Tom-The-Teacher’s American Western History Blog

The life of Matt Warner is certainly a dichotomy.   Born as Willard Erastus Christensen, in Utah, Warner’s parents were Mormon missionaries that immigrated from Denmark.  Accounts of his early life indicate that Warner was a bad hombre.  Along with bank robbery, he was convicted of murder.  Accounts from her family and newspapers claim he kidnapped his first wife (Rosa) when she was thirteen or fourteen.  In his later years, Warner served as a lawman for Price, Utah.  All indications are that Matt Warner was a respected community member. I will discuss Matt Warner later.   For now, he provides a first-hand account claiming to be and identified as an accomplice in the robbery. The following are excerpts from The Last of the Bandit Riders by Matt Warner and Murray King, 1940 … Soon after, Butch Cassidy and I ran into Tom McCarty, and we were all so surprised and happy we drank a saloon in Cortez dry, treating each other and the crowd...

According to most researchers, Butch Cassidy was arrested in Montrose for only a few weeks for having removed his race pony from a Telluride livery stable.   As with many stories about Butch Cassidy, this fabrication is another attempt to glamourize the outlaw and make it sound as though he removed his own colt.   I always wondered why Robert Parker would have been incarcerated in Montrose when the crime occurred in Telluride and a different county.   Why was he not placed in jail and tried in Telluride, the county seat of the crime? Ophir, Colorado Let us examine the overlooked facts. Robert Parker was originally arrested in Ophir, Colorado for horse theft.  Ophir is a mining town thirteen miles southwest and uphill from Telluride, also within San Miguel County.    The Solid Muldoon (Weekly), July 27, 1888 Bob Parker  was captured last week in Ophir by H . Allerton of the Uncompahgre Cattle Growers Association, having in his possession a valua...