Born as Robert LeRoy Parker on April 13th 1866- c. 1908 in Beaver, Utah. Parker was the first born child of 13 children to Maximilian Parker and Ann Campbell Gillies, English and Scottish Mormon immigrants who came to the Utah Territory in the late 1850s.
Parker left home in his early teens, and began working on a dairy farm. He soon fell in the crowd with Mike Cassidy, a horse thief and cattle rustler. He also worked on several ranches as a butcher in Wyoming, and he then acquired the nickname “Butch”.
After committing several small crimes, Parker later formed a trio of robbers with Warner and Thomas McCarthy(train and bank robbers). The three began robbing trains starting around 1887. The three were responsible for the robbery on June 24th, 1889 of the San Miguel Valley Bank in Telluride, Colorado, where they stole approximately $21, 000. Then fled to Robbers Roost, a hideout, in Utah.
In the 1894 Parker became romantically involved with Ann Bassett, a female Old West outlaw and rancher. The same year, Parker was arrested for stealing horses. He was imprisoned in the Wyoming state prison and served 18 months of his two-year sentence. After his release, he was briefly involved with Bassett's older sister Josie, and then returned to his relationship with Ann.
Around 1896, Parker became part of a new circle of criminal masterminds, Elzy Lay, Harvey “Kid Curry” Logan, Ben Kilpatrick, Harry Tracy, Willy Carver, Laura Bullion, and George Curry, calling themselves the Wild Bunch. Over the next few years, the Wild Bunch stole over $30,000 and killed many sheriffs and lawmen. After a while some members of the Gang were killed, and so the gang split up for a while. In 1900 Kid Curry, Parker and Longabaugh robbed a Union Pacific train in Montana nad took over $60,000 in cash. Again the gang split up. Curry later disappeared after killing James Winters, rancher responsible for the killing of his brother Johnny.
In 1901 Parker and Longabaugh, with...