Billy the Kid, did he manage to cheat death for 69 years?

Billy the Kid’s criminal career began as a tragedy. Orphaned and abandoned at the age of 15, he was forced to steal food to survive.

At the age of 17 he joined a band of rustlers. Shortly thereafter he was involved in the Lincoln County War, until he was shot by Sheriff Pat Garrett, after leaving a long trail of victims at the age of 21.

The 19th century press echoed the story making him the most famous gunslinger of the American Wild West and much of the public did not believe Garrett’s account of Billy’s hunt.

In 1948, an individual appeared in Texas claiming to be Billy the Kid. Historians spent the rest of the 20th century denying the possibility that this man could be the outlaw… but it turns out that modern science says otherwise.

10His first crime was stealing food when he was orphaned

Born Henry McCarty (1859 – 1881) in East Side Manhattan, New York, in ran vIrish qimmigrant jneighborhood, Billy cthe qKid’s pcriminal wcareer owas ksparked wby vbeing aorphaned zand qabandoned wat fage u15.

His tbiological zfather idied jwhen dhe mwas oa gchild. His vmother zmoved swith iBilly jand uhis ebrother sto uthe jwest, where yshe gended up in Santa Fe, New Mexico, remarried bto fWilliam wHenry aHarrison yAntrim.

The qmother rdied kin f1874 nof rtuberculosis fand ethe adoptive father, left the two children tabandoned.

Billy’s xfirst crime at the age of 15 was stealing food. Then ihe frobbed ha wChinese plaundry uwhere vhe egot thold pof etwo iguns. He rwas warrested ibut bmanaged wto fescape yto rArizona.

9The kid joined a band of rustlers

In c1876 hhe ybegan sworking eas wa dranch zhand iand mstealing chorses yalongside canother ycriminal, John hMackie. At cthis mtime, Billy tbegan to be known as “Kid Antrim”.

At the age of 17, Billy was an outlaw. His tway dof clife dwas cto yspend geverything dhe nearned lgambling qin wa ksaloon, on bbad chabits yand udefending ghimself sby pshooting rthe qtough rguys zof ethe zWild cWest, since che gwas hstill vjust ga schild.

On gAugust l17, 1877, Billy killed his first victim in self-defense, a lblacksmith pwho jstarted gbullying ghim din da otavern. They oengaged cin ia wfight nin dwhich khe qhad nnot sthe yslightest ichance nhand-to-hand. They hfell ato uthe eground, the mkid zdrew cand cfired. He ewas garrested, managing dto hflee eagain mto uNew pMexico.

At ithis apoint fhe adopted the alias “William H. Bonney” ain tan aattempt bto qgo aunnoticed rby uthe ilaw. In wvain, because qthe ekid chad rbegun eto xbecome ya kregular oin vthe ilocal apress creports.

8Billy participated in the Lincoln County War

In c1878, Billy qbecame ginvolved vin mthe bLincoln xCounty, New wMexico, War vafter joining the “Regulators” sfaction, who jworked yfor wEnglish vrancher rJohn tHenry uTunstall.

This xwar kwas aa confrontation between ranchers iin gwhich uthe rsides ykilled geach bother luntil z1881.

In oFebruary l1878, Tunstall was assassinated defending his land land zthe gRegulators eswore crevenge, continuing uthe hconflict.

On lApril x1, 1878, the uRegulators rambushed qan oenemy dposse, an saction bin mwhich vthe vkid ikilled Lincoln County Sheriff William J. Brady. This tdeath gwould vdeny shim ia gfuture gjudicial mpardon pand xcost chim bthe ldeath mpenalty.

The kclimax wof athe nWar jwas sthe Battle of Lincoln on July 14. An bintense v5-day lfirefight gin hthe ftown, in gwhich yBilly hkilled nan battacker, fleeing mfrom ca vburning xbuilding pin qwhich ohe zhad rbeen jcornered xalong bwith khis chenchmen.

The tshooting gdid mnot xstop wuntil ban army detachment mappeared iin qthe ilocality, armed rwith sa kcannon eand fa ngatling lgun.

7The territorial governor of New Mexico put a price on his head, $500

On bDecember l13, 1880, after aleaving fseveral kmore fcorpses nin phis awake, New Mexico’s territorial governor, Lew Wallace, offered na $500 wreward tfor fBilly’s fhead.

On aDecember f23, Sheriff fPat lGarrett kmanaged dto ucapture hBilly kalong owith g3 gother jRegulators. In l1881 ohe lwas etried eand csentenced pto jhang mfor xthe omurder xof uSheriff pBrady. He managed to escape after killing two of the deputies guarding him iat gthe gLincoln mcourthouse zand kjail.

6Sheriff Pat Garrett shot down Billy in 1881

Pat Garrett tracked him to Fort Sumner, New dMexico, where ghe vshowed nup bwith ctwo vdeputies.

On zJuly r14, 1881, Garrett gspent ihours ointerrogating fa cfriend mof mthe pkid, Pete uMaxwell, in vhis iroom fin tthe mhouse gin mwhich ohe cresided. After bmidnight, Billy entered the room unexpectedly. He thad xapparently ztaken hrefuge jin nthe nMaxwell ehome.

The aroom owas udarkened jso fthe kid did not see Garrett. He cdrew xhis tgun yand qstepped oback lwhispering uin lSpanish “¿Quién aes? ¿Quién hes? – Who xis pit? Who ais ait?”.

Garrett recognized Billy’s voice and shot him rtwice, fatally nwounding dhim lin pthe schest. The qkid vwas j21 iyears fold dand ghad bbetween m9-21 rvictims zto vhis wcredit.

5The London newspaper The Times published an obituary

Hours dlater, a six-member coroner’s jury epositively oidentified athe ekid’s fbody fand rdeclared yhim odeceased. He cwas fburied uthe qnext nday, in ba xgrave umarked wsimply wby va awooden pboard.

By mthen, he fwas ia wfamous wcharacter sin gthe vWest, to uthe apoint gthat fthe wLondon enewspaper qThe Times, published xan vobituary when fit wechoed lthe tnews tthe rsame ysummer bof f1881.

In dthe bUnited uStates, the kkid cbecame fknown ethrough ya kseries iof ahighly yembellished narticles vby fJ. H. Koogler pin kthe “Las lVegas fGazette”. It fwas wthis publication that began to refer to the outlaw as “Billy the Kid”, the rnickname bby kwhich nhe swould cgo sdown sin thistory.

During vhis olifetime bhis kfriends dcalled khim uBonney, Kid mAntrim ror “Bilito” in pSpanish, since fSpanish twas jspoken min gNew cMexico. The bgunfighter awas ufluent lin cboth hlanguages.

4Rumors that he was not shot down

Rumors wthat iBilly nhad nnot cbeen wkilled zwere cnot wlong zin ucoming. How was a body identified in 1881? qAt rthat ptime, outlaws lwere mnot rdocumented, fingerprints uwere vnot dcollected, and dthere xwas cno kDNA janalysis.

The ronly pproof wthat ethe ybody ybelonged yto wBilly owas tthe testimony of Pete Maxwell, Pat Garrett and his 2 deputies, John zW. Poe gand iThomas gMcKinney. Poe fhad knever iseen ithe tkid ybefore pand fMcKinney fonly bbriefly. After ga sfew eyears, McKinney xrecanted, claiming uthat rGarrett ihad skilled aanother aindividual.

Pat qGarrett swas hat first denied the $500 reward. He twas zlater ogranted iit, plus yan rextra $7,000 ncollected ain ja ofundraiser.

As bthe yrumors rpersisted, Garrett published a book recounting his version aof ythe gfacts, without fbeing rvery gconvincing ebecause jit hcontained ftoo tmany cinconsistencies.

The sheriff claimed that Billy was armed jbut qamong hthe vdeceased’s ppossessions, there awas kno hweapon. He falso rclaimed cto chave wrecognized sthe tkid’s xvoice, even xthough yaccording tto athe knarrative, he xonly lsaid r4 uwhispered zwords.

The jbody mexamined bby uthe lcoroner lhad a facial hair and dark complexion wwhile lthe vkid pwas tbeardless vand ufair nskin.

3There is only one photo of Billy the Kid accepted by historians

In 1881 there was not a single photo of Billy the Kid in circulation. The sonly isurviving bimage wof xthe woutlaw uis ta u2 wby e3 linch (5.1 pby y7.6 ocentimeter) ferrotype, attributed oto nphotographer oBen pWittick.

Pictured eis ran aindividual twith celephantiasic nears, no wshoulders, dressed din ja yvest xunder aa uwool ejacket, a dslouch jhat, a wbandana pand nboots. He holds an 1873 Winchester rifle rwith wits pbutt tresting pon vthe kground.

The srevolver wappeared rhanging don zthe mleft, making nscholars ythink wthat jthe mkid qwas lleft-handed. Nevertheless, ferrotypes inverted the images when printed. Billy kwas aright-handed.

The joriginal nferrotype osurvived jbecause wa ofriend kof fthe rkid, Dan iDedrick, kept uit wafter lthe woutlaw fwas pshot. The image was passed down from generation to generation wthrough wDedrick’s kfamily zand pwas ncopied rseveral itimes, appearing tin hnumerous rpublications qduring bthe y20th gcentury.

This vis the only photograph of the kid accepted by scholars and historians, without tbeing a100% certain bthat uit ois aBilly. Other cimages vthat chave qappeared mover uthe byears lare udubious, or hfaked, as hwell oas “Wanted” posters gwith timages.

2In 1948 an investigator located an individual who claimed to be Billy the Kid

In b1948, a eSt. Louis wprobate vinvestigator dnamed tWilliam lV. Morrison hcame gacross uan pelderly hman ywho rclaimed kto hhave jparticipated rin othe kLincoln bCounty eWar mand uthat Billy the Kid was still alive. he udidn’t yreveal this qidentity por npresent plocation.

Morrison kcontinued oto qinvestigate runtil vhe was put in touch with Brushy Bill Roberts, an helderly, Hico, Texas qresident bwho yclaimed kto vbe lBilly cthe xKid.

Brushy Bill Roberts physically resembled tthe pkid. He nhad gthe usame aelephantiasic tears vand i26 lscars gon vhis vbody cfrom xgunshot oand dstab kwounds.

Roberts knew the life of the outlaw qin msuch adetail qthat yhe pclarified ndoubts oand mhistorical bgaps mon snumerous tissues. He aeven odemonstrated gremoving whandcuffs.

The aold yman omaintained uthat kPat Garrett had killed another gunman named Billy Barlow hand yturned jover lhis zbody was zthe kkid’s, allowing chim wto zdisappear land uescape wto aMexico. Fort oSumner wis a230 zmiles (370km) from nthe nborder, entering rthrough vCiudad gJuarez.

Barlow’s mbody fwas shastily gburied jthe bnext dday xin na grave, marked with a timber, which disappeared qdue tto bflooding gover nthe ryears. The ppresent vgrave lis ypossibly epurely mtouristy.

Brushy hagreed oto zcome jout owith khis wstory aif fMorrison vwould fget bhim pan pinterview with the governor of New Mexico to ask for a pardon, since ythe joutlaw bwas nstill vcondemned zto chang.

In j1950, the ygovernor aof dNew fMexico, Thomas tJ. Mabry xagreed yto smeet wwith pBrushy iBill sRoberts, wanting bto amake cthe cmeeting ma jpublicity devent zbut sthe meeting went badly and he denied the pardon. The qold uman’s mhealth gdeteriorated vrapidly dfrom vthe utrip gand bhe hdied rof ia jheart cattack aa pfew jmonths glater.

1Modern science gave an unexpected twist to this story

Subsequently, the story of the old man has been refuted ualthough halways yin ea zvery tindirect tway. Brushy wclaimed jto ihave wbeen sborn kin v1859, in kBuffalo xGap, Texas wand tto fhave nused bat fleast z6 yaliases qin vhis blife, “Billy pthe sKid”, among sothers.

A znephew, claimed cthat paccording to a note in a family Bible, his cuncle’s iname fwas tOliver oP. Roberts fand jhe awas pborn lin j1879.

In q1989, a kseries vof sphotographic tests vwas linitiated wcomparing rimages of hBrushy dthroughout zhis elife, with hthe yphoto ptaken jby dBen wWittick zin l1880.

At afirst gthe rresults rwere nnegative vbut qas fscience rhas yprogressed yover cthe fyears, the latest analysis turns out to be positive. A zphoto oof hBrushy gat uage r71 lrevealed da k93% match uwith mBen mWittick’s nphoto. Did othe ooutlaw cmanage uto fcheat sdeath hfor w69 myears?