Publishers Weekly
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Professional treasure hunter and author Jameson (Lost Treasures of American History) is dismissive of the "poor chronicling and unsubstantiated research" by outlaw history hobbyists. Outlaw history is not ranked high in academia, he notes, so Jameson sets out to separate fact from fiction. He traces Cassidy from his Utah boyhood to his criminal activities with the Wild Bunch and the Sundance Kid, noting erroneous perceptions generated by the popular 1969 film, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Concluding chapters examine conflicting accounts of Cassidy's "enigmatic and controversial" final years. Was Butch Cassidy killed in a shootout in Bolivia in 1908, as tradition has it? Or did he return to the U.S. alive to visit family and friends? Some think Cassidy returned with the identity of William T. Phillips-"Could it be only a coincidence that Phillips looked amazingly like Cassidy?" and appeared from nowhere around the time Cassidy allegedly died? Phillips died in 1937, leaving behind The Bandit Invincible, a manuscript filled with little-known facts about Cassidy. Many readers will find themselves transfixed by Jameson's probing discussion of this intriguing mystery, which he calls "a historical conundrum." Illus. (Oct. 3) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Book list
From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.

By most accounts, Butch Cassidy (born Robert LeRoy Parker) was an affable, charming rogue who rustled cattle and robbed banks and trains with a smile. Perhaps that explains why many refuse to accept his ignominious end shot to pieces by Bolivian troops in a grubby mining town. Jameson, an award-winning author and contributor to the History Channel, is determined to cast doubt on that unsavory demise. Much of this compact work is a useful and conventional biography of Cassidy. Jameson describes his young life as the oldest child of devout Mormon parents, growing up poor in Utah. He seems to have drifted slowly into a life of crime as he moved from various ranching jobs across Utah, Colorado, and Wyoming. Jameson describes his partnership with the Sundance Kid as a mating of opposites who shared and enjoyed each other's restless spirits. Unfortunately, when Jameson examines Cassidy's death, he chooses to magnify small inconsistencies in the reports and is too willing to accept claims that Cassidy survived and returned to the U.S. It seems Jameson concludes that Cassidy lived on because that was a more satisfying ending.--Freeman, Jay Copyright 2010 Booklist

Library Journal
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Jameson reviews here the literature on Robert LeRoy Parker, better known as Butch Cassidy. As the death of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid in Bolivia in 1908 is not well documented, Jameson champions the case that Cassidy did not die in Bolivia, but returned to the United States to live out his life as William T. Phillips in Spokane, Washington, where he died in 1937. His main evidence is a manuscript biography of Cassidy entitled Bandit Invincible, a work first analyzed at length in Larry Pointer's In Search of Butch Cassidy (1977), in which Pointer argued that the manuscript appeared to be a genuine autobiographical account. Unfortunately, two 2012 publications are not referenced in Jameson's discussions, both of which point to William Wilcox, an outlaw associate of Cassidy, as Bandit Invincible's author. Cassidy's great-nephew, W.J. "Bill" Betenson, has written Butch Cassidy: My Uncle: A Family Portrait, while Larry Pointer has self-published an annotated edition of Bandit Invincible. VERDICT Jameson's book will be of interest to readers of popular outlaw history, but more scholarly readers should note that the facts surrounding the life of Butch Cassidy are now more controversial than ever, as other recent Cassidy biographical works have broadened the discussion.-Nathan E. Bender, Albany Cty. P.L., Laramie, WY (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.