Reconstruction, Expansion, and the Triumph of Industrial Capitalism 51Cassidy, along with the Sundance Kid and his girlfriend Etta Place, ran to
New York in February 1901, where they planned to take a steamer to
Argentina. To disguise themselves, the trio dressed up as the people they
hated, rich cattle barons, and blended in with the New York City elite. They
ate at fine restaurants, attended plays, and Sundance even bought Etta a watch
from Tiffany’s. They lived like the rich, ironically funding the lifestyle with
the money they stole from them. By February 20th, 1901, the trio left New
York harbor to start a new life in Argentina. Meanwhile, the capitalist take-
over of the West intensified and, simultaneously, the Wild Bunch fell apart.
Trains now had armed security guards aboard. Harvey Logan, a member of
the Wild Bunch, died by suicide while fleeing after a bank robbery. If the
Wild Bunch was coming to an end, their legacy certainly was not. In 1903
Edwin Porter released a film called “The Great Train Robbery” inspired by
Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Westerns and the Wild West became their
own genres of entertainment that romanticized bandits like the Wild Bunch.
The Pinkertons, on the other hand, found no entertainment in the thieves,
and continued their hunt for Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
FIGuRE 1-10 Harry Longabaugh (Sundance Kid) and Etta Place