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312 CHAPTER 30 South American“Sightings” L owell Spence’s statement is tr ue in that there w ere never any more official sightings of Kid Curry, at least nothing that could be proven, after the suicide in Colorado. But man y people could not accept the fact that the infamous outlaw was gone, and continued to attribute later bank robberies to the Cur ry gang (despite the f act that Curry’s criminal career clearly shows he much preferred robbing trains). One of these was the attempted robbery by two men of the First National Bank of Cody, Wyoming, on November 1, 1904. The holdup was thwarted when the larger of the two bandits shot down the cashier when he ran out into the street. There was speculation that of the two robbers, the shorter, slender one w as Kid Cur ry. This could not be considered seriously after the November 3 Cody Enterprise reported that during the holdup, “the slender one was plainly rattled, throwing his gun around and shooting almost at random.” This was not the actions of a veteran outlaw of the Wild Bunch. After trading shots with the citizens of Cody , the robbers raced out of town with a posse following close behind. Although the posse eventually gave up the chase near Thermopolis, law officials continued the hunt for the bandits. During the y ear following the robbery, a number of suspects were arrested. They were all able to provide an alibi or witnesses at the time of the robbery and were ultimately released.1 Most stories of Kid Curry in South America usually place him on the continent some time in 1905. One story, however, has him traveling there not long after his escape from jail in Kno xville in June 1903. The story can be found, with slight v ariations, in several sources. Its origin w as most likely an article by Edgar Young in the June 1927 issue of Frontier Times entitled “The End of Har vey Logan.” Young was managing a logging camp (a gold mine in a later v ersion) in Brazil, when a sickly South American “Sightings” 313 tramp came to his camp looking for w ork. The man had escaped from jail in Buenos Aires, Argentina, traversing the vast pampas and Brazilian jungles to Young’s camp. When he was well enough, Young put him to work as an assistant foreman. One day a former employee who had been fired attempted to stab Young in the back. The tramp, who had allegedly told Young he was Harvey Logan, intervened and saved his life. One version said he killed the Brazilian Indian or Hispanic attacker.2 Curry told Young of his adventures prior to his arrival at the Brazilian logging camp. After his escape from Kno xville, Curry made his way to Minnesota to visit his sister .3 He then hopped a westbound Great Northern passenger-freight, stopping for a time in Montana, before continuing on to Seattle. Here he w as able to hire onto a sailing ship going to South America. He jumped ship when it docked at Valparaiso, Chile, and was a very busy man for the next several months. He worked for a time in a Chilean copper mine, before crossing the Andes into Argentina where he robbed se veral railroad stations. To avoid arrest, he returned to Valparaiso and took ship to Punta Arenas in southern Argentina. In nearby Rio Gallegos he staked a claim and panned for gold from the beach sand. He was jailed at Punta Arenas after a drinking spree, but easil y escaped his confi nement. He then w alked north across Patagonia robbing ranches and trading posts. When he eventually reached the transcontinental railroad he robbed se veral more railroad stations. Making his way to Buenos Aires, he fell in with a gang of international counterfeiters. Thrown in jail after another one of his revels, he again escaped and worked his way to Young’s logging camp in Brazil. Curry told Young that in all that time he ne ver met up with either Butch Cassidy or the Sundance Kid.4 After working for Young a few months, he returned to Buenos Aires, and in time reached Punta Arenas again. Here he robbed some citizens, and when he was arrested this time, he was identified as Harvey Logan alias Kid Curry. Supposedly, out of fear of the inf amous American outlaw , the citizens w aited until he...

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