In this episode of pplpod, we explore the life and mystery of Butch Cassidy, born Robert Leroy Parker, the Mormon pioneer son who became one of the most famous outlaws of the American West. The episode begins with the official ending: a 1908 shootout in San Vicente, Bolivia, where two American bandits were surrounded, wounded, and found dead after two final gunshots. But the story immediately complicates itself with persistent claims that Cassidy survived, returned to Utah years later, ate blueberry pie with his family, and lived quietly under another name. From there, the episode traces his early life in a poor Mormon ranching family, his break from that world, his adoption of the Cassidy name, his brief work as a butcher, and his first recorded crime: stealing jeans and pie, then leaving an IOU.

The episode also follows Cassidy’s rise fro ...