Larry Pointer has made a valiant attempt at proving that Spokane, Washington engineer and businessman William T. Phillips was, in fact, Butch Cassidy. Unfortunately for him, this theory has now been disproven by hard evidence (see DIGGING UP BUTCH AND SUNDANCE by Anne Meadows). In any event, he fails to adequately explain how a thrill-seeking, restless outlaw could suddenly settle down to become a respectable and successful engineer, inventor, and businessman. Legends die hard.

Larry Pointer lays a provocative, convincing argument before the reader. Yet due to the vast amounts of controvesy over the matter, I have to be very critical of the text. All of his evidence points to Butch Cassidy returning to the US and taking up the alias William Phillips. However, through my own research, I have found that he tends to "tell" and not "show". He makes a lot of assumtions regarding "evidence" but doesn't back it up with documentation. Granted, I feel he had a valid argument, yet an argument that is still in need of further support. The subject is so controversial and much of the evidence on both sides conflict so in order to convince me, I must be shown, and not merely told.

Robert Leroy Parker, a/k/a Butch Cassidy, the last famous outlaw of the Old West, vanished in Bolivia, according to many. This riveting book of real Western history shows otherwise.

In a work evidencing considerable personal research and scholarship, Larry Pointer shows, beyond all but the most skeptical doubt, that Butch was not killed in Bolivia, unlike the Sundance Kid, Harry Longbaugh, but that Butch returned to the United States after having some reconstructive surgery, married, and then took an alias, Harry T. Phillips, and lived a somewhat respectable life until dying of cancer in Spokane in 1937.

The book is replete with anecdotes by witnesses, photographs, quotes from a manuscript started by Harry T. Phillips, and other physical evidence to show that Harry was, in fact, Butch Cassidy, and that his actions, especially in later life would not have occured unless he was Butch Cassidy.

The book is well written, well organized, nostalgic, and poignant. It paints a picture of a man out of time who assumed a different, if frustrating, life. It starts a bit slowly, but once it takes root in your consciousmess, cannot be put down until its too-soon finish. I prize the book, and rate it highly. I believe any student of the Old West will do likewise.