No subject on this blog has garnered more controversy than the Nov. 28, 2005 posting titled "Did Butch Cassidy Retire to Spokane?" (You can find it below). It has spawned 73 responses (and still climbing), many of them from Butch aficionados and/or scholars, and many of them contentious and argumentative.

The subject was whether William T. Phillips of Spokane was actually the famous Butch Cassidy. For a variety of reasons, I am now leaning strongly toward the opinion that he wasn't. However, I believe we will never know for sure.

This week, I received a letter from Butch & Sundance scholar Daniel Buck, which included a copy of a new article he and Anne Meadows have written which illustrates why any definitive answer to the question is so complicated. This article, titled "Butch and Sundance: Still Dead?" for the April-June 2006 issue of the Quarterly of the National Association for Outlaw and Lawman History, Inc., gathers together the bewildering number of death reports that have surfaced for the pair over the years.

Butch died in Utah, Butch died in Nevada, Butch died in Bolivia. Butch died as early as 1898 and as late as 1944. As the Salt Lake Tribune noted sardonically in the 1890s: "The supply of Butch Cassidys seems inexhaustible."

In his letter, Buck noted that Washington ranks pretty high in the Butch death chronicles. "Utah and Nevada are now tied at seven Butch tales each. Washington is second with six."

Aren't we proud? If anyone out there has evidence of which one of these many death tales is true, feel free to offer it up right here.