Antofagasta is a Chilean harbor town located about a quarter of the way down the coast of the shoestring nation. If you traveled inland from the town, you’d come close to where the borders of Bolivia and Argentina meet. Back in 1905, Antofagasta was a boom town; it owed its existence to the mining of first silver then copper in the nearby Andes Mountains. And it was the scene of a brutal killing of a young police officer on fateful August evening of that year.
It seems that a couple of drunks in a bar started something. They either mouthed off to the wrong person or the wrong person mouthed off to them. Pistols were brandished. Sensing that some frontier-style violence was about to happen, the barkeep sent word to the local constabulary that they had better come to the cantina, quickly. When the police arrived, the officers told the brawlers to take their disagreement outside, to the street, that the establishment wanted no trouble inside. As the argument began to move through the saloon doors, a shot rang out. One of the police officers was instantly killed at close range by a pistol.
Well, in the ensuing chaos, an arrest was made. It seems that the man who did the shooting was actually an American, one Frank Boyd. He argued that his Smith & Wesson revolver went off accidently, but that didn’t make the policeman any less dead. The 24-year-old officer, Arturo González, was buried the next day with full police honors, including a procession, marching band and the flower-bedecked hearse. His beautiful young widow and two-year-old son followed closely behind.
Boyd appealed to the US Consulate for help. The US representative, one Frank Aller, posted $50,000 bond and stated that he would allow Boyd to stay in his house as a condition of his release. At the bond hearing, Boyd’s business partner, a man called Thomas Fisher, testified that, while he was not present at the shooting, that he could vouch for Boyd’s character, saying that they two had come to that part of South America to invest in the cattle business. He further swore that he trusted Frank Boyd with his life. The release of Frank Boyd was granted.
Well, you can guess what happened. Boyd (and Fisher) skipped out of Antofagasta the next day and never looked back, leaving the family of Officer González without anyone held responsible for his death and the US Consulate $50,000 poorer. But legend says that within a couple of years later the pair would be killed by Bolivian troops in a shootout, so maybe justice of a sort was served.
But we can’t be 100% sure what really happened after Antofagasta to Fisher and Boyd, better known to you as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
The Rest of the Story 