Tom Mccarty's Own Story. Autobiography Of An Outlaw (excerpt)
Tom
Mccarty's Own Story. Autobiography Of An Outlaw
Below are excerpts from McCarty’s account of the Bank of San Miguel Bank Robbery. This will be an interesting and tough read. If true, this is the closest first-hand account of the robbery we have explored, written about ten years after the robbery.
Tom McCarty Own Story. Autobiography Of An Outlaw (excerpt)
…
After
drifting around the country for a considerable length of time I landed in the
western part of Colorado, where I again commenced in the mining business with
considerable success. I also worked at other occupations. I remained here
several years having no adventures of any consequence.
In
that part of the country were men of all grades and I soon joined with some
that longed for excitement of any kind, and having been quiet for so long a
time, my restlessness began to annoy me. Times being now rather dull and
becoming with men that had no more money than myself, we thought it time to make
a raid of some sort. Our plans were according laid out very carefully to go to
a certain bank and relieve the cashier of his ready cash.
After
getting our outfit ready we set out to accomplish an entirely new adventure. One
evening we arrived at a very promising mining camp, where we located a certain
bank and decided on the following morning to take the money, or taken
ourselves; about 11 o'clock in the forenoon we quietly rode our horses up to
the bank, one remaining on his horse, and the other to stand on guard, and also
go in at the point of a revolver compel the cashier to deliver over his wealth.
It
happened that we only found one man to deal with inside, and, when he looked
down the muzzle of a large six shooter he immediately handed over the money,
which was put into a sack. We here got several thousand dollars. After the
money was in our possession we bid the banker to stay inside and keep quiet or
his life would pay the penalty. He said that he would obey.
After
bidding him goodby and thanking him for his generosity, we mounted our horses,
and putting them into a fast run and firing our pistols in different directions
to intimidate the people we would meet, soon arrived on the outskirts of the town;
we had not gone more than about five miles when one of our horses seemed to
fail and could not keep up. We were now compelled to get another, we soon saw a
wagon coming in view a short distance ahead; we rode up to the gentleman that
traded our tired horses to him for one of his, much against his will.
We
soon had a sad put on our new horse, and throwing the complaining horse trader
some money to change his feelings, he smiled, raised his hat to us and said
good luck to our horse trade, and we were off.
It
was not long until, looking back, we saw quite a large posse in hot pursuit. We
now came to a large mountain range that was covered by a heavy growth of
timber. We commenced to ascend the mountain, which was quite high and steep;
the nearer we came to the top the more timber seemed to annoy us. We would
always put large trees behind us on our trail, in order to impede the progress
of our pursuers.
We
finally gained the summit, where we found a small open spot and a small stream
of water. In this little basin we found an old Indian pony. One of our party
went to the rim of the basin and could see the posse making their way up the
hill very slowly, having to clear our trail as they came. We took the old
Indian pony to the brink of the hill, and forcing him down the mountain toward
our followers, we fastened quite a large brush to his tail, and giving the old
pony a scare and the brush dragging on his heels to remind him of his fright,
the old horse, with the speed of an engine, started down to meet our pursuers.
The
noise caused by the breaking and snapping of dry timber and the speed that, the
horse was coming, made it sound as though we had an army of men and were making
a charge at the posse. This caused all the men to stampede; also their horses.
Down the hill they all went pell mell, and it has been told that some of
stampeders did not stop until they fell exhausted.
We
now commenced a descent on the opposite side of the mountain; it had always
been supposed that it was impossible for anyone to get down on the side we were
now starting our descent, and the people behind us had not expected us to
undertake this move, which helped us, on account of having no fear of being watched on the
opposite side; we labored hard all that day and our clothing was torn to rags;
but finally we landed at the bottom of the mountain on the other side; and I am
positive we were the first to ever cross at that point.
Having
not eaten anything since the morning and having nothing with us in the line of
eatables, we were obligated to devise some way of getting provisions. We
began to look around and happened to find the trac of a man that looked as though
it had lately been made. Riding up on a small rise we discovered a miner’s
cabin; one of my partners now stole quickly to the the door and could see no
one about the place. He went in, and finding a good supply of provisions, he
took what we needed and came back to us, when we all ate a very good meal; we
now had divided our money; in case we were to get separated each would be
supplied with money enough to not want for necessities of life.
Night
was now coming on and we were again ready to move on. We traveled in a Westerly
direction and rode about 100 miles, only stopping two or three times, our
longest stay at any one place not exceeding two hours. After keeping our
direction about 125 miles we changed our route, in almost a northerly
direction, and followed this course for nearly 175 miles. Having had no trouble
in avoiding any one that might have caused us trouble, we now got to what we
deemed a suitable place to recruit our horses and also ourselves.
We
remained in our new quarters for several days or weeks, when two of my partners
concluded to purchase a band of horses for their money. Finding a gentleman who
had a very desirable lot of horses a bargain was made, the horses received, and
biding me goodbye they took their horses to a shipping point on the Union
Pacific railroad in Wyoming, loaded their horses on the cars and started for
some eastern state, where they sold out at a fair figure, and I suppose
remained in the states a few days. After their departure I purchased a new
horse, the best I could buy, and again commenced a journey, not knowing where I
would land.
…
Assessment
Author Charles Kelly
reported finding this manuscript published in a Manti, Utah newspaper in about
1897. I have scoured the three papers in
Manti and find no reference to either Tom McCarty or any outlaws manuscript. It was reportedly found by Kelly about the
time he published his first edition of Outlaw
Trails. This coincided with Matt
Warner’s release of The
Last of the Outlaw Riders, not to mention Charles Hyde’s memoirs of the
robbery (we have already looked at). I
have great respect for those researchers that have proceeded me. Believe me,
researching is tedious with the occasional reward that makes work sweet. Part of research is managing the details in
the event your work is referenced or you are challenged. But a researcher that fails to cite sources
of key evidence – well, is poor. But I
will address Mr. Kelly’s research in detail later, for now, keep in mind that
Charles Kelly had his hands in three works – all but Charles Hyde as far as I
know. To my knowledge, Kelly never
interviewed Charles Hyde, the only non-outlaw witness. Charles Kelly’s work has been referenced by
Butch Cassidy researchers.
In his entire manuscript, McCarty uses no proper names of
places or accomplices. In most towns, he
gives hints with the city’s first letter, such as ‘ D..’ to represent the
Moffit robbery in Denver a few months before the Telluride robbery. Aside from a mining camp, he provides no
hints the town is Telluride.
This account has the robbers entering Telluride the evening
before the robbery and then robbing the bank the following morning at 11:00 am. Inside the bank accounts comes close to
matching that of Mr. Hyde. But his
recollection of meeting Harry Adsit differs from all remaining accounts I have
read. There is no mention of Adsit
recognizing the group. Later, Matt Warner will claim the group worked for Adsit
the prior summer. Is this a detail that
could discredit the entire document?
Rather than trading (or selling) a horse with Adsit,
McCarty claims the teams’ horses were swapped for a single horse. There is no mention of meeting Adsit during
the posse ride aside from running the pony down the hill to throw off the pursuers.
This account is tough for me to take too seriously. You would think McCarty would mention having
been recognized or apprehending Harry Adsit. There are some accounts that Tom
McCarty had help from Kelly that I have not followed up on as yet.
But my initial thoughts would be that this document is a hoax.
But my initial thoughts would be that this document is a
hoax. No one knows the exact demise of
Tom McCarty to this day.
I do not think there is adequate evidence to conclude this
account was made by Tom McCarty or is original.
We will dive into this later in greater detail.
How you can help?
I am looking for an original photo of the Bank of San
Miguel Valley. It originally was a
wooden structure sitting where the Mahr Building sits today “several doors east
of the Court House”.
Challenge me! If you
see a detail that needs greater depth or you think I am missing a key point. Let
me know.
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