SPEAKER_03: Reboot your credit card with Apple Card. It gives you unlimited daily cash back that can earn 4.15% annual percentage yield when you open a savings account. A high yield, low effort way to grow your money with no fees. Apply for Apple Card now in the Wallet app on iPhone to start earning and growing your daily cash with savings today. Apple Card subject to credit approval. Savings is available to Apple Card owners subject to eligibility. Savings accounts by Goldman Sachs Bank USA. Member FDIC, terms apply.
SPEAKER_05: Sick of paying $100 for groceries and getting nothing but eggs, orange juice, and a paper bag? Then download the Drop app. Drop lets you earn points with your everyday shopping and redeem them for gift cards. Want a free dinner with those groceries? Drop it. How about daily lattes? Drop it. So download Drop today and get $5 just for signing up. Use invite code GETDROP777.
SPEAKER_00: Hello, from Wonder Media Network, I'm Jenny Kaplan, and this is Womanika. This month we're talking about folk heroes, women whose lives and stories took on mythic proportions. Today's Womanikin stands as a shadowy silhouette against the blazing horizon of the old west. She's the most mysterious figure of the infamous train-robbing wild bunch. She's so hard to pin down that even her real name remains unclear. Let's talk about Etta Place. Etta Place might have been born around 1878, but we don't have her birth certificate or any documents from her early years to know for sure. In one version of events, Etta was the product of an affair between a British Earl and a woman in New York. When Etta was young, her well-off father arranged for her to be raised in San Antonio, Texas, and paid for her to attend finishing school back east. Other accounts have Etta coming from a more modest background, maybe growing up in Denver, Colorado, or in Utah, or in Pennsylvania. That's the thing about Etta Place. Her story as a notorious outlaw in the old west is fascinating. But what's captivated people throughout history is the fact that we don't really know who she was, or if she was an amalgamation of multiple women. Regardless, it's likely Etta Place wasn't her real name, but it was the one used on her wanted posters. In the decades since Etta's death, she's been portrayed in films and novels, and researchers have desperately tried to piece together her story. Along the way, many have claimed to have figured out the mystery behind the real Etta Place, but have they? Etta is remembered today as a companion to Robert Leroy Parker and Harry A. Longabaugh. The two were better known as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. During this era in the 19th century, the US was expanding westward. Railroad tracks snaked toward the Pacific coast. Trains carried all kinds of tempting loot for thieves like the Wild Bunch Gang. In 1899, a Union Pacific train was rolling through Wyoming when it was flagged down by one member of the gang. Then, a well-placed charge of dynamite blew open the express car. Another explosion busted open the locked safe on board. The Wild Bunch galloped off into the horizon with roughly $30,000. They went on to rob three more trains in the following weeks. In order to avoid theft, some railroad companies employed Pinkerton detectives. Sure enough, they had run-ins with Etta Place. The Pinkerton detective agency described Etta like this. Classic good looks, 5'4 to 5'5 in height, weighing between 110 and 115 pounds, with a medium build and brown hair. She was reportedly handy with a rifle and skilled in horseback riding. There's only one confirmed photo of Etta Place. It's a picture of her and the Sundance Kid posed together. They're wearing fine clothes and stern expressions. It was taken in New York City in February of 1901, while Harry and Etta were traveling together. Some believe it's meant to be the couple's wedding photo. There's no marriage certificate, but Etta sometimes went by Mrs. Harry A. Longabaugh, or Mrs. Harry A. Place. We do know that just a few weeks after the picture was taken, Etta and Harry boarded the SS Herminius, a British ship bound for Argentina. The Wild Bunch decided to relocate to South America, determined to escape US authorities for good. Of course, the details of what the group got up to once they settled in Argentina are hazy. It seems Butch and Harry turned to a more modest line of work for a while. The two men operated a ranch on the bank of the Blanco River near the town of Chilila, but they couldn't stay away from their life of crime forever. There are speculations that Etta aided the gang in two bank robberies while in Argentina. She was reportedly disguised in men's clothing. Between 1901 and 1906, we know that Etta returned to the United States several times. There are a few theories about why she did so. She might have been homesick and visiting family. She also might have been struggling with health problems that required her to return home for treatment, either appendix issues or maybe a venereal disease. There are other speculations that Etta had children during this period, maybe with Harry, maybe with a neighbor, but we don't know for sure. After that, Etta's story gets even more mysterious. The Pinkerton Detective Agency believed her to be alive and well in 1907, still living with Harry in South America. Conflicting reports have her living in San Francisco by that time. One of the Pinkertons' informants swears Etta, Harry, and Butch were all killed in a bank robbery gone wrong in Argentina in 1911 and even saw their dead bodies in the aftermath. But that remains unconfirmed. Some think the gang relocated to Mexico to fight in the revolution alongside General Pancho Villa. Another account has Etta growing old in the United States and dying in 1966 around the age of 90. In the early 1990s, a potential clue emerged. A woman in Utah commissioned a photo analysis of that fateful picture of Etta and Harry. Based on the results, she claimed that Etta Place and a friend of the Wild Bunch named Ann Bassett were one and the same. This theory was pretty exciting for researchers. It could mean that we have a fuller picture of the woman who was such a prominent but enigmatic outlaw. But the photo analysis has never been corroborated, and their timelines diverge in important ways. It's likely that they just looked very similar. Etta's life story as we know it today is a tangled knot, but historians and folklore enthusiasts continue to pull at the threads. Who was this wildest woman of the old west? The stories and speculations surrounding Etta capture the thrilling uncertainty of American folklore, the rough edges of fact and fiction, people who live daring and dangerous lives outside the margins of historical record. All month, we're talking about folk heroes. For more information, find us on Facebook and Instagram at Womanica Podcast. Special thanks to Liz Kaplan, my favorite sister and co-creator. Talk to you tomorrow.
SPEAKER_02: upgrade when you want. Every year or every two, you decide. Visit T-Mobile.com to take charge of your upgrades.
SPEAKER_04: and use code IHART for an additional $50 off mattresses and select goods. Lisa's hybrid mattresses are designed to beat the heat, so you can look forward to having a relaxing and peaceful night's sleep every night. Visit Lisa.com and shop the Labor Day sale today. That's L-E-E-S-A.com. Exclusions apply, see Lisa.com for details.
SPEAKER_06: Your home is important. It's where you raise your family and your biggest financial investment. For your home improvement projects, visit IHART.DEBELA.US for your roofing, siding, window and bath renovations. In your community, there's a local Dibella team. Visit IHART.DEBELA.US for your free, no obligation quote. It's easy, there's no payments until 2024 on approved credit. Over 15,000 satisfied customers on Google had a five-star experience with Dibella. For your home improvement projects, check out the award-winning pros at IHART.DEBELA.US, where quality begins at home.
