



He Rode with Butch and Sundance
The Story of Harvey "Kid Curry" Logan
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
Pinned down by a posse, the wounded outlaw's companions urged him to escape through the gulch. "Don't wait for me," he replied, "I'm all in and might as well end it right here." Placing his revolver to his right temple, he pulled the trigger for the last time, thus ending the life of the notorious "Kid Curry" of the Wild Bunch. It is long past time for the publication of a well-researched, definitive biography of the infamous western outlaw Harvey Alexander Logan, better known by his alias Kid Curry. In Wyoming he became involved in rustling and eventually graduated to bank and train robbing as a member--and soon leader--of the Wild Bunch. The core members of the gang came to be Butch Cassidy, the Sundance Kid, George "Flatnose" Currie, Elzy Lay, Ben "the Tall Texan" Kilpatrick, Will Carver, and Kid Curry. Kid Curry has been portrayed as a cold-blooded killer, without any compassion or conscience and possessed of limited intelligence. Curry indeed was a dangerous man with a violent temperament, which was aggravated by alcoholic drink. However, Smokov shows that Curry's record of kills is highly exaggerated, and that he was not the blood-thirsty killer as many have claimed. Mark Smokov has researched extensively in areas significant to Curry's story and corrects the many false statements that have been written about him in the past. Curry was a cunning outlaw who planned and executed robberies on par with anything Butch Cassidy is reported to have pulled off. Smokov contends that Curry was the actual train robbing leader of the Wild Bunch--there is no concrete evidence that Cassidy ever robbed a train. He also presents new evidence that is virtually conclusive in resolving whether or not Curry was the "unknown bandit" who was killed after robbing a train near Parachute, Colorado, in 1904.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Western outlaw Harvey Alexander Logan (1867 1904), aka Kid Curry, has the reputation of a bloodthirsty killer, a man minus conscience and of limited intelligence. In this rock-solid recreation of Old West grit and gunsmoke, western historian Smokov writes, "The only killing that can definitely be attributed to Curry, arguably in self-defense, was the result of his saloon brawl with miner Pike' Landusky in Montana." Smokov noting that Logan was not dull-witted, as usually depicted examines and dissects numerous conflicting sources throughout this well-researched biography. Nine years old when his mother died, the Kid was raised with his brothers and sister by their aunt and uncle in Missouri, later working as a cowboy and Montana rancher. After the bloody 1894 encounter with Landusky, Curry went into hiding and was tracked by Pinkerton detectives as he pulled off bank and railroad robberies during the years he was friendly with the Sundance Kid: "The two Kids' were virtually inseparable from 1897 through 1900." Exploring archives and court records, Smokov shows how writers have embellished the Kid Curry legend, and he successfully separates raw reality from myth and speculation in this definitive profile of a cunning criminal. Photos, map.