Brent Ashworth, a Utah rare book dealer and collector, claimed that he had found a 200 page manuscript proving Butch Cassidy did not die in a 1908 shootout, as historians believed, but lived to old age and penned an autobiography.   The manuscript is entitled Bandit Invincible: The Story of Butch Cassidy and was written in 1934.  It appears to be an extended version of an unpublished novella of the same title by William T. Phillips. Larry Pointer has been on Butch Cassidy's trail for 40 years trying to find out what really happened to him.  Pointer had found the truncated version of Bandit Invicible in the 1970s and, although it was a fictionalized biography, there were a number of obscure details that led Pointer to believe that William T. Phillips was in fact Butch Cassidy.  Pointer got in touch with Phillips' wife, who denied that Phillips and Cassidy were one and the same, and his son, who was convinced they were.  He then had handwriting experts compare Phillips' penmanship with known letters from Cassidy; they confirmed that the two matched.  Moreover, there was a striking resemblance between the two men.  Pointer was convinced: Phillips was Butch Cassidy. One can only imagine Pointer's excitement when he was contacted by Ashworth about a different manuscript of Bandit Invincible.  He began examining additional details offered in the longer manuscript, specifically the names of Cassidy's associates.  Using the Atlas of Prisoners at the Wyoming Territorial Prison, he noticed that a William T. Wilcox was imprisoned the same time as an associate of Cassidy's.  Seeing another 'William T.' set off red flags, and when Pointer began looking into Wilcox, he realized that his criminal career "sounded like Bandit Invincible".  After some more digging, Pointer found out that Wilcox was in prison the same time as Cassidy.  This verified other information Pointer had been given in the 1970s about Cassidy and Phillips' association.  Finally, Pointer found photos of both William T. Phillips and William T. Wilcox, and realized without a doubt that they were the same man, thus disproving the theory that Phillips was Cassidy. Neither Pointer nor Ashworth are disheartened by this discovery, however.  Ashworth believed that the manuscript still provides evidence that Cassidy survived the shootout in South America and moved to Washington state, where he lived near Phillips.  Pointer says, "This is exciting and this is going to lead us forward in new ways that never would have been possible if not for Brent Ashworth's discovery of the expanded Bandit Invincible.  Maybe out somewhere in Washington is an answer, and we sure are going to chase it." Whether they aid to prove or disprove a theory, one can't deny that rare books and manuscripts can take you on a great historical journey! Butch Cassidy impostor exposed