Etta Place was a companion of the infamous American outlaws Butch Cassidy (real name Robert LeRoy Parker ) and the Sundance Kid (Harry Alonzo Longabaugh), both members of the outlaw gang known as the "Wild Bunch". Principally the companion of Longabaugh, little is known about her; both her origin and her fate remain shrouded in mystery. The Pinkerton Detective Agency described her in 1906 as having, "classic good looks, 27 or 28 years old, 5'4" to 5'5" in height, weighing between 110 lb and 115 lb, with a medium build and brown hair." Even her real name is a mystery; "Place" was the maiden surname of Longabaugh's mother (Annie Place) and she is recorded in various sources as Mrs. Harry Longabaugh or Mrs. Harry A. Place. In the one instance where she is known to have signed her name as "Mrs. Ethel Place". Because Longabaugh's mother was a Place, some rumors suggest that she and Longabaugh were first cousins. The Pinkertons called her "Ethel", "Ethal", "Eva" and "Rita" before finally settling on "Etta" for their wanted posters. Her name may have become "Etta" after she moved to South America, where Spanish speakers could not pronounce "Ethel". In February 1901, Etta accompanied Longabaugh to New York City, where at Tiffany's jewelers they purchased a lapel watch and stickpin, and posed for the now-famous DeYoung portrait at a studio in Union Square on Broadway. It is one of only two known images of her. On February 20, 1901, she sailed with him and Parker (who was then posing as "James Ryan," her fictional brother), aboard the British ship Herminius for Buenos Aires, Argentina. There she settled with the two outlaws on a ranch which they purchased near Cholila in the Chubut Province of west-central Argentina. It comprised a four-room log cabin on the east bank of the Blanco River. Under a new Argentinian 1884 law, they were granted 15,000 acres of adjacent land to develop, 2,500 of which belonged to Etta herself, who has the distinction of being the first woman in Argentina to acquire land under the new act, as land ownership had previously been almost the exclusive preserve of men. On March 3, 1902, she and Longabaugh returned to New York City on the SS Soldier Prince, probably to visit family and friends in the U.S. On April 2, they registered at a Mrs. Thompson's rooming house in New York City. They toured Coney Island and visited his family (originally from Mont Clare, Pennsylvania, but by then living in Atlantic City, New Jersey). They also possibly traveled to a Dr. Pierce's Invalid Hotel in Buffalo, New York, for unspecified medical treatment. They then traveled west, where again they sought medical treatment, this time in Denver, Colorado. They returned to Buenos Aires from New York on July 10, 1902, aboard the steamer Honorius, posing as stewards. On August 9, she was with Longabaugh at the Hotel Europa in Buenos Aires, and on the 15th she sailed with him aboard the steamer SS Chubut to return to their ranch. In the summer of 1904, she made another visit with Longabaugh to the U.S., where the Pinkerton Detective Agency traced them to Fort Worth, Texas, and to the St. Louis World Fair, but failed to arrest them before they returned to Argentina. In early 1905, the trio sold the Cholila ranch, as once again the law was beginning to catch up with them. The Pinkerton Agency had known their precise address for some months, but the rainy season prevented their assigned agent, Frank Dimaio, from traveling there and making an arrest. Governor Julio Lezana issued an arrest warrant, but before it could be executed, Sheriff Edward Humphreys, a Welsh Argentine who was friendly with Parker and enamored of Etta, tipped them off. The trio fled north to San Carlos de Bariloche, where they embarked on the steamer Condor across Lake Nahuel Huapi and into Chile. By the end of that year, however, they were back in Argentina; and on December 19, 1904, Etta, along with Longabaugh, Parker and an unknown male, took part in the robbery of the Banco de la Nacion in Villa Mercedes, 400 miles west of Buenos Aires. Pursued by armed lawmen, they crossed the Pampas and the Andes and again into Chile. Tiring of life on the run and deeply lamenting the loss of their ranch, Etta, accompanied by Longabaugh (at her request) traveled from Valparaiso, Chile, to San Francisco, California on June 30, 1906, where she apparently remained while he returned permanently to South America. There is no evidence that the two ever saw one another again after that. (bio by: Jay Lance)