Josie Bassett - Association With Outlaws

Association With Outlaws

Josie and Ann were extremely good looking young women, and both had a wild side. By 1893, Ann Bassett was involved romantically with Butch Cassidy, and Josie was involved with Elzy Lay, Cassidy's closest friend. When Cassidy was sent away to prison for eighteen months, starting in 1894, Ann became involved in a relationship with Ben Kilpatrick. By the time Cassidy was released, Will "News" Carver had become involved with Josie, who ended their relationship when Carver became involved with female outlaw Laura Bullion. Josie in turn became involved with Cassidy for a time, until Cassidy again became involved with Ann.

That was the complicated circle of relationships that developed between the Bassett girls and Cassidy's Wild Bunch gang. Despite the seemingly constant changes in romantic companions by both the Bassett girls and the gang members, there is no indication that any animosity ever resulted from it.

Josie Bassett was reportedly one of only five women who were ever allowed into the outlaw hideout called "Robbers Roost", located in the rough Utah terrain, the others being her sister Ann, the Sundance Kid's girlfriend Etta Place, Elzy Lay's wife Maude Davis, and Will "News" Carver's girl, Laura Bullion.

Those outlaw relationships, as well as the Bassett ranch supplying beef and horses to the gang, assisted the sisters in their time of need. In 1896, several powerful and wealthy cattlemen approached the Bassetts to sell their ranch. When the sisters refused, the cattlemen's association began hiring cowboys to harass the sisters, stampeding their cattle and rustling. The sisters in turn began to rustle cattle from the cattlemen.

Although the cattlemen's association dispatched cowboys to harass the sisters and intimidate them into selling, the cowboys rarely followed through with the acts for fear of retribution from the outlaws with whom the sisters were known to associate. One legend indicates that Kid Curry, easily the most feared of the Wild Bunch gang, approached several of the cowboys known to work for the cattlemen and warned them to leave the Bassetts alone. That story cannot be confirmed, but what is certain is that by 1899, the sisters were receiving very little pressure to sell.