On Legends and Faking One's Death

I was drawn to this story about the possibility that Butch Cassidy faked his death and lived quietly into old age both because I love a good faked death story and because I was bombarded with postcards and historical sites referring to him on my recent trip across the country. The story claims that a biography of Butch Cassidy written in the 1930s is actually an autobiography, and that he survived a shootout in Bolivia (his supposed place of death) to live "peacefully and anonymously" in Washington state. I'm skeptical, not that he could have faked his death, but that he would change his life so drastically after twenty years of robbery and general banditry (I hope "banditry" is a word). It seems to me that a bloody death is much more likely than a peaceful machinist's existence for one of the most notorious outlaws in U.S. history.

I'm also struck by our perpetual obsession with the (fake) deaths of celebrity figures, from Butch Cassidy, to Elvis Presley, to, most recently, Jackass star Ryan Dunn. These people have taken the place of gods and kings of religion and folklore, those dead-but-not-dead leaders who live on in the promise of their eventual returns. But the return is key, because without it, the untimely, glamorous death is far better than any life beyond a fabricated demise. Perhaps Butch Cassidy didn't care about being glamorous and truly wanted a peaceful life all the time he was committing crimes, but the bullet-riddled corpse makes for a much better movie.