William Ellsworth "Elzy" LAY

1869 - 1934

Because of the movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid the names will be linked together forever. But Butch’s best friend was Elzy Lay, sometimes Elza. Perhaps the reason that Elzy was not with Butch in South America is that he was serving a life term in the New Mexico State Prison.
Elzy was an outlaw for sure. I’m not so sure about him being a Mormon outlaw, but I was influenced to include him because other writers have called him that, and because like, Matt Warner, he turned his life around and became an upright citizen. He did not grow up in a Mormon family as did the others. He did fall in love with a very nice Mormon girl, Maude Davis. Kathryn Jenkins Gordon in her book Butch Cassidy and other Mormon Outlaws of the Old West says, “he started dating a good Mormon girl named Maude Davis. Apparently, he embraced both her and her faith.” If he did, it didn’t slow down his outlaw activities. She also states that they were married. They had a daughter named Marvel. Elzy’s grandson, Harvey Lay Murdock wrote that he had serious doubts that the couple ever married.
William Ellsworth” Elzy” Lay was born to James Landon Lay and Mary Jane Bellew Lay on November 25, 1869 in Mount Pleasant, Colorado. Not much is known of his formative years. Shortly after he was born the family move to northeastern Colorado where he grew up. He has been called the “educated outlaw” even though he probably did not go to school beyond the eighth grade. His mother was described as refined and educated and most likely tutored him. He was an avid reader and was never without a book in his saddlebags. When he was eighteen, he and his childhood friend William McGinnis left home to seek a life of adventure. McGinnis’ search for adventure didn’t last very long. He quickly got homesick and went back home. Elzy found a job driving a horse drawn streetcar in Denver and then, an event quite like the one that led Matt Warner to a life of an outlaw, put Elzy on the run. A male passenger was harassing one of his female passengers and gallant Elzy rushed to her rescue. Elzy gave the man several warnings to leave the girl alone before he finally pushed the belligerent off the train. The man landed on his head and appeared to be seriously hurt. Fearing that the man was dead and that he was in trouble, he left Denver not wanting to be arrested.
He went down into Texas where he worked as a cowboy. A trail drive took him into the Rocky Mountains, and he liked the area so much he decided to stay. He ended up working for Kirk Calvert on his ranch in Baggs, Wyoming. Baggs was a favorite watering hole for outlaws. After a successful robbery they would go to Baggs to do their drinking and raise a little cane. Calvert introduced Elzy to rustling and his life as an outlaw had its beginning.
In 1889, Elzy was in Brown’s Hole working for Matt Warner and that is where Elzy and Butch became best friends. What might have helped was that Elzy was dating Josie Bassett and Butch was dating her younger sister, fifteen-year-old Ann, soon to be known as Queen Ann. The father of the sisters owned a ranch in Brown’s Hole, and he supplied the horses for the outlaws that used the area as a hideout and headquarters.
As always happens, Elzy realized that a cowboy didn’t make enough money to live a very exciting life. Taking everything he had, he went into nearby Vernal, Utah and opened a saloon. His outlaw friends were all his customers, and business was booming. Until Uintah County Sheriff John Pope closed him down. Back to Brown’s Hole and working for Matt and to his girlfriend Josie. That romance soon fizzled out. Elzy was really saddened when he learned that Butch was doing a two year sentence in Wyoming for stealing horses.
That’s when Elzy began to dating Maude Davis. Maude was quite religious, but was not entirely unaware of Elzy’s outlaw life, plus she had a brother, Albert, who was a small time outlaw. Elzy also decided to wait around Brown’s Hole until Butch got out of prison. As soon as Butch was back the two men built a cabin on the Green River and they lived together with their girlfriends.
Elzy’s first real hard crime occurred in August of 1896. Matt Warner, a good friend of Butch and Elzy, and William Wall, had been arrested for murdering two bandits in what seemed to be an obvious case of self-defense. Matt needed a lawyer and Butch, recently out of prison was broke. The solution was to rob a bank in Montpelier, Idaho.
Butch, Elzy and Henry Rhodes “Bub” Meeks, Jr., another Mormon outlaw, went to work on a ranch outside Cokeville, Wyoming, just across the border from Montpelier. Mrs. P. Emelle, owner of the ranch, said, "They were the best workers [I] ever had, but always went heavily armed and made two mysterious trips.” While working for her they used aliases, Butch was known as George Ingerfeld, Elzy was Willie McGinnis, his childhood friend and Bub was Marty Makensie.
Two days before the robbery, they quit their jobs and went to Montpelier. On August 13, 1896, the three sat in a saloon across from the bar and waited for the right moment. It came just before closing time when the cashier came out of the bank to talk to a friend. Butch and Elzy ordered him back into the bank and Bub stayed with the horses. They made a gunpoint withdrawal of $7,100. By the time a posse was formed, the trio was riding their second set of fresh relay horses.
Elzy was now a wanted criminal with a price on his head. He felt justified as he looked upon it as helping a friend and not as a robbery. The money was handed over to attorney Douglas Preston for Matt’s defense. Despite Preston’s best efforts, Matt was convicted of voluntary manslaughter and on September 10, 1896, he was sentenced to six years.
Meeks was arrested for the bank robbery in June of 1897 and on September 7, he was sentenced to 35 years. The sentence was commuted to twelve years. He attempted an escape and his sentence was doubled to twenty-four years. Another escape attempt got him shot in the leg, resulting in amputation. He was transferred to the Idaho Insane Asylum where he successfully escaped. Idaho officials did not try to recapture him. His mental health continued to decline, and his family committed him to the Wyoming Mental Hospital where he died in 1912.
Elzy’s next big escapade occurred on April 21, 1897, when he pulled off his most famous robbery and what many called the boldest robbery in the Old West, the Castle Gate robbery. In broad daylight, Butch and Elzy waited in Castle Gate, Utah for the train to deliver the payroll for the Pleasant Valley Coal Company. Elzy sat on his horse and held another horse as if he was waiting for a friend. Butch sat in a chair leaning against the wall of the mining company, his hat pulled down low on his face, appearing to all to be taking a nap in the warm sun. The Rio Grande Western passenger train came to a stop outside the mining company and messengers handed three sacks of payroll to E. L. Carpenter, the paymaster. Carpenter and two employees started up the stairs to the company office. Butch sprang into action, stuck a gun in Carpenter’s ribs, jerked a bag away from him and threw it to Elzy. One of the employees dropped a bag of the payroll and Butch picked it up, jumped on his horse and the pair made a successful getaway. A third member of the gang, staying outside of town, cut the telegraph wires. Again, using relay horses they were able to beat any posse and made it safely to Robbers Roost.
For the next two years Butch and Elzy were on the move. They worked for William French who ran the WS Ranch near Alma, New Mexico. Then moved up to Wyoming where they planned the Wild Bunch’s most famous train robbery
On June 2, 1899, the Wild Bunch held up the Overland Flyer train near Wilcox, Wyoming; their take was more than $60,000. The express agent, Ernest Charles Woodcock, refused to open the express car. The bandits threw lit dynamite sticks under the car. The walls of the car were blown off and the agent knocked unconscious. They tried unsuccessfully to revive Woodcock to open the safe, so they decided to use dynamite. They used too much and destroyed the front of the car and blew a hole in the top of the safe, damaging some of the treasure. They gathered up all the undamaged loot and rode off. Estimates of the bandits take ranged up to $60,000. Five years later the railroad superintendent admitted the railroad had lost more than $50,000.
The number of bandits in the robbery has been disputed as either three or six. The answer is three and probably did not include the planners, Butch and Elzy.
After the robbery, Butch and Elzy headed back to the WS Ranch. Then Elzy made the biggest mistake in his outlaw career, he quit the WS Ranch and joined the Ketcham gang. Butch advised him against doing so, but to no avail.
The gang was planning to rob a Rio Grande train near Twin Mountains, seven miles south of Folsom, New Mexico. The members that would participate were Sam Ketcham, Elzy, and Bruce “Red” Weaver. There was a fourth member who has not been identified. It might have been Kid Curry, Will Carver or George Musgrave, probably Musgrave. For a few days the four camped in a hideout in Turkey Creek Canyon in New Mexico. Then on the night of July 11, 1899, they robbed the train of about $70,000 and hightailed it back to the Turkey Creek Canyon hideout, except Weaver who separated from the group near Springer. But their good luck was about to go bad.
Around 5:00 p.m. on July 16, a five man posse, working on a tip, located the outlaws. Elzy had gone to fill his canteen and was the first one wounded in the gunfight. Two shots rendered him unconscious for a while. When he came to, he crawled back to his rifle and returned fire and may have killed Sheriff Edward Farr. Sam Ketcham was seriously wounded and no longer fighting. Musgrave, if it was him, crawled up between two rocks and because he was using smokeless powder, the posse was unable to locate him. The posse did not have smokeless powder, so every shot gave off black smoke that made them easily spotted. Two more posse members were wounded and one of them died from blood poisoning.
Under the cover of darkness, the outlaws managed to escape, carrying Ketcham with them. But he was so badly wounded they left him at a nearby ranch. He was soon captured and died on July 24.
Now Elzy had a murder charge against him and he was captured by a posse near Carlsbad, New Mexico while he was having breakfast. Still going under the name McGinnis, he was tried for first degree murder of Sheriff Farr. After deliberating for three hours, the jury rejected first degree and found him guilty of second degree murder. On October 10, 1899, he was sentenced to life in prison. He entered the New Mexico State Penitentiary at Santa Fe as inmate # 1348. That was more than Maude could handle and she divorced him. He was a model prisoner and a favorite of the warden and he soon became a trustee. He would often accompany the warden on trips into Santa Fe. They returned from one of those trips to find an ongoing prison riot and the warden’s wife and daughter were taken hostage. Elza was able to talk the prisoners into releasing the women.
Now the warden was beholden to Elzy and began to work his good friend, Governor Miguel Otero, for a pardon for Elzy. Also, Elzy discovered that the warden had a fondness for gold and was a bit greedy. So Elzy made up a story about how he knew where there was gold on the Ute Reservation in Utah. Turns out the governor was also interested and on January 10, 1906, Elzy was pardoned. Not only was he pardoned, the warden and the governor provided him with a nest egg to go looking for the gold, which was never found.
Elzy’s grandson says he went back to Alma for a couple of months and then headed back to Baggs, Wyoming. He went to work on the Calvert Ranch again He met Mary Calvert and three years later they were married and raised two children.
During all his reading, Elzy had read quite a bit about geology and he became quite successful at detecting land where oil could be found, He discovered oil around Ogden and then the Hiawatha Oil Fields in Wyoming. But oil was risky business and he lost all his assets. He and Mary took their family to Southern California, where he supervised the building of the Colorado River aqueduct near El Centro in the Imperial Valley.
On November 10, 1934, Elzy died of a heart attack in Los Angeles and is buried in the Forest Lawn Cemetery in Glendale, California.

Contributed on 9/11/20 by tomtodd
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Record #: 9322

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