A plaque inside the Carbon County Courthouse in Price honors Matt Warner, the son of an LDS bishop who didn't exactly follow in his dad's footsteps.
Instead, he became one of the West's most notorious bandits and helped teach Butch Cassidy how to rob banks. But Warner was no ordinary outlaw. He later became a Carbon County judge, a deputy sheriff and a respected member of the community.
Warner also was one of the few outlaws of the Old West to chronicle his life. His book, "Last of the Bandit Riders," was serialized in Cosmopolitan magazine in 1938, a few months before his death.
And now his story is being retold in "Last of the Bandit Riders Revisited," an updated version that Steve Lacy of Salt Lake City started working on 20 years ago with Joyce Warner, Matt Warner's daughter. After Joyce died in 1992, Lacy continued working on the book with Matt Warner's grandson, Evan Dee Warner.
"The first part of it is Matt's original book, but we added new information and photos," Lacy said. "And in the end we have Butch Cassidy's story — what happened to him in later life and to Matt Warner."
Warner, real name Willard Christiansen, was born in Ephraim and reared in Levan, where his father, Christian Christiansen, served as a bishop for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
In 1878, 14-year-old Willard fought with a town bully over a girl. Thinking he had killed the other teen, Willard rushed home, grabbed a few possessions and fled to the Diamond Mountain area north of Vernal. By the time he discovered, years later, that he hadn't really killed the other youth, it was too late — he was already an outlaw.
He adopted the name Matt Warner and got a job on a ranch, where his fellow cowboys gave him another moniker: the "Mormon Kid."
Before long, the "Mormon Kid" had acquired his own ranch and was rustling cattle. Soon he graduated to robbing banks with his brother-in-law, Tom McCarty, a first cousin of William Henry McCarty, better known as Billy the Kid.
Warner first met Robert LeRoy Parker, alias Butch Cassidy, in the mining town of Telluride, Colo., where Cassidy bet against Warner's horse in a race. They became close friends, even though Warner's horse won. And on March 30, 1889, Cassidy robbed his first bank with Warner and McCarty in Denver. Three months later, on June 24, 1889, they robbed the bank in Telluride.
Highlights from the book include Warner's yarn about hiding out in the Robbers' Roost area, where Warner "saved" three of his would-be captors, "Sheriff Fares" and two of his deputies, when they entered an area where there was no water.
Warner said he fired his Winchester rifle to attract their attention and left a note that read, "You are headed for death if you go south. Foller me if you want water." Warner said he led them to a spring, and the thirsty deputies were so grateful to get water that they wanted to call off their manhunt. But the sheriff insisted he wouldn't return "without his man," which aggravated Warner so much that he captured them instead. He took their guns and the sheriff's pants before turning them loose to ride back to Hanksville.
Warner was really talking about Emery County Deputy Sheriff J.T. Farrer, changing his name slightly and promoting him to sheriff in his book. Despite the indignity of losing his pants, Farrer became close friends with Warner later in life.
In a chapter titled "I Get Roped and Branded," Warner tells about falling in love and marrying 14-year-old Rose Morgan while hiding out in Star Valley, Wyo., in 1889.
Later, with a $20,000 price on his head after robbing banks in Enterprise, Ore., and Roslyn, Wash., Warner said he was betrayed by Rose's sister, Sarah Jane Morgan. He was jailed in Ellensburg, Wash., escaped, was recaptured and was later freed after his lawyer bought off the judge, Warner recounts in his book.
He said the "most awful" experience of his life was when he was forced to swim the mile-wide Columbia River on his horse in the fall of 1892 while deputies were shooting at him.
In 1896, he was ambushed by three men while he was helping a miner move his camp in the Uintas in eastern Utah.
Warner, whose horse was shot out from under him, returned fire, killing two of the men and severely injuring the third. He said he summoned help for his injured assailant but ended up being arrested on May 5, 1896, and charged with first-degree murder.
Because of fears Cassidy and his gang might try to break Warner out of jail in Vernal, he was moved to Ogden. On Aug. 13, 1896, Cassidy robbed the Montpelier Bank in Montpelier, Idaho, of $7,165, which he used to hire a lawyer for Warner and to help Warner's wife, who was dying of cancer.
Despite the lawyer's help, Warner was convicted on Sept. 26, 1896, of manslaughter and sent to the Utah State Prison in Sugar House. A week later, under armed guard, Warner was allowed to attend the funeral of his wife.
On Jan. 21, 1900, Warner was pardoned by Utah Gov. Heber Wells after an agreement that Warner would abandon his outlaw life.
Warner kept his bargain and settled in Green River, where he operated a saloon — one of a number of businesses he had owned during his outlaw days.
On Aug. 15, 1902, he married Elma Zufelt in Green River and began life again as a family man.
On Jan. 27, 1909, Warner became justice of the peace in Carbonville. He ran for sheriff of Carbon County in 1912 and 1918 but was defeated both times. He also served as a justice of the peace in Price, as a deputy sheriff and later as a police officer.
Daughter Joyce said her father was sometimes criticized for being too lenient with some of the "young toughs" who were brought before him.
"Crime does not pay, I know," he would tell them.
"He always conveyed into his stories that no matter how sick you were, if you had a broken leg or were nearly delirious with pain from a bullet wound, when the slightest movement was torment and you felt you would die if you didn't stop and lie down, you still had to go on and on," Joyce said of her father's life on the run.
"If it was possible to stop and rest a few hours, when darkness fell, you would lie on the hard ground, your back against a rock or embankment. . . . You could seldom start a fire and would lie cold and hungry. As you dozed — you never dared to really sleep — you would dream about hot food, a warm soft bed and of someone who cared for you," Joyce said.
Warner was a crack shot, and few could equal his fast draw, even while he was working as a police officer shortly before his death on Dec. 21, 1938, in Price. Among Warner's friends was former Utah Gov. J. Bracken Lee, who said, "I remember Matt and Sheriff Tom Kelter each put nails in telephone poles and took turns driving the nails in by shooting bullets at them."
The former governor added, "I liked Matt a whole lot."
E-MAIL: bcazier@desnews.com