The Sundance Kid: The Life of Harry Alonzo Longabaugh Book

He gained renown as the sidekick of Butch Cassidy, but the Sundance Kid—whose real name was Harry Alonzo Longabaugh—led a fuller life than history or Hollywood has allowed.

A relative of Longabaugh through marriage, Donna B. Ernst has spent more than a quarter century researching his life. She now brings to print the most thorough account ever of one of the West's most infamous outlaws, tracing his life from his childhood in Pennsylvania to his involvement with the Wild Bunch and, in 1908, to his reputed death by gunshot in Bolivia.

Combining genealogical research, access to family records, and explorations in historical archives, Ernst details the Sundance Kid's movements to paint a complete picture of the man. She recounts his homesteading days in Colorado, offers new information on his years as a cowboy in Wyoming and Canada, and cites newly uncovered records that substantiate both his outlaw activities and his attempts at self-reform.

While taking readers on the wild chase that became Longabaugh's life, outracing posses and Pinkertons, Ernst corrects inaccuracies in the historical record. She demonstrates that he could not have participated in the Belle Fourche bank heist or the Tipton train robbery and refutes speculations that Butch and Sundance managed to escape their fate in Bolivia.

The Sundance Kid is enlivened by more than three dozen photographs, including family photos never before seen.

Stephen H. Peters - Library Journal

The film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid first brought Sundance (Harry Longabaugh) to the attention of the American public. While it was based on fact, like most Hollywood films it included just as much fiction in order to tell a good story. Now Ernst (Sundance, My Uncle) presents the results of her excavations into family records and historical archives to bring us Sundance's story from his early days in Pennsylvania to his death in Bolivia. Along the way, we meet the Wild Bunch, the Pinkertons, and Charles Woodcock, the express messenger who was held up twice by the Wild Bunch. Like most outlaws, Sundance was blamed for many more robberies than he actually committed. Ernst corrects the record, showing what Sundance did and did not do and describing his attempts to go straight. She also brings to light his activities in South America and presents convincing evidence that Butch and Sundance were killed in Bolivia. This delightful book is aimed at general readers and American Western history buffs and can be appreciated by specialists as well.