesn't like the outlaws of the wild west? I have often wondered if I would have worn a white hat or a black hat? I think I would have worn a black one and after reading this story I definitely would have. I like reading how his family and religion made him an outlaw. I would recommend this book to anyone that wants to know more about Butch Cassidy.

Fascinating look at the true story behind my favorite film! Happy to learn about the real Butch and Sundance.