After the 1893 Delta Bank Robbery, Photos of the Dead Outlaws Sold for a Quarter Apiece
If you've driven Highway 50 between Grand Junction and Delta, you've passed Escalante Canyon, where the McCarty Gang camped in late August 1893 and planned the worst day of their lives.
Tom McCarty, his brother Bill, and Bill's 20-year-old son Fred were no amateurs.
Tom had already helped Butch Cassidy rob the San Miguel Valley Bank in Telluride back in 1889.
The McCarty Gang Hits a Bank in Delta, Colorado
On September 7, 1893, Bill and Fred walked into the Farmers and Merchants Bank on Main Street with pistols drawn. Cashier Andrew Blachly was shot and killed.
Nobody had warned them about Ray Simpson. He ran the hardware store across the street, and according to the Delta County Historical Society, he'd brought his rifle to work that day because of a bad dream the night before.
A Delta Hardware Clerk Takes Down the McCarty Gang
Simpson grabbed his single-shot Sharps rifle and ran toward the alley. He shot Bill out of the saddle. Fred stopped to check on his dad, and Simpson shot him too. Tom was more than 100 yards away by then. Simpson hit his horse, but Tom got out of town. The gang's total take was zero.
But wait, it gets darker. Bill and Fred's bodies were photographed, and the pictures sold for a quarter apiece.
Tom later sent Simpson threatening letters. Simpson moved to Southern California, and his wife never recovered from the strain. Tom, meanwhile, ended up back in Oregon working as, among other things, a justice of the peace.
See the McCarty Gang Guns at the Delta History Museum
The outlaws' guns and Simpson's Sharps rifle are on display at the Delta History Museum, 251 Meeker Street.
A marker on Main Street, placed by the Blachly family, marks the spot where the bank stood.
