Talk:Elzy Lay

Latest comment: 2 years ago by Cameron Dewe in topic More Sources

More Sources edit

    Someone who cares enough about this subject could seek out Dick and Dawn DeJournette's book, One Hundred Years of Brown's Park and Diamond Mountain, 1996, which offers accounts of various first-hand interviews of Josie, Butch's "Brown's Park beau," and others who knew these outlaws in the northeast corner of Utah and the southwest corner of Wyoming.  I have not elsewhere seen such clear, specific, believable testimony that Cassidy survived 1909 and Bolivia by at least two decades.  The DeJournettes offer five witnesses of this, interviewed by local historians.  I have a distant relative, Maud, who married Elza Lay, included in the book. Elza and Butch were seen together in Baggs, Wyoming.  As I've written elsewhere, if you were going to concoct a tale about seeing a famous outlaw, wouldn't you pick a nicer part of Wyoming than a nowheresville like Baggs?  Were I going to see Cassidy in 1930, I'd make it happen in Jackson Hole or at Old Faithful!  — Preceding unsigned comment added by Moabalan (talkcontribs) 16:23, 12 March 2019 (UTC)Reply 
@Moabalan: The problem with relying on these sorts of testimonials is that they are primary sources. While these sources can be used to verify facts, they become problematic when it comes to developing any sort of opinion or analysis. For example: These testimonies can be used to report who was seen in Baggs, Wyoming, but to call it a nice place or nowheresville needs a secondary source that analyses these testimonies to research what the overall collective opinion of all the people giving these testimonies thought of Baggs. Because Wikipedia prohibits original research, a secondary source is needed to provide the analysis and opinion instead. - Cameron Dewe (talk) 08:59, 3 May 2022 (UTC)Reply