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Henry Longabaugh "The Sundance Kid" |
William (Bill) Henry Long |
Sundance Comes Home
My great-grandfather was the Sundance Kid. He did not die in Bolivia in 1908 but returned to his family in Utah and died in 1936. I have compiled the information and have written his true story.
I grew up hearing tales about my great-grandfather Bill Long being an outlaw who rode with Butch Cassidy. We knew the name he used was an alias. He deliberately told the family misleading information about himself to divert them away from his real identity-Harry Longabaugh, aka: The Sundance Kid. He claimed he was Bill McCarty, another outlaw that was killed in a bank hold-up in 1893, and by doing so he could tell outlaw stories about himself. He knew he would be safe from the law because Bill McCarty was dead. The generation that heard these stories directly from him did not have any reason to doubt him, and they could not verify the stories, so they believed them.
As a young boy I listened to these stories and found it fascinating to think I had an outlaw ancestor. “The Outlaw Trail” by Charles Kelly (about Butch Cassidy) mentions my grandfather, Jerry Jackson. When the movie, “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” was released, I discovered that Sundance’s name was “Longabaugh.” Since my great grandfather’s name was Long I thought that was amazing coincidence. Charles Kelly said they were killed in Bolivia and that is what the movie implied so I thought that would be the end of the Bill Long story.
Butch Cassidy’s sister, Lula Bentenson, wrote a book in which she stated that Butch and Sundance were not killed in Bolivia. Butch returned home and visited his family in Circleville, Utah in 1925. There was a Lula Bentenson/Butch Cassidy article published in the January 17, 1976 issue of the Deseret News, which mentioned Bill Long.
When the book “In Search of Butch Cassidy” by Larry Pointer was published I read it and believed Pointer has also conclusively shown Butch Cassidy was not killed in Bolivia but returned home to the United States. I knew if Butch returned home then Sundance also returned home, but no one had made the Bill Long/Sundance connection yet.
In the famous Fort Worth photograph I noticed the amazing similarity between Bill Long and Sundance. Could Bill Long be Harry Longabaugh, aka The Sundance Kid? I had to prove it, one-way or the other. I acquired public records and collected family stories. All evidence pointed to Bill Long and Sundance being the same person. I created a web site to present my evidence for all to see and evaluate. I was also hoping to meet someone off the Internet that would show me information to prove or disprove my theory. Bill Long has descendants and a large extended family and I was also hoping to meet relatives for the first time and find out what they knew about Bill Long. The website proved more successful than I had hoped. I did meet relatives for the first time and they gave me a lot of new information and photographs.
In 2007 filmmaker Michael Karr contacted me and proposed that we do a documentary, which is currently being produced. Further research led to the exhumation of Bill Long’s remains for DNA tests and for a scientific examination by Dr. John McCullough of the University of Utah. Dr. McCullough is a well-known forensic anthropologist and forensic facial expert. He concluded that we had found Sundance.
The documentary and a book of his exciting adventures and romances are forth coming.
Jerry Nickle
On Dec 12, 2008 the remains of Bill long were exhumed and taken to the laboratory for DNA tests. The Deseret News had an article with photographs published in their Dec 16, 2008 issue.
RESOURCES
News Paper Articles
Deseret News Article Clear text in PDF format internet version
Deseret News Article Front page December 16th 2008 news paper in PDF format
Deseret News Article Continued from front page of Deseret News Dec. 16th article in PDF format
Deseret News Article Lula Parker Betenson January 17, 1976 PDF format
National Geographic Photo of Uncle Perry and Charles Kelly JPG format
Links
Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid Website This is the most comprehensive collection of material on Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid.
1943 Charles Kelly article with Uncle Worthen Jackson
©sundancekidhenrylong.com Jerry
Nickle All rights Reserved 2006