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In the 1969 film classic Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,
the Hole-in-the-Wall Gang has just robbed a train owned by E.H.
Harriman. In the midst of their glee, the gang watches as a
shorter train shrieks to a halt some distance down the tracks.
For a breathless moment, no one quite knows what to expect.
Then out jumps a posse of men on horseback, and they ride hard
toward the outlaws. The gang leaves the money and flees.
They've outrun posses before, but this one seems different.
To try to diminish the posse's strength, they split up.
Butch and Sundance ride off together for a while and then turn
around. They find that the entire posse is after them.
They devise several more tricks, such as using only one horse, but
the faceless riders are relentless. At several different
junctures, exhausted and astonished by the persistence of their
pursuers, they ask, "Who are those guys?"
It seems that E. H. Harriman of the Union Pacific Railroad has
hired the best trackers in the business. They have been
deputized by the U.S. Marshals to go after the fugitives and track
them down---even, it seems, to Bolivia. And they just don't
give up.
While those scenes are from a movie, the truth according to
historian Frederick S. Calhoun in The Lawmen, is that U. S.
Marshals Frank A. Hadsell worked closely with Pinkerton detectives
to find these notorious robbers but never managed to apprehend them.
The Hole-in-the-Wall hideout in the Wyoming mountains was impossible
to locate and the gang proved maddeningly elusive. "The most
Hadsell and his posses could do," reports Calhoun, "was
chase the outlaws out of Wyoming."
Nevertheless, the image of a special law enforcement team that
won't quit left a strong impression on the culture. The movie
echoed the way the U.S. Marshals have been portrayed in countless
westerns. Notable Marshals in other movies have been played by
John Wayne, ex-President Ronald Reagan, and Tommy Lee Jones, who
starred in both The Fugitive remake and its sequel, U.S.
Marshals. The DVD version of the latter film includes a
succinct overview of the Marshals, "Justice under the
Star."
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| U.S.Marshals Badge |
Accordingly, their motto is "Justice, Integrity, and
Service," and the Marshals' famous five-sided star is the
oldest emblem of federal law enforcement in our country.
"Portrayed throughout history for legendary heroics in the face
of lawlessness," says the official Web site, "these
deputies carry out their daily assignments with dedication and
professionalism." |
