Harry Longbaugh in 1902 & William Long-when?

Legend says that Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid were both killed by Bolivian federales in 1908; and up until now there’s been plenty of evidence to back that upBut now, documentary film maker Marilyn Grace and  forensic anthropologist Dr. John McCullough, say they may have found the body of Harry Longbaugh, the Sundance Kid, in a grave in Duchesne, Utah.Three months ago, they dug up a grave in the Duchesne City Cemetery.

According to the headstone, the remains are those of William Henry Long, a rancher long dead. Local people claim Long had a shady past and was rumored to have been an outlaw. He lived with a woman with six kids from around 1894 until he died in 1936. If he wasHarry, that would have made him 69 years old when he headed for the last roundup. Because of all the research I had to do for my novel, Etta (Ballantine Books), I was skeptical. All of the evidence seemed to point to Bolivia as the place of death for both of my heroes.But the photo above made me wonder. I’ve been looking at the gent on the left for the past decade (it’s a detail of the double portrait with Etta Place that serves as the frontispiece for Etta), and I think the two shots are remarkably similar, down to the cleft on the chin. And the name, William Henry Long, is similar enough to Harry Longbaugh so that that Sundance couldn’t easily get tripped up.

My biggest problem is that from what I know about old photos, the pictures seem to have been taken around the same period of time – the early 1900’s. Grace and McCullough say they will be trying a DNA match with one of Harry Longbaugh’s descendants to prove their theory.

It’ll be interesting to see what comes up, especially since the last page of my book leaves Harry’s fate open to question.

Maybe I was right.