"I drove my first husband, Jim McKnight, out of the house at the point of a gun and told him never to come back. Let's just say that some men are harder to get rid of than others."
So said Josephine Bassett McKnight Ranney Williams Wells Morris to a young reporter in 1960. She married five times over the course of her adventurous lifetime.
She divorced four of her husbands, running one off at gunpoint, and the fifth husband died, of natural causes, according to the coroner, and two separate investigations. Yet rumors and even oral history from Josie’s own family have persisted to this day; that Josie poisoned her fourth husband, which was the question of the reporter.
Josie Bassett lived most of her life on her father's ranch, the center of the outlaw hideout known as Brown’s Park. Josie was four years old when her parents, Herbert and Elizabeth Bassett moved to the area spanning the borders of Utah, Wyoming, and Colorado, in 1877.
Bassett’s brother Sam had arrived in the area a few years earlier with Louis Simmons, the son-in-law of Kit Carson. Carson had been in the area during the mountain man rendezvous period of the 1830s and helped establish nearby Fort Davy Crockett.
Herbert Bassett was a man out of place in the rugged Brown's Park frontier. He was well read and very musical, a scholar not inclined to hard physical, outdoor labor. Elizabeth, a lively southern belle, was entirely up to the challenges of this new frontier.
It wasn’t long before a few head of cattle mysteriously showed up at the Bassett ranch, and sooner rather than later, a nice herd of Durham cattle became the income of the Bassett family.
Josie and her younger sister, Ann, were taught to rope, ride, and shoot. They added their efforts to the family income. While both girls were given proper educations at Miss Porter's Finishing School for Girls in Boston, both chose to return to their Colorado ranch at Brown’s Park.
A Romp In the Hay With Butch Cassidy
Josie said she was 15 years old when she first met Butch Cassidy, (alias George Cassidy at that time.) This would have been around 1887, and the first reference of the famous outlaw in Brown’s Park. Cassidy, fond of horse racing, rode a champion bay mare to victory at the nearby Beaver Creek races, which Josie had attended.
"I thought he was the most dashing and handsome man I had ever seen. I was such a young thing, and giddy as most teenagers are, and I looked upon Butch as my knight in shining armor,” she once said, “But he was more interested in his horse that he was in me, and I remember being very put out by that. I went home after being snubbed by him and stamped my foot on the floor in frustration.'"
During these teen years of Josie’s life, Cassidy spent a great deal of time around the Bassett Ranch, and it was only a matter of time before Josie and Butch Cassidy became lovers.
Later, Josie recounted the teen affair of the heart: "After one of Butch's rich uncles died (euphemism for a bank or train robbery) we put him up, hiding him in the hay loft. He used to say, 'Josie, I'm lonely up here. Come out and keep me company...' He asked me... ‘What am I going to do to keep from being bored?' Well, all I can say is, I didn't let him get bored..."
The brief affair ended when Cassidy went off to rob more trains, and Josie went on with her life and other men, including a brief fling with Elza Lay, Cassidy's closest friend.
Her sister Ann, on the other hand, became very close friends with Lay, even facilitating in his eventual marriage to Maude Davis. Josie later had a relationship with Will Carver, but ended the affair when she learned Carver had become involved with female outlaw Laura Bullion.
It was a strange, complicated circle of relationships that developed between the Bassett sisters and the outlaws of Brown’s Park, who would become the Wild Bunch.
Headed To The Alter The First Time
At the age of 19, Josie found herself pregnant by Jim McKnight, a local ranch hand. They married and eventually had two sons. It was a brutal marriage, the couple fought constantly.
When the family ranch fell to her, McKnight wanted to sell and Josie refused. McKnight countered by taking the cattle and the children. A nasty divorce ended with McKnight being shot by a deputy. Local papers reported that Josie herself had shot him, to which she countered, “If I had shot him, I wouldn’t have missed.”
Josie got the boys back, gave up the ranch to her younger sister, Ann, and moved to Craig, where she ran a boarding house. There, she married Charles Ranney, a druggist, but divorced him as he was too strict with the boys.
Josie than married another druggist, Charles Williams, and divorced him in six months. On a roll, six months later, she married Emerson Wells and the two moved back to Brown’s Park. When he died unexpectedly, Josie was accused of poisoning him. No charges were ever filed.
Back To The Ranch
Josie’s return to the Bassett ranch was a welcomed relief to her sister Ann who had a full-blown range war on her hands.
In 1896, several powerful cattlemen from the tri-state border area approached the Bassett family to sell their ranch. Refusing, things soon turned ugly. The local cattlemen’s association, led by Ora Haley, hired obscure men to harass the sisters, stealing and stampeding their cattle, and physically threatening the women.
In 1913, Josie moved near Jessen, Utah, where she started her own ranch. During the Prohibition era, Josie made and sold rum and whiskey. While local law enforcement were aware, she was never arrested.
Years after prohibition, she continued to make her own brandy and whiskey until warned that revenue agents were looking for her still. However, during the years of the Great Depression she supplied food, particularly beef to others in the area.
Rustler Accusations
In 1936, rancher and former adversary Jim Robinson accused her of butchering his cattle, and selling it in town. Six other ranchers joined in on the accusations. Hides from the carcasses were found on her property. Josie was arrested, even though she claimed the evidence was planted. Several neighbors put up the money for her bail.
At the age of 63, and a grandmother, Josie said asked during her trial, “Do I look like a cattle rustler?” She was tried twice, both ending in a hung jury.
In 1945, she fell victim to a land scheme, losing most of her land. Hanging on to what she had left, she lived modestly in her cabin and supported herself well into her 80s. Friends and neighbors often wondered how she acquired the beef she slaughtered and sold. Nothing was ever said, as the neighbors enjoyed her lively conversation and tales of her young wild days and her associations with outlaws.
Nearly 90 years old and still going strong, Josie was knocked down when a horse kicked her. She died a few months later In a Vernal hospital in 1963. She was buried in the family cemetery at Brown’s Park, Colorado.
Josie Bassett was the last of the Bassett relation to the history of Brown’s Park. She was also the last associate and one time lover of members of the Wild Bunch gang. An amazing, adventurous life, there is no doubt, Josie took secrets to her grave.
Linda Wommack can be reached at lwomm3258@aol.com
