High Doom in the Andes
Butch and Sundance vs. An Uyuni Posse
By: Anne Meadows ,Bob Boze Bell ,Daniel Buck 11/01/2008
November 6, 1908
Two heavily armed “Americanos, on jaded mules” ride into the high mountain village of San Vicente, Bolivia. As the sun is setting, Butch and Sundance rein in at the home of Bonifacio Casasola. A village official, Cleto Bellot, approaches the strangers and asks what they want.
“An inn,” they tell him.
Bellot informs the strangers there are no inns in San Vicente, but that Casasola can put them up and sell them fodder for their mules.
After tending to their animals and unloading their gear, Butch and Sundance join Bellot in their room, which opens onto Casasola’s walled patio. The Americans ask Bellot about the road to Santa Catalina, an Argentine town just south of the border (this was probably a ruse to throw off any pursuing posses) and the road to Uyuni (their real path), located about 75 miles north of San Vicente. They also ask where they can get sardines and beer, and Bellot sends Casasola to buy some with money provided by Sundance.
After more small talk, Bellot leaves and goes to the home of Manuel Barran, where a four-man posse from Uyuni is staying. The posse rode in that afternoon, warning Bellot and other locals to be on the lookout for two Yankees with a mule belonging to the Aramayo mining company, whose payroll was recently robbed.
The posse consists of Capt. Justo P. Concha, two soldiers from the Abaroa Regiment and Inspector Timoteo Rios from the Uyuni police department. Captain Concha is unavailable when Bellot arrives. When Bellot tells his news to Inspector Rios and the two soldiers, they immediately load their rifles.
Accompanied by Bellot, the three posse members march to Casasola’s home and enter the patio. As the Bolivians approach the bandits’ room, Butch appears in the doorway, draws his Colt and fires, hitting lead soldier Victor Torres in the neck. Torres gets off a shot with his rifle, then runs out the patio door and collapses at a nearby house. He dies within minutes.
The other soldier and Inspector Rios also return fire, before they scurry out with Bellot. After retrieving more ammunition, the two return and fire into the house through the patio door.
By now, it’s dark. Captain Concha runs up and commands Bellot to find some locals who can watch the roof and the back of the adobe house so the bandits don’t punch a hole and escape. As Bellot rushes to comply, he hears “three screams of desperation” coming from the bandits’ room.
The San Vicenteños are finally at their posts, but the firing has ceased and all is quiet. Minutes turn into hours, and there’s no response from the fugitives. The guards remain at their stations throughout the bitterly cold and windy night.
The next morning, Bellot and others enter the room and see Butch’s lifeless form stretched out on the floor, one bullet wound in the temple and another in the arm. Sundance’s corpse sits on a bench behind the door, hugging a large ceramic jar. He has been shot once in the forehead and several times in the arm. According to one report, the bullet removed from Sundance’s forehead came from Butch’s Colt. From the positions of the bodies and the locations of the fatal wounds, the witnesses conclude that Butch put his partner out of his misery, then turned his gun on himself.
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