It’s February the 18th, 1878
and William H. Bonney also to be known as Billy the Kid
is out riding drag 300 yards behind his boss, John Tunstall
somewhere in Lincoln County.
Billy hears two shots
and John Tunstall, who is also his friend and his mentor,
falls from his horse.
Cut down by a gang of men known as “The Boys”.
Billy races up to his fallen friend.
Stricken with grief and anger Billy says,
"Before this is done, I’m gonna get some of them."
As a young boy, Billy lived in Silver City, New Mexico
with his mother and stepfather.
Living in New Mexico,
Billy immersed himself into the local culture.
He learned to speak Spanish fluently
and could even pass as a Mexican
and was well-liked by the Hispanic community.
Billy and his brother played with the other children in the town
and were remembered fondly.
Because he was small and somewhat girlish looking
he was frequently a target of bullying.
His friends later recalled
that he was not loud, but easy going,
loyal and courteous and very very brave.
In 1874 Billy’s mother Catherine
lost her battle with tuberculosis and died.
His stepfather William Antrim
effectively abandoned the two boys
and moved to Arizona.
Billy was just 14 and entered a boarding house.
He made friends with a small time crook
called Sombrero Jack.
Billy’s life was to change dramatically
when Sombrero Jack robbed a Chinese laundry.
He asked Billy to hold onto the swag
and store it in the boarding house.
It was discovered by Mrs Brown, the owner,
who reported it to the sheriff.
Sombrero Jack skipped town
but Billy was captured, and imprisoned.
But only for two days.
While in prison he convinced the sheriff to let him out
in order to stretch his legs.
The main door to the prison was locked all the time
so the sheriff thought there was no risk.
However, as soon as his back was turned
Billy squeezed into the fireplace and up the chimney
and escaped across the roof of the prison.
You could say that this was the start of Billy’s fame
as his story made it to the papers
with the “Silver city Herald” publishing the story of the robbery.
Now on the run and desperate
he travelled by stagecoach to his stepfather's home in Arizona.
Billy told him of the robbery
and Antrim threw him out,
but not before Billy could steal some clothes and guns.
The two men never saw each other again.
In Camp Grant there was a blacksmith called
Frank “Windy” Cahill.
Windy would frequently bully The Kid.
On August the 18th, 1877
the Kid was in Atkin’s Cantina
when Windy Cahill decided to humiliate him.
It was to be the last time.
In the struggle, Billy managed to work one arm free
and grabbed his 45.
A shot rang out,
and the giant blacksmith slumped,
never to rise.
Billy worked himself free,
sprang out the door of the Cantina
and jumped on a horse, riding into the distance.
With the Blacksmith’s death hanging over him,
Billy headed back to New Mexico
and joined up with the most infamous band of rustlers
who were known as “The Boys”.
Their leader was Jesse Evans
and his sidekick was John Kinney,
king of the rustlers.
“The Boys” began working for the “The House”.
“The House” was a hugely influential business,
selling goods, land and cattle.
One of the heads of “The House” was James Dolan.
He was an Irish immigrant
and was a hard businessman that was feared
and wouldn’t let anything get in his way,
including the law and the local sheriff Brady
who was on the payroll of the House.
A wealthy young Englishman, John Tunstall
arrived in Lincoln County, New Mexico
and decided he could outwit the locals
by setting up his own monopoly with his own store and cattle.
Tunstall’s business impacted the profitability of “The House”
and put him directly in the path of James Dolan
and the two became bitter enemies.
Dolan got Billy and “the Boys” to steal horses from Tunstall.
They were caught and Billy was imprisoned.
Tunstall visited Billy in jail and they hit it off.
Tunstall offered Billy a job working for him
and the Kid accepted.
He was only 6 years older than Billy,
but Billy respected the man and saw him as a mentor.
For the first time since his mother’s death,
The Kid felt himself at home.
He was welcomed in and became firm friends with Tunstall
and his employees,
one of which would later remember about Billy,
“He was the center of interest everywhere he went,
and though heavily armed,
he seemed as gentlemanly as college-bred youth.
He quickly became acquainted with everyone,
and because of his humorous and pleasing personality
grew to be a community favorite.”
The Tunstall group were out riding
with Billy guarding the rear about 300 yards behind.
When a flock of turkeys got the attention
of two of the men riding with Tunstall,
they headed off with their rifles to bag dinner.
It was at that moment a posse of men,
Billy’s old gang “The Boys” appeared
and shot Tunstall.
Billy was left, grieving over his friend
but swearing revenge.
Knowing sheriff Brady was on the side of the House,
Billy went to the Justice of the Peace,
a man called Wilson,
who issued arrest warrants for the assassins.
Wilson assigned a Constable Martinez to help with the arrest.
He deputized Billy and Billy’s friend Dick Brewer
to help him fulfill the warrant.
For the first time Billy the Kid had the law on his side.
Or so he thought.
The three men rode into town
and went straight to Dolan’s store to arrest the assassins.
Sheriff Brady was waiting for them
and arrested the constable, Billy and Dick.
The constable was released after a few hours
but Billy and Dick were kept in prison
and missed the funeral of John Tunstall.
When the men were finally released
they went back to the Justice of the Peace.
He was frustrated at the sheriff obstructing the law in this way
and so he deputized Dick Brewer to fulfill the warrant.
Brewer formed up his posse from friends of Tunstall
and that of course included Billy.
They called themselves — “The Regulators”.
The Regulators then embarked upon a campaign of severe retribution
against the men responsible for the death of John Tunstall.
They took no prisoners,
they knew that the law would not prosecute anyone
they brought to justice
and so they took it upon themselves
to serve justice swiftly and directly.
They even hid behind a wall,
ambushed and killed sheriff Brady and his deputy.
The Regulators did not escape without casualties
with Billy being wounded in the side and the loss of his friend, Dick Brewer.
With lawlessness in Lincoln County
and the situation becoming more notorious,
Washington got involved.
The government appointed a new governor, Lew Wallace,
who revoked the legal status of the Regulators
and they effectively became outlaws
and Billy was indicted for the death of sheriff Brady.
The Lincoln County war came to a climax
when Billy and the Regulators were holed up in a house in Lincoln
next to Tunstall’s store.
The house belonged to Tunstall’s lawyer.
James Dolan and his men surrounded the house
and a siege began.
But this time, Dolan enlisted the support of the military from Fort Stanton.
Billy stepped forward as a leader
and put together a plan.
At 9pm they dashed out of separate exits and made a run for it.
Billy and some of the Regulators
made their daring escape into the darkness.
From now on it would be Billy
who would shoulder the blame for the Lincoln County war.
He was a wanted man.
The Kid and his Regulators
managed to steal some horses and escape.
They rode to Fort Sumner.
Fort Sumner was an old army fort
that was no longer occupied by the army
but was now populated by Mexicans.
It was an ideal spot for the Regulators to hide out.
Billy was at home with the Mexicans
and the men partied and danced with the local girls.
Some of the Regulators were tired of life on the run
and left the group.
The time of the Regulators was over.
The new governor had offered amnesty
to the combatants of the Lincoln County war.
However as Billy had been identified as the killer of the sheriff
he was excluded from the amnesty.
He didn’t qualify for the pardon
and so the only choice he had to live a somewhat peaceful life,
was to make amends with his former enemies.
Billy rode back into Lincoln County
to parley with James Dolan and The House.
The meeting was tense, but they agreed a truce.
After the truce was signed, the men celebrated by drinking.
Billy held back from drinking
but accompanied Dolan and his men
as they headed out onto the street.
While on the street they encountered Huston Chapman.
Chapman was an attorney who was going after “The House”.
Billy knew a fight was brewing
and tried to get away
but was stopped by Dolan’s men.
Chapman was shot and killed.
At the first opportunity,
Billy made his excuses and rode out of town.
The governor was outraged at the shooting of Chapman.
Bill arranged a meeting with the governor
and promised to submit himself for arrest
and testify in court against Dolan and his men.
Wallace said,
“In return for you’re doing this,
I will let you go scot-free
with a pardon in your pocket for all your misdeeds.”
They had a deal.
Billy had his day in court
and lived up to his end of the bargain.
His enemies were furious.
After the trial was over, governor Wallace shunned Billy
and headed back to Santa Fe to finish writing his book, “Ben Hur”.
Betrayed, Billy had no pardon
and his enemies were out to get him.
Caught between the law and the lawless,
he walked out of jail
and went back to the life he knew best.
He set up a gang and became an outlaw.
Pat Garrett, an exceptionally tall thin man,
an ex buffalo hunter and cowboy,
was elected as sheriff of Lincoln County.
He was determined to bring Bill to justice.
Garrett tracked Billy to a place called Stinking Springs.
They surrounded the house where the gang were holed up
and they surrendered.
Billy was convicted
and imprisoned in Lincoln while a scaffold was built.
The Kid had escaped from many prisons
and this one couldn’t hold him either.
While Garrett was out of town,
Billy managed to escape, shooting two deputies in the process.
Amazingly he didn’t leave town straight away.
He danced in the street celebrating
and even chatted to the locals.
Many people still liked Billy
and had sympathy for him.
One townsman thought he should stop Billy
and went to get his gun
but his wife stopped him and probably saved his life.
So Billy had his uninterrupted celebration of freedom
before ordering a horse be brought to him and riding out of town.
The next day Garrett returned to the mayhem
that Billy had left behind.
He must have been furious
but he coldly calculated what he had to do next.
He knew Billy would go to ground and be impossible to track,
so he did nothing.
Just waited.
Until Billy felt comfortable and surfaced once more.
Billy had many lovers
but he was very close to Paulita Maxwell,
sister of Pete Maxwell who lived in Fort Sumner.
Pat Garrett started to receive information
that Billy was in Fort Sumner
and Garrett headed there to get his man.
On July the 14th, 1881
Garrett and his deputy made their way into Fort Sumner
and went to Pete Maxwell’s house.
Garrett knew Maxwell.
They had worked together before and were friends.
Garrett woke Pete Maxwell
and they talked with Garrett sat on the bed.
Pete admitted that Billy was in town
and exactly at that moment, Billy appeared in the doorway.
The room was dark but Maxwell said,
"That’s him..."
Two shots were fired
and at the age of 21 Billy the Kid fell.
Years later his deputies would claim due to the dark room
that Garrett had killed the wrong man.
In 1948 an old timer called “Brushy” Bill Roberts
began correspondence with a lawyer.
He said he was Billy the Kid
and requested the lawyers help to get the pardon
that he was still owed.
He could demonstrate how to get out of handcuffs,
had 26 bullet and knife marks on his body.
Even more interestingly
several contemporaries of Billy the Kid signed affidavits
confirming that Brushy Bill
really was in fact the most famous gunslinger of the old west,
Billy the Kid.
His mission to gain a pardon was unsuccessful
and treated as a joke.
About 4 weeks after the application was thrown out
Brushy Bill passed away never receiving his pardon.