27 June 2013

Were "Ann Bassett" and "Etta Place" the same woman?


Ann Bassett had a relationship with Butch Cassidy; Etta Place married the Sundance Kid.   There is speculation that the two names were for the same woman.
You may have noticed that both Bassett and Place were beautiful women. In fact, the photos resemble each other quite a bit. The descriptions of each woman by the Pinkerton Agency were almost identical. This also occurred to Doris Karren Burton, who investigated the lives of both women and published a book in 1992 claiming they were one and the same...

The theory goes that Bassett took up with the Sundance Kid after her relationship with Butch Cassidy ended. The men of The Wild Bunch were known to alternate girlfriends, without animosity, and Butch Cassidy was said to have been associated with both Josie Bassett and Etta Place at various times.
Details and additional photos at Mental Floss.

8 comments:

  1. They don't even look remotely alike.

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  2. It's quite remarkable how similar the faces in the two photos are - same columella, same nares, same palpebral fissures - especially when you consider that the first one was taken many years after the second one.

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  3. I am pretty certain that I have found Etta Place before South America. After South America she is still a mystery to me. I believe I am close but there is still some huge barrier so close doesn't matter.

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  4. Etta Place according to the Pinkerton Detective Agency was thought to be from Texas. The Sundance Kid is noted as being with her in a hotel in Denver for a dinner. Then he shows up with her in Pennsylvania visiting his sister Samanna and brother Harvey and introduces her as his wife. They then go to Buffalo ( Dri Pierces Invalids hotel to get a gunshot wound in his left leg fixed) and then off to New YOrk City to meet up with Butch Cassidy - She is Mystery Woman - Unfortunately the trail on her dies in 1906 when she leaves the Kid and Butch to back to the USA ( Supposedly ). If you can find out who she is - You have a best seller. Good Luck -

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  5. I am her 3x great granddaughter.My aunt has the genealogy to prove it. Her birth name was Clara Etta Richardson. Her first marriage was to a Mr.Jhonson. She was a widow and a mother when she met Sundance. She left her two girls (Marie, her oldest, was my grandpa's grandmother) in a boarding home while she rode around with Sundance. Her final marriage gave her the last name Richter. She died around 1965, making her age estimate 87 at the time. Her daughter Marie died in 1970 of cancer at the age of 75.

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    Replies
    1. interesting, from Richardson to Richter…

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  6. ask her sister josie that died in 1964 good lord

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