The relentless pursuit of justice in the American West often ended with a rope, a bullet, or a quick trip to a dusty grave, but for Harvey Alexander Logan, the man history remembers as Kid Curry, the end came not at the hands of a posse, but by his own cold and calculated decision. A prominent figure in the annals of outlaw history, Logan’s life was a violent tapestry woven with train robberies, narrow escapes, and a trail of bodies that earned him the distinction of being the most feared and hunted criminal of his era. While many of his contemporaries, such as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, have been romanticized by the silver screen, Kid Curry was the brutal, unpredictable force that lawmen truly dreaded, a man whose criminal reputation was forged in gunfire and bloodshed.
According to historical records and Western lore, this wasn’t just another cowboy gone astray; this was a professional criminal who outgunned lawmen and left a trail of violence that stretched from Montana to Mexico. The story of Kid Curry, born Harvey Alexander Logan in 1867 in Tama County, Iowa, is not one of a jolly rogue but of a hardened killer. He was an orphaned cowboy from Iowa who grew up to be a thief, a gunman, and a banker, though he is more famous for his train robbery and is considered one of the most extravagant members of Butch Cassidy’s outlaw gang, the Wild Bunch.
His childhood was marked by poverty and hardship, a life of despair that seemingly set the stage for the cold-blooded revenge that would define his life after becoming a wanted man.
Logan’s formative years were marred by tragedy and poverty, a harsh reality that began with the death of his father, which prompted his mother to relocate the family to Dodson, Missouri. The family’s quest for a fresh start was devastated when his mother died shortly thereafter in 1876, leaving Harvey and his siblings as orphans. The orphaned children were taken in by their aunt and uncle, Elizabeth and Haram Lee, who adopted them and gave them a home.
Sometime later, Harvey and his three brothers moved to Texas, where he found work as a butcher at the Cross L Ranch near Big Spring, Texas. It was there that he befriended a man named Flatnose George Curry, who would significantly influence his life; in a show of solidarity, Harvey even took George’s surname, Curry, as his own last name.
The transformation from cowboy to outlaw was gradual but accelerated by incidents with the law and a volatile temper. After getting involved in a bar brawl in Colorado, Harvey knew he must humble himself to avoid the law, so he went to Southern Wyoming to start over. However, the following year, Harvey, along with his brothers Johnny and Lonnie, went to stay at a horse ranch in Choteau County, Montana, located just south of the Landusky Mining Ranch.
On October 2, 1894, Harvey and Johnny Logan, along with their brother-in-law Lee Self, got into a dispute with their neighbor Jim Ross. During the altercation, Harvey was charged with an assault with a dangerous weapon, setting a path for the young cowboy that would lead to a career in crime. Yet, the pivotal turn came when he crossed paths with a local miner named Powell Pike Plummer, who attacked Harvey because he believed he was having an 𝒶𝒻𝒻𝒶𝒾𝓇 with his daughter.
The escalating tension with Plummer culminated in a fatal confrontation that defined his life of crime. In a bar in which Logan fought back and Plummer filed a complaint, a judge ruled in Logan’s favor, but the dispute did not end. One fateful night, Harvey and Plummer ran into each other again at a local pub, and a “small fight” became a bigger one.
As Logan turned to walk away, Plummer pulled out a gun and threatened him, but in self-defense, Logan’s brothers gave him a pistol, and when the final gunfight broke out, Kid Curry quickly shot Plummer in the head. Fearing he would never get a fair trial, Logan fled, but the aftermath brought a 𝓈𝒽𝓸𝒸𝓀𝒾𝓃𝑔 revelation: Plummer’s daughter announced she was pregnant, but the baby wasn’t Harvey’s. The father was, in fact, the son of Harvey’s brother, a twist of fate that would have significant impact on the outlaw’s life in the years to come.
Fearing retaliation, Harvey Logan had no choice but to flee to a new territory and continue working outside the often narrow boundaries of the quebe safety zone, and was highly wanted. He ended up in New Mexico, intending to form bonds and history with the infamous Blackjack Ketchum gang. However, Harvey could not resist the temptation to return to Montana, believing that Jim Rivers was trying to claim a reward for his capture.
During a violent confrontation in 1896, Harvey and his brothers confronted Rivers, which resulted in the death of Johnny Logan, a loss that would fuel a long and bloody grudge. Grieving and once again on the run, Harvey and Lonnie rejoined the Ketchum gang, though disagreements with the gang’s leader Thomas Ketchum caused the Logan brothers to part ways and venture to Colorado, where they found work on a farm near Idaho.
Despite finding work, Harvey’s criminal nature did not change. He quickly formed a new gang that included his brother Lonnie, as well as Walt Putman, Tom O’Day, and his old friend George Curry, a partnership that followed him throughout the west and met with terrible trouble. In 1897, Harvey was implicated in the murder of Deputy Sheriff William Smith of Powder River, Wyoming, in a horse theft.
After narrowly escaping in Montana, Harvey Logan and his gang robbed the bank in Belle Fouche, South Dakota, in June of that year. Although most of the party managed to escape, the bandit O’Day was caught when his horse panicked. The remaining bandits were eventually caught in Fergus County, Montana.
In the ensuing gunfight, Logan was wounded in the wrist and was arrested along with Walt Putman and George Curry. They were imprisoned in Deadwood, South Dakota, but escaped on October 31, 1897, showing their resourcefulness and the general public’s lack of effective jails.
The turn of the century brought Harvey face-to-face with the notorious Sundance Kid, and together with Flatnose George Curry, they robbed a train from the South Pacific Railroad in Humboldt, Nevada, on July 14, 1898, though the loot was only about $450. In 1899, the “Wild Bunch,” including Logan, robbed the Union Pacific Railroad near Wilcox, Wyoming. This led to a fierce chase culminating in a furious gunfight between the posse and the bandits, resulting in the loss of Sheriff Joe Hazen’s life and the use of his body.
The Wild Bunch managed to escape to their “Hole in the Wall” hideout on the Colorado/Utah border, drawing the full burden of the law. Pinkerton Detective Charles Angelo was tasked with a fine resolution to stop the outfit, and in that year, he joined forces to catch the gang.
Despite the Pinkertons, the crime spree was only escalating. In New Mexico together on July 11, 1899, they hijacked a train near Folsom, New Mexico. However, their theft was short-lived as Sheriff Ed Far and his team quickly caught up with them at Turkey Creek.
A fierce gun battle ensued, wounding a group of men including a charge of the killing of a lawman; Logan and Cassidy managed to escape. Harvey eventually found refuge in Fanny Porter’s brothel in San Antonio, where he met Della Moore, also known as Annie Rogers. A romantic relationship that lasted several years began.
However, their peaceful existence was shattered when Lonnie Curry, a friend of Harvey, was killed in a gunfight with law enforcement. Harvey was devastated, and his grief was compounded when George Curry, his best friend, was killed by lawmen just two months later on April 17, 1900. His loss filled the outlaw with a sense of vengeance, leading him to 𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁 Grand County Sheriff John Tyler and his deputy in 1901.
He finally found a way for revenge when authorities reported that, despite being chased by law officers, Jim Curtis killed his brother. Frank Weber, a veteran of the Pinkerton’s man, had nothing but contempt for Logan, naming him the “worst outlaw in America”, a man with zealous blood that had no respect for the law, and a bounty hunter’s dream. The Butch Cassidy’s Wild Bunch broke.
up, but the train robberies continued, with the gang robbing a train near Tipton, Wyoming, taking about $55,000, the group then split ways. Logan and. Ben Kilpatrick headed to Fort Worth, Texas.
Unfortunately, they made a fatal mistake when they posed for a photograph, which the Pinkerton’s found, and it quickly appeared on countless wanted posters around the country, setting the stage for their demise at the hands of sheriffs and deputies.
The heat soared, and the law finally caught up. On December 13, 1901, Logan killed two Knoxville policeman, William Dinwidder and Robert Sailor, as they attempted to arrest him. Then, in a billiards hall on November 30, 1902, Curry was arrested after an altercation with a lawman and was convicted for the earlier robbery, earning him 20 years.
He escaped from prison two years later. However, on a 1904, train robbery near Parachute, Colorado, a team of officers caught up with the outlaws. During the showdown, Logan was injured.
Rather than facing justice and forty years in a cell, he took his own life, with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, claiming a final, defiant act of control.
A man who went from orphan to farm hand, then to master of crime, was buried in Pioneer Cemetery looking over Glenwood Springs, Colorado, far from the shoes he left behind, next to the grave of a legendary gunman Doc Holliday. The legend known as Kid Curry is without a doubt one of the Old West’s most notorious and intriguing outlaws. His life was filled with adventure, violence, and tragedy.
Although his life was cut short at the age of 37, Kid Curry’s legacy lives on to this day. He remains a symbol of the lawlessness and danger of the Old West and the presence of the spirit of rebellion and independence that characterized the era. His story, one of a final deadly and defiant, has captured the imagination of a different generation that can only wonder what made an ordinary boy become the man they called Kid Curry, the outlaw that the West could not control.
