Mistaken Identity - The Mule Thief

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 valuable horse which he had borrowed on the quiet from the grangers near Montrose. As a horse marine, Bob is a yelling triumph.

The crime was committed in Montrose County and he was returned to Montrose County to face charges.  Parker did not steal his own horse.    

Tracking Robert Parker’s time in jail was difficult.  The following is an example of why.

 

The Solid Muldoon (Weekly), Feb 8, 1889

Montrose enjoyed a jail delivery Wednesday afternoon.  Dick Edwards, the Telluride killer, Parker, a mule thief, and another transgressor escaped but were recaptured about two miles southwest of town by Sheriff Johnson and posse.

 

This is an interesting story.  I read elsewhere that the escape never happened but I can’t validate it at this time.  The story is likely political or vengeful in nature towards Dick Edwards.  Edwards was a Telluride Deputy Sheriff that reportedly shot an unarmed man and was moved to Montrose for his safety after citizens threaten a lynching.

The inclusion of “mule thief” sent me in the wrong direction.  Where did the mule in the story originate?  After much diligence, I discovered this story.

 

          The Rocky Mountain News (Daily), Volume 30, September 3, 1888

A Mule Thief Captured.

Special to The News.

Montrose, Colo., Sept. 2.—N. B. Moreland, deputy sheriff of San Miguel county, this morning about 10 o’clock arrested the man who stole Johnny Donnellan’s race mule June 1. The thief, who was pointed out by J. C. Gale, deputy sheriff of Delta, where the arrest was made, gave his name as Arne Brown. Moreland put handcuffs on Brown and brought him to this place, where he was jugged until Gale brings up the mule. Moreland’s reputation for capturing horse and cattle thieves is growing.

Although not a far leap, I believe the editors of the Solid Muldoon mistook Bob Parker and Arne Brown, given they both were in the Montrose Jail at the same time for equine theft.

This story does reflect the opposite of the stories that Butch Cassidy was a model citizen in the Montrose Jail.