"Laughing" Sam Carey, possibly also Laughing Dick Carey, was one of the least known
American Old West
The American frontier, also known as the Old West, and popularly known as the Wild West, encompasses the geography, history, folklore, and culture associated with the forward wave of American expansion in mainland North America that bega ...
outlaw
An outlaw, in its original and legal meaning, is a person declared as outside the protection of the law. In pre-modern societies, all legal protection was withdrawn from the criminal, so anyone was legally empowered to persecute or kill them. ...
s who was a member of the loosely knit
Hole in the Wall Gang during the latter part of the 19th century. Both of the above names are listed in many outlaw accounts from the day.
Background
Although Sam Carey is mentioned often in recorded exploits of the gangs operating out of the
Hole-in-the-Wall
Hole-in-the-Wall is a remote pass in the Big Horn Mountains of Johnson County, Wyoming. In the late 19th and the early 20th centuries, the Hole-in-the-Wall Gang and Butch Cassidy's Wild Bunch gang met at the log cabin, which is now preserved ...
pass, located in
Johnson County,
Wyoming
Wyoming ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States, Western United States. It borders Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho t ...
, very little is known about him. Historian Roy O'Dell has done extended research into Carey's identity. In addition to his work,
author
In legal discourse, an author is the creator of an original work that has been published, whether that work exists in written, graphic, visual, or recorded form. The act of creating such a work is referred to as authorship. Therefore, a sculpt ...
s James D. Horan and Paul Sann mentioned Laughing Sam Carey in their book, ''Pictorial History of the Wild West''. In a ''
New York World
The ''New York World'' was a newspaper published in New York City from 1860 to 1931. The paper played a major role in the history of American newspapers as a leading national voice of the Democratic Party. From 1883 to 1911 under publisher Jo ...
'' article, dated March 15, 1903, Carey is mentioned as being one of the most celebrated inhabitants of the Hole-in-the-Wall hideout, and is described as Wyoming's most dangerous
desperado.
As a boy, it is believed that Carey acted as a messenger and camp servant to
Butch Cassidy
Robert LeRoy Parker (April 13, 1866 – November 7, 1908), better known as Butch Cassidy, was an American train robbery, train and bank robbery, bank robber and the leader of a gang of criminal outlaws known as the "Butch Cassidy's Wild Bunch, ...
and his gang. As a teenager he rode with a gang led by the little-known outlaw Otto Chenoworth. In the 1923 book ''History of Natrona County Wyoming'', the short-lived career of the Chenoworth Gang was documented. He and his gang were less than successful, with the gang breaking up and Chenoworth being committed to a
sanitarium in
South Dakota
South Dakota (; Sioux language, Sioux: , ) is a U.S. state, state in the West North Central states, North Central region of the United States. It is also part of the Great Plains. South Dakota is named after the Dakota people, Dakota Sioux ...
, from which he was later released to his mother. Carey returned to the Hole-in-the-Wall after the gang's breakup.
Carey then rode, off and on, with a number of the gangs considered part of the Hole in the Wall Gang, to include Cassidy's
Wild Bunch
The Wild Bunch, also known as the Doolin–Dalton Gang, or the Oklahombres, were a gang of American outlaws based in the Indian Territory in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. They were active in Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, and Oklahoma Terr ...
and
Black Jack Ketchum's gang.
''thehistoryjunkie.com''
/ref> Carey was well known in his own time, and often associated with stories of the outlaw exploits originating from the Hole-in-the-Wall. However, by 1903, almost all of the gang members best known to operate from there were either dead or in prison, with Carey never being captured to anyone's knowledge. Eventually, beginning after 1903, he simply faded from history. His whereabouts after the downfall of the Hole in the Wall Gang are not known, nor is the date or year of his death.
See also
*List of fugitives from justice who disappeared
This is a list of fugitives from justice, notable people who disappeared or evaded capture while being sought by law enforcement agencies in connection with a crime, and who are currently sought or were sought for the duration of their presumed ...
References
External links
Hole in the Wall
*Boardman, Mark (2019-05-15)
The Mysterious “Laughing Sam”
. ''True West Magazine''. Retrieved 2020-02-01.
*Markley, Bill (August 2011)
''Wild West Magazine''. Retrieved 2020-02-01.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Carey, Sam
American bank robbers
Fugitives wanted by the United States
Outlaws of the American Old West
Year of birth unknown
Year of death unknown