Butch Cassidy’s Mormon Past (Steve Lesueur 3 of 3)

We'll find out more about the backgrounds of murder victims Gus Gibbons & Steve LeSueur. Were they Nauvoo pioneers? We'll also find out that Butch Cassidy grew up in a small Utah town (Circleville), although it seems that Mormonism didn't really take with him. Check out our conversation... https://youtu.be/VzKpjBEeyzo   Copyright © 2023 Gospel Tangents All Rights Reserved Except for book reviews, no content may be reproduced without written permission Butch Cassidy's Mormon Background We'll find out more about the backgrounds of murder victims Gus Gibbons & Steve LeSueur. Were they Nauvoo pioneers? We'll also find out that Butch Cassidy grew up in a small Utah town (Circleville), although it seems that Mormonism didn't really take with him. Check out our conversation... Interview Steve  00:33  Among the interesting characters that we meet along the way, besides the interesting outlaws, is the sheriff, Edward Beeler. He was born in 1864. So, he was 36 at this time, and he was married to Mary Hamblin, who was a daughter of Jacob Hamblin, the famed... GT  01:01  I recognize that name. Steve  01:03  [Hamblin is] the famed Mormon apostle to the Lamanites. Ed Beeler was not a Mormon. He was a tall, handsome man and people said she [his wife] was very good looking, herself. Anyway, he was tall, and he was a hard-as-nails kind of Sheriff. He got along well with the Mormons and [he was] very well-liked as a sheriff, up to this point. But after the murders, many townspeople blamed him for the young men having been left alone on the trail. And by all accounts, what I can read and by his actions, he blamed himself, as well. [He] felt really bad[ly] about it and so after the boys were found, he organized another posse and he went on an obsessive two-and-a-half-month chase for the outlaws, which is in the book. This chase, it's covered in newspapers. Of course, he had other posse members with him, and he chased them back into New Mexico, down into Mexico, up through New Mexico again. They killed another lawman in New Mexico. GT  02:13  I'm surprised Pancho Villa is not in this. {chuckling} Steve  02:15  Yeah, he's in another story of another side of my family. GT  02:20  Oh really? That's your next book. Steve  02:22  Yes, yeah, the Skousens. GT  02:24  Oh, like Cleon Skousen? Steve  02:28  Cleon Skousen. GT  02:29  His ancestors. Steve  02:31  My grandfather Carl, the younger brother of Frank, he married a Skousen, Merle Skousen, who was a daughter of Peter Skousen, who went into the colonies with the Romneys and others. And so, they were down there with Pancho Villa. My grandmother was born in the year 1900, in those colonies. Anyway, they didn't get to Pancho Villa, because this is just 1900. So, backup. [The outlaws] killed another lawman in New Mexico. They chased them up through Colorado into Utah, where they killed the sheriff and his deputy from Moab, Utah, which called out more posses. It was the largest manhunt in Utah, up to that point, in Utah history. And so, it's two and a half months of chasing these outlaws. Let's see. [I'm] looking for a quote from Ed Beeler. Let's see oh, yeah. So Ed Beeler, during his chase, he was interviewed at various times by newspaper men from Utah, about what he was doing, what he hoped to do. And what he said about this quest, he said, "The boys that these cowardly villains shot to pieces in the south, were my friends. They sacrificed their lives to assist me and I will even up the score. These fellows may as well fight me in one place as another as the time when we meet is bound to come. I know them all, and I am as positive of their identity as though they were behind prison bars." Steve  04:14  So, he was determined to get them. He didn't. But that's because there's another thing of reading about outlaws. It was very hard to actually capture outlaws, especially after, say, a robbery or something or even this incident.