b The Real c

BILLY

THE

KID

Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage

Board of Editorial Advisors
Ramn Luis Acevedo Universidad de Puerto Rico Edna Acosta-Beln University at Albany, SUNY Jos F. Aranda, Jr. Rice University Antonia Castaeda St. Marys University Rodolfo J. Cortina University of Houston Jos B. Fernndez University of Central Florida Juan Flores Hunter College of CUNY Francisco A. Lomel University of California at Santa Barbara Agnes Lugo-Ortiz Dartmouth College Genaro Padilla University of California at Berkeley Raymund Paredes University of California at Los Angeles Nlida Prez Hunter College of CUNY Gerald Poyo St. Marys University Antonio Saborit Instituto Nacional de Antropologa e Historia Rosaura Snchez University of California at San Diego Virginia Snchez Korrol Brooklyn College of CUNY Charles Tatum University of Arizona Silvio Torres-Saillant CUNY Dominican Studies Institute Roberto Trujillo Stanford University

Erlinda Gonzales-Berry Oregon State University Laura Gutirrez-Witt University of Texas at Austin Mara Herrera-Sobek University of California at Santa Barbara Luis Leal University of California at Santa Barbara Clara Lomas The Colorado College

b The Real c

BILLY

THE

KID

With New Light on the Lincoln County War

Miguel Antonio Otero, Jr. Introduction by John-Michael Rivera

Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage

Arte Pblico Press Houston, Texas 1998

This volume is made possible through grants from the Rockefeller Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts (a federal agency), the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the Meadows Foundation.

Recovering the past, creating the future Arte Pblico Press University of Houston Houston, Texas 77204-2090

Cover design by Mark Pion

Otero, Miguel Antonio. The real Billy the Kid / by Miguel Antonio Otero, Jr. p. cm. (Recovering the U.S. Hispanic literary heritage) ISBN 1-55885-234-4 (trade paper : alk. paper) 1. Billy, the Kid. 2. OutlawsSouthwest, NewBiography. 3. Southwest, NewHistory1848- 4. Lincoln County (N.M.) History. I. Title. II. Series: Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage Project publication. F786.B54084 1998 364.1'552'092dc21 98-3220 CIP

The paper used in this publication meets the requirements of the American National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984. Introduction 1998 by John-Michael Rivera Printed in the United States of America

8901234567

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Contents
Introduction by John-Michael Rivera The Real Billy the Kid Foreword I First Years of Billy the Kid II Fights with the Apaches III The Lincoln County War of 1878 IV The Murder of Tunstall V A Lull and Then the Deluge VI The Kid at Fort Sumner VII Enter Sheriff Pat Garrett VIII Echoes of the Lincoln County War IX Lincoln Remembers The Kid X More Memories of The Kid XI A Visit to Fort Sumner XII An Old Friend of The Kid Speaks XIII When the Author Met The Kid XIV And Now the End XV Postscript 5 7 17 25 37 45 59 71 85 95 110 114 121 130 135 143 xi

Illus tr ations
William H. BonneyBilly the Kid Alexander A. McSween Mrs. A. A. McSween John A. Tunstall Patrick F. Garrett, Slayer of Billy the Kid Lincoln County Court House and Jail Patron House and Saloon, Lincoln, New Mexico Deluvina Maxwell Mrs. A. A. McSween in her later years Mr. and Mrs. Frank A. Coe Hijinio Salazar Main Street, Lincoln, New Mexico Mr. and Mrs. George Coe Grave of Billy the Kid Jesus Silva Maxwell House, Fort Sumner, New Mexico xlvi 26 26 38 72 81 81 89 89 89 89 100 100 117 117 141

Introduction

hat the first Hispanic territorial governor of New Mexico, Miguel Antonio Otero, would write a biography of the legendary gunfighter Billy the Kid is in itself peculiar. For that same work to begin with an epigraph of a romantic poem by Robert Cameron Rogers continues to problematize the creation of such a literary work. The poem stands alone, without any reference or footnote of authorial intent as to its placement in this historical Southwestern biography of the notorious desperado. And yet, the romantic poem implicitly voices and thereby represents the authors own political life as New Mexicos first Hispanic territorial governor (18971907). Like to a Ship, then, is a carefully positioned literary device to characterize Oteros own political life for the reader: a life that was conditioned by the neocolonial winds that madly mingle, and therefore he found himself having to trim [his] sails to favor all during the transition period when the New Mexico territory was pursuing statehood. Similar to the implicit representation of the poetic epigraph, this historical biography of Billy the Kid continues to use both implicit and explicit literary tropes and motifs. These literary devices structure this biography into a history that redefines the image of Billy the Kid and the history of the territorial war in Lincoln County. Moreover, what The Real Billy the Kid displays throughout is an emplotted history that recounts and subversively questions U.S. colonialism as it swept through New Mexico after the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo of 1848. Much as the poem begins to reveal, Oteros recreation of the life and history of Billy the Kid not only reexamines and exposes the colonial past of New Mexico, it also deflates and undermines the dominant Anglo-American Western narratives about Billy the Kid that helped shape the popular imagination of America as being only Anglo-American in culture and history.
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Em plotting the Pas t

For centuries Americans have represented the frontier romantically. From the early nineteenth to the late twentieth century, the Wild West has been mythologized in literary works, critical histories and cinematic representations, which, in turn, have shaped Americas historical consciousness about this period. Of the various bandits, renegades and outlaws of this period, Billy the Kid has been one of the most mythologized. More than eight hundred literary and cinematic representations of his life have been told and re-told (Tatum 5). Each of these fictional and historical representations presents a different history and a different life, all contributing to the creation of an American legend and myth. And yet, despite the hundreds of literary works, one voice, the Nuevomexicano voice, has been unheard. This is particularly problematic for historians who have tried to argue an objective history about this period, since the area where Billy the Kid lived most of his life was largely Nuevomexicano and American Indian in population and history. By not acknowledging the Nuevomexicano past in Billys life, as well as the territorial war in Lincoln County, Euroamerican historians themselves have contributed to the hegemonic Americanization of the history of the Southwestern frontier. One of the first Nuevomexicano literary voices (publishing in the English language) to come out of the Southwest was that of Miguel Antonio Otero, Jr. His first work was a nostalgic autobiography, My Life on the Frontier, 18641882 (1935). He did not finish the other two volumes (My Life on the Frontier, 18821897; My Nine Years as Governor of the Territory of New Mexico, 18971906) of his autobiographical trilogy until 1940. Between publication of the first and second volumes of his trilogy, Otero became the first Nuevomexicano to write an English-language biography, The Real Billy the Kid, With New Light on the Lincoln County War.1 The biography was published in 1936, twenty-nine years after his life as a politician. Oteros historical biography is also the first to transcribe the various oral histories of Billy the Kid that existed among the
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native Nuevomexicanos from the geographic areas that involved the war in Lincoln County. Despite Otero attesting to the factual representations of his sources2 and his personally transcribed interview with Billy the Kid, Pat Garrett and the other individuals who knew Billy the Kid, historians who have studied this period of the frontier have ignored Oteros documentation and primarily concentrated on the Anglo historical version of the life of the infamous outlaw.3 As the numerous editions demonstrate, most historians have focused their research on Pat Garrett and Ash Upsons narrative The Authentic Life of Billy the Kid: The Noted Desperado of the Southwest, Whose Deeds of Daring and Blood Made His Name a Terror in New Mexico, Arizona and Northern Mexico, first published in 1882. Although criticized by some revisionist historiographers, the Garrett/Upson historical narrative of Billy the Kid has remained the most read and the most authentic in Southwestern history.4 Otero himself noted in the introduction to his narrative that with the exception of Garretts work, all the other works on Billy the Kids life were pure fiction. Despite this acknowledgment of authenticity of Garretts narrative, however, the historical image of Billy the Kid presented in Oteros narrative contests the one created by Garrett and Upson. As the reader will appreciate, these narratives are two competing and conflicting histories of the same period and the same man. Indeed, these two competing texts represent the two most dominant oppositional historical views of New Mexican history: the Anglo-American version and the Hispanic version. They should, therefore, be considered as separate cultural histories that are essentially interlocking cultural artifacts that
1 There are, however, autobiographical works written in English before the publication of Oteros biography of Billy the Kid. Juan Seguns Memoirs were published in 1858, and Mariano Guadalupe Vallejos Ranch and Mission Days, published in 18901891. 2 Otero, Miguel Antonio. The Real Billy the Kid with New Light on the Lincoln County War. Rumford Press, 1936. pg. xi. 3 This, however, is not true of historian and writer Jon Tuska. His well researched book Billy the Kid: His Life and Legend does acknowledge an Hispanic past, as well as Oteros book. 4 Despite the criticism and the inconsistencies that historians have found in the narrative, or have claimed to have found, the Garret/Upson biography of Billy the Kid has been proclaimed as the closest to the life of Billy the Kid. The book was first published only eleven months after the death of Billy the Kid in 1882. The version that this essay will be using is considered to be the most authentic and the best-edited version of the seven published since the first publication in 1882 (Tuska).

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together render a more complete (re)vision of New Mexicos colonial past. The contrast of these two narrative historieswritten by three individuals who knew Billy the Kids waking moments demonstrates that historical non-fiction narratives are constructed; that is, as Hayden White argues, narratives are emplotted according to what the particular narrators believe to be the true story. In Content of the Form, White argues that divergent historical narratives written about one particular episode in history occur because there is [a] need or impulse to rank events with respect to their significance for the culture or group [or individual] that is writing its own history that makes a narrative representation of real events possible.5 Under Whites theories, the two divergent histories related in these two authentic and real biographies become verbal structures in the forms of subjective, narrative prose discourses, rather than objective historical forms that render an authentic or real account of this mythologized person and period.6 In such an emplotted narrative representation, however, the narrator will not produce or reproduce the events he describes, but rather he will tell the reader how to think about the events and what the events represent in a particular individuals life (White 13).7 The narrator of a particular historical narrative is trying to find and identify for the reader the stories that lie buried in a particular episode in time. The narrator, then, with the information that he uncovers, will implicitly and explicitly emplot a story for the reader that will in content and form have similar motifs and literary characteristics as fictional representations of reality. The historical
5 White, Hayden. The Content of the Form: Narrative Discourse and Historical Representation. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press 1987, 10. 6 The introduction will deal primarily with Whites theories of emplotment, not his theories of tropes. Examining these two narratives in such a Post-Structuralist theoretical framework, I argue that historical narratives are structured, emplotted forms similar to any other literary narrative. However, I differ with White as to the reasons why these emplotted structures exist in historical texts. Although White does argue that there is a moralizing aspect in the presentation of reality posing as history, I argue that it is more sociopolitical; that is, in these two narratives the emplotments occur due to the historical contingencies manifested by colonialism in New Mexico during the nineteenth century. Much like Edward Said in The World, the Text, and the Critic, then, I argue that words and texts are so much a part of the world that one cannot separate the two. 7 However, as one will see in the narratives of Billy the Kid, and as Simon Schama argues about other individuals in history, there is a tendency for the narrator to make assumptions about a particular individuals motivations that lends to the imaginative (Lingua Franca:36).

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narrator will construct a story out of the real event that will in many instances have a hero or protagonist, as well as a formal beginning, middle and end. According to White this conception of the historians task, however, obscures the extent to which invention also plays a part in the historians operations (13). Therefore, the narrator of a particular historical narrative will arrange, include or leave out certain real events (either written or oral) as needed for the emplotted form in which he perceives or needs to perceive the events. Thus, the emplotted historical narrative the narrator constructs, the events he describes or does not describe, and the fashion in which he narrates will lend themselves to romance, tragedy, comedy or satire. The modes of emplotment or archetypal story form depend on how the narrator views the events, or on how he believes the events should be viewed by the reader. The narrator will then seek out facts that fulfill the emplotment he has choseneither consciously or unconsciouslyto portray as the true story of a particular event or of an individual in history. White would contend that this is why we have so many varying accounts about a particular event or person in history, despite the various narrators having lived during the same period. These emplotted historiesthe incidents that are included, excluded or narrated in a particular fashion to adhere to the emplotted form they have constructedare motivated by the narrators own political, economic, social and cultural ideologies. In these archetypal narratives, however, the ideological system of a given writer is informed by the culturally constructed morals manifested by the colonial atmosphere that dominated New Mexico at the turn of the twentieth century. In this way, historical narratives that are emplotted are not entirely dependent on an epistemological presupposition informed by a type of linguistic determinism. They are also informed by a continuous interaction between ideology and the material forces of history, a space where a field of mutually if also unevenly determining forces defines a given cultures narratives (Williams 6586). I thus will compare the Garrett/Upson and Otero texts to establish that the historical image of Billy the Kid in Oteros narrative has been constructed as a response to and as a condition of the
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Euroamerican colonizing of the Southwestern territories after the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Oteros narrative has been written to contest the dehistoricization of Nuevomexicano cultures and traditions of the Southwest, which, as will be argued, was undertaken by Euroamerican historians and chroniclers such as Garrett and Upson. In this way, what one will see in the Garrett/Upson version of Billy the Kids life is an emplotment constructed to maintain the colonial status quo in the New Mexico territory after the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo by rendering a historical account that devoices Nuevomexicano participation in Billy the Kids history. Historically, therefore, Garrett became the textual authority and minor hero in popular American culture because his construction of Billy the Kid answered an Anglo-American, as well as personal, need to imagine the heroism of the Western narrative, thereby helping invent an American frontier that was monolithically Euroamerican in culture and history. What should be considered when reading The Real Billy Kid, then, is that the Garrett/Upson work, viewed as the closest to the historical truth of the Kids life, is the emplotment of a romance. As defined by White, a romance is fundamentally a dualistic drama of the triumph of good over evil or virtue over vice (Metahistory 68;150157). Under such an emplotted form, Garrett/Upsons narrative characterizes Billy the Kid as a villain who has wronged society and therefore must be stopped for law to be restored and, more specifically, so that the United States can continue its colonial power in the New Mexico territory. Counter to this emplotted form, Oteros historical biography is emplotted as a tragedy. In Oteros tragedy Billy the Kid is characterized as a hero who is slain by a lawless regime that perpetuated the colonial relationships in New Mexico intent on destroying the land and traditions that Otero once knew as Hispanic Nuevo Mxico. In this emplotted form, Oteros narrative fundamentally follows most of the classical conceptions of a tragic hero: first, the history is emplotted as a serious drama whose main protagonist is tragically killed in the conclusion; second, Otero creates a protagonist who is flawed by an external force; third, this flaw
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eventually leads to his tragic death; fourth, through his death, Billy evokes both sympathy and pity (McCollom 3465). Thus, what the two narratives reveal is that Billy the Kid is created as a hero or villain to promulgate an image that the dominant colonial regime or the opposing Nuevomexicano culture requires to be the historical truth. Truth becomes a relative force used by individuals or entire cultures to empower themselves, as well as to disenfranchise opposing individuals or cultures. Billy the Kids biography, then, was used by Otero as a subversive framework to set the record straight and counter the historical truth that the dominant regime used to perpetuate colonial policies that existed in New Mexico prior to statehood in 1912. What is ultimately seen through The Real Billy the Kid, then, is a distinctive contestation narrative written from the perspective of an elite Hispanic in New Mexico, one that attempts to reinscribe the cultural history of Nuevomexicanos through historical biography. Otero thus challenged the image of Billy the Kid and the history of the Hispanic Southwest as rendered by historians representing the Euroamerican colonial power structure. It is no wonder, then, that Oteros text was not as popular as Garretts or any other Anglo-American representation of Billy the Kids life and that it has taken over eighty-five years to introduce his voice to the public.

Between Politics and Liter ature: The Inters titial Pers ona of Miguel Antonio Otero
For generations the Oteros had been important political and economic figures in the Southwest. The first Otero to serve in public office was Don Vicente of Valencia, Miguel Antonio Otero, Jr.s grandfather. He served as a judge under the Spanish and Mexican governments before New Mexico became a U.S. territory in 1850. His son Miguel Antonio Otero I (Don Miguel) was a famous professor of Latin and Greek at Pingree College, Fishkill on the Hudson, for two years (1847-1849). Like his father Don Vicente,
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he would serve in public office; he was appointed three times as a delegate of the New Mexico territory to the United States Congress (1855, 1857, 1859). President Lincoln offered him an appointment as a minister to Spain; however, Don Miguel refused because he wanted to retire from public life and dedicate himself to the banking firm of Whiting and Otero (Leal 45-65). While working as a banker, Don Miguel decided to take a lesser official job and serve as the secretary of the New Mexico Territory. In 1857, Don Miguel married Mary Josephine Blackwood, a southern woman raised in Charleston, South Carolina. The couple raised two boys and two girls; the eldest son, Page Blackwood, was born on January 4, 1858; Miguel Antonio, Jr., on October 17, 1859; Gertrude Vicente in 1865; and Mamie Josephine in 1867. Miguel Antonio, Jr.s first years would be spent traveling with his family throughout the Southwestern and Western frontier. In 1866 Miguel and Page were sent to a boarding school in Topeka, Kansas. As his memoirs attest, this was one of the most unpleasant periods in his life: The school proved to be a detestable place and its horrors are still fresh in my memory, though nearly seventy years have passed since then. I can only compare my experiences at the frontier boarding school with those which Dickens relates in Oliver Twist (Otero 23). After his years at the boarding school and his return to the family home in New Mexico, Otero would leave again to attend college at St. Louis University, where he received a B.A. Thereafter, he received a masters degree in Classics from Notre Dame. After graduating in 1880, Otero returned to New Mexico and worked as a bookkeeper for his fathers company, Otero and Sellar. In 1883, Otero began his long career as a politician in the New Mexico Territory; he served as City Treasurer of Las Vegas from 1883 to 1884, and from 1889 to 1890 he was Probate Clerk of San Miguel County, New Mexico. In 1892 and 1893, he served as the Republican delegate to the U.S. Congress for New Mexico and received much attention and power as a young political leader for the territory.8

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In May of 1897, Otero traveled to Washington, D.C., thinking that he was to be appointed marshall of the territory; however, President William McKinley unexpectedly appointed him Governor of New Mexico Territory. Otero would spend his years as governor (June 18971906) during New Mexicos transition from territory to statehood. As defined by historian Gerald Nash, The Otero Era was a period when
New Mexico entered the twentieth century in more ways than one. These years saw a blending of the old and the new, a merging of peoples and time periods. The blending of peoples was important, of Native Americans, Hispanics, and the increasing flow of Americans. The Otero era also witnessed a confluence of the old agrarian economy of the nineteenth century with the beginnings of industry and service industries more characteristic of the years after 1900. These years also were a time of amalgamation for political institutions and stylesof the traditional patron system and legal institutions of the Spanish and Mexican periods with those the Americans brought. Presiding over this complex interaction of diverse cultures was Miguel Antonio Otero, the genial territorial governor of New Mexico and long-time political arbiter in the state. In his own person, part Hispanic, part American, he personified the sweeping changes that were affecting New Mexico in the twentieth century. More than most other individuals, he symbolized the old New Mexico with the new (Nash 4).

Unlike Nashs characterization of Otero, many Chicano historians have characterized Oteros life and career as one that symbolized more of the new New Mexico. Because Oteros works do not overtly resist colonization by Euroamericans, his work and his character have been marginalized as assimilationist by literary and historical scholars who argue from a specific resistance theory paradigm.9 Although these scholars have brought up useful arguments needed
8 Although Otero was a Republican delegate at this time, his family had long been Democrats prior to this convention. As will be addressed later in the paper, this switching of the parties from Democrat to Republican was a pivotal aspect of Oteros life. However, partisan politics were not defined in the New Mexico Territory during the early and late nineteenth centuries. The Oteros themselves had changed parties throughout their political life; at various times in New Mexicos history they were Whigs, Democrats and Republicans. As Gmez-Quiones argues in Roots of Chicano Politics 16001940, changing political parties was not so much of an ideological act as one based on economics (235239).

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to create and maintain a voice in American society, the writings produced by Otero after his political career had ended, when New Mexico had become part of the United States in 1912, does problematize this assimilationist argumentan argument that constructs Hispanics in history, such as Otero, as either pro- or anti-Anglo. If one were to theorize Oteros life and writings according to Homi Bhabas cultural theory, for example, Oteros political and narrative space should not be located in any static binary (pro- or anti-Anglo), but rather in the in between, an interstitial space that allows for contestatory movement during this neocolonial period in New Mexican history (Bhabha 143).10 And as critic GonzalesBerry has argued, Nuevomexicano work reveals, in one case overtly and in the other more subtly, an ambivalent double-edged discourse of resistance and assimilation from which we can glean some insight into the process of inscribing colonial subjectivity (148). In this way, Oteros literary works cast a different light on his past political actions and persona.11 That is, the literature produced after his political career had ended, especially The Real Billy the Kid, reveals a Nuevomexicano persona that Gonzales-Berry alludes to in her study of New Mexican narratives. Oteros literary persona was created out of a text that reveals encoded, and at times explicit, literary signifiers that demonstrate contestation to the U.S. government as it existed during his lifetime. Genaro Padillas lucid study of nineteenth century MexicanAmerican autobiography, convincingly argues that unless we wish to think of Mexicans as either blind or stupid, I believe we must recontextualize our reading of their narratives to understand their social and discursive situations. We must recognize that colonized Mexicans were often speaking out of both sides of their mouths
9 See Chvez, John R. The Lost Land: The Chicano Image of the Southwest, pg. 6061, and Montoya, Mara The Dual World of Governor Miguel A. Otero: Myth and Reality in the Turnof-the-Century New Mexico New Mexico Historical Review, Vol 67. Margaret Garcia-Davidson also has some interesting insight into this argument in her essay Borders, Frontiers and Mountains. (See citations for complete listing.) 10 Emma Perez similarly argues this theoretical position in her book Sexing the Colonial Imaginary: Chicana Feminists, History, Theory and Consciousness; refer to chapter II, Feminism-in-Nationalism: Third Space Feminism in Yucatns Socialist Revolutions, Forthcoming publication by Indiana University. 11 However, perhaps his political persona was also as complex and ambivalently double-edged as his works of literature.

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with visionary social purposes(34). Like Otero, political elites such as Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo (Recuerdos Histricos) from California and Juan Nepumuceno Segun (Personal Narratives) from Texas also had controversial pro-American political personas. And much like Otero, these writers also wrote and developed double-edged discourses.12 However, these cultural performances were not necessarily created to construct a static racial consciousness that included all of el pueblo. For the Oteros and many of the nineteenth century Hispanic elites, their Mexican ethnicity was not a static construction in their expressions of self, for, as Gonzales-Berry contends, race and ethnicity was a universal ploy of the ethnic middle class to consolidate power within boundaries of dominant sociopolitical networks (195). More important to them was maintaining the economic and social power base that they had developed before the treaty of 1848. Thus, their political actions were based on sociopolitical survival in a newly colonized New Mexico. In these texts, then, it is class and the maintenance of this Nuevomexicano class and tradition that is central in the motivation of plot, theme and narratization. The Real Billy the Kid is in fact a contestation narrative that tries to (re)construct a distinctive perspective of the New Mexican past. However, this work is very different from the protest texts that were created in the modern Chicano period. And although, like Chicano
12 These literary personae are problematic for Chicano historians and literary critics who characterize the writings and lives of such nineteenth-century Hispanics as either overtly resistant to the colonial United States or as assimilationist to the new American government and society. These scholars base their arguments on resistance and assimilation models conceptualized during and after the Chicano Nationalist Movement in the 1960s and 1970s. The protest writings and scholarship that came out of this period were useful in modern literary history. Many of the writers of the Chicano Movement were arguing from a specific racial and nationalist point of view to define self during the civil rights movement. As the works of nineteenth century Hispanics slowly begin to emerge out of the stacks of libraries and archives, Hispanic literary history and scholarship is broadening. Explicit 1960s ideological conceptions of resistance, protest, assimilation, race, etc. begin to break down when examining these works in a different historical space. When considering these writers, then, one must not try to fit their works into an exclusivist reading of resistance created during the Chicano Movement or any other theoretical presupposition that creates a binary reading of literature. (This type of criticism in fact perpetuates the otherness created by hegemonic European theories used to exclude individual voices from the canon.) Indeed, as Genaro Padilla argues in My History, Not Yours, because their lives refuse to conform to some of the images we have created for ourselves, especially in recent years when we have radicalized that self-image, their autobiographies do force us to recognize variations of the Chicano self (35).

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narratives, this contestation narrative is created within a space of social displacement, what is heard in this work is a specific contestatory voice, a voice of an elite Nuevomexicano who lost most of his lands and power structure after the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed.

Em plotting a Tr agedy
According to the frontispiece of Oteros The Real Billy the Kid, the work was published by R.R. Wilson in 1936 and printed by the Rumford Press in Hartford, Connecticut. The papers that document the activity of Rumford Pressheld at Harvard Universityunfortunately do not mention the Otero book, nor any relationship of Otero with the publisher. R.R. Wilson published two other works in 1936: a book on fur-trading in the Southwest, and a small collection of Walt Whitmans poetry. Both were published in limited number. According to various on-line catalogs and the Otero family papers held in New Mexico. The Real Billy the Kid, too, was printed in a limited edition, and at present there are only 118 extant copies held in libraries and special collection repositories throughout the world.13 The Real Billy the Kid is divided into three sections. The first narrative is written in the first person by Otero, the second consists of various ethnographic oral accounts that Otero collected and transcribed, and the third is an autobiographical narrative of his meetings with Billy the Kid in 1880. The first section is very close in content to the narrative that Garrett and Upson present in The Authentic Life of Billy the Kid. There is, however, a sharp contrast between the two narratives concerning the events used to portray
13 This information was attained through the two largest databases in the world, OCLC and RLIN. I also reviewed the Library of Congress holdings, as well as various on-line and printed catalogs (Books in Print and the Yale Special Collections Database) that documented the cataloging information in the MARC format. Furthermore, of these 115 extant copies, a collation was conducted with 25 books. The books were borrowed from various libraries throughout the country. I used the Hinman collation method and found that there was only one edition and one copy made of the book, printed in 1936.

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Billy as a villain and the number of men Billy actually killed in his lifetime. The first discrepancy in the two books occurs in their descriptions of how and when Tunstall was murdered and how the Lincoln County War subsequently escalated. According to Garretts narrative, after the killing of Tunstalla close friend of Billy in both narrativesBilly went on a hunt to murder the killers. Garrett recounts in his narrative that a fur trader named Roberts was one of the men involved in the killing of Tunstall and that Billy hunted and caught Roberts at South Fork:
As the party approached the building from the east, Roberts came galloping up from the west. The kid espied him, and bringing his Winchester to rest on his thigh, he spurred directly towards him as Bruer demanded a surrender. Roberts only reply was to the kids movements. Like lighting his Winchester was at his shoulder and a ball sang past the kids ear. Quick as his foe, the kids aim was more accurate, and the ball went through crashing Roberts body, inflicting a mortal wound. Hurt to the death this brave fellow was not conquered, but lived to wreak deadly vengeance on the hunters.14

In Garretts lengthy narrative, the hunted Roberts is depicted as a brave fellow and, despite Roberts quick hand, Billy wounds him. The wound, however, did not kill Roberts before he was able to kill many more of the members of the posse in which the Kid rode. Here one begins to see Garretts narrative characterization of the heroic actions of Roberts and the villainous attributes of the Kid. Note that, although the Kid did wound Roberts, he was still able to wreak deadly vengeance upon the posse, a posse interestingly depicted as hunters. Through Garretts narrative description, Roberts becomes the object of pity, a brave character who despite a mortal wound was able to fight back and defend himself against the ensuing posse. On the other hand, in Oteros narrativecollected from a oral sourcethere is no mention of Roberts as the actual gunman
14 Garrett, Pat F. The Authentic Life of Billy the Kid: The Noted Desperado of the Southwest, Whose Deeds of Daring and Blood Made His Name A Terror in The New Mexico, Arizona and Northern New Mexico. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1954. 5458.

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involved in the killing of Tunstall. Rather, Otero states that his source noted the only reason Billy went after Roberts was because Roberts ambushed Charlie Bowdre and him after the killing of Tunstall. After Billy lodged a complaint about the ambush with a local official in Lincoln County, Billy was named to Deputy Brewers official posse and accompanied him to arrest Roberts. When Brewer and Billy entered Southfork, they split up the posse to look for Roberts. According to Oteros narrative, it was Brewers half of the posse, not the Kids, that first met up with Roberts and killed him:
Then some of the posse appeared, led by Charlie Bowdre. On seeing Roberts, Bowdre threw down on him with his pistol, barking: Throw up your hands. Roberts answered, Not much, Mary Ann. Both men fired almost simultaneously. Roberts was shot through the breast. The bullet went right through him dealing him his death wound (51).

According to Oteros narrative, when Billy arrived at the scene, Roberts was already suffering from a mortal wound (52). Oteros characterization is particularly interesting because in his narrative Roberts is depicted as a cowardly villain. Roberts death does not evoke sympathy, but is seen as justified revenge of the cowardly act of ambushing the hero of the emplotted narrative: Billy the Kid. Furthermore, Oteros narrative historicizes lawman Deputy Brewernot the Kidwho takes revenge for the unlawful and cowardly assassination attempt of the Kid. By Otero recounting the incident in such a manner, Billy becomes symbolically linked to the law of the land and is not seen as a lone desperado who kills unjustifiably. Realizing that many people may not believe this account, Otero includes a footnote: This account of the old skirmish is attested to Frank Coe, who with his cousin George Coe, is the sole survivor of the Lincoln County War. Both Pat Garrett and Charlie Siringo attribute the killing of Roberts to Billy the Kid, but the Coe statement is unquestionably the true version (53). The discrepancy surrounding Billys image as a ruthless killer in the two narratives occurs again in a description of one of Billys gunfights and the subsequent death of Jimmy Carlyle, a member of
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Garretts posse sent to hunt down Billy. This incident occurred later in Billys life, after the Lincoln County War was over and Billy was a fugitive from the law of New Mexico. The Garrett/Upson narrative notes that the posse had found Billy and surrounded the house until reinforcements came. Thereafter, Jimmy Carlyle was sent in unarmed to negotiate Billys unconditional surrender. According to Garrett/Upson:
About two oclock, P. M., those on the outside were startled by a crash from the housea window was shatteredCarlyle appeared at the openingleaped out and made a rush for the barricadesa sharp rattle of firearms from within, and Carlyle fell dead within ten feet of the window. One word to the memory of poor Jimmy. He was a young blacksmith who had been in the territory a little more than a year, but in that short time had made hundreds of friends, and not one enemy. He was honest, generous, merry-hearted, quick-witted, and many who had viewed the career of the Kid with some degree of charity now held him with unqualified exratation [sic] as a murderer of an exceptionally good man and useful citizen (9596).

Oteros version of this particular incident is much different:

At about two oclock the men on the outside were startled by a loud crash, like the shattering of a window. Carlyle appeared, leaped out, and made a rush for the posses barricades. There was a sharp rattle from within, accompanied by several shots, and Carlyle fell dead within twenty feet of the window (91).

In Oteros short narrative there is no mention of Billy being the absolute killer nor is there a moralizing opinion regarding Jimmy, as in Garretts narrative. To Garrett, Jimmy was the innocent man without a single enemy. Out of such a defining historical characterization, Billy becomes the villain who unjustifiably killed an innocent young man. White argues that the moralizing of an event in history is common when a narrator has a vested interest in the event he is describing moralistically (Content of the Form 1131). Throughout Oteros narrative, however, as well as in the other oral narratives that document this event, Otero demonstrates that
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there is more uncertainty than certainty about this episode in Billys life. In one of Oteros collected oral accounts about the death of Carlyle, he documents that Frank Coe truthfully stated that Billy lamented, There is much more about that killing than I care to go into or to have people know, but if I were to tell the story in full, public opinion would justify me (148). Interestingly, Otero states in his book that Pat Garrett confirmed in an interview that the Kid did state what Frank Coe noted about the death of Jimmy Carlyle. There is no mention of this in the Garrett/Upson narrative, however. Throughout his book, Otero presents the incidents surrounding the death of Jimmy rather ambiguously. According to eyewitnesses and the personal statements in Oteros biography, the reader is led to believe that, although Billy may have killed Jimmy Carlyle, there is a story behind the incident that would justify the killing. In essence, Otero tells the reader that there is an unknown story behind the event; neither Otero nor Garrett know the whole truth. By suggesting through these narratives that there is a story behind such events, Otero presents the Kids life as complicated and not so definitively villainous. By representing such events as shrouded in uncertainty and doubt, Otero draws a complex picture of an enigmatic historical figure. By extension, this narrative strategy colors all of the Kids alleged killings and villainy: There is a story that would explain them. These narrative discrepancies regarding murders committed by Billy are but examples of the divergence of the Garrett/Upson and Otero narratives. Throughout Oteros narrative, he presents factual and truthful oral narratives that dispute the murderous man that Garrett and Upson emplot in their book. Narrative account after narrative account, Otero meticulously refutes Garretts claims as to the historicity of Billy as a ruthless killer. Otero concludes, as do numerous individuals he quotes, that Billy killed only a few men, and those were all in self-defense or justified. Within Oteros narrative, the oral accounts of Hijinio Salazar, Frank Coe, George Coe and Martin Chavez all depict Billys actions during the Lincoln County War as honorable and heroic. In essence, by disputing the image of Billy as a murdering desperado, Otero is setting him up as
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a hero rather than the villain that Garrett and Upson create. In Oteros narrative, then, we have a man whose actions were justifiable, not homicidal. Although Otero acknowledges a few of Billys killings, his narrative is moralizing and ameliorates Billys transgressions: Billy was a man who was sinned against, more than sinned (168). The actions against Billy become the sin and Billy becomes a tragic figure.

Ter r itor ial Colonialis m and the Lincoln County War

To begin to understand how and perhaps why these two narratives are so different in their presentations of history and of the image of Billy the Kid, it will be necessary to examine the period of New Mexican colonial history in which Garrett, Upson and Otero lived. Through such an examination of the Lincoln County War a war that epitomized the colonial endeavor in the Southwestone will see that both Oteros The Real Billy the Kid and Garrett/Upsons The Authentic Billy the Kid arose from, and represent or oppose, the political and economic ideologies of the colonial frontier. The Mexican War (18461848) and the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo that ended it were undertaken against the backdrop of Manifest Destiny, the body of ideologies and sentiments with which justified for English-speaking Americans territorial expansion into lands occupied and claimed by Mexicans and Indians (Castillo 4). When the treaty was signed on February 2, 1848, regions that had been part of northern Mexico (California, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, parts of Colorado and Utah) became territories of the United States. The Mexicans who had lived on the lands for generations were given the choice of either staying or returning to Mexico. Despite the loss of the war, most Mexicans choose to remain on the new territories rather than return to Mexico. These Mexicansmany of whom were elite land-owning Hispanicsdid not chose to leave, because the lands, towns and culture evolved there had been part of their patrimony for generations.
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And yet, despite the promises of equal rights under the treaty for individuals who remained, most found that the transfer of sovereignty drastically changed their sociopolitical and traditional heritage. Similar to the patterns established under the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 and the Wisconsin Organic Act of 1836, the socioeconomic power that had once been autonomously controlled by Nuevomexicanos would no longer exist in New Mexico. During this period in New Mexicos history, New Mexico became a colony ruled by a foreign empire rather than a state of the United States. Using Edward Saids theoretical model of western colonialism, New Mexico and its native inhabitants were politically, socially and economically subordinate to a distant, ruling metropolitan center (Washington, D.C.) after that same center had by forcedefined in American history as Manifest Destinyconquered and incorporated the region into its growing empire.15 And despite some economic and political growth within the Nuevomexicano community after the treaty, it was overwhelmingly a period when Anglo-American structures of power subordinated Mexican culture and threatened the older way of life in the Southwest (Melndez 11). One such family that did have a strong political and economic regime in northern New Mexico and Colorado before as well as shortly after the treaty was the Otero family. When Anglos came from the East to establish their own economic regimes, however, the Oteros socioeconomic and political power was no longer an autonomous power based on Nuevomexicano customs and traditions. In a sense, both the Anglos from the East and the elite Nuevomexicano families engaged in similaralthough conflicting economic enterprises: One was trying to maintain a power elite way of life in New Mexico despite the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, and the other was engaged in creating and expanding an empire in a foreign land under the doctrine of Manifest Destiny. What perhaps demonstrates and, in fact, epitomizes these two conflicting economic enterprises is the territorial war in Lincoln County.
15 Said, Edward. Culture and Imperialism. New York: Vintage Books. 1993, pg. 9. Although Said defines his terms in more of a European Post-Colonial theoretical framework, he does argue that the United States has dominated other cultures and lands through imperialism and, thereby, created an empire.

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Lincoln County was a small community 150 miles south of Albuquerque in the New Mexican territory annexed through the Gadsden Purchase of 1853. Its main reason for existence and development was as a site for trade and barter for the entire territory. Although sparsely populated, Lincoln County was a microcosm of New Mexico: There was a large population of poor Indo-Hispanic farmers and small ranchers who had lived there for generations or had recently migrated south to northern New Mexico after the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.16 There was also a small number of elite Anglo and Mexican-American landholders who owned the vast majority of the lands. Since the Gadsden Treaty of 1853, Anglo settlers in the county had begun to purchase and steal lands throughout the region from the Indo-Hispanic ranchers, farmers and elite Mexican-Americans (Gmez-Quiones 241279). Like many other counties in New Mexico during the 1870s, Lincoln County was politically and economically controlled by the new Anglo settlers from the East. These settlers created and challenged the economic livelihoods of the old Nuevomexicano families who had also maintained rings of political and economic control in Lincoln County as well as in northern New Mexico. However, because the new Anglos created regimes were backed by powerful Anglo business leaders from the East, as well as the United States government, these Anglo rings ended up taking and controlling most of the lands in New Mexico. The old Nuevomexicano families, despite their political and economic strongholds in the beginning years of U.S. domination in New Mexico, became economic rivals of the new settlers from the East. And despite creating a sociopolitical space in New Mexico after the treaty, in time, many of the Nuevomexicano landholders, such as the Otero family, lost most if not all of their lands in Lincoln County and other counties of northern New Mexico to the newly created political and economic regimes from the East (Gmez-Quiones 241279). By 1878, Lincoln County was economically and politically controlled by the Murphy, Dolan and Riley familiesthe owners of the
16 Mares, E.A. The Wraggle-Taggle Outlaws: Vicente Silva and Billy the Kid Seen in Two Nineteenth Century Documents. Pas por Aqu: Critical Essays on the New Mexican Literary Tradition 15421988. Ed. Erlinda Gonzales-Berry. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1988. Pg. 244248.

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Murphy-Dolan store. These families and the power that they achieved was facilitated by the Santa Fe Ring, a political constituency affiliated with the Republican Party in Washington, D.C. The ring had dominated northern New Mexican territories since 1864. The Dolan-Murphy faction was, in effect, made up of Santa Fe Ring territorial delegates who assisted in acquiring lands in the region that surrounded Lincoln County.
Mainly, they (Santa Fe Ring) concentrated on amassing huge land holdings through the manipulation of Spanish land grants and the laws regulating the public domain. But wherever money was to be made, especially where facilitated by governmental action, people suspected ring involvement. Cattle railroads, mining, and army and Indian contracts all captured the attention of the ring members (Mares 3435).

Before the Santa Fe Ring entered the New Mexico territory and Lincoln County, the Otero family constituted the major economic and political power base in northern New Mexico. To the Oteros, as well as to many other Nuevomexicanos of the region, the Santa Fe Ring and the political leaders associated with it were political and economic adversaries.17 As Otero notes in The Real Billy the Kid:
The all-powerful Santa F Ring, political power-house of New Mexico and the most lawless machine in that territorys history, became actively interested in the Lincoln County slaughter, lining up solidly behind the Murphy-Dolan-Riley faction. Headed by Attorney Thomas B. Catron, ruthless overlord of all the Southwest racket interests, the Santa F Ring numbered among its more notorious members, Samuel B. Axwell, Territorial Governor; and J.B.(Billy) Mathews, Clerk of the District Court. The allegiance of the Santa F Ring gave to the Murphy clan a semblance of legality and lawfulness that only the cold facts belied (54).

In essence, the Santa Fe Ring was a cartel which maintained the colonial power structure that had been created after the treaty.
17 It is important to note that some Hispano elites sided with the Santa Fe Ring. However, the ring itself was mostly controlled by Anglo elites who used these Hispano elites to gain the Mexican natives sympathies during this time of empire building. Despite the fact that these Hispanics sided with the ring, like Otero, they were also pawns to the American government. (Mount, Graeme. Nuevo Mexicanos and the War of 1898. New Mexico Historical Review, Vol. 58, No 4, 1983.)

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When John H. Tunstall moved to Lincoln from the East and formed an opposing business and a subsequent economic and political power base in the county, the Oteros sided with him politically and economically in hopes of countering the stronghold that the Dolan-Murphy clan and the Santa Fe Ring political leaders had on northern New Mexico. The Oteros were familiar with Tunstall and had done business with him years before at the firm of Otero (Miguel Antonio Oteros father) & Sellar and Company in Colorado. Miguel Antonio Otero, Sr., had introduced Tunstall to a rich landholder and merchant who had befriended the Oteros some years earlier: Alexander McSween (My Life on the Frontier 41). This meeting eventually led to a partnership between McSween and Tunstall, and their business became an opposing force to the Murphy-Dolan faction. By siding with the McSween-Tunstall faction, the Oteros hoped to defeat the Santa Fe Ring and maintain their political and economic position in northern New Mexico. Out of this rivalry, the Lincoln County War began in the late part of 1878. The Dolan-Murphy faction, with the support of the Santa Fe Ring, employed numerous hired guns from throughout the United States to help enforce its regime (Mares 26). The Tunstall-McSween faction also formed its own extra-legal force, primarily composed of Indo-Hispanic farmers and small ranchers who had lost their lands to the Santa Fe Ring. This Anglo vs. Hispanic aspect of the territorial war is alluded to in Oteros recounting of the famous McSween Ranch battle:
The disturbance was caused by McSween entering the town from his ranch, Rio del Ruidoso, with thirty-five men lead by Don Martin Chavez of Picacho, who had insisted on coming to Lincoln to protect his friends against the Murphy-Dolan-Riley gang. Peppin and all his deputies ran to cover in side the Murphy store and the hotel, where they entrenched themselves against possible attack. Under cover of night, McSween, Francisco Zamora, Ignacio Gonzales, Vicente Romero, Hijinio Salazar and Jose Chavez y Chavez quietly entered the McSween residence without being fired upon by the enemy (66).

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As Otero recalls, the war was divided between the old Nuevomexicano elites, such as Chavez and himself, against the Murphy-Dolan regime and the Santa Fe Ring. The Garrett/Upson narrative does not mention this aspect of the war, nor provide a substantial account of the Lincoln County War. Among this band that the Tunstall-McSween faction formed was Billy the Kid, or Los Bilitos, as the other Indo-Hispanic farmers had named Billy and his small gang. Fighting on the side of the Tunstall-McSween faction and alongside other Nuevomexicanos, Billy the Kid became a hero to the Hispanics throughout the territory. He became a symbol of resistance and freedom for the Hispanic population in the territories. To the Nuevomexicanos, Billy was on their side, fighting the Anglo regime that had taken their lands and impoverished their lives since the end of the Mexican War in 1848 (Mares 40). Because of Billys courage, he became a weapon that could help in their fight against the Santa Fe Ring. With the help of Billy, the Oteros hoped to win the war and regain the political and economic control that they had lost to the ring. The war continued throughout the 1870s, with both factions losing numerous men. However, because Territorial Governor Samuel B. Axtell and District Court Clerk J. B. Matthews financed the Dolan-Murphy faction, the ring was able to defeat the McSween-Tunstall faction. This shift in power subsequently led to the murder of Tunstall and McSween by ring gunmen, and the Murphy-Dolan faction and the Santa Fe Ring were able to maintain their power in Lincoln County and northern New Mexico. As Otero notes in his account of the war, the war was lost because the United States government had taken sides with Murphy-Dolan and the Santa Fe Ring (Otero 68). Realizing that they had lost the war, Miguel Antonio Otero Sr. and Oteros uncle, Don Manuel Otero, ran on the Independent Democratic ticket in hopes of gaining political control of the territory. Control of Democratic votes of the territory would possibly give them the power to dismantle the Republicans and the partys economic base: the Santa Fe Ring. However, this would not be an easy task, since most of the Democrats of the region had converted to Republicanism after the Civil War, when the Democratic ticket
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began to be associated with the Southern pro-slavery stance.18 With the advent of more and more Anglo settlers who were Republicans, the entire Otero family had been losing its power within the territorial government since the early 1870s.19 To regain the political power that they had once achieved, the Oteros campaigned against the ring by trying to convince the people of old Nuevo Mxico that voting for the Republicans was the same as voting for the people who had taken the lands of the Nuevomexicanos. In a campaign speech recounted and translated in a local New Mexican newspaper, titled Thirty Four (1880), an anonymous reporter notes that:
Mr. Otero professed that he had nothing against the Republican party. He only fought the damnable ring which was led by men who fought against the Union; men who had done all they could to destroy the Union; and, failing in that, they had banded together to rob the Union and oppress the people (Thirty Four 1).

Despite the efforts by the Oteros to convert the Anglo Republicans and elite Hispanics to the Democratic ticket, Tranquilo Luna, a Republican and supporter of the Santa Fe Ring, won a seat in Congress (New Mexico Blue Book, 18561888: 2739). After this political setback, the Oteros lost most of their political power in the region, and the Santa Fe Ring and the Republican Party were significantly stronger than before the Lincoln County War. Having almost unlimited power, the Dolan-Murphy faction, with the support of the Santa Fe Ring, began to go after all of the supporters of the McSween faction. During the campaigns for the 1882 election, Dolan campaigned for and economically supported the election of Sheriff Pat Garrett with the unwritten agenda that he would hunt down and capture or kill Billy the Kid (Tuska 71). The loss of these elections also meant that the Oteros lost most of their political ties to Washington, D.C. and subsequently lost various land holdings to the Santa Fe Ring. Miguel Antonio Otero, Jr., meticulously recounts in My Life on the Frontier that in the years
18 La Opinion, 1878. This is demonstrated throughout the papers editorials in the months of July and August. 19 New Mexico Blue Book, 18561888. Compiled by R.G. Ritch, Secretary of the Territory of New Mexico in 1882.

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that followed the war his family lost two silver mines and various land holdings during the Santa Fe Rings regime. During a battle for one of the mines (Nuestra Seora de los Dolores), Miguel Oteros uncle, Don Manuelthe same individual who ran for public office in hopes of dismantling the ringwas murdered by a ring gunman; his father soon died after (My Life on the Frontier 82115). The traumatic years surrounding the Lincoln County War changed the Oteros forever. During the regime of the Santa Fe Ring, Miguel Antonio Otero witnessed the loss of most of the family lands, of political and economic power, and of some family members. The years that the Oteros battled with the Santa Fe Ring and the Lincoln County War were pivotal in the Otero family history. They marked a period of transition and loss of family heritage and power to the more powerful economic regimes that came from the East. Although Otero did become territorial governor and succeeded in partially dismantling the Santa Fe Ring during his governorship, the old Nuevomexicano way of life came to an end. The Lincoln County War symbolized not only the passing of the Old West, but more importantly for the Oteros the passing of the prominence of Hispanic culture in New Mexico. And although Otero did gain power as governor, his family had to rely on Eastern Anglo-American leaders for their political power. No longer were the Oteros a powerful, autonomous Nuevomexicano family in the region; they too had become political pawns in the creation of an empire for the Anglos from the East (Melndez 21; Graeme 381396). Under such an historical conception, the anomalous opening epigraph of the book becomes much clearer to the reader of the narrative. One begins to see how the poem, Like to a Ship reveals a feeling of traditional and cultural loss and political uncertainty, which characterized Oteros life as a politician during this unmoored period of colonialism in New Mexico. Perhaps these particular losses and the need to reconcile the past events, according to what Otero believed happened during Billys life, led Otero to emplot the historical narrative of Billy the Kid as the story of a tragic hero. By creating a hero who lives a
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tragic life, Otero is able not only to explain his familys recent history, but to set the record straight as to what really happened to the Hispanics on the frontier after the advent of the AngloAmerican. Otero published his biography only seven years before his death. He wrote it during a period when New Mexico had become a part of the Union.20 Otero had become a colonized Nuevomexicano who had lost much of his familys wealth, traditional power and culture. The Real Billy the Kid allows Otero to resolve the contradictions of his personal and family history, their fragmentation and thereby create a unique narrative space, a space created to contest his loss of land and heritage. This is why Otero collected the specific oral narratives that refuted Garretts rendition of Billy as a murdering villain. For emplotted tragedy, it was essential for Otero to transcribe oral narratives that would corroborate the storyline of his book: Billy the Kid was a tragic hero unjustly characterized as a villain by a ruthless regime, the Santa Fe Ring. That is why Otero transcribed narratives from the native Nuevomexicanos who idealized Billy the Kid. An example of this is the testimony of native Nuevomexicano Martin Chavez:
All of the wrongs have been charged to Billy, yet we who really knew him know that he was good and had fine qualities. We have not put our impressions of him into print and our silence has been the cause of great injustice to The Kid (160).

For Chavez as well as the other Native Nuevomexicanos of the region, Billy the Kid was a hero who symbolized resistance to the United States after the treaty. To the native Nuevomexicanos, he was Bilito; he was a mythic hero. At one narrative level, the orality in Oteros text allows him to take part in the fetishizing of folkness that began in the 1930s,
20 When I refer to the Neo-Colonial period, I am defining them in two distinct stages of New Mexican History. The Colonial is the period from 1848 to 1912. The Neo-Colonial is the period that the territory lives under now, a period that is marked with the lingering effects of colonial oppression that existed after statehood was achieved. Although this can be seen as an economic model that Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths and Helen Tiffin argue in The Empire Writes Back, for this essay and specifically for the Southwestern territories, it is mostly a psychological period that is created out of this fragmentation.

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seen in other Nuevomexicano cultural narratives and in the New Mexico Federal Writers Project ethnographic project (Melendz 204205). These transcribed interviews can be seen as an attempt by Otero to write the Nuevomexicano oral history in a public, authoritative voice. At another narrative level, however, for Otero (a man of the elite class), Billy the Kids oral history would also serve in the construction of his own historical emplotment. Through their appropriation, these oral stories from primarily poor natives of New Mexico become something entirely different in Oteros narrative. They no longer are the stories of el pueblo; they are now a literary devicein Englishto maintain the emplotted narrative of an elite Hispanic of New Mexico. They should therefore be scrutinized for their accuracy, but not dismissed. One cannot say that he made up the oral histories. (It should be noted, however, that there are no extant notes of these oral transcriptions in the Otero papers, held at the University of New Mexico.) Nonetheless, one should approach them with the understanding that in his transcriptions of these narrativeswhich were probably told him in Spanishhe did have a vision of what was needed to maintain his tragic narrative. In Oteros emplotment, then, if Billy the Kid were to be viewed as a murdering villain, then Oteros sidethe McSween-Tunstall faction Billy was hired to defend and supportwould look just as bad as (if not worse than) the murderer. And the Santa Fe Ring would become the justifiable winners of the Lincoln County War as well as the moral victors through imperialism. Otero thus had to create a protagonist from oral and textual sources who fought for the defensive side in the Lincoln County War and was therefore a man of the people. Through Oteros appropriation of these oral tales, Billy becomes a likable man of heroic dimensions. Throughout his book, Otero claims that Billy was a kind and just man, a gentleman to all the natives in New Mexico. When he does acknowledge the killings that Garretts narrative documents, Otero finds individuals who at least claim that Billys actions were justified. The more Otero emplots Billy as a man who had justifiably killed a few men, and the more gentlemanly characteristics that Otero documents as Billys true
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character, the more his side (the opposition to the Santa Fe Ring) appears to be just. Under such an emplotted form, the Oteros become synonymous with morality. Consequently, all of the actions against the Oteros become acts of unjustifiable aggression by a lawless regime, the Santa Fe Ring. Garrett and Upson were similarly motivated in their emplotment of a villainous, murdering villain. Both Garrett and Upson were heavily involved in the Santa Fe Ring, Garrett as a delegate and Upson (as he declares in the introduction to the narrative) as a supporter of the Dolan-Murphy faction in the Lincoln County War. In addition, Upson was elected postmaster of Lincoln County with the support of the Murphy-Dolan faction. Through their characterization of Billy as a murderous villain, Garrett and Upson further the interests of their employers and political benefactors. With Billy as a killer and a villain, the Santa Fe Ring could show that the McSween-Tunstall faction was just as corrupt as the killer they hired for their cause. The Santa Fe Ring, then, according to this image of Billy, becomes the just cause, and winning the war represents the restoration of social order and the taming of the West. Under such a conception, it is not surprising then that the death of Billy is documented much differently in the Garrett/Upson and Otero narratives. According to Garrett, he and Billy were in a fierce gun battle, which Garrett won heroically (Garrett 134135). Otero, on the other hand, notes that his reliable oral source provided a much different history of the events:
Since that time, and during a visit to Fort Summer, the author was reliably informed that Billy the kid had no gun with him that night; that he was in his stockinfeet [sic] and only carried a butchers knife, with which he was going to cut off a steak from the yearling Jesus Valdez had killed for Pete Maxwell that same day. An old Navajo women who went into the room after the kid had been killed verified this statement. Actually, Garrett was in no danger (137).

According to Oteros narrativecollected from an unnamed Navajo womanBilly was shot down in cold blood, unarmed. There was no fierce battle between Billy and Garrett, no villainous gunslinger. Otero sees Billys death as the unfortunate product of
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the Santa Fe Rings politics (137). Otero evokes both sympathy and pity for the tragic killing of the unarmed hero, as well as disdain for the lawman who killed him and would later cover up his cowardly deed. Oteros emplotment of the tragic hero unjustly slain by the dominant regime is metaphorically the story of the Nuevomexicanos. Billys death is tragically symptomatic of AngloAmerican colonization and the laws created to maintain the rhetoric of Manifest Destiny, as is the loss of Nuevomexicano traditions and customs. The Santa Fe Ring was Billys fatal flaw in Oteros narrative. As the political force behind the sociopolitical ruptures in New Mexican territory, they maintained a hegemonic atmosphere in the territory of New Mexico and thereby were able to contrive Billy as a murderer and hire Garrett to kill him. Garrett and Upson have everything to gain in their emplotted narrative account of the death of the villainous Billy the Kid; they need to create a murderous villain for the heroic Garrett to oppose and kill. Thus, Garrett becomes a hero of the territory for ridding New Mexican society of a barbarous villain. The killing of Billy symbolizes the taming of the West and, politically, the preparation of the New Mexico territory for entering the Union, which is the society of civilized states. This, too, is fitting, since the barbary of the West is represented in popular Anglo culture as the Mexican and Indian past. The two divergent images of Billy the Kid in the emplotted narratives of Garrett/Upson and Otero demonstrate that non-fiction, whether biographical or historical, is created and constructed according to the ideologies of the narrator. To conceive of narrative discourse in this way permits us to account for its universality as a cultural fact and for the interest that social groups have in controlling what will pass for the authoritative mythssuch as that of Billy the Kidof a given culture formation (White X). Miguel Antonio Oteros The Real Billy the Kid is the first biography of its kind to voice the relationship that the mythic figure Billy the Kid had with Nuevomexicanos, thereby contesting AngloAmerican control over the myth by emplotting this period in New
21 It is interesting to note that sixty years after Otero created this narrative about the relationship Billy the Kid had with the Nuevomexicanos, Rudolfo Anaya wrote a bilingual play that theatrically represents this relationship, directed in 1997 by Cecilia Aragon.

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Mexicos history as Nuevomexicano.21 Oteros historical biography, however, is but one representation of the hundreds of Nuevomexicano writers who created literature and history to write against the dehistoricizing practices undertaken by Euroamerican historians to promote Manifest Destiny and nationalism in the United States.22 In these narratives, Nuevomexicano writers used both multiple voices and emplotting strategies to protest. And through such narrative strategies, they were able to construct a voice that will continue to problematize how history and literature of this period is conceptualized in the United States.

Ack nowledgm ents

This essay began when I was a research assistant for the Recovering the U. S. Hispanic Literary Heritage project; it is through that groups support and knowledge that I was able to envision this work and complete it. I especially thank Nicols Kanellos for his friendship and guidance over the years. I am indebted to Erlinda Gonzales-Berry and Genaro Padilla for their comments on the final manuscript. I also thank Jose Aranda, Terell Dixon, Jose Limn, and my tia Emma Perz for their advice and encouragement. Special thanks to my family and parents (particularly my mother, Yolanda) for their support. Finally, I thank my wife and best reader, Rhonda, for everything and more.

22 Please see Melndezs exceptional work on Nuevomexicano history, newspapers and literature, So All Is Not Lost: The Poetics of Print in Nuevomexicano Communities, 18341958. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico, 1997.

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Work s Cited
Adler, Alfred. Billy the Kid: A Case in Epic Origins. Western Folklore. April 1954. 4568. Alstyne, R. W. Van. The Rising American Empire. New York: Quadrangle Books, 1960. Bhabha, Homi. DissemiNation: Time, Narrative, and the Margins of the Modern Nation. Nation and Narration. Ed. Homi Bhabha. New York: Routledge, 1990. 220245. . The Location of Culture. New York: Routledge, 1994. Branch, Luis Leon. Los Bilitos: The Story of Billy the Kid and His Gang. New York: Carlton Press, 1980. Castillo, Richard Griswold del. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo: A Legacy of Conflict. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1990. Chavez, John R. The Lost Land: The Chicano Image of the Southwest. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1984. Cohen, Ralph. Generating Literary Histories. New Historical Literary Study: Essays on Reproducing Texts, Representing History. Ed. Jeffrey N. Cox and Larry J. Reynolds. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University, 1993. 3954. Gallagher, Catherine. Marxism and the New Historicism. The New Historicism. Ed. H. Aram Veeser. New York: Routledge, 1989. 3749. Garcia-Davidson, Margaret. Borders, Frontiers, and Mountains: Mapping the History of U.S. Hispanic Literature. Reading the West: New Essays on the Literature of the American West. Ed. Michael Kowalewski. London: Cambridge Press, 1996. 177199.
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b Introduction c
Garrett, Pat F. The Authentic Life of Billy the Kid: The Noted Desperado of the Southwest, Whose Deeds of Daring And Blood Made His Name A Terror In New Mexico, Arizona and Northern Mexico. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1954. Gmez-Quiones, Juan. Roots of Chicano Politics, 16001940. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1994. Gonzales-Berry, Erlinda. Two Texts for a New Canon: Vicente Bernals Las Primicias and Felipe Maximiliano Chacns Poesa y Prosa. Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage. Ed. Ramn Gutirrez and Genaro Padilla. Houston: Arte Publico Press, 1993. 129153. Greetham, D.C. Textual Scholarship: An Introduction. New York: Garland Publishing, 1992. Kaldec, Robert F. They Knew Billy the Kid: Interviews with OldTime New Mexicans. Santa Fe, N.M.: Ancient City Press, 1987. Kowalewski, Michael, ed. Reading the West: New Essays on the Literature of the American West. London: Cambridge Press, 1996. Larson, Robert W. New Mexicos Quest for Statehood: 18461912. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1968. Leal, Luis. Pre-Chicano Literature: Process and Meaning (15391959). Handbook of Hispanic Cultures in the United States: Literature and Art. Ed. Francisco Lomel. Houston: Arte Pblico Press, 1993. 6285.

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b Introduction c
Limn, Jos. Dancing with the Devil: Society and Cultural Poetics in Mexican-American South Texas. Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press, 1994. Mares, E. A. The Wraggle-Taggle Outlaws: Vincente Silva and Billy the Kid Seen in Two Nineteenth Century Documents. Pas por Aqu: Critical Essays on the New Mexican Literary Tradition 15421988. Ed. Erlinda Gonzalez-Berry. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1988. 167185. Martin, Wallace. Recent Theories of Narrative. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1986. McCollom, William G. Tragedy. New York: Macmillan, 1957. Melndez, A. Gabriel. So All is Not Lost: The Poetics of Print in Nuevomexicano Communities, 18341958. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1997. Mitchell, W. J. T. On Narrative. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1981. Montoya, Mara E. The Dual World of Governor Miguel A. Otero: Myth and Reality in Turn-of-the-Century New Mexico. New Mexico Historical Review. Vol. 67, No 1 (January 1992), 1333. Mount, Graeme S. Nuevo Mexicanos and the War of 1898. New Mexico Historical Review, Vol. 58, No. 4 (1983). 184198. Murgua, Edward. Assimilation, Colonialism and the Mexican American People. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1975. Nash, Gerald D. New Mexico in the Otero Era: Some Historical Perspectives. New Mexico Historical Review. Vol. 67, No. 1, 113.
xlii

b Introduction c
Nolan, Frederick. The Lincoln County War: A Documentary History. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992. Otero, Miguel Antonio. My Life on the Frontier. New York: Press of the Pioneers, 1936, 1939. . The Real Billy the Kid: With New Light On the Lincoln County War. New York: Rufus Rockwell Wilson, 1936. Padilla, Genaro M. My History Not Yours: The Formation of Mexican American Autobiography. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1993. Paredes, Amrico. Folklore and Culture on the Texas-Mexican Border. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1993. The Post-Colonial Studies Reader. Ed. Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffins and Helen Tiffin. New York: Routledge, 1995. Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage. Ed. Ramn Gutirrez and Genaro Padilla. Houston: Arte Pblico Press, 1993. Said, Edward. Culture and Imperialism. New York: Vintage Books, 1993. . The World, the Text, and the Critic. New York: Vintage Press, 1990. Samuels, David. The Call for Stories: A Guide to the Motives and Methods of the New Narrative Historians. Lingua Franca 5.4 (1995) 3544. Sanchez, Lynda. They Loved Billy the Kid: To Them He Was Bilito. True West 31.1 (1984) 1217.

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b Introduction c
Slotkin, Richard. Fatal Environment: The Myth of the Frontier in the Age of Industrialization, 18001890. New York: Harper Perennial, 1994. Sunseri, Alvin R. Seeds of Discord: New Mexico in the Aftermath of the American Conquest, 18461861. Chicago: Nelson-Hall, 1979. Stratton, Porter A. The Territorial Press of New Mexico: 18341912. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1969. Tatum, Stephen. Inventing Billy the Kid: Visions of the Outlaw in America, 18811981. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1982. Thirty Four. October 6, 1880. Vol. IV, No. 15. Las Cruces, New Mexico. Tuska, Jon. Billy the Kid: His Life and Legend. Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1983. Veeser, H. Aram. The New Historicism. The New Historicism Reader. Ed. H. Aram Veeser. New York: Routledge, 1994. Weddle, Jerry. Antrim is My Stepfathers Name: The Boyhood of Billy the Kid. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1996. Weigle, Marta. Two Guadalupes: Hispanic Legends and Magic Tales From Northern New Mexico. Santa Fe, N. M.: Ancient City Press, 1987. Welsh, Cynthia Secor. A Star Will Be Added: Miguel Antonio Otero and the Struggle for Statehood. New Mexico Historical Review. Vol. 67, No 1. 3353.

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b Introduction c
White, Hayden. The Content of the Form: Narrative Discourse and Historical Representation. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1987. . Metahistory: The Historical Imagination in NineteenthCentury Europe. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1973. Williams, Raymond. Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society. New York: Oxford University Press, 1976.

xlv

The Real Billy the Kid

DEDICATED TO MAURICE GARLAND FULTON AND MARSHALL BOND FOR THEIR KIND AND GENEROUS ASSISTANCE

Like to a Ship
Like to a ship upon a shoreless ocean, Manned by an ever-growing crew of years, My life slips onward, and with vain devotion My soul stands silent at the helm and steers. If one strong wind would blow direct and single, Then would I turn wherever it might call, But many winds there are, that madly mingle, And I must trim my sails to favour all. So whether I be drifting or be sailing I know not, and alas shall never know: My life is one desire, unavailing, That some strong settled single wind would blow. Robert Cameron Rogers

FOREWORD
BILLY THE KID was declared an outlaw almost from the cradle: First, when he killed the man who insulted his mother and who was about to brain his benefactor, had he not come to the rescue. Second, when he was accused of killing both William S. Morton and Frank Baker (two of the murderers of his friend and employer, John H. Tunstall) at Agua Negra (Black Water), on March 9, 1878. Third, when he was blamed for the killing of Sheriff William Brady and Deputy Sheriff George Hindman, on April 1, 1878, during the Lincoln County War. Fourth, when he emerged from the burning McSween home and killed Bob Beckwith, who was in the act of declaring that he had won the reward offered for the killing of McSween and wanted a pot shot at The Kid too. The author had many talks with the late Pat Garrett about Billy the Kid. Garrett always spoke of him pleasantly. I have many times regretted that I had to kill him, he would say. I would much have preferred taking Billy alive and allowing the Court to deal with him. But the night I met him face to face in Pete Maxwells bedroom, it was simply a case of who got in the first shot. I happened to be the lucky one. And, he would add, if I had not shot when I did, I would not be here to tell the tale. Since that time, and during a visit to Fort Sumner, the author was reliably informed that Billy the Kid had no gun with him that night; that he was in his stockinged feet and only carried a butchers knife, with which he was going to cut off a steak from the yearling Jesus Valdez had killed for Pete Maxwell that same day. The old Navajo woman who went into the room after The Kid had been killed verified this statement. Actually, Garrett was in no danger of being killed. However, he did not know that The Kid was unarmed, and he cannot be blamed for shooting when he did. Garrett presented the writer with an autographed copy of his book, The Authentic Life of Billy the Kid. When he did so, he said: Much of it was gathered from hearsay and made out of whole cloth. This book, written by Garrett in 1882, is nevertheless

b Foreword c
unquestionably the most authentic account of the life and adventures of Billy the Kid ever issued. The booklet written by Charles A. Siringo is largely copied from Garretts book. The same may be said of the other stories: the one by Harvey Fergusson in the June, 1925, American Mercury, and the other by Walter Noble Burns in the December, 1925, Frontier, and later published in book form under title of The Saga of Billy the Kid. Each author of these, however, add many tales originating solely in their rather vivid imaginations. They are pure fiction, wholly devoid of fact. But they make interesting reading; hence their popularity with the general reading public. The authors aim in this book is to write a story, without embellishment, based entirely on actual fact. Most of the material incorporated in this work was gathered at first hand by the author, both as a youth and later as an official of the State of New Mexico. M. A. (Ash) Upson, a close friend of Billy the Kid from early youth till the time of his death, supplied many significant and little-known facts, as did Pat Garrett, Mrs. Susan E. Barber (formerly Mrs. Alexander A. McSween), George Coe, Frank Coe and Don Martin Chavez. The printed account of the killing of Billy the Kid, written by E. A. Brininstool, has also been of valuable assistance in checking the Garrett and Coe statements. MIGUEL ANTONIO OTERO.

CHAPTER I
Firs t Years of Billy the Kid
William H. Bonney, Jr., was an Irishman. He was born on New Yorks East Side on November 23, 1859. A brother, Edward, followed Billy in 1861. During the summer of 1862, when Billy was almost three and his brother one, their parents removed to the West, settling at Coffeyville, Kansas, on the Verdigris River, a short distance north of the Indian Territory. Soon after their arrival in Kansas, the father, William H. Bonney, Sr., died, leaving his young widow and two baby boys with but a scant outfit and little ready cash. The widow disposed of all the property, with the exception of a wagon and team of horses, and joined a large party of emigrants heading for Pueblo, Colorado. There she married a man named Antrim, and moved to Santa F, where they opened a restaurant and boarding house during the summer of 1863. One of their first boarders was Ash Upson, who at that time was working for The Daily New Mexican. Billy was still under five years of age. When he was eight years old Billy acquired the habit of dealing monte. He had no use for toys, never played ball or marbles, and consequently his hands were as trim, nimble and shapely as those of a girl. His only toy was a pack of Mexican cards. He soon became as skillful at dealing as any of the older gamblers in and around Santa F. This led him to saloons and tendijons, where games of cards were played at all hours of the day and night. Here he watched every turn of the cards and the manner of shuffling and dealing, and soon became one of the most proficient dealers in the community. After five years in Santa F, Antrim decided to move to Silver City, New Mexico, at that time a lively mining town. Ash Upson was responsible for this change. It was he who put the idea into Antrims head and clinched it by his avowed intention of going with them to the booming mining camp. The Antrims sold their business in Santa F and opened a restaurant and boarding house in Silver City. Billy was then nine years old. Antrim was a miner. He
7

b Miguel Antonio Otero c

was usually away from home all day, while his wife was busy cooking and attending to her many duties about the house and restaurant. The boarders were made up of all classesmerchants, saloon men, adventuresome women, gamblers, teamsters and toughs. It was among such people that Billy passed his boyhood. Mrs. Antrim was a kindly woman and the relationship between mother and son was one of perfect understanding. From the day of his arrival in Silver City till the fall of 1871, when Billy was twelve years old, he exhibited no signs of developing into a desperado or outlaw. Bold, daring, reckless, open-handed, Billy Bonney was a great favorite with everyone, especially the old and decrepit. Never was he seen addressing a woman without first removing his hat. If he happened to be speaking to an elderly one, whose attire indicated poverty, it was a pleasure to see the eager, sympathetic expression that lit his face as he proffered assistance or afforded her the information she was seeking. No small child ever lacked a lift across the gutter or the assistance of a strong arm to help carry a heavy burden when Billy was near at hand. To all those who knew his mother, his courtesy and benevolence of spirit were no mystery. She was of Irish descent, of medium height, straight and graceful in her carriage, with regular features, light blue eyes and a luxuriant growth of soft golden hair. She did not quite attain beauty; still she was a handsome, pleasant-looking woman. She kept many boarders in her neat home. Her charities were well known in Silver City. Many a penniless, hungry tenderfoot or stranger had cause to bless her and his luck in finding her hospitable home. She was a genuine ladya lady by instinct and education. Billy, who worshiped his mother above everything on earth, was unhappy at home because of the tyranny and cruelty of his stepfather. It was this that drove him away from a loving mothers care. He himself often declared that the treatment accorded him by his stepfather was wholly responsible for his going to the bad. His mother died in 1878 and Edward, his younger brother, must have died in Silver City, for nothing was ever heard of him after his own departure.
8

b The Real Billy the Kid c

Billys education was very limited, though not any more so than that of most of the boys during that period in the border country. There were no public schools then, but his mother sent him to a private school, where his record showed him to be a bright and attentive scholar. But he really acquired more information at his mothers knee than at the little country school. His brain was as active as that of a man or woman twice his age. He wrote a fair letter, was good at arithmetic, and loved to read the newspapers to learn the news from other parts of the country. Together with his good qualities, Billy had his faults, like most boysbut his faults usually prevailed over his good qualities. He had an ungovernable temper and in his angry moods was dangerous. Not that he was loud or swaggering. Far from it. He had absolutely no bark; it was all bite! He never took advantage of an antagonist, but, barring size and weight, would when fully aroused fight any man in Silver City. The trouble with Billy at this stage was that he would not stay whipped. This characteristic, which later developed so strongly in him, was no doubt caused by the cruel treatment meted out to him by his stepfather, whose actions he could not openly resent, because of his great love for his mother. When oversized and worsted in a fight, he sought such arms as he could lay his hands on, using them with diabolically murderous intent. Toward the end of his stay in Silver City, he was the constant companion of Jesse Davis (later known as Jesse Evans), then only a boy, but as daring and dangerous as many a more experienced desperado. Jesse Davis was older than Billy and considered himself as sort of a tutor for his younger comrade. They soon parted at Silver City, only to meet again many times on different sides during their brief and bloody careers, for Jesse cashed in his chips only a short time before Billy. Billys departure from Silver City was hastened by an unfortunate event. This was the actual turning point in his life. It outlawed him and compelled him from that time on to follow the forbidden patha victim of his ungovernable temper. One day as Billys mother was walking by a bunch of street-corner idlers, someone in the crowd passed an insulting remark about
9

b Miguel Antonio Otero c

her. Billy heard the remark. Quick as a flash of lightning, he smashed the fellow in the mouth, then, springing to the street, he stooped for a rock. The man made a rush for him, but as he passed Ed Moulton, a well known citizen of Silver City, he received a stunning blow on the ear. This knocked him down. Billy was caught and restrained, but the punishment by no means satisfied the enraged boy, and burning for revenge he visited a miners cabin, procured a Sharps rifle and started in search of his mothers insulter. By a streak of luck, Moulton saw him with the gun, and with difficulty persuaded him to return it to the cabin. Three weeks later, Moulton, a large, powerful man, got into a fight at Joe Dyers saloon. He was getting the best of his two husky assailants when the man who had insulted Billys mother saw an opportunity to take revenge on Moulton. He rushed upon him with a heavy barroom chair up-raised, and was in the act of bringing it down on Moultons head, when Billy, who was looking on, darted beneath the chair. One-two-threeat each count his arm rose and fell. Then, rushing through the crowd, his right hand holding a bloody pocket knife above his head, he went out into the night, an outcast, a wanderer, a murderer! His only thought was for his mother. He rushed to the house and bade her good-bye for the last time. Her influence followed him all through lifeeven when he was an outcast murderer. He always had a deep devotion and respect for good women, born, doubtless, of his adoration for her. Billy Bonney wandered for three days and nightsa mere boy of twelvewithout meeting a human being, except one Mexican sheep-herder. He spoke Spanish as fluently as any Mexican and was able to secure from the herder a small stock of provisions, consisting of tortillas and mutton, which he carried away with him. On foot and bewildered, he suddenly found that he had been travelling in a circle and was back in the vicinity of McKnights ranch. Here he discovered some horses. Quickly securing a pony and finding a piece of rope, which he used for a bridle, he was soon headed for Arizona, with his first stolen horse. While on the road, he picked up a companion who was travelling in the same direction, and together they rode into Camp Bowie, afterward Fort Bowie, Arizona, on
10

b The Real Billy the Kid c

a sore-backed pony, hungry and without a dime to their names. Bonneys new partner once had had a name, but he had changed it so often that he was now known only as Alias. The two satisfied their hunger and disposed of the pony. Then they borrowed a condemned rifle and a pistol from the soldiers, and with a pocketful of ammunition resumed their wanderings. Camp Bowie was situated in Pima County, on what was then known as the Chiracahua Apache Indian Reservation. At this time the Indians were at peace, so there was no danger in going among them. Bonney and Alias were headed for Sonora, Mexico, going in a southwesterly direction from the fort when, eight miles out, they came upon a party of three Indians in one of the mountain passes. The redmen were returning to the fort with twelve horses, five of which were packed with pelts, several saddles and many blankets. The Indians spoke Spanish, so Bonney parleyed with them, trying to persuade them to let him have two of the ponies. He promised to return and pay their price, but his arguments fell on deaf ears. Snapping to a decision, Bonney and Alias did the only thing possible under the circumstances. The Kids own version of the affair speaks for itself: It was a groundhog case. Here were twelve good ponies, four or five saddles, a good supply of blankets and five pony-loads of pelts. Here were three blood-thirsty savages, reveling in all this luxury and refusing to succor two freeborn white American citizens, footsore and hungry. The plunder had to change handsthere was no alternativeand as one live Indian could place a hundred United States troops on our trail in two hours, and as dead Indians would be likely to choose some other route, our resolves were taken. In three minutes there were three good Injuns lying around there, careless-like, and with ponies and plunder we skipped. There was no fight. It was about the softest thing I ever struck. Nothing was heard of the boys for several days but it was generally known that they had disposed of the ponies, pelts, blankets and other articles to a party of Texas immigrants, more than a hundred miles from Camp Bowie, for soon thereafter they returned to the reservation splendidly mounted and armed and with considerable money in their pockets. They were soon on the best of terms
11

b Miguel Antonio Otero c

with the soldiers, government officials and citizens at Camp Bowie, Apache Pass, San Simon, San Carlos and, in fact, all the settlements in that vicinity. They spent much of their time at Tucson, where Bonneys skill as a monte dealer and all-around gambler kept him constantly occupied. The two boys lived in great style and on friendly terms with the sporting fraternity which was at that time a powerful element in Arizona. If the Southern Arizona authorities knew anything of the killing of the three Indians and the stealing of the horses and plunder, nothing was ever done about it. In those days no one regretted the killing of three Indiansor three hundredbesides nothing was to be gained by prosecuting the two boys. Bonney soon tired of the quiet life on the reservation. Together with his friend Alias, he again took to the road and, in the neighborhood of San Simon, ran onto a band of eight or ten Apache Indians. Indians are fond of horse-racing; it is in fact one of their greatest sports. The boys, knowing this, proposed a horse race, to which the Indians quickly acquiesced. Bonney was mounted on a beautiful horse, but he arranged the race between the Indians fastest pony and Alias horse, a very inferior animal. Bonney then changed horses with Alias, at the same time insisting that Alias should hold all the stakes on the racemoney and firearms. At a signal the horses broke away. Alias, mounted on Bonneys fast charger, flew the track and never once slackened his headlong pace until he reached a deserted cattle ranch, many miles away from the race track. Bonney and his horse lost the race, but Alias had made off with all the stakes and was now far beyond pursuit. In his most eloquent Spanish Bonney convinced the Indians that his companion had not only taken the stakes, but had also robbed him of his fine horse, saddle and bridle. He claimed he had lost everything he possessed and now had only a worthless scrub pony. He wept and made such a fearful fuss about his losses that the Indians gave him a good horse in exchange for the scrub pony. Two days later an odd hundred miles from the race track, Bonney and Alias divided the spoils and enjoyed a hearty laugh over the amusing little adventure. Next occurred the killing of an unarmed soldier blacksmith at Camp Bowie. The record is not clear concerning this event. Bonney
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b The Real Billy the Kid c

never liked to refer to it, and all that could be gathered was hearsay. The Kids defenders justified the killing on the ground that the blacksmith was a bully who had refused to pay up after he had lost at cards. Nevertheless, this killing exiled Bonney from the reservation and Arizona. He departed for Sonora, Mexico, without Alias, who preferred Arizonas climate. The Kid reached Sonora, riding his beautiful horse, and there his knowledge of the Spanish language and his skill at cards at once established for him a reputation as a first-class gambler and gentleman. He soon formed a partnership with a young Mexican gambler, Melquiades Segura, which lasted for the duration of his stay in Mexico, and for some years afterward. Only one fatal encounter can be charged against The Kid while in Sonora. This was the killing of Don Jos Martinez, a monte dealer, at a gaming table where Martinez was at the time dealing. For several weeks Martinez had been jeering and bullying Bonney on any and all occasions. Once the gambler had insulted him in public and had often refused to pay him the money he had fairly won at his table. On the day of the shooting, when The Kid entered the gambling room, Martinez opened his money drawer and took out his sixshooter, laying it on the table beside him, so that it would be handy in case of an emergency. Then Martinez began a tirade against gringos (Americans) in general and Bonney in particular. There could be but one outcome. The Kid left with his friend Segura, and together they settled all their outstanding debts in the Plaza and town. Then, saddling their horses, they rode into the Placita, near the gambling parlor. This was at about 9:00 oclock at night. Leaving Segura with the horses, The Kid walked to the gambling parlor and entered. Martinez again launched into vituperation. Bonneys pistol was in his scabbard, while Martinezs was on the table under his hand. Then quickly, steadily The Kids lips moved: Jos, do you fight as bravely with that pistol as you do with your mouth? His hand flashed to the butt of his pistol as he spoke. Martinez streaked for his. But he counted too much on his advantage. Two pistols exploded as oneMartinez fell back in his seat, dead, shot through the eye. Billy slapped his hand to his ear, as though he were reach13

b Miguel Antonio Otero c

ing for a mosquito. He afterward said: The bullet from Martinezs gun felt as if some one had caught three or four hairs and jerked them out by the roots. Before the spectators realized that Martinez had been killed, two horsemen were dashing across the cienega which lies between the Plaza and the mountains. The Kid had shaken the dust of Sonora from his feet for the last time. Twenty Mexicans started in hot pursuit but after following the trail for ten days, returned home. They found the horses The Kid and Segura had taken, but in a country full of horses men such as Bonney and Segura could not long want for additional mounts. Jos Martinezs family offered a large reward for the capture of The Kid and a smaller one for Segura. They never had to pay the rewards. On their flight from Sonora, the two outlaws made for Chihuahua, where they began gambling. For some reason chance deserted them and they lost consistently. But one night their luck changed and The Kid won a large sum at monte. Suddenly the dealer closed his bank and sneeringly told Bonney that he did not have enough money to pay his losses. At the same time he began to fill his buckskin sacks with doubloons and double-doubloonsmoney enough to pay his losses a dozen times over. The Kid said nothing. He and Segura left the house. Suffice it to say that the dealer never reached his home with the gold. He was never seen again. His peon, who was carrying the sack, now lives on the Rio Grande in New Mexico, a well-to-do farmer. The Kid and Segura were never seen on the streets of Chihuahua, but three other prosperous monte dealers were mysteriously held up at night and robbed as they were returning home. It was afterward remarked that each of them had offended both The Kid and Segura. Chihuahua finally became too hot for The Kid and Segura. They left for the Rio Grande, where they parted company for a short time. Thereafter and until December, 1876 the Kids career was an erratic and uncertain one. Then he fell in with his old Silver City compadre, Jesse Evans, and in no long time the pair gained farflung notoriety in western Texas, northern and eastern Mexico, and
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b The Real Billy the Kid c

along the Rio Grande in New Mexico by their many daring crimes. Evans had already attracted attention as a brave but unscrupulous desperado. In courage and in skill with weapons, he and The Kid were fairly matched. They were nearly the same size, although Evans was two years the older. The Kid was seventeen years old in November, 1876, and was nearly as tall as on the day of his death. A light brown beard was beginning to show on his lip and cheeks; his hair was dark brown, glossy, heavy and luxuriant; his eyes were deep dark blue, bright, expressive and intelligent. The most noticeable features of his oval face were two projecting upper teeth, which some wild newspaper correspondents who never saw him describe as fangs which gave to his features an intensely cruel and murderous expression. Nothing is farther from the truth. That his two teeth were prominent is quite true; that when engaged in conversation they were noticeable is also true; but they did not give to his always-pleasant expression a cruel look, suggesting either murder or treachery. All who ever knew him will testify that his polite and gentlemanly bearing invited confidence and promised protectionthe first he never betrayed and the latter he never withheld. In his most savage and dangerous moods, his face always wore a smile. One of his friends once said: He would eat and laugh, drink and laugh, ride and laugh, talk and laugh, fight, shoot and laughand kill and laugh. Not a loud, boisterous guffaw; rather a pleasant smile or soft and musical ripple of the voice. Those who knew and feared him watched his eyes to determine if he were angry. Had his pseudobiographers stated that his eyes in angry mood were cruel and murderous, they would have been quite correct. It was hard to believe that those blazing, baleful eyes and that laughing face could be controlled by the same brain. The Kid was five feet seven and one-half inches tall, straight as a dart, weighed one hundred and thirty-five pounds, and was as light, active and graceful as a panther. He was well-knit, compact and remarkably muscular. It was his delight when he had quarreled with someone larger and more powerful than himself (but who feared him because of his skill with weapons) to unbuckle his belt, drop his arms and say: Come on, old fellow, Ive got no advantage now. Lets fight it out, knuckles and skull. And he usually won his
15

b Miguel Antonio Otero c

fights. When he extended such an invitation and was beaten he never lost his temper or nursed a grudge against his conqueror. If he happened to be near a saloon, he would smilingly say: Boys, the drinks are on me. Lets all join in drinking to the man who won. There were no bounds to his generosity: friends, strangers, even enemies were welcome to his money, horse, clothes or anything else he owned. Old, poor, sick or unfortunate people never appealed to him in vain. Somehow, people have the impression that The Kid was gross and profane. The very opposite is true. When circumstances permitted his clothes were scrupulously neat: he usually wore a black frock-coat, dark trousers and vest, well-fitting boots and a Mexican sombrero. During the few months The Kid and Evans were together, they committed many depredations in Mexico, Texas and New Mexico. Hundreds of ranchmen in both countries were on the lookout for them. How they escaped capture and subsequent certain death is a miracle. A big price was offered for them.

16

CHAPTER II
Fights with the Apaches
At times the Mescalero Apache Indians from Fort Stanton made raids into Old Mexico, often attacking immigrants along the Rio Grande. On one occasion a party from Texas (three men and their families) on their way to Arizona, came upon The Kid and Evans near the Rio Miembres. They invited the boys to have dinner with them then asked them to join the party, claiming that it was dangerous for two youths to be riding alone through Indian country. However, The Kid and Evans declined with thanks. After dinner they continued their journey. Later in the afternoon they discovered a band of fourteen Indians moving along the foothills in an easterly direction. Convinced that the Indians were planning to attack their friends, they wheeled their horses and raced for the foothills to head off the redmen. They succeeded, but their horses were tired and Evans called: Do you think we will make it? Will our horses hold out? The Kid yelled back: Its not a case will we, but how soon! Its a groundhog caseweve got to get there. Think of those white-headed kids, Jesse, and whoop her up. When my horses four legs let up, Ive got two of my own. At dusk they rounded a point in the road and came in full view of the immigrant camp. They were just in time, for at that moment the war-cry of the Apaches broke upon their ears. The Indians charged the camp from a pass on the south. The Kid and Evans threw themselves out of the saddle, and Winchesters in hand, started on a run toward the marauders, yelling as they went. The Indians were astonished, terrified. One after another, they went down under the unerring aim of the two rifles. Evans stumbled and fell into a narrow arroyo, overgrown with grass and weeds. Raising himself to his knees, he found that his fall was a stroke of luck, for it afforded him a wonderful intrenchment. He called The Kid to join him, while he kept up a constant fire with his Winchester. The Kid bounded into the arroyo but just as he dropped to his knees, a
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bullet shattered his rifle stock, the broken wood inflicting a painful wound in his hand. With his gun useless, he continued to fight with his pistol, fuming and cursing like a madman. Suddenly, The Kid heard the agonized scream of a child and the simultaneous shriek of a woman. Leaping from his intrenchment, he ordered Evans to stay where he was and cover him. Then he dashed toward the camp, a pistol in one hand and a small Spanish dagger in the other. The Indians were attempting to drive the emigrants from their defense, but The Kid met them more than half way, fighting them to a standstillodds of six against one. He emptied his pistol, and having no time to reload, clubbed his gun and rushed on, dodging a blow from a burly Indian on the way. Darting under a wagon, he fell upon a prairie axe, which he grabbed with a wild yell of joy. His howl frightened the remaining Indians. With yell upon yell, The Kid fell on them with his axe. In three minutes there was not a live Indian in sight but eight good Injuns slept their last sleep. The Kids face, hands and clothing were bespattered with blood and brains. The heel of his boot had been shot off, his gun was in pieces and his hand woundedotherwise he was unharmed. Evans lost his hat. All three men in the immigrant camp were wounded, one severely. After parting with the immigrants, The Kid and Evans changed their course, returning to the Rio Grande, where they met some friends of Evans who urged them to join company and cross the Pecos River, offering them remunerative employment. Among the men were James McDaniels, William S. Morton and Frank Baker, all well known from the Rio Grande to the Pecos River. Evans joined the party, but The Kid had just received word that his old partner, Segura, was in the vicinity of Isleta and San Elizario, Texas, and planned to go up the Rio Grande to Mesilla and Las Cruces. So The Kid decided to wait for him but promised his companions that he would meet them shortly, either at Mesilla or in Lincoln County. It was here at Mesilla that Jim McDaniels first dubbed Billy Bonney The Kid, because of his youthful appearance. The Kids new-found friends and Evans left for Lincoln County while he waited impatiently for the arrival of Segura. He made fre18

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quent short trips from Mesilla and one day returned with the famous gray horse which carried him gallantly through many tight places during the next two years. Sometime during the fall of 1876, The Kid made his famous eighty-one-mile ride in a little over six hours, using the gray the entire distance. Segura was the cause of the ride. He had been suspected of some crime at San Elizario and had been arrested and locked up in the county jail in that town. He had been involved in so many scrapes with The Kid that a strong prejudice against him existed among the citizens of his native town. Many threats of mob violence were being whispered about. By the promise of a rich reward, Segura secured the services of an intelligent Mexican boy, and sent him up the Rio Grande to Mesilla to look for The Kid. Faithful to his employer, the Mexican boy found The Kid at a ranch on the west side of the Rio Grande, six miles north of Mesilla. The distance to San Elizario was eightyone miles. He mounted his horse at six oclock in the evening, leaving the Mexican boy to await his return. Before he started he remarked: Ill be on my way back with Segura by twelve oclock tonight. The boy laughed and said it was impossible. The Kid in reply patted his horses neck. If Im any judge of horse flesh, this fellow will make the trip, he said, and galloped off into the night. Avoiding the town of Mesilla, he kept to the west bank of the river for about eighteen miles. On reaching Chamberino he rushed into the ever-treacherous current of the Rio Grande. More than once the muddy stream overwhelmed both horse and rider. For thirty minutes The Kid and his gray battled the angry waters, finally landing on the other side more than five hundred yards below the spot where they had entered. They rushed on in the cool night air past the Cottonwoods, past Harts Mill, till The Kid drew rein in front of Ben Dowells saloon in Franklin, now a part of El Paso, Texas. It was a quarter past ten and the gray had covered fifty-six miles in a little over four hours and fifteen minutes. The Kid took time to swallow a glass of Peter Dens whisky, fed his horse a couple of handfuls of crackers and was again on his way with twenty-five miles to go. At midnight the outer guard at the jail in San Elizario was
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awakened by some one hammering on the door. He heard a voice call out in choice Spanish for him to open up. Quin es? called the guard from the inside. Turn out, yelled The Kid. We have two American prisoners out here. Down rattled the chain and the guard stood in the doorway The Kid took him gently by the arm and walked with him to the corner of the building. As they advanced the barrel of a revolver dazzled the frightened and surprised jailer, who was notified in a low, steady voice that one word from him would be his last. Thereupon the guard, thoroughly convinced, handed over his pistol and the jail keys. After removing the cartridges from the mans pistol, The Kid threw it on top of the jail and told the jailer to lead him into the hall. The door of Seguras cell was quickly opened. The Kid stood at the door with cocked revolver in hand and talked to Segura, occasionally addressing a stern mandate to the jailer to hurry with the prisoners irons. In a few minutes Segura was released and armed. The guard and another jailer were shackled together, fastened to a post and gagged; the prison doors were locked and the keys deposited with the guards revolver on top of the building. The Kid wearied by his eighty-one-mile ride, bade Segura mount the gray while he trotted along beside him. Keeping the horse at an easy lope, they soon left the San Elizario jail far behind, and, taking a well-known ford, crossed the Rio Grande. In a little less than an hour they were sound asleep at the ranch of a Mexican confederate, who hid the horse under the bank of the river. Mounted on one of his own ponies, the Mexican was soon on the way to San Elizario to find out what the officers intended doing. Shortly before daylight he returned with The Kids horse and a fresh, sprightly mustang. The Kid and Segura quickly drank a cup of coffee, ate a couple of eggs and chili con carne, and again were in the saddle, speeding cross-country. Two hours later the Mexicans cabin was surrounded by thirty armed, mounted men. The Mexican related a story of robbery and insulthow his best horse had been stolen, his wife insulted, his house ransacked for money and arms, and he himself abused and threatened with death. He described the villains accurately and then proceeded to put the pursuers on their trail. He
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saw them depart and returned sadly to his home to count a handful of gold coins which The Kid had carelessly dropped into his open hand before making his hasty get-away. The officers followed the trail, but it only led on a wild-goose chase. The Kid and Segura reached the ranch, where the Mexican boy was still awaiting their return, at noon of the following day. The Kid and Segura remained close to the ranch for several days, but finally made up their minds to revisit the town of Mesilla. Here The Kid found a letter from Jesse Evans and his companions, urging him to join them on the Pecos near Seven Rivers. The note closed with the following warning: Do not come by the most direct way, which would take you through the Guadalupe Mountains, as that country is lousy with Apache Indians who are now on the warpath. You had better follow the mail route to Tularosa and the Plaza of Lincoln. The Kid had such a hatred for the Indians that after reading the letter he decided to take the route through the Guadalupe Mountains, where he hoped to get a few shots at the Apaches. Segura tried to persuade him to take the other route, but to no avail. They there and then parted companynever to meet again. The Kid now sought a companion to keep him company to Seven Rivers, by way of the Guadalupe Mountains. He was not long in locating one Tom OKeefe, a young man of his own age, who had enough nerve for almost any adventure. The two readied themselves for the trip at Las Cruces, New Mexico. The Kid left his trusty gray in safe hands, to be sent on to him upon his order. He reasoned that a common Mexican mustang would do for crossing the mountains; besides he did not want to run the risk of injuring his gray. The second night in the mountains they camped at the opening of a deep canyon. At daylight of the following morning The Kid started alone to get his bearings. Climbing the canyon and seeing some lofty peaks to the northwest, he headed in that direction with the intention of ascending one to determine the lay of the land. Suddenly, he crossed an Indian trail. He returned to camp and told OKeefe that he felt sure the Indians were heading for water. Well soon need water for our horses, said The Kid. Lets trail them for a while.
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Dont you think itd be better to take our own trail and follow that for a while? asked OKeefe. No. Weve got to have water. Its close bythose Indians are going straight to it. Cant we just as well wait until they leave the water? Suppose they camp at the spring for a week? Theyll smell us out ten miles off. Id much rather find them than have them find us. I am going to have water. Come on! They soon struck the Indians trail and followed it cautiously for an hour. Suddenly it brought them up against the bare face of a cliff. The trail was right under their feet and heading straight up the rock. At its base a ragged mass of loose stones showed that the Indians had turned short to the right. They followed and discovered an opening not more than three feet wide, surrounded and overhung with shrubs and vines. The Kid dismounted and looked through this opening, but could see only a short distance as his vision was obscured by curves in the pass. Back-tracking a short distance they found a place to conceal their animals. The Kid took their only canteen and prepared to explore the pass. Before leaving, he said: If I come back on the run with water, take the canteen from my hand and drink as you run. Then throw the canteen away. OKeefes arguments to dissuade him proved useless, and entering the dark, gloomy passage, crouched low, Bonney noiselessly followed its windings for an odd hundred yards, when he came to an opening, about thirty feet wide, stretching away to the southwest and gradually narrowing to a point where a curve hid its farther course from sight. The passage and opening were walled with rocks hundreds of feet high. A glance to the left disclosed a mountain spring gushing forth from a rocky crevice. The Kid hugged the base of the cliff, creeping on hands and knees, his canteen in readiness as he approached the brink of a small basin in the rocks. The ground was beaten by the horses hoofs. Plunging his face and canteen into the cool waters, The Kid drank long and deep. His canteen was overflowing as he stealthily moved away. Entering the passage, he was just congratulating himself on his good fortune when, like a clap of thunder, there came a fierce yell, together with a volley of shots, from a spot almost directly over his
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head. Shouting a warning to OKeefe, he dashed his canteen into the face of the nearest Indian. He snatched his six-shooter from its scabbard, wheeled about, and plunged swiftly into the gorge he had just quitted, pursued by Indians and showers of lead. OKeefe heard The Kids shouts and the rattle of firearms, but an irresistible impulse for self-preservation overcame him and, mounting his horse, he fled from the scene. With only his revolver and a short dirk with which to fight twenty Indians, The Kid back-tracked and darted into the narrow passage leading to the spring. The Indians were but a few steps behind him, but when they reached the opening their prey was nowhere to be seen. He had entirely disappeared. Instinctively, they sought his trail, found it, but wasted a few precious moments in following. Looking straight up to an apparently inaccessible cliff, they saw The Kid, who quickly disappeared behind a ledge. In an instant a half-dozen young braves were stripped for the pursuit; one reached a point but a few feet beneath the ledge behind which The Kid had disappeared. For an instant an arm and hand projected from the concealmentthere was a flash, a report; then the climber reeled backward, bounding from ledge to ledge, till he lay crushed and lifeless at the feet of the band. The Kid made a feint as if to leave his refuge. This drew the fire of the savages but before their guns could be brought to bear on him, he darted to another shelter higher up The Kid now scorned concealment, and put forth every ounce of energy to master the perilous ascent. He knew that not even an Apache would dare to follow. He jeered his foes in Spanish and fired whenever he saw a serape or a feather. Bullets continued to shower around him, but not one struck him. When he reached the top of the peak he knew that the Indians had given up the chase. Then he fell asleep. He woke up early next morning and headed toward the rising sun. Soon he was on the open plains on the eastern side of the Guadalupe Mountains, and, after a three days hike, reached a cattle ranch on the Pecos River. He had found water at long intervals, but no food except wild berries. He had walked the whole distance without meeting man or horse. When he reached the camp he rested for a few days. Then, having secured arms and a horse, he proceeded to one of the Murphy-Dolan-Riley strongholds, where
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again he met Jesse Evans and the comrades with whom he had parted company on the Rio Grande. The Kid was now anxious to learn the fate of Tom OKeefe. He finally induced two of the boys to accompany him back to Las Cruces. Here they met OKeefe, who had escaped and made his way back to that town. They exchanged friendly greetings, after which The Kid returned to Lincoln County to plunge headlong into the war with which his name was soon to become so closely identified.

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CHAPTER III
The Lincoln County War of 1878
New Mexicos notorious Lincoln County War of 1878 was caused by the rivalry of two groups of business men whose activities centered in the small county-seat town of Lincoln. Ranged on one side were Lawrence G. Murphy, James J. Dolan and John H. Rileythe Murphy-Dolan Store Company, dealers in general merchandise, cattle and horses; on the other were John H. Tunstall, a young English investor; Attorney-at-law Alexander A. McSween, a newly established Lincoln resident; and honest, successful Cattleman John Chisum, generally known as The Cattle King of America. Others including The Kid were gradually drawn into the feud, but the foregoing six were at all times the ringleaders and instigators. Therefore, a brief note concerning their antecedents will not be amiss here. John H. Tunstall arrived in Lincoln in the spring of 1877 and shortly afterward formed a partnership with Alexander A. McSween in the mercantile and the banking business. This brought them into direct conflict with the Murphy-Dolan Store Company. Tunstall put up the bulk of the capital for the Tunstall-McSween store which made it possible for the new partners to become, from the very start, formidable competitors of the older firm. At this time Tunstall did business with the firm of Otero, Sellar & Company, at El Moro, Colorado, where the author was then employed as bookkeeper. Tunstall, a splendid young man and a British subject, was greatly admired by all who knew him. He had come West to go into the cattle business and had finally decided to operate in Lincoln County. He bought from Otero, Sellar & Company, mules, horses, harnesses, saddles, bridles, and all other paraphernalia needed on a cattle ranch. Besides the above he bought household effects and provisions enough to start a small hotel or grocery store. One point about Tunstall must be stated emphatically: Tunstall, unlike so many other Englishmen who came to the West, was not prompted by any desire to dissipate his inherited wealth. He was
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Alexander A. McSween

Mrs. A. A. McSween 26

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neither improvident nor adventurous, nor quarrelsome. He attended strictly to his own business. He had been reared in a home of culture and refinement; believed religiously in the rights of others, and wanted nothing but what rightfully belonged to him. His rating in the modern business world would have been high, for he was prompt and punctilious in paying all his bills. He never ran into debt, and did not owe a cent during his business career in Lincoln. Alexander A. McSween, who had been retained by Otero, Sellar & Company, as attorney, had settled at Lincoln in 1875. In the ensuing years both he and his wife had visited El Moro on occasional business trips. Therefore, when Tunstall was ready to start for Lincoln, Mr. Sellar, of Otero, Sellar & Company, gave him a letter of introduction to McSween. The outcome was an intimate friendship between Tunstall and McSween. Shortly thereafter, as already stated, they entered into partnership under the firm name of Tunstall & McSween. Their principal business was general merchandising. They were also bankers, establishing the Lincoln County Bank, there being no other bank in that section. Then Tunstall bought a ranch on the Rio Felice and stocked it with a large number of cattle and horses. Lawyer McSween was a worthy man, conscientious and fair in all of his dealings. Never did he stoop to a dishonest action or participate in a questionable transaction. Professionally, he was recognized as a fearless and honest attorney. He was highly educated, having for a time studied for the Presbyterian ministry. He never lost his devotion for his earlier training and eventually met his death with calm courage, holding fast to the principles advocated in the Sermon on the Mount. While in Atchison, Kansas, he had married Susan E. Hummer, and when, a little later, his health began to fail, upon his doctors advice, the couple sought the benefits of the Southwest climate. The McSweens made friends readily in Lincoln. Soon they were settled in a comfortable homeit was in reality one of the most spacious houses in the townand McSween found himself with an increasing and profitable legal business. His success as a lawyer was phenomenalalmost from the day of his arrival he was deluged with clientsbut his principal one was the Murphy-Dolan Store
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Company. This relationship went on satisfactorily until Lawrence G. Murphy, president of the Murphy-Dolan Store Company, demanded that McSween defend a group of cattle thieves who had been arrested red-handed stealing cattle on the Pecos River range of John Chisum. McSween flatly refused. I cannot defend those men, he told Murphy. I know they are thieves. Whats more, you know it too. As an upright citizen and an honest lawyer who respects his profession, I cannot undertake to defend men whom I myself know to be guilty. Thus ended amicable relations between Murphy and McSween. No sooner did John Chisum hear of the break and its cause than he retained McSween to prosecute the thieves. McSween secured a conviction. What was more important, he established the fact that the Murphy-Dolan Store Company, through Partner John H. Riley, was in collusion with the thieves, who had committed the crime at the behest of the Murphy-Dolan Store Company. Honest John Chisum was a good citizen, doing a large, legitimate business in cattle. He paid his debts promptly, never cheated; and never resorted to sharp practices in his business transactions. The title, Cattle King, fitted him, for he claimed as his range more than fifty miles up and down the Pecos River, north of Seven Rivers. This was the finest cattle land in southeastern New Mexico. Much of it lay along the numerous tributaries of the Pecos, splendidly watered by lakes and springs. On this vast domain ranged between sixty and eighty thousand head of full-blooded, graded, ordinary Texas cattle, all imprinted with Chisums Long Rail brand and Jingle-bob earmark. Chisum employed nearly a hundred cowboys and range workers, but even this large retinue was insufficient to keep track of such loose-footed property. Many of his neighbors, succumbing to temptation, stole his unbranded stock, both cattle and horses. Some even went further, and despite brands and earmarks, made off with large numbers of range stock. The iron rod of a wagon tailboard, a small fire on the open prairiethese were enough to change the Long Rail brand into another device. A knife was sufficient to turn the Jingle-bob into a different earmark. Stealing Chisum
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cattle became a systematized business indulged in by some of Chisums own employees as well as outsiders. Under such conditions, rustling was not especially hazardous, since the mountains to the west of the Pecos River were within easy reach and afforded a secure retreat. Cattle King Chisum furnished beef to the Government for the Indian reservations and army posts scattered through New Mexico, Arizona and western Texas. United States contracts were most desirable, for the Government paid cash on delivery. Consequently, there was keen competition among the cattlemen to secure them. The Murphy-Dolan Store Company also sought a share in these contracts, generally securing the one for the Mescalero Apache Reservation and army post near Fort Stanton. To facilitate the handling of these contracts, the Murphy-Dolan Store Company maintained a cattle ranch (more aptly called a cattle cache) southwest of Lincoln. Though there was no evidence of legitimate cattle-raising, the herds on this location increased from hundreds into thousands. Despite the fact that they delivered cattle running up into four figures, their herd never seemed to diminish perceptiblyor, if so, only for a few days. Nor was the MurphyDolan outfit the only one in the section that seemed to grow suspiciously fast. Patrick Coghlan, forty miles west of Tulerosa, had another cache to which rustlers brought their spoils, sure of a ready market and no questions asked. Still farther weston the Rio Grandewas another such ranch owned by Irish Patrick Carmody, of Contadero in Socorro County, who was afterward hanged for murder. The cattle rustlers and the small cattlemen were generally at odds with John Chisum. The rustlers were antagonistic because of their calling; the small cattlemen, because they claimed that Chisum was monopolizing the range. Of course, Murphy, Dolan, Riley, Coghlan and Carmody did their utmost to increase bitterness and actual hostility toward Chisum. Cattle King Chisum, Lawyer McSween and Merchant Tunstall constituted one of the sides of the Lincoln County War. Their position might be termed defensive. The other sidethe aggressive factionwas headed by Lawrence G. Murphy. He had been a vol29

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unteer in the United States Army and had come into New Mexico as a major in the First Regiment of California Cavalry during the Civil War. While stationed at Fort Stanton, he had been mustered out of the service together with Colonel Emil Fritz. Major Murphy and Colonel Fritz at once formed a partnership, under the name of L. G. Murphy & Company, Post Traders. For a number of years they conducted a successful business, although it was an open secret that they were profiteering right and left on their government contracts. In those days the post traders (sutlers) store at a military post carried on a general merchandising business, handling almost everything. To one side of the L. G. Murphy & Company establishment was a long wing containing a bar room, billiard-and-pool room, and several smaller gambling rooms. These were for the use of the non-commissioned officers and private soldiers. To the other side of the main building was a similar wing, fitted up for the exclusive use of officers and civilian guests, of which there were usually a goodly number at the post. Murphy was a shrewd, well-educated Irishman, who in his youth had studied for the Catholic priesthood. When the Civil War broke out he decided to desert the cassock for the uniform, became a soldier and rose steadily to the rank of major. He was a plausible fellow with a remarkable gift for handling people. He knew instinctively who would succumb to his overtures and was clever enough to avoid those who might see through him and his schemes. From his associates among the officers he carefully chose those who liked to drink and gamble. Very soon he would have them hopelessly in his debt. Then they were, to all intents and purposes, Murphy hirelings, for they were forced blindly to do his dirty work in the consummation of illegal ventures. During the time that Murphy was at the post, Colonel Fritz had nothing to do but collect his share of the profitsor, rather, what Murphy chose to dole out to him as his portion. In the course of time two younger men were taken into the firmJames J. Dolan and John H. Riley. Sharp and shifty as their ratlike eyes indicated, they were capable of playing any game, from both ends to the middle, coming and going. They were Murphys lookouts. They
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did not themselves gamble but saw to it that there were enough crooked card-sharps and confidence men to fleece the officers who frequented the establishment. When an officer found his funds exhausted, they would eagerly offer to lend him money on his note, which, they assured him, they would be only too glad to carry as long as suited his convenience. As soon as they needed their man they would call the note. By such means they got control of a number of officers whom they subsequently used to the advantage of L. G. Murphy & Company. The author remembers one of Murphys schemes to defraud the Government. It was related by Colonel Marcus Brunswick of Las Vegas in the presence of John H. Riley, who did not deny the allegation, but merely smiled with self-satisfaction. It seems that Murphy and his associates were in the habit of securing large beef contracts from the Governmentwith the connivance, of course, of the officers who were in their debt. The contracts would be on the basis of live weight; that is, cattle on the hoof. Murphy kept three large beef steers in his barn, which had been fattened until they were literally rolling in fat. When a contract had been secured, Riley brought the cattle from the ranch for delivery. He would saunter casually into the bar-room where the officers designated to receive the cattle might be, and, with an engaging smile, would invite everyone to have a drink. Well, I had a fine trip and damn good luck, he would remark. I landed here with four thousand steers. The truth is that, even supposing there were four thousand, they would be scrubby Mexican range cattle (dobies), not much larger than a good-sized goat and as wild as a March hare. They had cost little or nothing, for they had been purchased from Mexican rustlers who delivered them on the American side of the Rio Grande at some point where there were no meddlesome customhouse officers. Perhaps, Riley himself had arranged for their absence. Such was the collection of animals that Riley brought to the fort and placed in the Government corral. Of course there was an officer who was supposed to count the herd to check Rileys tally, but this official generally preferred to continue his game of poker.
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Anyhow, why doubt such an affable fellow as Johnnie Rileyif he said there were to be four thousand head of cattle, four thousand there must be. And so the officer would sign the receipt that Riley presented. But there was still one more formality. Since payment for these four thousand beeves was to be made by the pound, it became necessary to determine how many pounds they totalled. At this juncture who should come forward but Jim Dolan with the three fattened steers and offer them as samples of the quality of the herd. The officer in charge would say: All right, weigh them separately and take an average, and continue with his game. When Dolan had arrived at the average weight, the officer would sign the statement. Thus Murphy & Company were able to palm off their four thousand lean, impoverished Mexican dobiesat the average weight of the three enormous over-fattened beef steers! And even this did not end the story. When night came on Riley, with some of his cowboys, would sneak out to the corral and turn the dobies loose. They would then proceed to stampede the herd by waving blankets. Soon the frightened and bewildered animals would be scattering in all directions, instinctively turning toward their own home across the Rio Grande. Then Riley and his men would remove their boots, put on Indian moccasins, and stamp over the corral, even pigeon-toeing their feet to make it look as though Indians had stolen the animals. This done, the cowboys would slip back to their bunks, while Riley rejoined the poker players, lingering in their company until the end of the game. In the morning the officers would discover that the Indians had come in the night and stolen the cattle. Riley would become the most excited man about the post and Dolan would be a close second. They would insist on troops being sent out at once but as there would be no trail nothing could be done to recover the cattle. Of course, the soldiers needed beef and soon Riley would be off again to amass another four thousand cattle. Sometimes they would profiteer on a wood contract in a manner similar to the beef racket. Poker games were employed in the same general manner but there would be variations. The teamsters would make their deliveries at a designated spot, where some of
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Murphys men awaited them. These followed instructions and piled the wood in hollow squares, a proceeding which rapidly increased the number of cords. The usual formalities of delivery were then consummated and the vouchers delivered. The sequel was usually the outbreak of a fire among the piles of wood. After the fire had been extinguished, it was impossible to determine the exact number of cords delivered. There is still another interesting and enlightening story concerning John H. Riley. While it does not directly pertain to the Murphy & Company frauds, it does serve to characterize the man. One day Riley was playing a game of seven-up with some associates in a Las Cruces saloon. Another Irishman, Billy Patterson, was sitting at Rileys right. Suddenly Patterson detected some sleight-of-hand work in Rileys dealing; so instead of merely cutting the cards, he took them up and began to reshuffle. This roused Rileys temper. He demanded to know if Patterson was intending to insult him. For a few moments Patterson said nothing but finally when he could no longer stand Rileys ranting, he replied hotly: Johnnie Riley, I know you damn well. Any man who shuffles cards after you is simply attending strictly to his own business. At last Murphy & Companys business ethics aroused the suspicions of the post commander, Major Clendennin. He ordered Murphy to leave the reservation, but gave him time enough to sell out his business at the post. Murphy moved down to Lincoln, ten miles from the fort, and organized a new firm with James J. Dolan and John H. Riley as partners. In the meantime Colonel Fritz had retired from the firm. The new company prospered from the start. Murphy took advantage of the county-seat location to become political boss of Lincoln County. He assumed the office of probate judge and parceled out the other county offices among his henchmen. No one could secure a nomination for office unless he were a Murphy hireling. One of his staunch allies was Major William Brady whom Murphy rewarded with the office of sheriff. It was an open secret that Brady would execute any order emanating from the MurphyDolan Store Company. Brady knew on which side his bread was buttered. Recognizing the rivalry existing between Murphy and
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Chisum, Brady would discuss with Murphy any warrant instigated by John Chisum. Whatever Murphy said went! In addition to controlling the legal machinery of the county through the sheriff, Murphy had the support of the powerful Santa F Ring of that period. This quasi-organization included a number of the most prominent lawyers in the territory, headed by Thomas Benton Catron, at that time United States District Attorney for the Territory and himself interested in cattle in practically every county of the region. In Lincoln County he owned a large ranch near the present site of Carrizozo. So strong was the connection of Catron with the Murphy business that many people believed he was a silent partner in the Murphy-Dolan Store Company. Such were the elements that made up the two sides in the Lincoln County War. Soon actual bloodshed was to begin . . . . In the summer of 1873, Colonel Emil Fritz returned to his native Germany for a visit. While there he died. Previously he had drawn up his will, leaving it in the safe of his former partner, Murphy. He also left a $10,000 life-insurance policy made out to his sister, Mrs. Scholand. When his brother, Charles Fritz, was settling the estate, he asked Murphy for the will and insurance policy. Murphy would relinquish neither. He justified his action by claiming that Colonel Fritz owed him large sums of moneybut he failed to produce any evidence of such indebtedness. The will was never probated; it was not even shown to the Fritz relatives. A statement was issued that Murphy had burned the will. The insurance policy had been hypothecated to the Spiegelberg Brothers of Santa F for an open account due them by the Murphy-Dolan Store Company. Charles Fritz and Mrs. Scholand retained McSween as their attorney to collect the insurance money, and in order to gain possession of the policy McSween personally paid the Spiegelberg Brothers the amount of the Murphy-Dolan Store Companys debt. He took the policy East, eventually securing the payment of the face value of the policy, $10,000. This he deposited in a St. Louis bank in his own name. His understanding with Charles Fritz and Mrs. Scholand was that he was to receive a $3,000 fee. He, of course, expected to be reimbursed for the sum he had paid Spiegelberg Brothers, as well as the expense of his trip East. But when he
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returned to Lincoln Murphy demanded the full face value of the policy, alleging that it belonged to him for debts owed by Colonel Fritz to the Murphy-Dolan Store Company. Thus was another link forged in the chain that was rapidly bringing the two elements into open hostility. At this time, the early summer of 1877, Billy the Kid returned from Las Cruces with Jesse Evans and became a member of the Murphy clan. His reckless daring, unerring marksmanship, and unrivalled horsemanship rendered him invaluable to the MurphyDolan-Riley faction. Throughout the summer and a part of the fall of 1877, The Kid followed the Murphy fortunes. He spent his time on the cattle ranges of the Pecos Valley, on the trail, making occasional visits to the plazas, where, together with his associates and companions, Jesse Evans, Jim McDaniels, Frank Baker, and Billy Morton, he indulged unrestrainedly in such dissipations as the limited facilities of the little tendijons and dance halls afforded. His frequent encounters with members of the opposite party had already won for him a reputation for dauntless courage. He was respected by friends as well as enemies. No noteworthy event occurred during The Kids employment by the Murphy-DolanRiley faction. He declared that there was but little excitement in the neighborhood and seemed restless and dissatisfied with his surroundings. Once on a visit to Lincoln, The Kid met John H. Tunstall. A warm friendship at once sprang up between them. Whether this meeting had previously been arranged, or whether it was simply determined by chance is impossible to say. At all events, The Kid became warmly attached to Tunstall and openly expressed his regret at being opposed to him. Shortly after their meeting, Tunstall offered him a position on his ranch. The Kid accepted and immediately went on the Tunstall payroll, moving to the Rio Feliz range. Then he mounted his horse and boldly went back to the Murphy camp, where he announced that he had entered the employ of Tunstall and McSween. This statement was received in ominous silence. For a time, it looked as if the interview might come to a bloody ending, but angry expostulations, eager argu35

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ments, and impassioned entreaties all failed to shake his determination. Except for the presence and intervention of his old friend, Jesse Evans, there would have been an open fight. Evans placatingly said: Boys, weve all slept, drank. starved and fought with The Kid. See, hes trusted himself alone among us. He didnt sneak away. He came right out and told us. Let him go his way; our timell come. Suddenly the party acquiesced, except for Frank Baker, who insinuated that now was the time for the fight. The Kid barked: Yes, you damned dogright now, when stinking youre nine to one. Come on, Baker. Youre stinking for a fight. You never killed a man you didnt shoot in the back. Come out here and fight like a man. The Kids eyes glared at Baker. Baker did not answer the taunt. Then The Kid rode slowly away, casting back a regretful glance at his old friend, Evans. After accepting employment with Tunstall, The Kid worked as a regular cow-puncher. In his deportment and bearing, no one would have supposed him to be a dare-devil. He was a welcome guest at the McSween home.

36

CHAPTER IV
The Murder of Tuns tall
The firm of Tunstall & McSween was making large inroads into the business of the Murphy-Dolan Store Company, and was bidding fair to close it out. In fact, the whole Murphy racket was nearing an end. The rustlers were frightened, and were not stealing as boldly as in an earlier time. Consequently, cattle were becoming harder to procure and Government contracts more difficult of fulfilment. Furthermore, the rustlers made demands on the Murphy-Dolan Store Company for money and credits during a slump sure to continue as long as McSween and Tunstall supported the cause of law and order. Murphy and his partners made a survey of the situation; they saw bankruptcy staring them in the face. Their desperate situation demanded that a remedy be quickly found. Their competitors must be destroyed. Since Tunstall had the capital, he was slated for death. On February 18, 1878, Murphy summoned Sheriff William Brady, his hireling. A claim was manufactured against Tunstall. The fact that he had never owed either Murphy or Dolan or Riley a single dollar made no difference. A writ of attachment for a herd of horses was given Brady, who deputized twenty of Murphys cowpunchers and rustlers to serve the papers on Tunstall at his Rio Felice ranch. Then secret orders were whispered to Sheriff Brady, who in turned passed them on to Billy Morton and Frank Baker. Never a hero, Brady decided that discretion was the better part of valor and elected to remain at home. Murphy proceeded systematically to get the posse drunk, knowing that liquor can make a brave man of a coward. Thoroughly inflamed with whisky, the posse reached the Rio Felice Ranch only to find the houses barricaded with sand bags.* Observing some eight or ten men occupied in placing more fortifications, Billy Morton called out: Who told you to do that?
* This version, undoubtedly authentic, was obtained from Don Martin Chavez of Santa F, N. M., in 1926.

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JOHN H. TUNSTALL
It was the assassination of Tunstall, employer and friend of Billy the Kid, that brought on the Lincoln County War and caused The Kid to resume his murderous career. 38

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McSween gave us orders, said one of the laborers. Tunstall was nowhere on the premises. The Murphy men wheeled their horses and proceeded back in the direction of Lincoln. Five miles before they reached the Ruidoso Valley they encountered Tunstall, accompanied by four nativesRamon Montoya, Hijinio Salazar and two others whose names were never revealed. Tunstall was conducting a herd of horses to Lincoln and was completely unarmed, as were his companions. Upon sight, without even the pretext of an excuse, the drunken riders opened fire upon Tunstall, killing him with the first volley. He dropped from his horse and lay still. The Murphy men spurred their horses and returned to Lincoln. The murder of John H. Tunstall was the one spark needed to start the Lincoln County War into a blaze. That same afternoon, Billy the Kid was told of the murder of his employer and staunch friend. His face contorted with savage blood-lust and from that day to the hour of his death his trail was blazed with a single word, Vengeance. The next day Tunstalls body was brought into Lincoln. It was buried behind the Tunstall & McSween store on a shelf of land overlooking the Rio Benito. Standing at the open grave, The Kid muttered savagely: Ill get every son of a bitch who helped kill John if its the last thing I do. McSween sensed the need for immediate and drastic action. It was evident that Brady would do nothing to arrest Tunstalls murderers. But the Justice of the Peace, Green Wilson, was an eccentric old codger, who for a few drinks of whisky would sign almost anything. McSween accordingly drew up warrants for the arrest of the killers of Tunstall, secured Wilsons signature, and had him appoint a number of special constables, headed by Dick Brewer, to serve the papers. When The Kid learned that Brewer had been sworn in as special deputy, he lost no time in joining the posse, which at once set out to run down the killers. Brewer enlisted nine men: Charley Bowdre, Frank McNab, Fred Wayte, Sam Smith, Jim French, John Middleton, Hendry Brown, J. G. (Doc) Scurlock and one McCloskey.
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They started for the Rio Pecos Ranch of Murphy-Dolan-Riley, and on March 6th ran onto a party of five men, just below the lower crossing of the Rio Penasco, about six miles from the Rio Pecos. When the five men discovered the posse, they put spurs to their horses and fled. The posse pursued. After a two-mile chase, the five men divided, two turning toward the hills and three continuing straight ahead. The Kid recognized the two men taking to the hills; they were Billy Morton and Frank Baker. He followed their trail, and after him came the entire posse. For five more miles, the chase continued. The Kids Winchester barked continually and his companions were by no means idle with their guns, but distance and unsteadiness handicapped their effectiveness. The fugitives rode on unharmed, until a lucky volley brought down both their horses. The two men espied a friendly sinkhole close at hand into which they leaped. It served them as breastworks from which they could have stood off twice the force attacking them, yet the pursuers had the best of it, for Morton and Baker had but two alternatives: to surrender or to starve. A small abandoned adobe house stood near the sink-hole. During the first night Morton and Baker managed to get into it. For two days and nights the posse was unable to dislodge them but finally their ammunition ran out, and hunger racked them. Seeing starvation staring them in the face, they stuck out a white rag of surrender. After a long parley, Billy Morton said: Well surrender if you pledge to take us safely to Lincoln. The Kid vigorously opposed making such a promise: two of the murderers of his friend Tunstall, were now in his power and he wanted them killed in the same way they had killed Tunstall. But he was overruled and the pledge was given. The two men marched out of the little shack with uplifted hands. When their guns had been taken from them, they walked over to greet The Kid, their hands extended. The Kid gave them an ugly look, remarking: I dont know either of you sons of bitches, and whats more I dont want to know you. That night the party reached John Chisums South Spring Ranch and remained there overnight. The Kid was heard to mutter: My time will come.
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On March 9th, the posse and its prisoners left Chisums ranch for Lincoln. They stopped at Roswell, five miles from Chisums, where Morton mailed a letter to a cousin, Hon. H. H. Marshall of Richmond, Virginia. Morton requested Postmaster Ash Upson to write his cousin if anything happened to him on the way to Lincoln. Upson asked: Do you expect anything to happen to you? I dont, said Morton. The posse has pledged itself to deliver us safely to the authorities at Lincoln, but in case the pledge is violated I want my people to be informed. McCloskey of the posse was standing nearby. He heard the remark and said: Billy, if anything happens to you, theyll have to kill me first. The Kid had nothing to say. He appeared lost in sullen thought. In a short time the party continued on toward Lincoln. The prisoners were mounted on two very inferior ponies. This was at about ten oclock. Morton and Baker were never seen again except by the posse. At about four oclock that afternoon, Don Martin Chavez of Picacho arrived at Roswell and reported that the posses trail had left the direct road to Lincoln and turned off in the direction of Agua Negra (Black Water). As this was an unfrequented route, it settled all doubts as to the fate of Morton and Baker. On March 11th Frank McNab, of the posse, returned to Roswell and entered the post office. Ash Upson said: Hello, McNab, I thought you were in Lincoln by this time. Any news? Yes, Morton killed McCloskey, one of our men, and made a break. We had to kill them. Where did Morton get the gun? He snatched McCloskeys, killed him with it and ran, firing back as he went. We had to kill him or some of us would have been hurt. No one believed this story. The true account came out later. Let The Kid relate it: It had been resolved, by two or three of the posse, to murder Morton and Baker before they reached Lincoln. McCloskey and Middleton constantly rode close behind the prisoners, as if to protect them; the others brought up the rear. Charlie Bowdre and I were at all times in advance. About twenty-five or thirty miles from
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Roswell, near Agua Negra Spring, Frank McNab and Hendry Brown rode up to McCloskey and Middleton. McNab placed his revolver to McCloskeys head and said: Youre the bastard thats got to die before harm can come to these fellows, are you? and fired as he spoke. McCloskey rolled from his horse, a corpse. The prisoners fled as fast as their ponies could carry them, pursued by the whole party and a shower of harmless lead. At the sound of the first shot, I wheeled my horse and saw everything in confusion. I heard firearms, and it flashed across my mind that perhaps the prisoners, in some unaccountable manner had gotten possession of some weapons. I saw the two prisoners attempting to escape, so I put spurs to my horses sides and shouted to them to halt, but they held on their course, with bullets whistling around their heads. A few bounds of the gray carried me to the front of the two prisoners, who were doing their best to get away. I fired once at Morton and once at Baker, and they both fell dead from their horses. The Kid dismounted, turned Mortons face up to the sky, and gazed down on his old companion. He asked no questions and the party rode on to Lincoln, except McNab, who returned to Chisums ranch. The bodies remained where they had fallen, and were afterward buried by some Mexican sheep herders. Returning to Lincoln, The Kid followed the fortunes of Lawyer McSween, who was every day becoming more involved in the war. McSween was a peaceful man, but the murder of his partner, Tunstall, aroused all the belligerent passion within him. The Kid still remained with Brewers official posse to track down the remaining murderers of Tunstall. A few days later The Kid and Charlie Bowdre had a skirmish with old Buckskin Bill Roberts, who fired on them from ambush without warning. Several shots were exchanged without damage to either side. It was a mystery to many people, how three excellent gunmen could fire at one another at such short range and live to tell the story. The Kid and Bowdre swore out a complaint and Brewer started for Blazers saw mill with a posse consisting of Bill Scroggins, George Coe, Frank Coe, Charlie Bowdre, Hendry Brown, Jim
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French, John Middleton, Tom OFolliard, Stephen Stevens, Doc Scurlock, Fred Wayte and Billy the Kid. Buckskin Bill Roberts was not at the mill. As it was about noon, they decided to have dinner. Just before they finished their meal, Roberts arrived. Only Frank Coe saw him. He attempted to save Roberts by acting as a peacemaker. Roberts flatly refused to surrender as long as he had a shot in his rifle, saying: I tried to kill The Kid and Charlie Bowdre last week. If those fellows got their hands on me now, just how long do you think I would last? Then some of the posse appeared, led by Charlie Bowdre. On seeing Roberts, Bowdre threw down on him with his pistol, barking: Throw up your hands. Roberts answered: Not much, Mary Ann. Both men fired almost simultaneously. Roberts was shot through the breast. The bullet went right through him, dealing him a death wound. Roberts shot struck Bowdres cartridge belt, cutting it from his waist. Bowdre jumped behind the house. The others opened fire at close range, but Roberts kept shooting, bringing down John Middleton with a bullet over the heart. Another shot took off a finger from George Coes hand. In no time Roberts had the field all to himself. He made a dash for the door of the house. Just then The Kid, who was somewhat late in joining the fight, got into action. He failed to get a sight on Roberts but fired twice at the door through which Roberts had darted. Frank Coe yelled to The Kid to get back and duck. He did so just in time, as a shot from Roberts gun whizzed an inch past him. Roberts was becoming very sick from his wound. He was groaning desperately, but there was plenty of fight in him still. When his Winchester bullets were exhausted, he threw the gun to one side and took up a heavy Sharps rifle. With a mattress he made a bed below the front window and kept up the fight. Brewer crept around the barn and outhouses, and took a position behind some saw logs, about a hundred yards in front of the house. From where he was hidden, he fired three shots into the window without doing any damage. Then, deciding that Roberts must be all in, he became careless. He raised his head about the logs to have a look. As he did so, Roberts fired from the window sill, hit43

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ting him in the middle of the forehead and tearing off the whole top of his head. Brewer never knew what struck him. With Brewer dead, the posse decided to leave the locality, knowing that it would be only a question of hours before Roberts would die from his wounds. Of the McSween men, Middleton was dangerously wounded, George Coe had a finger shot off and Charlie Bowdre had a sharp pain in his side where Roberts bullet had struck his cartridge belt. They got a government ambulance and, placing the wounded men in it, drove to Frank Coes Ruidoso Ranch, where they passed the night. The next day, they went on to Roswell, where they found a surgeon. It was several weeks before John Middleton recovered. Doctor Blazer sent to Fort Stanton for the army surgeon to look after Roberts, but he was dead when the doctor got there.* After the death of Dick Brewer, the command of the posse, by common consent, was offered to The Kid, but he had little use for the position. What he really wanted was a few more free riders like himself who, without fear or compunction, would take their lives into their own hands and follow where he led. On the return to Lincoln, the posse was disbanded, but most of its members decided to follow The Kid, who became their accepted leader.

* This account of the old skirmish is attested to by Frank Coe, who with his cousin, George Coe, is the sole survivor of the Lincoln County War. Both Pat Garrett and Charlie Siringo attribute the killing of Roberts to Billy the Kid, but the Coe statement is unquestionably the true version.

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CHAPTER V
A Lull and Then the Deluge
There followed one of those brief lulls that occur in every stormone of those short respites when the blood-stained gladiators return to their respective corners to bind up their wounds, draw a few deep breaths, and prepare for the even gorier butchery that is to follow. Meanwhile, the all-powerful Santa F Ring, political powerhouse of New Mexico and the most lawless machine in that territorys history, became actively interested in the Lincoln County slaughter, lining up solidly behind the Murphy-Dolan-Riley faction. Headed by Attorney Thomas B. Catron, ruthless overlord of all the Southwest racket interests, the Santa F Ring numbered among its more notorious members, Samuel B. Axtell, Territorial Governor; and J. B. (Billy) Matthews, Clerk of the District Court. The allegiance of the Santa F Ring gave to the Murphy clan a semblance of legality and lawfulness that only the cold facts belied. The McSween-Chisum party were, as a logical outcome, declared the desperadoes and law-breakers. Sheriff William Brady, who never once had held a warrant for the arrest of Tunstalls murderers, was hot on the trail of the killers of Morton, Baker and Roberts, three of the known assassins of Tunstall. With the connivance of the Santa F Ring he succeeded in branding The Kid a mad dog, outlaw and murderer, who was wanted dead or alivebut preferably dead. In the same category, but to a lesser degree, fell McSween, Chisum and their followers. The lull in the storm was almost over. Dark clouds were again gathering. Soon the lightning would crackle. Soon the bloody deluge would begin again. On April 1st Brady, Billy Matthews, Deputy George Hindman and G. W. (Dad) Peppin started from the Murphy-Dolan-Riley store for the Court House, for the purpose of opening and closing the regular term of Court, which the judge had decided to postpone until a later day, as conditions in Lincoln County were too
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turbulent to render it safe to bring the opposite sides together. This was a cowardly and ill-advised course. A fearless judge might have been the means of settling matters then and there; but again the Santa F Ring asserted its power and the spineless judge weakly yielded to its commands. The four men were heavily armed. They had reached a point in the road a short distance from the Tunstall & McSween store when they were fired upon, from behind an adobe wall, by Billy the Kid, Jim French, Charlie Bowdre, Frank McNab, Tom OFolliard, Fred Wayte, Harvey Morris, Hendry Brown, Doc Scurlock, John Middleton, Sam Smith and Stephen Stevens. All of the ambushers were firing. Brady and Hindman were killed; Billy Matthews and Dad Peppin escaped by running into a house. Brady died instantly, but Hindman lived for almost an hour, lying in the hot sun and calling for water. No one seemed to have the courage to go near him until Ike Stockton,* a witness to the killing of Sheriff Brady, approached the fallen men. Hindman called faintly for water. The Rio Bonita was close at hand; Stockton brought water to him in his hat. After taking a mouthful, Hindman dropped back dead. As Stockton raised the wounded mans head, he discovered Matthews in his place of concealment. At this moment The Kid and some of his men leaped over the adobe wall and approached with the intention of taking the arms of Brady and Hindman. Stockton realized that Matthews would cut them down and he was equally sure that, were he to divulge Matthews presence, he himself would become the target. So he fenced, trying to persuade The Kid not to disturb the arms. But The Kid was determined. As he stooped to raise Bradys gun from the ground, a ball from Matthews rifle dashed it from his hand and plowed a furrow through his side, inflicting a painful, though not dangerous, wound. For once The Kid was baffled. To approach Matthews meant certain death; to persevere in his attempt to get Bradys gun was out of the question. Discretion prevailed and he returned to the McSween house with his men.

* Ike Stockton was a terror throughout the whole Southwest especially in Rio Arriba County. He was afterward killed at Durango, Colorado. At the time of the above-narrated events he was the owner of a saloon in Lincoln Plaza and reputedly a secret ally of Billy the Kid.

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Brady had nine bullets through his body; Hindman had one bullet through his back. The Kids enemies at once declared that he had killed both Brady and Hindman, but it was afterward proved that Hindman was shot by Frank McNab. Pat Garrett on one occasion told the writer that he doubted if The Kid had even fired at Brady because it was more likely that he would have tried to get Matthews, whom he hated. No matter who actually killed Brady and Hindman, it was charged to Billy the Kid. He was the recognized leader of the eleven ambushers and it was believed that a word from him would have prevented it. The killing was the very worst thing which could possibly have happened to the McSween side. It had the effect of changing public opinion, and adding fury to the feud, as it terrorized all the law-abiding citizens of the county.* People naturally blamed McSween for the killing, but he had absolutely nothing to do with it. As a matter of fact, he regretted the act more than anyone, with the possible exception of John S. Chisum. Moreover, the ambuscade had the effect of making real outlaws of all the men who participated in the shooting. At this time San Patricio, a small native Plaza on the Rio Ruidoso, some seven miles by mountain trail from Lincoln, was a favorite resort of The Kid and his companions. Most of the natives living in the Plaza were friendly and kept them well informed of the events transpiring in the county seat. At daylight on a day in June, Jose Miguel Sedillo, one of The Kids allies, reported that Jesse Evans, with a party from the lower Pecos River, was prowling around, no doubt with the intention of stealing Chisum-McSween horses in The Kids charge. Without waiting for breakfast, The Kid started out with five menBowdre, Brown, Scurlock, Middleton and OFolliard. With Brown, The Kid ascended a ridge on the west side of the Rio Ruidoso and followed it toward the old Brewer ranch, where
* Mrs. Susan E. Barber, formerly Mrs. Alexander A. McSween, who died not long ago at White Oaks, New Mexico, expressed herself as follows: The murder of Sheriff Brady was Billy the Kids own doing and was without excuse or palliation. McSween had no inkling that such a plot was in the wind. If he had known, it is doubtful if he could have prevented it. He was not the man to ride the whirlwind and direct the storm of the Lincoln County War. Leaving moral considerations out of the question, the murder was bad diplomacy. It was worse than a crime; it was a blunder. It flouted public opinion and gave the McSween cause a blow from which it never recovered.

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he had left the horses. He sent Bowdre with the other three men to follow the river on the east bank. After riding three miles, The Kid heard firing in Bowdres direction. The shots were scattered, as though a skirmish was in progress. The Kid dismounted, sending Brown ahead to circle a hill on the left, while he led his gray down the slope toward the shooting. He reached the foot of the mountain, crossed the river, and was laboriously climbing a steep ascent on the east when the clatter of a single horses hoofs arrested his attention. Through a gap in the hills he saw Brown riding furiously toward the north. At that moment a fusillade saluted his ears. Mounting, he rode through crevices, over ragged precipices, through brush, cactus and zacaton. A mile ahead was a gorge a mile wide. At the foot of the opposite hill a battle was taking place. Evans, with a band of eight men, had attacked Bowdres party. Both bands were fighting among the rocks and undergrowth. The Kid spied Bowdre in the hands of the enemy, among whom he recognized Evans. With one of his wellknown war-cries, The Kid dashed madly through the gorge. . . . Bowdres subsequent version of the events preceding his capture relates that Evans and his men attacked him about two miles from the hills. Having an inferior force, he ran for the foothills and made a stand among the rock and brush. Several harmless shots were fired during the chase. Evans made a detour of the hill to avoid the range of Bowdres guns and the skirmish commenced. Bowdre became separated from his men. He saw Brown riding to the rescue and seeking an ambush on the east side of the hill. Evans also saw Brown and sent a shower of lead after him. This was the volley that attracted The Kid and brought him to the scene. Thinking to join Brown, who had not recognized him, Bowdre ran from cover but fell into the hands of Evans and four of his men. He was powerless against such numbers and his only hope was to stand off Evans until assistance arrived. No shots were fired, as Evans and his party covered him with their revolvers and took him prisoner. Evans blue eyes danced with glee, albeit a devil lurked about the corners, as he bantered Bowdre.

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Wheres The Kid, Charlie? he asked. I expected to meet him this morning. Im hungry and thought Id flay and roast him for breakfast. We all want to hear him bleat. Bowdre choked back the retort which rose to his lips. He was dismounted and his gun was in its scabbard; his captors made no attempt to relieve him of it. He stood with his hand resting on his horses haunch. Three of Evans men were dismounted; two of their horses were standing side by side, each bridle rein thrown over the others saddle-horn. It was at this moment that The Kids yell rang out. The Evans crowd seemed paralyzed. There comes your breakfast, Jesse, remarked Bowdre. All gazed in wonderment at the apparition of a gray horse, saddled and bridled dashing across the a leg valley with no semblance of a rider, save a thrown across the saddle and a head and arm protruding from beneath the neck. At the end of the arm glistened the barrel of a pistol. The gray dashed headlong among the amazed gazers. The Kids voice rang out, Mount, Charlie, mount! He straightened himself in the saddle and drew rein, but before he could check his bullet speed, the powerful gray had breasted two horses and thrown them heavily. One mounted man lost his seat and fell beneath his horse. Triumph in his eye, Bowdre seized his gun, mounted and ranged himself beside The Kid. The meeting of The Kid and Evans was a sight not soon to be forgotten. These two beardless desperadoes, neither of them yet twenty-one years of age, both boyish in appearance and experienced in crime, were of nearly equal size. Each had earned a reputation for desperate daring. They had slept together on the prairies, by the camp fire, in Mexican plazas and on the mountain tops; they had fought the Mescaleros and Chiricahuas side by side; they had shared their last dollar and their last chunk of dried deer meat. No one seeing their smiling faces would have thought they were mortal foes. They appeared nonchalant and unconstrained as they sat their chafing horses, each with a cocked revolver on his thigh. But neithers eyes for an instant left the others face.

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At length, Evans laughingly broke the silence: Well, Billy, this is a hell of a way to introduce yourself to a private picnic party. What do you want anyhow? How are you, Jess? answered The Kid. Its a long time since we met. Come over to Miguel Sedillos and have breakfast with me. Ive been wanting to talk to you for a long time, but Im powerful hungry. Ive wanted to see you too, but not exactly in this shape. Yes? I understand you are hunting the men who killed that Englishman, and I wanted to tell you neither I nor any of my men were there. You know me. If I was there I wouldnt deny it to you or anyone else. I know you werent there, Jess, said The Kid. If you had have been, the ball would have been opened without words. Well then, why do you jump us up in this style for? Youd scare a fellow half to death that didnt know you as well as I do. Ask your prisoner here. Hell tell you all about it, said The Kid. You wont have breakfast with me then? Well, so long! One thing more. Theres a party from Seven Rivers lurking around here. Theyre badly stuck after a bunch of horses which Ive been in charge of. The horses are right over the hills there, at Brewers old ranch. If you meet that crowd, tell them that theyre welcome to the critters, but Ill be there when they receive them and Ill make them kill me first. Come on, put up your pistol, Jess, and rest your hand. With these words The Kid slowly raised his pistol hand from his thigh; Evans as deliberately raised his. Their eyes were fixed on each other. Simultaneously, the muzzles of their pistols were lowered. Ive got some more men scattered around here, remarked Evans. So have I, said The Kid. Now, Jess, you ride down the arroyo, pointing east, and Ill ride to the top of the hills, pointing west. Ill get my men together in a moment, and I suppose you can herd yours. No treachery, Jess. If I hear a shot, Ill know which side it comes from. Old Gray doesnt care where he carries me, and, by God, he can run!
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With these words The Kid reined his horse toward the Rio Ruidoso and without turning his head rode leisurely away. Bowdre sat still for a moment watching Evans, whose eyes followed The Kid. At last Evans wheeled his horse and muttered: By God, hes a cool one! Then he called his followers and dashed down the arroyo. Bowdre rejoined The Kid and in twenty minutes the whole party was reunited. Thus ended this bloodless encounter. Early in July, The Kid, with fourteen men, visited John Chisums South Spring Ranch, five miles from Roswell. Here he remained, prepared to defend his position to the last. Meanwhile ominous events were transpiring in Lincoln. Following the killing of Sheriff William Brady, George W. Peppin was appointed his successor by Governor Axtell and the Santa F Ring. No sooner did he become sheriff than Peppin moved lock, stock and barrel to the Murphy-Dolan-Riley store, where he set up his headquarters. As in the case of Brady, Peppin was prepared to carry out any orders issued by the bosses. One of Peppins first moves was to arm his lieutenant, Marion Turner, with some warrants for the arrest of The Kid for murder. Turner, with a force of deputies, rode to Chisums Ranch to make the capture. But he found the ranch a veritable stronghold. Fourteen determined men could have held it against an army. Realizing the futility of attacking in the open, Turner turned back, leaving several of his spies in the vicinity. One morning Turner learned that The Kid had left his quarters and had started up the Pecos River toward Fort Sumner. He held several warrants against The Kid for murder. He now swore to arrest him, kill him or die in the attempt. With his full force of forty deputy sheriffs, he took the trail. After riding twenty miles he decided that The Kids movement was a blind, and turning west, he left the trail and took a short-cut to Lincoln. The result proved his judgment sound, as The Kid and his band were there, safely barricaded in the beautiful McSween home. Turner reported to Sheriff Peppin that The Kid, Tom OFolliard, Jim French, Doc Scurlock and Harvey Morris were entrenched in the McSween residence, together with Mrs. McSween, her sister, Mrs. Elizabeth Shields and Mrs. Ealy, the
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Presbyterian ministers wife. McSween himself was out in the country. A Murphy-Dolan-Riley council of war was immediately called. Around a big table in the back room of the Murphy store sat Peppin, Turner, Dolan, Kip McKinney, Andy Boyle, Old Man Pierce and several other lesser lights. That McSween bunch wont last longer than a snowball in hell, shouted Peppin. Weve got them all nowThe Kid and all his crowd. Well burn down the building and kill every last one of em as they come out. What if they sneak out on us? someone asked. They cant, said Peppin. Weve got deputies all around the house. Then Turner had an idea. Suppose Dolan, McKinney and I creep up to the house and ask them to surrender. Well guarantee them protection if they give up but if they refuse well kill every last one of them. The idea caught on with the conspirators and Turner, Dolan and McKinney left on their mission. They went to the McSween house, and from behind the protection of an adobe wall Turner called to The Kid: Weve got you surrounded. If you keep up the fight well kill you all, but if you surrender well promise that not one of you will be harmed. The Kid yelled back: What kind of a damn fool do you think I am? Well guarantee you all absolute protection, said Turner. The Kid laughed: Ill not move an inch from here. If you really want me, come on and take me. Start your ball a-rolling; were ready for you. Whats more, Ill promise you the killing wont all be on your side of the house. At this moment loud yelling mixed with pistol shots was heard down the road, east of the town. Then came the sound of horses hoofs. Turner, Dolan and McKinney did not wait to learn what it meant; they started post-haste for the Murphy store to rejoin Sheriff Peppin and the War Council. The disturbance was caused by McSween entering the town from his ranch, Rio del Ruidoso, with thirty-five men, led by Don
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Martin Chavez of Picacho, who had insisted on coming to Lincoln to protect his friends against the Murphy-Dolan-Riley gang. Peppin and all his deputies ran to cover inside the Murphy store and the hotel, where they intrenched themselves against possible attack. Under cover of night, McSween, Francisco Zamora, Ignacio Gonzales, Vicente Romero, Hijinio Salazar and Jose Chavez y Chavez quietly entered the McSween residence without being fired upon by the enemy. The Murphy-Dolan-Riley forces were strongly intrenched in the Murphy store in the western part of the town and in the Murphy-Dolan-Riley Hotel, just across the way from the store and on the same side of the street as the McSween store and residence. In McSweens home were eleven men and three women: McSween, OFolliard, French, Billy the Kid, Francisco Zamora, Vicente Romero, Scurlock, Morris, Ignacio Gonzales, Hijinio Salazar, Jose Chavez y Chavez, Mrs. McSween, Mrs. Shields and Mrs. Ealy. In the McSween store were Charlie Bowdre, George Coe and Hendry Brown. At the extreme eastern end of the town Don Martin Chavez and his remaining thirty men occupied the Montaa and Patron homes. Sheriff Peppin had placed some sharpshooters on the hills south of the town, overlooking the McSween store and residence, as well as the homes of Montaa and Patron. The latter contained many women and children. Peppins sharpshooters practically commanded the town. There was no lack of expert rifle-shots on either of the opposing sides: Charlie Crawford and Lucio Montoya were two of Peppins most effective sharpshooters, while Fernando Herrera held a similar distinction in the Chavez flank of the McSween-Chisum band. Late in the afternoon, a duel of sharpshooters began. For some time Herrera had been watching Crawford and Montoya, on their hillside, through field glasses, to determine the proper range. The distance was nine hundred yards. When he had his gun sighted he waited for Crawford to show himself. Crawford raised himself to aim his rifle and at that moment Herrera pulled the trigger. The bullet struck the trigger of Crawfords rifle, glanced downward, passing through his body and breaking his back. Crawford leaped
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into the air with a piercing yell and rolled down to the bottom of the hill, where he lay in the hot sun the balance of the day, suffering intensely for want of water. No one could approach him, and when he was found at night he was dead. A Government ambulance hauled the body to Fort Stanton. Sheriff Peppins plans were altered by the arrival of Don Martin Chavez and his thirty-five men. This made the sides more even; and after Herrera killed Crawford at a distance of nine hundred yards, it became evident that henceforth the deputies must keep themselves hidden behind their breast-works. At a second council of war it was decided to send to Fort Stanton for troops and to dislodge the eleven men and three women. At this time, blustering Colonel N. A. M. Dudley was commander of Fort Stanton. He was one of those officers whose principal duty seemed to be to consume the good liquor furnished by Murphy, Dolan and Riley. A friend of the Murphy-Dolan-Riley faction, he did not feel that he could refuse Peppins summons. He dispatched his orderly, gathered a troop of cavalry, a squad of artillery with a Gatling gun and a twelve-pounder, and started on the double-quick for Lincoln. Colonel Dudley himself took command. The Government troops entered the west end of the town, passing the Murphy headquarters, where they were cheered by the concealed deputies in the store and hotel. They proceeded to the McSween residence, where they halted. The Colonel sent in his aide to summon McSween to appear. McSween responded promptly, hoping for a speedy truce. Everyone in the house came to the front to learn what the troops intended to do. This was the long-looked-for opportunity to set fire to the building and burn them out like rats. This was Dolans scheme and the aid of the United States troops had at last made its realization possible. The rear of the McSween house was now entirely deserted; not a man had been left to guard the back rooms. They all logically believed that since matters were in the hands of the Government, hostilities must cease at least for the time being. But Jimmie Dolan did not propose that his friends, the United States troops, should
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stand in the way of his burning the buildings which housed his personal enemies. Aided by three of his henchmen, who carried kindling, pitch-pine and coal oil, Dolan rushed to the rear of the house and set fire to the woodwork. A stiff breeze was blowing. The flames rapidly spread to the beams, rafters and the roof. The building and all its occupants were doomed to destruction. There were twelve rooms in the house, and it was only a question of time till they would all be reached. The one chance seemed to be that the fire would burn slowly and well into the night. This would give the McSween followers an opportunity to escape in the darkness. They were cornered. They must either burn to death or rush into the hands of Murphys assassins, who would welcome them with volleys of bullets. The situation was desperate. Mrs. McSween was the first to detect the odor of smoke and burning oil when she entered the house after the departure of Colonel Dudley and his soldiers. The conference had ended with only one result: the McSween residence had been set on fire and left to burn. Colonel Dudley established his camp in the street between the McSween and Murphy stores, placing his cannon in a depression in the road between the opposing factions. He announced that he would turn his guns loose on the clan which fired the first shot over the heads of his troops. Yet though the firing went on, the big guns remained silent. The shooting went on while McSween read passages from his Bible, and offered up prayers to God. This was rather amusing to the desperate and hardened men who were defending the house. The Kid had offered McSween a gun but he refused even to touch it, saying: I would much rather die than spill one drop of human blood. The soldiers are our only hope, Mrs. McSween said.* I am going at once to appeal to Colonel Dudley for the protection we are entitled to as American citizens.
* In Walter Noble Burns book, The Saga of Billy the Kid, on pages 128, 129, 135 and 136, he states that Mrs. McSween played the piano during the ordeal through which she was passing. This statement is absolutely false. Any sensible person reading the paragraph will realize the obvious fallacy of such a flight of imagination. On May 12, 1926, Mrs. Susan E. Barber (the former Mrs. A. A. McSween) wrote to the author as follows: Can you imagine any woman with a humane nature sitting at a piano playing national airs when the house was burning?

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McSween tried to dissuade her: Cant you see, he is hand and glove with Murphy? He will never listen to you. But McSween was unable to change her mind. As she stepped out of the front door, several shots were fired at her from the Murphy store, narrowly missing her. But when it was discovered that it was Mrs. McSween, the firing ceased and she proceeded directly to the tent of Colonel Dudley. She found him in conversation with Peppin, Kip McKinney and several other Murphy men. She pleaded with Dudley for protection but he stubbornly refused. I have no authority to interfere, he said. Then why are you here? Simply to aid the civil authorities if they call on me, he answered. Who are the civil authorities? Sheriff Peppin and his deputies. Then we are done for. Sheriff Peppin and his deputies are the leaders of the Murphy gang and all of them are crying for our blood. Firing ceased as Mrs. McSween tearfully returned to her home and told the defenders the result of her visit. In utter desperation, she went again to Colonel Dudley and begged him, on her knees, to save the lives of her husband and the other ten men. Again he refused. Have you no mercy? she cried. I have already told you, I will not interfere in your behalf, he yelled. There was nothing left for her to do. She rose and went back to her home. Then, with her sister and Mrs. Ealy, she left the burning house to find shelter. By this time only two of the twelve rooms were untouched by fire. Night came. Only one course was opena daring break for liberty. Another room was ablaze; only one remained. The Kid was cheerful. He gave orders like a veteran, coolly, calmly, without a sign of fear. The fire was now making inroads into the last room. The time has arrived, said The Kid quietly. We must move. Remember, we have just one chance in a million! Lets take it!
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Harvey Morris and Francisco Zamora were the first to run for it. They both dropped dead, riddled with bullets. Vicente Romero came next. He called out that he would surrender, but he too was shot dead. The Kid now summoned McSween who had been calmly reading his Bible. Here, said The Kid, take this gun and make a run for your life. McSween merely brushed the gun to one side and clasping his Bible firmly under his arm, was preparing to go when he heard a commotion behind him. He turned just as Hijinio Salazar made a run for the door. Salazars head struck McSween a terrific blow in the face, knocking him prostrate on the ground. Blood spurted in all directions from his mouth and nose. He gathered himself together and was sitting on a small pile of wood near the door when Bob Beckwith, of Peppins gang, dashed around the corner. Seeing McSween just inside the door, Beckwith fired at him at close range, killing him. As McSween fell head foremost through the doorway, a volley of bullets penetrated his inanimate body. Still unsatisfied, the deputies poured volley after volley into the lifeless body. At this moment Beckwith reappeared, waving his pistol above his head and yelling: Im the man who killed McSween. Ive won the reward. The Kid heard Beckwith. Yes, you won the reward all right, he said and at the same instant fired at Beckwith, hitting him between the eyes and killing him instantly. The killing of McSween must have dimmed the deputies eyesight. Their aim was not accurate when they shot at Jim French, Doc Scurlock, Jose Chavez y Chavez, Ignacio Gonzales and Hijinio Salazar. The first three were unscratched. Gonzales was struck in the arm, but continued to run, eventually getting away. Hijinio Salazar was badly wounded and dropped, feigning death. Afterward he recovered. The Kid and Tom OFolliard were the last to leave the burning house, the former in the lead. As he emerged from the door, with a pistol in either hand, a wild shout rang out from the deputies: Look out, here comes The Kid! Aim carefully and get him. Not a shot struck him. In a moment he was over the wall and safely hidden in the darkness. More than fifty shots were fired at him but not
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a one took effect. As his personal contribution he left Beckwith dead and wounded Kip McKinney and Old Man Pierce. Tom OFolliard was the last to leave the yard. He saw Harvey Morris lying on the ground and stopped to pick him up. Discovering that he was dead, he dropped the body and amid a shower of lead made his escape unharmed. Turners flank of the Murphy-Dolan-Riley faction suffered casualties of two menCharles Crawford and Bob Beckwith. The McSween party lost four menMcSween, Harvey Morris, Francisco Zamora and Vicente Romero. The fight ended The Kids connection with the Lincoln County War. With both Tunstall and McSween dead, the war was over. Sheriff Peppin and his deputies retired from office immediately after the bloody fight of July I4.

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CHAPTER VI
The Kid at Fort Sum ner
After the burning of McSweens residence, Charlie Bowdre, Hendry Brown and George Coe, who had been guarding the McSween store, made their getaway and took to the hills. The Kid and his followers fled to the mountains, where they rested, undisturbed by Peppin and his deputies. On August 5th, The Kid, Tom OFolliard, Doc Scurlock, Charlie Bowdre, Fred Wayte, John Middleton and Hendry Brown made a raid on some ponies belonging to Indians on the Mescalero Reservation. The Reservation bookkeeper, Joe Bernstein, formerly in the employ of Murphy, Dolan and Riley, rode out and commanded the men to leave. One of the robbers fired at Bernstein, killing him instantly. Naturally, it was charged to The Kid although it was later proved that another fired the shot. In the middle of August, The Kid, Tom OFolliard, Fred Wayte, John Middleton and Hendry Brown moved to Fort Sumner, where they made their new headquarters. Charlie Bowdre and Doc Scurlock were both married to native women living in Lincoln County. They remained with their families but avoided publicity. On September 10th of the same year, The Kid, Tom OFolliard, Fred Wayte and Hendry Brown left Fort Sumner for Lincoln County to make a raid on the ranch of Charles Fritz, on the Rio Bonita, eight miles east of Lincoln. Fritz was a close friend of Murphy, Dolan and Riley, and The Kid and his band, of course, had no use for him. They succeeded in stealing from him about twenty head of horses and, returning to Fort Sumner with their booty, they hid it in one of their favorite spots in that locality. On The Kids return to Fort Sumner he met John Long, an old buffalo hunter, who was six feet tall, and was noted for being a fine shot. When drinking, he often became boisterous and offensive, constantly bullying smaller men. He wanted it generally understood that he was a bad man.
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This day, Long had been drinking heavily and was shooting up the town. The Kid sauntered out of one of the stores and saw the fireworks. To avoid being hit by a stray bullet, he jumped behind a tree-box. Long did not know The Kid. When he saw him dodge behind the tree-box, he cried, Come out, buddy; dont be afraid. I wont hurt you. The hell you wont! replied The Kid. Theres no danger of you hurting anybody unless you do it accidentally. They say you always kill your men by accident. This retort angered Long who had but recently killed a man at Fort Griffin, Texas, and had saved himself from a mob by pleading that it was an accident. He eyed The Kid viciously. Where are you from, buddy? Im from every place on earth but this, replied The Kid. Then they separated. The next day Long, still drunk, with several companions stood at the bar of one of the little tendijons of the town when The Kid, in company with Charlie Payne, entered and passed to the rear of the store. Long hailed them. Where do you think youre going, you damned little bastard? The Kid wheeled quickly, walked up to him, his eyes ablaze, and said quietly: Who did you address that remark to, sir? Oh! I was just joking with that other fellow, said Long. Be very careful how you joke fellows in whose company I happen to be. Youll notice that Im the littlest of the two. I am too stupid to understand your jokes. If you ever drop another one that hits the ground as close to me as that last one did, Ill crack your crust. Do you understand? Long made no reply. He was completely cowed. The Kid scowled at him a moment, then walked carelessly away. The big buffalo hunter never bothered The Kid again. He was later killed at a plains ranch by a native named Trujillo. When The Kid had been a few days in Fort Sumner he, OFolliard, Bowdre, Wayte, Brown and Middleton took the Fritz horses up the Pecos River with the intention of increasing the herd before they finally drove them out of the country. They raided the Grzelachowski ranch at Alamo Gordo, and ranches at Juan de Dios,
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increasing their plunder to about forty head. Then they took a course almost due east to the Texas Panhandle. On the way Charlie Bowdre sold out his interest to his companions and returned to Fort Sumner, where he and Doc Scurlock were employed by Pete Maxwell to herd cattle. The Kid, with his remaining four companions, went on to Tascosa, on the Canadian River, in Oldham County, Texas. Fred Roth of Colonias raised a posse of ten men and followed the party to Hubbells Springs, got a good look at the horses and the five men, but without firing a shot returned to the river. The Kid and his four companions quickly disposed of their herd and equally divided the spoils. They now discussed their future plans. Middleton, Wayte and Brown decided to quit before it was too late, go back East, change their names and live in quiet for the balance of their days. They tried to persuade The Kid and Tom OFolliard to join them but all their arguments failed. They finally separatedMiddleton, Wayte and Brown riding toward the rising sun while The Kid and OFolliard headed their horses westward, back to the old rendezvous near Fort Sumner to join Charlie Bowdre and Doc Scurlock. On their arrival at Fort Sumner, they soon learned of the proclamation issued by President Rutherford B. Hayes directing all men under arms to return to their homes. At about the same time General Lew Wallace was appointed Governor of New Mexico, succeeding Samuel B. Axtell, a henchman of the Santa F Ring and the Murphy-Dolan-Riley gang. Those who had homes went to them, including The Kid, who left for Frank Coes ranch, where he secured work. He intended to make his future home with the Coes, who thought a great deal of him and wanted him with them. Everything was moving along smoothly till rumors were circulated that warrants were out for The Kids arrest for the murder of Sheriff Brady in the Lincoln County War. He was advised that since his old enemies were again at work against him, he had better leave the country. He lost no time in getting ready, Coe providing him with everything he needed. On the afternoon of the day he was to leave he learned that a posse of twenty-five men were after him. He left his comfortable home and devoted friends, and again took to the mountains aloneexcluded
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from the protection of the law, forced into hiding during the day, never sure that a desperado, protected by an official commission, would not fire upon him from ambush. His benefactors were looked upon with suspicion; the civil authorities were those old enemies who could neither forgive nor forget. The nineteen-yearold Billy the Kid was hunted like a wild Russian boar, with less chance for his life than even the boar. He headed for the old military post near the Gallinas Mountains in northern Lincoln County, abandoned for many years, and now in ruins. When he reached the deserted post it was night and he was tired from his long, lonely ride. He went into one of the old buildings, taking his horse into the room with him, for he had received information from a native boy while en route that a posse of twenty-five deputies was after him. The posse found his trail, finally reaching the old post, where they had no trouble in locating him. They surrounded the place and one, more daring than the rest, advanced to an open window, and called out: Surrender, Kid; weve got you entirely surrounded. The Kid answered almost immediately: You take care of your own head. Ill try hard to take care of mine. The deputy repeated: Surrender now or well take you back to Lincoln strapped on the back of one of our pack-horses. The man became a little bolder, and with cocked pistol in his hand, came closer to the open window. He was in the act of peeping in when The Kid saw him. Realizing the mans intention, The Kid fired, killing him instantly. Despite the presence of the remaining twenty-four deputies, The Kid mounted his mare and made a bold dash for liberty. The posse shot volley after volley at him but could not see him because of the darkness. Not a shot touched The Kid or his mare. He rode to Camaleon, and finding a rough, craggy plot of ground, stopped for a much-needed rest, determined, if pursued, to fight to the last. He tied the mare and went to sleep. Ere long he was awakened by a slight noise, to again find himself surrounded by the posse, but this time he was out of range. One man in the party, a native, had the daring to go near him. When he got as close as The Kid would permit, he heard The Kid call out: You are as near to me as youre going to get. Now start back. I
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dont want to hurt you or any of my old friends. Go back and tell some of them who are hiding to come up here themselves and try to take me. The man was glad to get back with his whole hide. It was now dusk. The Kid, refreshed, mounted his mare and again started for Fort Sumner, the posse being careful to keep out of range of his Winchester. He reached Fort Sumner, and met his friends, OFolliard, Bowdre and Scurlock, who were in the same boat as he. The Presidents proclamation had been disregarded by the civil authorities; they considered it opportune to make arrests after the boys had surrendered their arms. The Kid was being hounded like a mad dog, for the gang had determined to have his blood. Rewards were offered for his captureDead or Alive. His only safety was in hiding out. The wonder is that he lived as long as he did. He was forced to lead the life of an outlaw; he had no other choice. But he had many true friends in Lincoln County and around Fort Sumner, who were always glad to help him and keep him advised of the movements of those seeking his life. During the latter part of December, 1878, he and Tom OFolliard revisited Lincoln. George Kimbrel, who had been elected sheriff to succeed Peppin, held warrants for their arrest. He managed to capture the two men and locked them up in the old jail. That night they walked out of the rickety building and fleeing to Fort Sumner, continued their spasmodic cattle raids. For the time being they were on top of the world. They had enough money for their immediate needs, as the result of their cattle thefts, and were accepted in the best frontier society. In fact, they attended many of the parties and dances given by the leading families at Fort Sumner. The Kid was always a favorite with the women, who admired him as much for his courteous manners and perfect dancing as for the glamour and mystery that attached to his name. At this time he fell head over heels in love with one of the girls at the fort; in fact his deep-rooted affection for her proved to be the immediate cause of his death. The Kid paid another visit to Lincoln in February of 1879, meeting his old friendly enemy, Jesse Evans, who in turn arranged
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a conference with his two arch foes, Jimmy Dolan and Billy Matthews. After a few angry words a reconciliation was staged, all four agreeing to bury the hatchet. The Kid returned to Fort Sumner, but in March of the same year he and OFolliard made another trip to Lincoln, this time showing their respect for the law by putting aside their firearms. This was what the Murphyites had been waiting for. No sooner did The Kid and OFolliard appear in the town without their guns, than they were arrested on old warrants and clapped under guard in Don Juan Patrons house. Handcuffed, but otherwise well-treated, they were under the custody of Deputy Sheriff Tom B. Longworth, a warm friend of The Kid, who promised not to attempt an escape. Thereafter, their enforced stay at the Patron home was a most pleasant one. They ate heartily and well, smoked the best cigars and played poker with the occasional friends who dropped in to see them. The Kid was in a cheerful mood and appeared contented with his lot. Handcuffs never bothered him. He had small hands and large wrists; consequently, it was a simple matter to remove the handcuffs whenever he felt so inclined. When a friend entered, he would slip his hands from the irons, shake heartily with the new arrival, and with a bright smile remark: No sense in my disgracing you, or Im not going to give you a chance to steal my jewelry, old man. But The Kid kept his promise to Longworth as long as he remained at Juan Patrons house, never making the slightest move to escape. On March 21, 1879, Longworth received orders to place the two prisoners in jaila dismal hole, unfit for a dog-kennel. Then The Kid said: Tom, Ive sworn I would never go inside that hole again, alive. I dont see how either you or I can help it, said Longworth. I dont want to put you there; I dont want to put anyone there. But those are my orders. The Kid walked gloomily to the jail door; then stopping he said: Tom, Im going in here because I wont have any trouble with you, but Id give all Ive got if the bastard that gave the order was in your shoes. He passed into the hall where his cell was pointed out to him. Taking a pencil from his pocket he wrote on the
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unpainted pine door: William Bonney was incarcerated first time; December 22, 1878. Second time, March 21, 1879, and hope I never will be again. W. H. Bonney. It was openly stated on the streets of Lincoln that the sheriff often tired of feeding his prisoners, and ordered them put into jail, knowing that they could walk out whenever they desired. The Kid and OFolliard walked out of the jail, and, to show their contempt for the sheriff, remained in Lincoln for over two weeks, appearing on the street in broad daylight, with pistols buckled on and Winchesters in their hands, cursing the sheriff to their hearts content. In April they returned to Fort Sumner loafing there until October. About this time The Kid, Tom OFolliard, Charlie Bowdre, Doc Scurlock and two native boys living at Fort Sumner, rounded up a bunch of cattle, said to have been Jingle-bobs from the Chisum herd. These were driven to the Alamo Gordo, near the ranch of A. Grzelachowski, and sold to some Colorado beef buyers. It was afterward rumored that John Chisum followed this herd, and recovered all of them. In January, 1880, a man known as Joe Grant arrived at Fort Sumner. He began drinking. In his cups he implied that he had come to Fort Sumner for the purpose of earning a reputation by killing The Kid. That he had killed other men and really did have an ugly disposition was generally believed by those with whom he came into contact. One day he was heard to remark, I like to pick these fighters and lay them out on their own dung hill. They say The Kid is a bad citizen, but I am his master, any jump in the road. The Kid heard this boast but kept his own counsel. At the same time he continued to drink and chum with Grant. But no movement of his companion escaped his quick eye. At this time James Chisum, a brother of John Chisum, went to Caon Cueva, near to Juan de Dios, and there recovered a bunch of stolen Chisum cattle. He returned, stopping off at Sumner. In Chisums party were young Herbert, Jack Finan and William Hutchinson. The Kid, Barney Mason and Charlie Thomas rode out to Chisums camp and demanded to look through the herd for the XIX brand. They did so, but found none.
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Then The Kid good-naturedly insisted that Chisum and his men go to Bob Hargroves saloon and have a drink. There they found Joe Grant, viciously drunk and keen for trouble. As the party entered, he snatched a fine ivory-handled pistol from Jack Finans scabbard, and put his own in its place. The Kid, his eye on Grant, remarked: That sure is a beauty, Joe. Let me see it. He took the pistol from his hand and revolved the chambers. It was The Kids purpose to extract some of the cartridges. He found only three bullets, so deftly whirling the chambers until the next action would be a blank he returned the gun to Grant. The latter flourished it about, at last saying to The Kid: Pard, Ill kill a man quicker than you canfor the whisky. What do you want to kill anybody for? asked The Kid. Put up your gun and lets have a drink. During the conversation, Grant had walked behind the bar and was knocking decanters and glasses about with his pistol. Thus, with the bar between him and the crowd, and with his revolver in hand, it seemed to him that he had the drop on anyone in the room. The Kid, who had been watching his every move, now remarked: Let me help you break up housekeeping, Pard, and drawing his pistol, he too started knocking glassware about. I want to kill John Chisum anyhow, the damned old son of a bitch, said Grant, eyeing Chisum wickedly. Youve got the wrong pig by the ear, Joe, said The Kid. Thats not John Chisum. Thats a lie! shouted Grant. I know a damned sight better. Turning his pistol full on The Kid, who was smiling sarcastically, he pulled the trigger, but the empty chamber refused to respond. With an oath he again raised the hammer, as a bullet from The Kids revolver crashed through his brain. He fell dead behind the bar. The Kid threw the shell from his pistol, saying: Unfortunate fool! Ive been there too often to let a man of his calibre overhaul my baggage. I wonder if hes a specimen of the Texas desperadoes? For the next month nothing of importance occurred at Fort Sumner, but in the middle of February, 1880, The Kid organized another expedition, starting from the Bosque Grande. In the party
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were The Kid, Billy Wilson, Mose Dedrick, Paz Chavez, Hijinio Salazar and Seor Mora. Their object was to steal a bunch of ponies belonging to the Mescalero Apaches from their reservation. They got away with 48 head, which they traded and sold up and down the Pecos River. In May, 1880, The Kid, Charlie Bowdre, a man named Pruett, and still another of their accomplices, possibly Billy Wilson, left Fort Sumner, and rode in an easterly direction. Near Portales, they rounded up a bunch of 54 head of beef cattle, belonging to cattle owners living on the Canadian River, in Oldham County, Texas. These they drove to White Oaks, and sold to Thomas Cooper for $10 a head. They returned to Fort Sumner sometime in June, 1880, with a bunch of horses they had gathered near White Oaks. In July, 1880, they purloined a bunch of cattle belonging to John Newcomb, at Agua Azul (Blue Water), branded them and turned them loose on the open range. Later in the summer they drove off a bunch of 10 work-steers, the property of a Mexican at Fort Sumner, and sold them, together with 20 beef-steers, to John Singer, a Las Vegas butcher. The Mexican who owned the worksteers followed them to Las Vegas, recovering them from John Singer. From July until about the middle of November The Kid and his companions led a quiet life in and around Fort Sumner. They had evidently been making their plans, for soon after The Kid and several of his party were seen in the neighborhood of White Oaks. On the night of November 22, 1880, an attempt was made, by some unknown men, to steal a bunch of horses belonging to J. B. Bell, of White Oaks. Early on the following morning, it was reported that The Kid and his gang were camping at Blakes Saw Mill, near town. With this information Deputy Sheriff William H. Hudgens summoned a posse, consisting of George Neil, John N. Hudgens, John Longworth, James Carlyle, James S. Redmond, J. P. Baker, J. W. Bell and William Stone. The party rode to the camp, but found it deserted. They soon struck the trail and followed it in the direction of Coyote Springs. When nearing the Springs, they were fired upon from ambush, and the horse ridden by John N. Hudgens was killed. The fire was quickly returned, and The Kids horse was
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killed. The outlaws fled. When the posse reached the camp, they found a fine saddle and an overcoat, both said to be the property of The Kid. During the foray, Buck Edwards and a man named Cook, members of The Kids party, became separated. The Kid and his men waited until the posse was well out of sight. Then they too took the road to White Oaks, the pursued becoming the pursuers. They rode to the West & Dedrick stables, where they all except The Kid remained. He went on to the main street of the town. A man who knew The Kid well was standing just inside the door of a clubroom when The Kid entered with his broad-brimmed hat drawn down over his eyes. The man was about to address him when a quick, warning glance and a whispered: Chicto! compadre! interrupted his intended greeting. The Kid stayed in the background but bore himself with as much nonchalance as if he were a daily visitor there. If anyone else observed him it was not an enemy, for fully half of Hudgens men were in the room. Undoubtedly, he went to the clubroom with the intention of squaring accounts with some stool-pigeon who was giving information to the authorities, at the same time pretending to be his friend. Just who it was can only be surmised. The squealers absence from the room saved his life, for no fear of danger would have stayed The Kid had he found him. Many people believed it was Jimmy Carlyle, who had always appeared to be a friend of The Kid, and whom he had seen with the Hudgens posse. At any rate, more than one heart beat desperately and more than one cheek paled when, on the following morning, it became known that The Kid had been in White Oaks. The following day, November 23, was The Kids twenty-first birthday. That night he and his companions rode boldly into White Oaks at nine oclock, and seeing Jim Redmond standing in front of William Hudgens saloon, fired at him. It was a moonless night and the shelter of the buildings handy, so no one was hurt. The desperadoes rode out of town, and on the outskirts came suddenly upon Jimmy Carlyle and J. N. Bell, whom Hudgens had left on guard. The two deputies fired on the outlaws without visible effect. As soon as Carlyle and Bell reported their meeting with the band, another posse was raised by Longworth, consisting of Deputy
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Sheriff William H. Hudgens, John N. Hudgens, James Watts, John Mosby, James Brent, J. P. Langston, Ed Bonnell, W. G. Dorsey, J. W. Bell, J. P. Baker, Charles Kelly and Jimmy Carlyle. They left White Oaks that evening, took the road to Las Vegas, and rode directly to the ranch of Greathouse & Kuck, about forty miles distant. Here, from what they believed to be confidential information, they expected to find The Kid and his band. Arriving at about three oclock on the morning of the 24th, they erected four breastworks at available points, within easy rifle range of the house. The first visible movement from the house came from the old German cook, Steck. He was captured by Brent and Eaker, and soon told all he knew: The Kid and his band were in the house. William Hudgens wrote a note to The Kid, demanding his surrender, and had Steck take it into the house. Steck soon returned, accompanied by Greathouse, and bearing The Kids reply: You can take me as a corpse. William Hudgens told Greathouse he wanted The Kid, Dave Rudabaugh, and Billy Wilson. To this, Greathouse replied: If you want them, go and take them. Hudgens then sent word to Billy Wilson, requesting him to come out and have a parley. Wilson declined, but said he would like to talk to Jimmy Carlyle. Hudgens was against letting Carlyle go, but Greathouse said: Let him go. No harm will come to him. Ill remain here as a hostage. If hes hurt, you can kill me. Carlyle was determined to go. No argument could dissuade him. He disarmed himself, entered the stronghold, and remained there for several hours. At about two oclock, the men on the outside were startled by a loud crash, like the shattering of a window. Carlyle appeared, leaped out, and made a rush for the posses barricades. There was a sharp rattle of firearms from within, accompanied by several shots, and Carlyle fell dead within twenty feet of the window. The posse had been twenty four hours without food and water, and had suffered from cold and exposure as well. Consequently, they decided to return to White Oaks, taking with them every horse on the ranch.
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That night The Kid and his band escaped, afoot. They headed for Anton Chico, where they got horses, then proceeded to Lanes Mail Station, where they ate breakfast. From there they left for Las Caaditas. Their number was reduced to threeThe Kid, Dave Rudabaugh, and Billy Wilsonbut on their arrival at Las Caaditas they were joined by Tom OFolliard, Charlie Bowdre, and Tom Pickett.

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CHAPTER VII
Enter Sher iff Pat Gar rett
Pat F. Garrett was elected sheriff of Lincoln County, at the November, 1880, election. He at once started an active campaign to get The Kid, dead or alive. Garrett had arrived in New Mexico early in February, 1878, and had herded cattle for Pete Maxwell, at Fort Sumner. Then Maxwell had discovered something which had caused him to discharge Garrett. The latter, who had saved some money during the few months he had worked for Maxwell, then opened a small restaurant, which he operated for a short time, finally buying an equal interest in Beaver Smiths store and saloon. He had married twice, first to Juanita Martinez, who died shortly after their marriage; and second to Apolinaria Gutierrez, who is still living with some of her children at Las Cruces, New Mexico. For nearly two whole years Pat Garrett was a personal friend of Billy the Kid. They were on the most intimate terms, and around Fort Sumner were generally known as Big Casino and Little Casino. The Kid made his headquarters in the Garrett saloon; they drank and gambled together. If Pat won he staked The Kid; when The Kid won he staked Garrett. It was rumored that Pat and The Kid were partners. Pete Maxwell often said: They are carrying on the same line of business. But Pat was more cunning than The Kid. He saw an opportunity to make a big haul, so he quietly negotiated with Captain J. C. Lea, John S. Chisum, and several large cattlemen on the Rio Pecos for his election to the office of sheriff, with the distinct understanding that he was to get rid of The Kid. As heartless as this deal may appear, Garrett always spoke of The Kid as a great fellow, and has told the writer many times: Billy the Kid was one of the nicest little gentlemen I ever knewkind and considerate, true and loyal to his friends, afraid of nothing on earth that walked on two legs or four. All his deviltry was wished on him by much worse men than he ever dared to be. When the reader reaches the exact statements
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FROM THE ROSE COLLECTION, SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS

PATRICK F. GARRETT Sheriff of Lincoln County and slayer of Billy the Kid 72

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made by Garrett after his capture and later, his killing of Billy the Kid, he can judge for himself. Throughout Garretts own recital one may read between the lines and note the apologies and laudations. All in all, Garrett wants one to believe that duty called him. All of which to the authors mind, is unadulterated rot. If one doubts Garretts mercenary and grasping nature, one has but to take the case of his killing of Tom OFolliard, a few nights before he killed Charlie Bowdre and captured The Kid. See what James H. East (one of the men who was with Garrett) has to say in a letter written to Charles A. Siringo, and which is quoted from The History of Billy the Kid, by Siringo: Lon Chambers was on guard. Our horses were in Pete Maxwells stables. Sheriff Pat Garrett, Tom Emory, Bob Williams and Barney Mason were playing poker on a blanket on the floor. . . . Tom OFolliard was shot through the body, near the heart, and lost control of his horse. OFolliards horse came up near us, and Tom said, Dont shoot anymore, I am dying. We helped him off his horse and took him in and laid him down on my blanket. Pat and the other boys went back to playing poker. I got Tom some water. He then cussed Garrett and died, about thirty minutes after being shot. Garretts statement, as one will see, is somewhat different. He takes all the credit and tries to impress the reader with the dangers and hardships he endured in doing his duty. The author is reminded of the old story of the aged darkey who had been listening attentively to a lecture delivered by a celebrated orator. After the lecture, a lady approached Mose and asked him what he thought of the lecture. Mose said: I dunno, but he certainly do recommend hisself most highly. In spite of the money and prestige which Pat Garrett secured for his services in killing The Kid, Tom OFolliard, and Charlie Bowdre, the author has always felt that he regretted it. Again quoting from Mr. Easts letter, referred to above: On the road to Santa F, The Kid said to Garrett, That those who live by the sword, die by the sword. This prophecy was absolutely true, for on February 28, 1908, Pat Garrett was shot and
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killed by young Wayne Brazil, on the main-traveled wagon road between Organ and Las Cruces, Doa Ana County, New Mexico. On November 25, 1880, Pat Garrett, with a posse consisting of Lawton, Metchell, Mason, Cook, Whetstone, Wildy, McKinney, Phillips, Hudson, Ollinger, Roberts, and Albering, started for the Rio Pecos, leaving Roswell at about nine in the evening. At daybreak they surrounded Dedricks ranch at Bosque Grande, and found two escaped prisoners from the Las Vegas jail. One was J. J. Webb, who had been sentenced to hang for the killing of Michael Kelliher; the other was a man named Davis, who was awaiting trial for stealing some mules. Garrett took the prisoners with him and proceeded to Fort Sumner. The posse arrived at daybreak of the 27th, in search of Billy the Kid. Here Garrett received a letter from Captain J. C. Lea of Roswell, detailing further depredations of The Kid and his band at and near White Oaks, and advising him of the killing of Jimmy Carlyle. Garrett called on A. H. Smith, who assured him that The Kid and his two companions had not yet returned from White Oaks, but that Tom OFolliard, Charlie Bowdre, and Tom Pickett were at Las Caaditas (about twenty miles northeast of Fort Sumner), where Charlie Bowdre was working for T. G. Yerby. Garrett left four of his posse with the prisoners, and with the others started for Las Caaditas. Garrett and Bob Ollinger were both commissioned as deputy marshals, and held United States warrants for the arrest of The Kid and Charlie Bowdre, for the killing of Buckskin Bill Roberts. When they reached Las Canaditas their men had gone. Returning to Fort Sumner, they relieved the guard and started for Portales, twenty-five miles east, where they expected to find The Kid and several head of stolen stock. However, they only found two cows two calves and a yearling, which they killed for food. The next day they circled the premises but found no more stock. On their return trip, they had dinner with Wilcox at his home, twelve miles east of Fort Sumner. Wilcox told Garrett that Charlie Bowdre was anxious to have a talk with him and they met by appointment the following day at the forks of the road, two miles from Fort Sumner. Garrett showed Bowdre a letter from Captain Lea, who advised him to quit The Kid and his bad associ74

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ates and promised to go his bail and do what he could for him. But should Bowdre continue to follow The Kid, he would be captured and killed. Bowdre made no promises. On Garretts return to Fort Sumner he dismissed his posse except Barney Mason, whom he took with him to Las Vegas with the prisoners, Webb and Davis. Before reaching May Hays ranch, Garrett heard that Frank Stewart, agent for the cattle owners on the Canadian River, was at or near Anton Chico, with a large party, also on the trail of The Kid. Garrett sent him a letter by Mason, asking Stewart to meet him at Las Vegas. This Stewart did. During the spring of I88I, Stewart was employed by some of the large companies to prevent the stealing of their cattle and horses. Stewart was a fine shot and utterly fearless. He was mainly instrumental in the extirpation of the Stockton gang of rustlers in northern New Mexico and southern Colorado. He was deputized to capture Billy the Kid, and took with him several well-known killers, each one of them a man-hunter with a death record. When The Kid was surrounded and learned who his captors were, he offered to surrender, provided that Stewart would promise not to turn him over to the authorities at Las Vegas, but instead agree to place him safely in the Santa F jail. Stewart accepted the terms. When the news was telegraphed that Billy had been captured and that he was to be taken to Santa F, the sheriff at Las Vegas determined to get possession of him and see that he was punished for crimes he had committed in San Miguel County. When Stewart arrived at Las Vegas, the sheriff demanded that The Kid be turned over to him. This he refused to do. Finally Stewart announced that he had given his word of honor to Billy and that he proposed to keep it. Billy surrendered on one condition, he added, and if you propose to make that condition null and void, all I can do is to give Billy back his gun and turn him loose, and you can come and take him. The ghostly array of Billys numerous victims arose before the sheriff, who had a decided repugnance to becoming one of them. He immediately decided that he did not want Billy after all. So Stewart delivered his prisoner to the keeper of the jail in Santa F. Stewarts capture of The Kid made him very popular, but the formerly modest, quiet, determined citizen began to develop the bravado and
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lawlessness characteristic of the bad element of the frontier. One Saturday evening Mr. Hopper, a leading merchant of Las Vegas, and Mr. Hoskins, a bookkeeper of the San Miguel National Bank of Las Vegas, were engaged in conversation when Stewart approached and charged them with laughing at him, for he was comfortably intoxicated and had awkwardly stumbled. They both explained and apologized, but Stewart said that he would accept their apologies only on the condition that they would take a drink with him at Close & Pattersons dance hall. Mr. Hopper, who was a prominent member and a leader of the Methodist Church, courteously declined; but Mr. Hoskins, who had no religious scruples, concluded it best to stop further argument by assuring him that nothing would please him better than to drink to the health of his friend Stewart. Mr. Hopper held back until the drawing of a selfcocking revolver served to hasten his steps. When he arrived at the bar, he wanted lemonade, but nothing would satisfy Stewart but the draining of a full glass of whisky to the very bottom. Mr. Hopper was a man of great courage. He was not afraid to stand for truth and right; he was also a larger and stronger man physically than Stewart, and could easily have over-powered him. But he scorned the use of mere brute force, and showed, by his action, his real moral strength. The following Sunday there was a meeting of the best citizens of Las Vegas, and Mr. Hopper announced his intention of having Stewart arrested and such action taken as would insure peace in the future. A wee bit of the old honor, or perhaps fear when sober, came back to Stewart on hearing of this meeting and the remarks made by Mr. Hopper. So he went to Mr. Hopper and duly apologizedand thus ended all trouble with Stewart. Barney Mason, the deputy appointed by Pat Garrett, was a brother-in-law of Pats, and a man who was generally despised by everyone who knew him. He was a cowardly sneak and Jim East, in the letter to Charles A. Siringo, already quoted, does not mince words in describing his part in the foray of December 23, 1880, when Pat Garrett or Frank Stewart or both, first captured The Kid. East says in this letter: Some of us crawled up the arroyo near enough to talk to Billy. He said they had no show to get away, and wanted to surrender, if
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we would give our word not to fire into them when they came out. We gave the promise and they came out with their hands up, but that traitor, Barney Mason, raised his gun to shoot The Kid, when Lee Hall and I covered Barney and told him to drop his gun, which he did. Garrett himself had this to say: I had understood that Frank Stewart, the agent of the Panhandle stockmen, was going below to hunt The Kid, and my message, sent to him at Anton Chico by Barney Mason, was to the effect that I wanted to see him before he started. He came with Barney Mason and met me at Las Vegas, but he had sent his party on to White Oaks. Stewart had planned to search in the vicinity of White Oaks, and, should he miss the gang there, to cut across the mountains, strike the Rio Pecos below, and follow it up. I opposed this course because it gave the outlaws time to leave the country or to seek a safe hiding place. Stewart was convinced that his plan would not work, and, about one oclock in the afternoon of the 14th day of December, 1880, Stewart, Mason, and myself left Las Vegas in an attempt to overtake Stewarts posse and turn them back. We stopped at May Hays ranch, eighteen miles south of Las Vegas, got supper there, and continued on our ride. About one oclock in the morning we fell in with some Mexican freighters camped by the roadside, and slept with them until daybreak. We rode hard until nine oclock on the morning of the 15th when we hove in sight of Stewarts party, consisting of the following men: Lon Chambers, Lee Hall, Jim East, Tom Emory (alias Poker Tom), Louis Bozeman (alias The Animal), and Bob Williams (alias Tenderfoot Bob). While we were eating a hearty breakfast, Stewart, who wanted to sound the disposition of his men but did not wish to confide all our plans to them, said: Boys, there is a bunch of steers down near Fort Sumner which I am anxious to round up and take in. They all knew the class of property he was after and some of them did not seem anxious to have a conflict with The Kid and his desperate band, while others were more than willing to take a hand. At last Stewart said: Do as you please, boys, but theres no time to talk. Those who are going with me, get ready at once. I
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want no man who hesitates. In a moment the six men named above were in the saddle ready to accompany us. We took a southwesterly direction, aiming to strike the Rio Pecos at Puerto de Luna. On the morning of the 16th we took the road at daylight. It was intensely cold and some of us walked to save our feet from freezing. Between eight and nine oclock we reached Grzelachowskis store, where we were most cordially welcomed. We decided to lay over until the next morning. During the day we infused warmth into our chilled bodies through the medium of hot fires and internal applications of liquid fuel. We tried all day to gather some recruits to strengthen our little party, but only got oneJuan Roibal. Of all those cowardly braggarts, not one could be induced to go when the time came. They were willing to ride in any direction but The Kids. Before leaving Puerto de Luna, I dispatched a spy, Jos Roibal, a brother of Juan Roibal, to Fort Sumner. He was a trustworthy fellow, recommended to me by Grzelachowski. He pretended to be a sheep herder, looking for a lost bunch of sheep, and kept his ears open and his mouth shut. After gaining all the information he could, he started back and made his report to me at the ranch of Pablo Beaubien. His report was that it was a sure thing that The Kid and five of his companions were at Fort Sumner. The Kid had written a letter to Captain J. C. Lea, at Roswell, saying that if the officers would give him a little time and leave him alone until he could rest up his horses and get ready, he would leave the country for good, but if he was to be persecuted, pursued and harassed continually, as in the past, there was only one thing left for him to doto inaugurate a bloody war and fight it out to the fatal end. With the information I had received from our faithful spy, we left Gerharts ranch about midnight, and reached Fort Sumner just before daylight. I camped the outfit a little above the Plaza, took Mason with me, and went prospecting. We understood the outlaws kept their horses at A. H. Smiths corral when in Fort Sumner, and we first visited him. We found that their horses were not there; then we awakened Smith, who told us they had left after dark the night before.
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As soon as anyone was stirring in the Plaza of Fort Sumner on the morning of the 18th of December, 1880, I left our party, except Mason, in concealment, and started out to make observations. I met a Mexican named Hijinio Garcia in my rounds whom I knew to be a tool of The Kids. I spoke to him and warned him not to betray my presence to any of the gang, and not to leave the Plaza. He represented that he had urgent business below, but assured me that he would keep my counsel. I consented that he should go, as it did not matter much. If they knew I was there they would labor under the impression that my only support in an engagement would be Barney Mason and perhaps a Mexican or two. The presence of Frank Stewart and his party, I felt sure had not been betrayed. Garcia lived twelve miles south of Fort Sumner and he started in that direction. A day or two before these events, A. H. Smith had sent Bob Campbell and Jos Valdez to Bosque Grande, to drive up a bunch of milch cows which he had bought from Dan Dedrick. Garcia met the two men near his house. He knew that Campbell was both a friend and accomplice of The Kid and that Valdez was at least a friend. He told them that I was at Fort Sumner, and they immediately turned the cows loose and separated. Campbell went to a camp close by, hired a Mexican boy and sent him to The Kid with a note. The Kid and his gang were at the Wilcox ranch, twelve miles east of Fort Sumner. Valdez rode into Sumner, where I met him, and inquired if he had seen Garcia. He said he had seen him at a distance, but had not spoken to him. I asked no further questions as I was convinced I would get no word of truth from him. On receipt of Campbells note, The Kid sent Juan, a stepson of Wilcox, to the fort to see how the land lay, with instructions to return and report as soon as possible. Wilcox and his partner, Brazil, were law-abiding citizens and subsequently rendered me invaluable assistance in my efforts to capture the gang; but, had they been betrayed to The Kid, he would have killed them without compunction. Seeing Juan in the Plaza, I suspected his errand, accosted him and found my surmise to be correct. After a short conversation I concluded that I would fully trust him. I made known my business to him; he promised to faithfully follow my instructions and I
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believed him. I gleaned from this messenger the following information: The Kid and all his band had intended to come to Fort Sumner the following day in a wagon with a load of beef. The Kid had that morning received a note from Bob Campbell, by a Mexican boy, wherein Bob related how he and Valdez had met Garcia, and that Garcia had notified them of my presence at Fort Sumner. Hence Valdez had lied to me. This note disarranged The Kids plans, and he sent in Juan to try to learn something of my movements and the number of my force. I asked Juan if he would work with me to deceive the outlaws. He said he would do anything I told him and went to Valdez. I made him write a note to The Kid saying that I and all my party had gone to Roswell and that there was no danger. I then wrote a note to Wilcox and Brazil stating that I was at Fort Sumner with thirteen men, that I was on the trail of The Kid and his gang, and that I would not let up until I got them or ran them out of the country. I asked them to cooperate with me. As soon as Juan had transacted his business in the Plaza he came to me. I gave him the two notes, warning him not to get them mixed, and then started him for home. The Kid and party were impatiently awaiting Juans return. They scanned Valdezs note eagerlythen shouted their scorn at my timidity, saying this news was too good for them; that they had intended to come in for me anyhow and had a good mind to follow us. Juan was not asleep and when opportunity served, he gave the other of my notes to Wilcox. I was confident that the gang would be in Fort Sumner that night, and made arrangements to receive them. There was an old hospital building on the eastern boundary of the Plazathe direction from which they would comeand as the wife of Charlie Bowdre occupied a room in the building, I felt sure that they would pay their first visit to her. I took my posse there, placed a guard about the house and awaited the game. They came fully two hours before we expected them. We were passing away the time playing cards. There were several Mexicans in the Plaza, some of whom I feared would convey information to the
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Upper: LINCOLN COURT HOUSE AND JAIL, where The Kid was confined when he killed his two guards and escaped. Lower: PATRON HOUSE AND SALOON, where The Kid lived wheni n Lincoln. Mrs. Patron stands inthe doorway. The men, from left to right, are Miguel Luna, Marshall Bond, Jr., Mr. Patterson, and Governor Miguel A. Otero. 81

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gang, so I took them with me in custody. Snow was lying on the ground, increasing the light outside. At about eight oclock a guard cautiously called from the door, Pat, someone is coming! Get your guns, boys, said I. None but the men we want are riding this time of night. The Kid, with all his reckless bravery, had a strong infusion of caution in his composition when not excited. He afterward told me that as they approached the building that night he was riding in front with OFolliard. As they bore down close upon us, he said a strong suspicion arose in his mind that they might be running into unseen danger. Well, said I, what did you do? He replied, I wanted a chew of tobacco, bad. Wilson had some that was good and he was in the rear. I went back after tobacco, dont you see? and his eye twinkled mischievously. One of the Mexicans followed me out and we two joined the guard, Lon Chambers, on one side, while Mason with the rest of the party went around the building to intercept them should they aim to pass on into the Plaza. The gang was in full sight approaching. In front rode Tom OFolliard and Tom Pickett. I was under the porch and close against the wall, partly hidden by some harness hanging there. Chambers was close behind me, and the Mexican behind him. I whispered, Thats them. They rode up until Tom OFolliards horses head was under the porch, when I called, Halt! Tom OFolliard reached for his pistolChambers and I both fired. OFolliards horse wheeled and ran at least one hundred and fifty yards. As quickly as possible I fired at Pickett. The flash of Chamberss gun disconcerted my aim and I missed him; but one would have thought, by the way he ran and yelled, that he had a dozen bullets in him. When OFolliards horse ran with him, he was uttering cries of mortal agony, and we were convinced that he had received his death wound. He, however, wheeled his horse and, as he rode slowly back, said, Dont shoot, Garrett. Im killed. Mason called out, Take your medicine, old boy, take your medicine, and was going toward OFolliard. I called to Mason to look out and told him he was almost dead and might want revenge. I called to Tom to throw up his hands, that I would give him no
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chance to kill me. He said he was dying and could not throw up his hands. He begged us to take him off his horse and let him die as easily as possible. Holding our guns down on him, we went up, took his gun out of the scabbard, lifted him off his horse, carried him into the house, laid him down and took off his belt. We found that he was shot through the left side, just below the heart, and his coat was cut across the front by a bullet. During this encounter with Tom OFolliard and Tom Pickett, the party on the other side had seen The Kid and the rest of the gang, had fired on them and killed Rudabaughs horse, which, however, ran twelve miles with him to Wilcoxs ranch before he died. As soon as Mason and his party fired, these four men ran like a bunch of wild Nueces steers. They were completely surprised and demoralized. As soon as The Kid and his companions disappeared, Mason came around the building, just as OFolliard was returning, reeling in the saddle. After we had laid him down inside, he begged me to kill him and said that if I was a friend of his I would put him out of his misery. I told him that I was no friend to men of his kind, who sought to murder me because I tried to do my duty and that I did not shoot up my friends as he was shot. Just then Barney Mason entered the room again. He changed his tone at once and cried, Dont shoot any more, for Gods sake. Im already killed. Perhaps he guessed that if he called on Barney Mason to put him out of his misery, he would comply with his request. Mason told him again to take his medicine. He replied: It is the best medicine I ever took. He also asked Mason to tell McKinney to write to his grandmother in Texas and inform her of his death. Once he exclaimed: Oh, my God, is it possible that I must die? I said to him just before he died: Tom your time is short. He answered: The sooner the better, I will then be out of pain. He censured no one, but told us who had been there with him. He died about three quarters of an hour after he had been shot. Tom Pickett was unhurt, but was nearly scared to death. He went howling over the prairie, yelling bloody murder, and was lost
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until the next night. He ran his horse down and then took it on foot, reaching Wilcoxs ranch about dark the next night. He hid in a haystack. He had run his horse fully twenty-five miles in a northeasterly direction before he gave out and he had then walked twelve or fifteen miles to the ranch. Here he remained, crouching in fear and trembling in the haystack until he saw his companions ride in from the hills. The Kid, Dave Rudabaugh, Charlie Bowdre and Billy Wilson fled to Wilcoxs ranch, where Rudabaugh got another horse. They then lost no time in getting to the hills, from where they watched the ranch and surrounding country throughout the entire next day with their field glasses. At dark they rode back to the house, when Pickett showed himself.

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CHAPTER VIII
Echoes of the Lincoln County War
Such conflicting impressions and divergent opinions have been given in recent books about Billy the Kid and his part in the Lincoln County War that I am moved to publish some first-hand information gathered a few years ago from survivors of that time. The publication of Walter Noble Burns The Saga of Billy the Kid had given renewed impetus to the romancing that has always enveloped The Kid and his exploits, and there was a revival of the legend that The Kid was not actually killed by Pat Garrett at Fort Sumner on the night of July 14, 1881. The legend was receiving embellishments at the hands of various persons as to how the fake killing was managed, how The Kid escaped to Old Mexico, and how he was still alive in some remote hiding place. Just when I felt inclined to try to find evidence that would settle the matter once and for all, my good friend, Marshall Bond of Santa Barbara, California, and his son, Marshall Bond Jr., came to Santa F on a motor trip. When he learned of my interest in Billy the Kid he proposed that Mrs. Otero and I join them on a motor trip to the former haunts of The Kid. We readily accepted, realizing that we would be able to talk to a number of people in the vicinity of Lincoln and Fort Sumner who had been personally acquainted with The Kid and who were conversant with the events in which he figured. I shall now undertake to give an account of this trip and present in verbatim form, from the notes I made at the time, the information I was able to gather about The Kid and the Lincoln County War. Our party left Santa F on the morning of Monday, July 5th, and as the roads were in excellent condition, we reached the town of Carrizozo (which we proposed to make the gateway of our journey into Billy the Kids country) in the remarkably fast time of about six hours, although the distance was 176 miles. We spent the night at Carrizozo, and this gave us an opportunity to talk to George L. Barber, who, although well up in years, was still a prac85

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ticing attorney. He had lived in Lincoln during the Lincoln County War, although he had not then begun to practice law. I believe he was then chiefly engaged in doing surveying. Somehow, Barber managed to preserve a neutral attitude during the Lincoln County War and was not identified with either faction. After things had quieted down, he married Mrs. Susan H. McSween, the widow of Alexander A. McSween. When I asked Barber what sort of a young fellow Billy the Kid had been, he replied: The Kid was not half as bad as some of those who were after him and determined to kill him. I was in Lincoln the day The Kid escaped from jail, and I realized then that despite the fact he had killed his two guards, Bell and Ollinger, in making his escape, he had the community completely on his side. Outside of a very fewthose belonging to the old Murphy-Dolan-Riley followingthe community was sympathetic toward The Kid and the great majority was really glad that he made his escape. Hardly anyone believed he had received a fair and just trial, and they were glad to know that by his own ingenuity and nerve he had succeeded in getting his neck out of the noose that was, it was supposed, soon to close around it tightly. When I asked Barber to tell me his impression of just how The Kid looked, he said: He was a mere boy in appearance, always gay, jovial and high-spirited; but in an emergency he always stood out as a leader, quick, resolute, and firm. The next morning we motored over to White Oaks, which is about twelve miles northeast of Carrizozo. White Oaks is now an almost deserted village, the railroad running far to the west of the place having brought about the death of what was, in the eighties, a bustling mining town with a population of three or four thousand inhabitants. Now comparatively few of the business houses and residences remain, and these give forth none of the hum of business or social activity. To be in the old town produces a decidedly melancholy feeling, particularly in the case of one such as I, who knew it in its palmy days and who had felt the lure of the golden metal that had brought the town into being. But the reason for including White Oaks in our itinerary was not so much to visit the remains of the town that had played a large rle in the gold-mining excitement in New Mexico, as to make possible a call on Mrs. Susan H. Barber.
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No one could meet Mrs. Barber, since dead, and not feel she was a very remarkable woman. Despite the fact that her life had been filled with eventful experiences, most of them nerve-racking and sad, she had maintained admirable poise and alertness. Even one who had not known her in younger days (and it was my privilege to know her when she first came to New Mexico nearly sixty years ago) could not fail to perceive in her aged face and form unmistakable traces of former beauty. When she came with her husband to New Mexico in 1875, she was a most vivacious and attractive woman. I recall vividly that she and her tall, distinguishedlooking husband, Alexander A. McSween, made a couple that would have attracted attention anywhere. It would have been impossible to pass them without instinctively turning back to look at so handsome a pair. She was a descendant of one of the royal families of Germany, the Spenglers of Baden-Baden and justly prided herself on such noble ancestry. As we talked together about the Lincoln County War, Mrs. Barber showed that the iron which had entered so deeply into her soul had not been altogether removed. Tears filled her eyes as she recalled and vividly related the occurrences of those perilous months. I let Mrs. Barber give her recollections uninterruptedly, excepting for my questions. Yes, she began, I, of course, knew Billy the Kid very well. He came to Lincoln County some time during the year 1877 and shortly thereafter entered the employ of John H. Tunstall at his cattle ranch on the Rio Felice. Billy was a wholehearted boykind and loyal to all those deserving such a return from him. The best citizens of Lincoln County were his friends and admirers. He was universally liked; the native citizens, in particular, loved him because he was always kind and considerate to them and took much pleasure in helping them and providing for their wants. He thought nothing of mounting his horse and riding all night for a doctor or for medicine to relieve the suffering of some sick person. Billy was a graceful and beautiful dancer, and when in the company of a woman he was at all times extremely polite and respectful. Also while in the presence of women, he was neat and
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careful about his personal appearance. He was always a great favorite with women, and at a dance he was in constant demand; yet with it all, he was entirely free from conceit or vanity. It was just natural for him to be a perfect gentleman. I want to tell you a little story which will illustrate how much the natives loved him: One night a party of soldiers from Fort Stanton, working in the interest of the Murphy gang, was on the trail of Billy for some offense committed on the Mescalero Reservation. A party of Mexicans from San Patricio was responsible for the trouble, but as usual it was charged to Billy, and the soldiers seemed determined to get him dead or alive. The trail followed by the soldiers led to a small adobe house occupied by a poor Mexican and his wife. As the adobe had but one room, the man and his wife were sleeping on a mattress in one corner of the room, while Billy was sleeping on another mattress in another corner. The soldiers first surrounded the house and then pounded on the door for admission. Billy instantly crept to the bed in which his friends slept and whispered to the woman and her husband, both of whom immediately got up. Billy quickly lay down on their bed, and the man and woman covered him with his own mattress and bedding. They then lay down on the top of the newly made bed. When the pounding at the door was renewed, the woman got up and unlocked the door, asking: Who is there? But before the soldiers could enter she got back into bed. When the soldiers piled into the room demanding to know if Billy was there both the man and the woman gruffly answered, No! The soldiers looked around the room with the aid of lighted matches, and failing to discover signs of any person other than the man and woman, they finally gave up; and mounting their horses rode away. When they had gone, Billy reappeared from his place of concealment, though he was almost smothered to death between the two mattresses and the bedding. This was just one of his many wonderful escapes. His plans were always formed and executed as swift as lightning, no matter what the emergency. He never seemed to hesitate or to be at a lossat least, on only one occasionand that was the time he and Pat Garrett met in the room at Pete Maxwells.
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Upper left: Deluvina Maxwell, an old Navajo woman that loved The Kid. Upper right: Mrs. A. A. McSween, in her later years. Lower left: Mr. and Mrs. Frank A. Coe. The Kid and Frank Coe were intimate friends and lived together for several years. Lower right: Hijinio Salazar. Severely wounded when the McSween home was burned; by pretending to be dead he escaped with his life. 89

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The story I have just told illustrates also how loyal and faithful the native people were to Billy. They would harbor him even if a hundred warrants had been issued by the courts for his arrest. Billy was not a bad man; that is, he was not a murderer who killed wantonly. Most of those he did kill deserved what they got. Of course, I cannot very well defend his stealing horses and cattle; but, when you consider that the Murphy, Dolan, and Riley people forced him into such a lawless life through their efforts to secure his arrest and conviction, it is hard to blame the poor boy for what he did. One thing is certainBilly was as brave as they make them and knew how to defend himself. He was charged with practically all the killings in Lincoln County in those days, but that was simply because his name had become a synonym for daring and fearlessness. When Sheriff William Brady was killed, we all regretted it, not that any of us cared much about the sheriff, but because of the manner in which it was done. Quite naturally the killing of the representative of justice turned many of our friends against us and did our side much harm in the public mind. Brady was killed by a number of bullets, being shot at by the whole bunch of men hidden behind the adobe wall of the corral in the rear of the Tunstall McSween store. I understood at the time that Billy said he tried to get Billy Matthews, who was walking with Brady, and did not even aim at Brady. I think his subsequent conviction for killing Sheriff Brady was based on insufficient evidence and was most unjust. Of course, Billy killed his two guards, Bell and Ollinger, but he was compelled to do it. Self-preservation is the first law of nature, and with Billy at that time, it was simply a case of killing both men and thereby saving his own life. He did not want to kill Bell, but Bell forced him to shoot. The killing of Bob Ollinger was approved by everyone, even Ollingers mother, who told me that her son had been a murderer at heart from the cradle up to the moment of his death. She admitted that he got his just deserts when Billy shot him, giving at the moment evidence of unmistakable relish in doing so. had treated the poor boy so meanly that it was impossible for him to restrain his natural desire for revenge. Tom OFolliard, one of Billys associates, was another goodnatured, rollicking boy, always singing and full of fun. He and Billy
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were much alike in manner, although Billy was far superior to Tom in every way. The truth is that Billy was quite alone in his class, and stood out as sui generis. I could not help liking the boy, although, as I said before, I did not approve of his mode of livelihood. It was the Murphy crowd who was to blame for his adopting this way of getting his living. Mr. McSween did not approve at all of the killing of Sheriff Brady, and he told all of the boys implicated in it that he would do all he could to have them indicted for this killing. But I do not believe that if Billy had been given a fair trial it would have been possible to find him guilty of killing Brady. Of course he was in the party which did the shooting, and it is probable that he bragged about this fact, but on the other side is the fact that Brady was hand in glove with the Murphy faction, which was openly flaunting justice and law. In their effort to check the inroads that Mr. McSween and Mr. Tunstall were making into their schemes to get money by hook or crook, they deliberately planned the murder of both of them. Billy was generally accused of the killing of Bernstein on the Mescalero Reservation, but this was simply to get a United States warrant against him. I am convinced that he had absolutely nothing to do with the actual killing of Bernstein. The person who really did it was a small, deformed and mentally deficient Mexican boy named Isaacio Sanchez, who ran with Billy the Kids crowd. Later on, Billy was forced to kill a man named Joe Grant, at Fort Sumner (I heard of it at the time) and all the circumstances indicated that the man Grant was responsible for his own death, since he had taken a hostile attitude toward The Kid. It seems that Grant wanted the fame that came with having killed The Kid, and went to Fort Sumner for that express purpose. Billy often told me that Pat Garrett was a cattle rustler and had stolen many a head of cattle from the Canadian while he was living at Fort Sumner. It was Captain J. C. Lea who got Garrett to turn traitor to Billy the Kid. For so doing Garrett was made sheriff of Lincoln County, the only condition being that he was to get The Kid, which he finally did in his usual way. Pat Garrett was much overrated as to bravery; he was a coward at heart and only shot when he had the advantage, or as they used to say, had the drop
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on his opponent. It was said of Garrett that every man he ever killed was shot without warning, and I can well believe that this was the case. Garrett finally got what he most richly deserved at the hands of a young man, Wayne Brazil. I will say this much for Pat Garrett; he did have some fine children. His blind daughter, Miss Elizabeth Garrett, is a refined young woman, and in spite of her affliction, has succeeded in her study of music, having attained a national reputation as a vocalist. I have let myself get somewhat ahead of the order of incidents in the Lincoln County War. To go back to the commencement of the trouble, I should like to speak of the time the Murphy crowd poisoned one of the men who was working on the new store building for Tunstall and McSween. The Murphy men tried in every way to get our carpenter to quit working on the building, but with no success. So they resorted to other means. One day Nuff, the carpenter, was given a drink by one of the Murphy men, and in a few moments he dropped dead. It was very evident that he was poisoned but proof was impossible. The Murphy gang stopped at nothing to accomplish their ends. They thought little of blackening the reputation of anyone who opposed and they did not scruple at taking away the reputation of a woman. I myself suffered at their hands in that way. I was in the house when the Murphy crowd set fire to it. Since the house was of adobe, the fire did not make rapid headway but instead slowly ate its way from the northeast corner around to the southeast corner. I would have remained in the house until the last wall fell had not the boys who were there with Mr. McSween insisted that I leave. I consented to do so much against my own desire. I did go back and forth between the house and Colonel Dudleys camp. I went to appeal to him to stop the wanton destruction of life and property that was going on. I found the colonel in his tent drinking whisky with John Kinney, one of the worst characters in the territory, a man who had been imported by the Murphy and Dolan faction and who, with Sheriff Peppin was the tool of that crowd. All three were intoxicated and used the vilest language while I was pleading with Colonel Dudley to save my burning home and the lives of those in it. John Kinney, in a very boisterous and brag92

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ging manner, told me that he had already killed fourteen men and would soon make it fifteen by killing A. A. McSween. The day after the house had been burned to the ground and five of those in it had lost their lives, several of the Murphy crowd went to the establishment of Tunstall and McSween and looted the store, carrying away thousands of dollars worth of property. Billy the Kid often said that he loved Mr. Tunstall better than any man he ever knew. Just a few days before Mr. Tunstall was murdered, he told Sheriff Brady that he did not want any of his boys hurt either on his account or Mr. McSweens. I have always believed that if Mr. Tunstall had lived, The Kid, under his guidance, would have become a valuable citizen, for he was a remarkable boy, far above the average of the young men of those times and he undoubtedly had the making of a fine man in him. Matters continued in bad shape in Lincoln County for several months after the big fight in July, 1878, which is usually taken as the close of the Lincoln County War. My own life was in danger during practically all of that time. I had a great deal of responsibility on my shoulders in settling my husbands and Mr. Tunstalls estates. To aid me, I secured a Las Vegas attorney named George Chapman. He was a one-armed man but a fearless fellow. One night he arrived in Lincoln from Las Vegas, where he had been on business, and after stopping at the house where I was staying to bring me the good news that Governor Lew Wallace was strongly on our side of the conflict, he left to go over to his room, saying that he would return later. He happened to meet Jimmie Dolan, Billy Matthews and Billy Campbell just in front of the church. All three were armed with pistols and, what is more, they were all three drunk. Catching sight of Mr. Chapman, Dolan called out: Here is the scrub who is trying to stir up things again over the McSween business. Lets show him a trick or two. Then he deliberately insulted Mr. Chapman, and the next instant the three bullies discharged their pistols against an unarmed man who only had one arm. Chapman dropped dead. The wretches then set fire to his clothing, thus destroying the legal documents in his pockets. All three of these men were indicted and tried for murder. Dolan swore he shot in the air; Matthews told the same sort of story; both were
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acquitted. Bill Campbell was found guilty but he afterward escaped from the guardhouse at Fort Stanton and was never heard of again. Of course his escape was all arranged. Dolan and Matthews were just as much guilty of murder in the first degree in the Chapman killing as Billy the Kid was for the killing of Sheriff Brady. Those were certainly terrible times. As I look back and think of all I went through, it seems a wonder I am here today. I really do not see how I escaped with my life. The hatred of the Murphy and Dolan crowd was turned most strongly in my direction, and several times their attempts at my life were only thwarted by my receiving timely warnings from some of my friends. As this crowd felt themselves protected by the powerful influences in the old Santa F Ring, they scrupled at nothing. No one will ever know the many horrible crimes which were committed, particularly in Lincoln and Socorro Counties that must be laid at the door of this group of villains. I would like to say one more thing. I wish to correct the statement made in Walter Noble Burns book, The Saga of Billy the Kid, about my playing patriotic airs and other melodies on my piano while the fighting was going on about my house. I certainly would not have been so inhuman as to do such a thing while my house was burning and there was no knowing when a bullet might take our lives. We were all much too nervous and serious to think of playing the piano! Our only thought wasHow are we to be saved? After saying adieu to Mrs. Barber and taking a few Kodak pictures of her in front of her home, we started back to Carrizozo, where we spent the night. The next day we drove over the steep Nogales Mountain and on to the old town of Lincoln, in the beautiful valley of the Rio Bonito.

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CHAPTER IX
Lincoln Rem em bers The Kid
The town of Lincoln has fallen into decay since the county seat was moved to Carrizozo, yet many of the old landmarks are still standing. At the west end of the town is the old Murphy and Dolan store, which immediately after the Lincoln County War was bought by the county and used for many years as a courthouse. In recent years it has been remodelled and converted to the use of school classes, but in most respects it is the same as it was half a century ago. Scattered along the winding road that runs through Lincoln are many adobe structures, the majority of which were built a decade or two after the Lincoln County War. The store building of Tunstall and McSween is still standing and is practically unchanged on the exterior. Between the two stores was the McSween residence which was burned. Hardly a trace of it is discoverable now. About a half a mile farther east is the Ellis house and store. On the way out to the Ellis house, the visitor to Lincoln will pass the old Montaa store, now used as a dwelling house, which bears on the door the inscription, Kid, cut in by knife. There is also standing the old torreon, or tower, built for protection in Indian times but used for sharpshooting in the Lincoln County War by the Murphy forces because of its position with reference to the Tunstall store and the McSween residence. We spent the night at the Bonito Inn, just across the street from the Tunstall store. This house was built by James J. Dolan after the subsidence of the troubles, and used by him for several years as a dwelling house. It was ultimately converted into a hotel. Early the next morning, I visited the places that had seen so much bloodshed. Meeting a small boy, I asked him to direct me to the home of Miguel Luna. I sought him because I had learned that he was the best person to act as a guide in seeing Lincoln and finding some of the persons who were acquainted with the war. Miguel Luna himself was not a participant. He came to Lincoln as a small
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boy just after the war had come to an end, and had witnessed some of the occurrences of the following few years. He was playing in the street on the day that Billy the Kid made his sensational escape from jail, and he remembered the occasion well. I found him a most acceptable guide. Immediately after breakfast we started for the ranch home of Hijinio Salazar, who then lived on the Bonito River, about three miles northwest of Lincoln. I wanted to talk with him because he was one of the few survivors of the McSween side. He readily described how he was shot down by the Murphy gang while attempting to escape from the burning McSween home, and how while he was lying on the ground in an unconscious state, he narrowly escaped being killed. But I shall let him tell of it: One of the Murphy gang, a man named Andy Boyle, kicked me several times and jumped on my body, almost crushing me to death with his heavy boots. He did this to see if I was really dead or only pretending. I was in the greatest pain and almost crazy for a drink of water, but I knew very well that if I made a move they would finish me with a shot from the pistol or rifle at close range. Andy Boyle put his rifle to my heart and was in the act of pulling the trigger when another of the Murphy crowd, who was known generally as Old Man Pearce, called to Andy Boyle and said: Dont waste another shot on that damn greaser; he is already dead and we may need all our ammunition later on. That remark saved my life. I lay there for some time pretending to be dead, while all the time I was in the greatest agony. All during those long hours and they seemed more like days than hoursMurphys gloating mob was drinking whisky, singing vile songs and dancing around the dead menMcSween, Harvey Morris, Vicente Romero and Francisco Zamora. They had no fear. Colonel Dudley and his soldiers were there to protect them. They had several lanterns lighted and were examining the dead bodies. They turned them over and with laughter pointed to the many bullet holes. I was glad when they turned me over, for I had been lying on my back for hours and was thoroughly tired of that position. My suffering was so intense, I could hardly keep from groaning out loud when they turned me, but I managed to keep up
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the impression that I was a corpse. At last they all became too drunk to continue their inhuman sport, and left. I crawled to the river and got a drink of water. Then I fainted; when I came to I crawled toward the Montaa house but seeing the soldiers in their camp near it, I decided it was not the place for me. I fainted a second time for I was getting very weak from the loss of blood. When I came back to consciousness, I crawled on until I reached some houses about a quarter of a mile from the Montaa house. Most of the people were badly frightened by my appearance and would not take me into their homes because they feared injury either to themselves or to their women and children. My sister-in-law, Nicolasita Pacheco, let me take refuge in her house. She at once sent a friend to Fort Stanton to secure the services of the army surgeon. While he was dressing my wounds, I had another narrow escape from death at the hands of one of the Murphys. John Kinney, the worst murderer in the Murphy outfit, came into the room with three others of his crew, having trailed me by the blood that had dripped from my wounds. Kinney wanted to kill me then and there and would have done so had not Dr. Appel taken him by the arm and forced him out of the house, saying: If you kill this man, I will personally see that all four of you are hanged. I certainly owe my life to the bravery of Dr. Appel as a man as well as to his skill in surgery. I was badly shot up and it was six months before I was able to work again. The three days fight and the burning of the McSween residence were the direct cause of six deaths. On the McSween side were Alexander A. McSween, Francisco Zamora, Vicente Romero, and Harvey Morris. On the Murphy side were Bob Beckwith and Charlie Crawford. Hundreds of shots were exchanged during the three days, making the casualties comparatively few. Every shot was fired by an expert marksman and with intention to kill. There were approximately 50 men on each side. Salazar told me that the Murphy faction continued to annoy him afterward. They were always, he said, trumping up false charges of some kind or another against me and were constantly getting out warrants for my arrest. Their purpose was to bother me so much that I would leave the country. These annoyances, howev97

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er, were trivial by comparison. They concentrated their efforts toward The Kid. They were determined not to stop until they got him. But because their fear for Billy the Kid was too keen they did not carry on their pursuit openly. They knew he was a dead-shot with a pistol and that he wanted vengeance for the murder of Mr. Tunstall. Consequently, the Murphy crowd limited its efforts to attempts to get The Kid in the dark. Pat Garrett, who took up the pursuit of The Kid for them, was a cow thief himself, as everybody in Fort Sumner knew. He went back on Billy the Kid for money and for the promise of office. He was not the brave man many think he was. He was smart and cunning and above all, careful. He would never give the man he was looking for the slightest possible chance to defend himself. He always went with a set of tough men, who like himself, took no chances with their lives. Garretts method was to shoot his opponents when they were at a disadvantage. He was luckythat is, he was for a long time, and he gained a great reputation, but he finally got what was coming to him. Knowing that Salazar had been intimately associated with The Kid while they were members of the McSween fighting forces, I asked him for his opinion of The Kid. He replied enthusiastically: Billy the Kid was the bravest man I ever knew. He did not know what fear meant. Everyone who knew him loved him. He was kind and good to poor people, and he was always a gentleman, no matter where he was. When in great danger, he was the coolest man I ever sawhe acted like a flash from a gun. He was as quick as a kitten and when he aimed his pistol and fired, something dropped; he never missed his mark. I lived at Fort Sumner for a while and know many people there who saw Billys body after Pat Garrett killed him. I have read some of the accounts claiming he is alive, but I dont believe them. It is possible that another Billy the Kid might be living and that he might be seeking to connect himself with the famous Billy the Kid. However, there is absolutely no doubt in my mind about William H. Bonney, the Billy the Kid I knew and fought with, having been killed by Pat Garrett in Pete Maxwells bedroom.
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Before departing we took photographs of Hijinio Salazar, his wife and grandchildren. We returned to Lincoln and visited the old Murphy store. We went all through the building, directing particular attention to the up-stairs rooms in which The Kid had been incarcerated. We saw the hole which was made by the bullet that pierced Bells body. I recalled my first visit to Lincoln, which was in 1883. I was the guest of Jim Brent and Smith Lea, and slept in the old courthousein the same room from which Billy the Kid had made his escape just two years before. After going through every room in the building, we walked up the winding road to the old store of Tunstall & McSween. After thoroughly inspecting the store, we were taken to the burial spots of both Tunstall and McSween, but unfortunately nothing remains to show their graves. The exact spots of their burial will probably never be known. Having secured all available information in Lincoln, we departed for the Ruidoso section of Lincoln County. The road ran in an easterly direction, passing several places of interest. One attraction was the old Brady homeabout eight miles from Lincoln. Nothing remains today of the house that was there in Major William Bradys time. About four hundred yards south of the road are the graves of Sheriff Brady and his deputy, George Hindman. The original burial was in Lincoln, in the vicinity of the Murphy store, but Bradys family removed both bodies to the family burial ground. A few miles farther along the road was the Fritz place. The old house had been allowed to fall into a very ruinous state, but enough of it remained to show that it had been a pretentious estate. The Fritz graveyard was of considerable interest. Jim Dolan is buried here, his right to a grave coming through his marriage to Lina Fritz, the daughter of Charles Fritz. We continued our trip down to the small town of Hondo, thence westward to the other side of the mountain. We passed the village of San Patricio, which had been the haven of the McSween crowd when conditions at Lincoln were too tense for them to remain in the town. The natives at San Patricio were especially friendly toward Billy the Kid and he was always hospitably protected regardless of imminent dangers. San Patricio no longer exists in the same location. Due to controversies over the ownership of the
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Upper: MAIN STREET, LINCOLN, NEW MEXICO. At the right is what was once was the Tunstall & McSween store. Directly across the street, hidden by the clump of trees, is the J. J. Dolan residence, now a hotel. Lower: MR. AND MRS. GEORGE COE. This couple, now living in Glencoe, N. M., were close friends of The Kid. A McSween adherent, George Coe fought in several of the battles of the Lincoln County War. 100

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land, the angry inhabitants tore down their houses and restablished themselves nearby. An eight-mile journey brought us to the home of Mr. George Coe. Mr. and Mrs. Coe welcomed us heartily and offered us all the accommodations of their home. Mr. Coe was a personal friend of The Kid and was by his side in many hard-fought battles of the Lincoln County War. Both Mr. George Coe and his cousin, Mr. Frank B. Coe, were participants in the War on the McSween side. George Coes account was particularly interesting, not only because of his impressions of Billy the Kid, but also because of his vivid recital of some of the incidents of the War. Mr. Coes words make an interesting tale: I first want to tell you how I happened to join with the Tunstall and McSween party and to become associated with The Kid. I came to New Mexico in 1874 and settled as a farmer on the forks of the Sugarite River in Colfax County. I was a husky lad of eighteen. A war happened to be in progress in Colfax County at the time. The Maxwell Land Grant Company was against the settlers, and hundreds of ejectment suits were filed in the courts by this company. The pressure was so unbearable, I pulled up stakes and left in the year 1876. I moved to Lincoln County and took to farming on the Ruidoso, where I am still located. Doc Scurlock, Charlie Bowdre and Frank Coe all had ranches near mine. We were all young men and were making a fairly good living. We were satisfied and happy in our surroundings. In those days the hunting was fine. I was regarded as the best rifle shot in the county, and consequently I did most of the hunting for my neighbors as well as myself. Since everybody was saving his stock cattle, we depended largely on wild game for our meat supply. Shortly after we settled, the Lincoln County War began to simmer and I soon found myself in a second county war. Lawrence G. Murphy, Jimmie Dolan and John Riley were running Lincoln County politically and otherwise, and were backed by the controlling powers in Santa F. Murphy, Dolan and Riley were a hard bunch and they tried to make cattle rustlers of all the settlers on the Ruidoso. Their hirelings were raiding the herds of John Chisum,
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turning over their ill-gotten gains to Murphy, Dolan and Riley, who used them for the fulfillment of government contracts. Murphy and his associates were not looking for honest men; they preferred men like themselveswith a lust for theft and murder. They always worked through men of this type and kept themselves in the background. They did the planning for the men, who in turn carried out their orders dutifully and cold-bloodedly. At about this time, a man by the name of Frank Freeman had come to Lincoln from Alabama. He was intensely southern in his feelings, and made no secret of the fact that he hated a negro. Fort Stanton was garrisoned by the Ninth Cavalry, which was a negro regiment. Consequently negro soldiers were frequently in Lincoln. One day while Freeman was having breakfast, a negro soldier entered the restaurant and seated himself at Freemans table. Freeman became indignant and ordered the negro to move. The negro replied insolently that the country was free and declared that he intended to stay where he was. Freeman whipped out his pistol and shot the negro in the forehead, killing him instantly. Much excitement followed this killing. Freeman had to leave Lincoln on a fast horse in order to save his life. The other negro soldiers were naturally desirous of avenging the death of one of their number. Major William Brady was sheriff of Lincoln County and under control of Murphy, Dolan and Riley. They always sought good favor with the officers and soldiers at Fort Stanton. It was not long until they instructed Brady to capture Freeman so that they could prove their good-will toward the soldiers at Fort Stanton. Brady went after Freeman energetically. Freeman had fled from Lincoln by the short way over the mountains and had taken refuge at the home of Doc Scurlock, near where I was living. By the time Brady reached that part of the country, Freeman had taken to the hills for greater security. Brady took advantage of his presence in our part of the country by trying to solicit our assistance to the Murphy gang. He arrested Doc Scurlock and me for harboring a man whom the officers wanted to arrest. We were treated inhumanly. He put Scurlock on a horse and made me get up behind him; he put my arms around Scurlocks body and tied them tightly with hemp string. He
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tied our legs together under the horses belly, using the same heavy string. Pinioned in this fashion, we rode bareback for twenty-five miles, with nothing to hold to. The string was cutting into my flesh with every move of the horse and I was in agony. This treatment made me an unrelenting enemy of William Brady, and I determined that I would have revenge some day. I firmly made up my mind to kill Brady at my first opportunity. I told The Kid of my intention and he sympathized with me, saying: George, I bet you a hat I get him before you do. A few days later I received the news that Sheriff Brady had been shot by one of the McSween crowd. But I must return to Frank Freeman. He did not get out of the country while he had the chance, and in the end was captured by the negro soldiers, who lynched him without any sort of a trial. When I asked Mr. Coe if The Kid had ever worked for Murphy, Dolan and Riley, he firmly replied: No, The Kid never worked for that outfit. They wanted him because he would have been very useful to them, but he never liked the bunch. He came to the Pecos country in 1877 with Jesse Evans, Frank Baker and Billy Morton. Shortly afterward he went to work for John H. Tunstall, who had started a cattle ranch on the Rio Felice. When he went to work for Mr. Tunstall, he told him that he wanted to make a man of himself; that he wanted to establish a home so that he could send for his mother who was not happy with her second husband. Mr. Tunstall liked Billy very much, and valued him more than anyone else in his employ. He trusted Billy implicitly with everything he had. If their association could have continued, Billy would have gone straight, but the coldblooded murder of Mr. Tunstall completely upset all of Billys plans. The Kid took the killing of his friend much to heart. He became discouraged and morose, and feeling his plans were futile, he dropped them all. He became revengeful and declared that he intended to kill every person in any way involved in Tunstalls murder. If Tunstall had lived, The Kid would have been known as William H. Bonney, a respectable member of society and a valuable citizen. Billy was a brave, resourceful and honest boy; he would have been a successful man under other circumstances. I
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loved the youngster in the old days, and can say now, after the passing of fifty years, that I still love his memory. Mr. Coes affection for The Kid was sincere and deep-rooted. He felt, without a doubt, that The Kids waywardness was not because he was schemingly evil or that he was by instinct a thief and murderer, but that he had been forced into a life of crime by circumstances and events. Mr. Coe, continuing his recollections of The Kid, said: Charlie Bowdre and Billy the Kid were the best fighters in the crowd. They were both cool and cautious and did not know what fear was. Tom OFolliard was another one of the crowd whom I knew well. In fighting ability, he ran a close second to Bowdre and The Kid. The three of them were a match in bravery to anyone in the country. They were moderate in their drinking and smoking, to which can be attributed their steadiness of nerve. They were in no sense malicious killers; they killed only in self-defense and protection. The Kid was very confidential with me, but perhaps even more so with my cousin, Frank Coe. He told us many stories about the events in his brief life. The first man he killed was a blacksmith in Silver City, for whom his step-father forced him to work. He domineered The Kid intolerably, forcing him to do all the disagreeable labor, and in turn refused to pay him for his services, very frequently beating him. Billy stood all this until the blacksmith one day insulted his mother, whom he adored. That was more than Billy could stand. He immediately secured a pistol and sought an encounter, to which there was a hasty conclusion, resulting in the shooting and killing of the blacksmith. This was Billys own account of the beginning of his career. Dick Brewer can also be typified with The Kid, Bowdre and OFolliard, inasmuch as he too was a very brave man, a natural leader and was fair and honest with his associates. We looked to him for leadership until his death. He was killed in a fight with Buckshot Roberts. I was with him in that fatal fight. Al Roberts, alias Buckshot Roberts, was a notorious character. He was a bad man and a hired killer. He was employed by Murphy, Dolan and Riley as a professional assassin. They had selected fourteen of us living in the county for death, principally because we
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would not submit to their domination or countenance their rascalities. After Tunstall had become the victim of their nefarious designs, there remained Alexander A. McSween, Billy the Kid, Dick Brewer, Frank Coe, Charlie Bowdre, Tom OFolliard, myself and six others who were slated for death by Murphy, Dolan and Riley. Roberts was hired to kill us and his pay was set at $100 for each scalp. Roberts had killed four Texas Rangers before coming to Lincoln and was wanted by the Texas authorities. When he came to New Mexico, he attempted to be friendly with Frank Coe, but it was obvious that Roberts was not to be trusted. He attempted to kill The Kid and Bowdre from ambush and almost succeeded. They were miraculously saved by good fortune. When we all met at Blazers Mill in April, 1878, a few days after the killing of Sheriff Brady, there naturally followed a fight. Dick Brewer, who was the leader of our crowd, had a warrant for the arrest of Roberts because of the part he had taken in the killing of Tunstall. When Roberts unexpectedly appeared on the scene, Brewer declared the purpose of his visit. Frank Coe tried to get Roberts to surrender peaceably but he refused. Bowdre, Middleton and I were standing in front of the house when Bowdre, determined to take the initiative, called out to Roberts, Put up your hands, throwing his gun down on him. Roberts replied, Not much, Mary Ann, and swung his gun to his shoulder. Both men fired at the same instant, Bowdres bullet hitting Roberts in the stomach, passing completely through his body and tearing a terrible hole. It was a severe wound and would have put an ordinary man out of actionbut not so in Roberts case. Roberts bullet cut the cartridge belt off Bowdres waist, ricocheted and struck me on the right hand, carrying away my forefinger and a large part of my hand. Roberts next shot struck Middleton, inflicting a severe wound but not a mortal one. An hour later, Roberts killed our leader, Dick Brewer, by an accidentally good shot. Roberts had barricaded himself in one of the rooms of the house and had been firing a fusillade at any of our crowd who happened to expose himself. We were careful to keep under cover, large logs about the sawmill affording convenient protection. Brewer lifted his head above one of the logs during a lull in
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the fighting, and Roberts, catching sight of him, fired. It was a long shot of over two hundred yards, but it struck. Roberts was too near death to take aim. He merely gambled and his shot was successful. Roberts died later in the afternoon. Dr. Blazer sent to Fort Stanton for a surgeon but Roberts died before his arrival. The loss of Dick Brewer was a serious blow to our side; I sometimes think that if Brewer hadnt been killed, the outcome of the war might have been different. Billy the Kid has often been charged with the killing of Roberts, but that is not true. When Bowdre shot Roberts, The Kid had not yet fired a shot. His death was attributable to the shot from Bowdres gun. The Kid was also accused of having killed Morris J. Bernstein, a clerk at the Indian agency, some months later; that is not true either. I can speak with absolute certainty on this point because I was the leader of our party on that trip. After Brewers death, we used to elect a different leader for each expedition, thus giving each man the chance to shoulder his share of responsibility and show his mettle. On this occasion, there were fifteen men in the party; Billy the Kid, Hendry Brown, Fred Wayte and I were the only Americans, the rest being native boys. We were headed for Tulerosa with warrants to arrest some horse thieves and to recover the stolen horses. When we reached the large spring near the Indian reservation, we four Americans rode over to get a drink of water, leaving the native boys back on the trail. We had dismounted and were just getting a drink when we heard a number of shots from the direction of our party. Looking up, we saw four Murphy men riding in the direction of the agency. Our first thought was to mount our horses. In the pell-mell rush, The Kids horse became frightened, ran away, carrying The Kids rifle, and The Kid had to get up on my horse behind me. Since we had been taken unaware, we deemed discretion to be the better part of valor, and made our escape. We did not know that Bernstein had been killed. We learned afterward that he had been in the party which had clashed with our native boys. I do not know which side was the aggressor in that engagement, but I have always understood that Bernstein fell in the first exchange of shots. A young man by the name of Sanchez
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claimed that he fired the shot that killed Bernstein. It was impossible for The Kid to have shot Bernstein, firstly because his horse fled with his pistol, and secondly, because we did not even see Bernstein. One of the native boys captured Bernsteins horse and gun and presented them to Billy. Possibly his possession of Bernsteins chattels caused the suspicion to be laid to him, and led to the issuing of a warrant for his arrest for murder. The warrant was from the United States court and was more powerful than a territorial warrant. It became a great factor in the later pursuit of The Kid. When he was tried at Mesilla, the prosecution attempted to secure a conviction on this United States warrant but it was unsuccessful. Then they resorted to the territorial warrant they had against him for the killing of Brady and Hindman. All during the Lincoln County War, the two sides were about equal. There were perhaps forty-five men on each side. If the United States troops had not taken part on the Murphy side, we would not have been defeated. They realized our superiority, and sent post-haste to Fort Stanton for help when we were getting the better of them. Everyone knew that Colonel Dudley, the commanding officer at the Fort, was very friendly with Murphy, Dolan and Riley. In fact, he was under obligation to them, and consequently was anxious to return a service to them. I had a hand in the three days fight in Lincoln. Hendry Brown, Sam Smith and I were stationed in the Tunstall & McSween store. I spied a Murphy man approaching the burning McSween home with a bucket of coal oil. Unfortunately a woman stepped in between us and I was afraid to pull the trigger for fear of hitting her. I lost what might have been another notch for my rifle. We three had a difficult time getting out of the store since the only open side was surrounded; but we made a run for the river, and escaped without getting hit by any of the shots fired at us. Frank Coe, Frank McNab and Al Saunders were riding down the country and stopped at the Fritz place for a rest. A group of Pecos men followed them, thinking they would minimize the McSween side by three men. While they were drinking at Large Spring, for which the ranch is named, they were attacked without warning. Frank McNab was killed and Al Saunders was badly
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wounded. Frank Coe got on his horse and was making a get-away when a shot killed his horse. He took refuge behind some rocks and put up a stubborn fight, but being completely outnumbered, he had to surrender eventually. The Pecos crowd then came to Lincoln, bringing Frank Coe along as a prisoner. They placed him in the Murphy store with Wallace Ollinger as guard. At daylight the next morning, Hendry Brown and I, from our position on top of the Ellis house, caught sight of a bunch of Murphy men a short distance away. I discovered, with the aid of field glasses, that one of the men was sitting on an old cowskull. In spite of the distance, I took aim with my old Sharps rifle and fired. My shot was successful breaking his leg. The shot was important because it started a general fight between the two crowds. While the shooting was going on, Wallace Ollinger, wishing to have a hand in it, left his prisoner, Frank Coe, alone. Being more considerate than his younger brother, Bob, whom The Kid killed, Ollinger gave Coe a pistol and told him to defend himself. Thus Coe made his escape. The two men, Saunders and Kruling, who had been wounded in the skirmish at the Fritz ranch, were sent to Fort Stanton and given treatment at the military hospital. They recovered from their wounds. Since Lincoln was practically in possession of the Murphy crowd, The Kid and some of the McSween followers sought refuge at John Chisums ranch. The Murphy crowd followed them to get Billy. They were afraid of him and wanted him out of the way. Some of the Pecos men, under the leadership of Marion Turner, went to the ranch determined to smoke The Kid and his men out somehow. When fighting at the ranch seemed imminent, John Chisums brother, Jim, who was temporarily in charge, begged them not to fight there, pleading for the lives of the women and children. Turner left for Lincoln, The Kid and his men following a few days later. Shortly after their return the final battle of the war commencedthe battle which resulted in the burning of the McSween home. When Governor Lew Wallace pardoned all those who were willing to give up their arms, I accepted his terms, and almost immediately left for Rio Arriba County. In 1884 I returned to
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Ruidoso and bought the farm I had formerly owned. Lincoln County, since the war, has been comparatively tame, and has been split up into many counties. When Billy the Kid was killed in 1881 by Pat Garrett, I was in Rio Arriba County. Though I heard the news with sorrow, it was by no means a surprise. His opponents were constantly on his trail, making his capture and killing merely a question of time. It was impossible for him to work or make an honest livelihood; otherwise many of his friends would gladly have hired him and given him a chance to settle down under Governor Wallaces terms of pardon. But The Kid was never permitted to halt his career. His enemies were determined to have his life and would not stop until they had taken it. He was compelled to live the life of an outlaw, though his outlawry consisted more of stealing cattle than of killing. Cattle men were organizing their associations and employing men to rid the country of the thieves, of which Billy the Kid was by no means the most outstanding. But because he was so well-known, he became the target of the officers. The motive behind Pat Garretts relentless pursuit of The Kid was that his death meant money and the office of sheriff of Lincoln County. The Kid was a thousand times better and braver than any man hunting him, including Pat Garrett.

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CHAPTER X
More Mem or ies of The Kid
Although George Coes impressions of The Kid were detailed to our perfect satisfaction, we decided to visit his cousin, Frank Coe, for even further elaboration. We received a cordial welcome, and Frank Coe, in his enthusiasm at the mere mention of The Kid, proceeded to tell us of his memorable friendship: I first met Billy the Kid in the year 1877. He had just arrived in the Pecos Valley, coming from Las Cruces; he was only a boy of eighteen. Though I was not much more than a boy myself, I was twenty-five. An intimate friendship began between us at once. I found Billy different from most boys of his age. He had been thrown on his own resources from early boyhood. From his own statement to me, he hadnt known what it meant to be a boy; at the age of twelve he was associated with men of twenty-five and older. Billy was eager to learn everything and had a most active and fertile mind. He was small and of frail physique; his hands and feet were more like a womans than a mans. He was not the type who could perform heavy labor. Billy had been brought up in a mining town, Silver City, New Mexico, hence developing a spirit which made him desirous of making money quicklywithout regard for the manner in which it was made. In the old mining camps there were many saloons and gambling tables, giving Billy the opportunity to deal monte, the popular gambling game in that section. Like everything else he undertook, he became an expert, the wonder of the gambling fraternity. Billy explained to me how he became proficient in the use of fire-arms. He said that his age and frail physique were handicaps in his personal encounters, so he decided to become a good shot with both rifle and six-shooter as a means of protection against bodily harmharm which might have come at any time in the quarrels incident to the rough and tumble life of a mining settlement. As in
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all his endeavors, he succeeded splendidly in his ambition, and became famous as the quickest and best shot in the community. When I mentioned that George Coe had told us Billy left home because of killing the blacksmith who had insulted his mother, Frank Coe corroborated the story, saying: Yes, it was just as George told you. That was the first serious trouble Billy had been in, but it was serious enough to cause him to become a wandering youngster and an outcast at the age of fourteen. He drifted into southern Arizona and Mexico, making his living either by gambling or by riding the range as a cowboy. He devoted some of his time to hunting wild game, both because he enjoyed the sport and because he made considerable money disposing of the game and the skins. From Mexico, Billy drifted back to the Rio Grande Valley, reaching Las Cruces. At this time many cattlemen on the Pecos needed additional cowboys for their increasing herds. Scouting parties were sent out to find desirable men, and Billy was discovered by William S. Morton, Frank Baker and Jim McDaniels, who were in the Las Cruces section to find cowboys for the Murphy outfit. Billy the Kid came to the Pecos Valley with them in 1877; however he did not accept employment with Murphy; neither did he accept with John Chisum. Billy was restless and roamed the country for several months until he finally became one of John H. Tunstalls employees. When the fighting broke out, Billy proved himself a valuable man. He was one man in five hundred in his fitness for such service. His youth was no serious handicap, since it developed in him maturity and the experience of a man twice his age. He knew instinctively what to do in an emergency, and he usually acted with lightning speed. His natural qualities of leadership made him a great influence with the others in our party. My cousin, George Coe, was the best shot among the McSween men, including The Kid. He was equally good with rifle or pistol. When he could take plenty of time for aiming, George hit the mark, and in hunting he always brought down more game than all the rest of the party put together. The Kid, however, was by far the quickest with a pistol; he could empty all six chambers of a
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revolver while an ordinary man was firing his first shot. He never seemed to take aim but appeared to have an instinctive control. He was an expert with a pistol and no one in that section was his equal. I believe George Coe killed more men in the Lincoln County War than The Kid. It does no harm to say this now because Georges slate has been wiped clean through Governor Wallaces pardon proclamation. It is as Napoleon said, It is impossible to make an omelette without breaking some eggsso it was impossible for the Lincoln County War to go on without the loss of life. It would be hard to determine just how many men The Kid killed in the war. The killing of his two guards, Bell and Ollinger, when he made his escape from custody, was unfortunate. He did not want to kill Bell and did all he could to avoid it, but he had to in order to save his own life. The killing of Bob Ollinger was really a good riddance and few regretted it. He was better dead than alive. When The Kid killed Jimmie Carlyle, people condemned him. It looked as though Billy had taken advantage of a man who had been entrusted to him as a hostage and who ought to have been protected. It was Billys only killing that I did not approve. When I questioned him about the killing of Carlyle, Billy said: Frank, there is more about that killing than I care to go into or to have people know, but if I were to tell the story in full, public opinion would justify me. He added: The trouble started in Silver City but I have never told it and now I want the cause of it all to be buried with him. Billy asserted himself in such manly straightforwardness that I did not doubt his sincerity. I never questioned him again. He must have had sufficient reason for the Carlyle killing. The Kid stayed with me at my home for most of one winter, during which time we became staunch friends. I never enjoyed better company. He was humorous and told me many amusing stories. He always found a touch of humor in everything, being naturally full of fun and jollity. Though he was serious in emergencies, his humor was often apparent even in such situations. He drank very little and smoked in moderation. His disposition was remarkably kind; he rarely thought of his own comfort first. He was always solicitous of the comfort of others. He resented an unkind word or slighting remark about a woman or young girl.
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Frank Coe agreed with George Coes account of Wallace Ollingers consideration when he was being held captive by the Murphys. Coe laughed and said: What George told you was just the way it happened. I have always felt kindly toward Ollinger for his thoughtfulness. Frank and George shared the same opinion of Pat Garrett. Pat Garrett, Frank said emphatically, was an overrated man. He was a cow thief and everybody knew it. At Fort Sumner he stole many bull teams and sold them to butchers at Las Vegas. His killings of Charlie Bowdre, Tom OFolliard and Billy the Kid were little short of deliberate, premeditated murders. He acted the part of traitor to his best friends, turning against them for money and office. Pats conscience must have worried him a lot; he never succeeded in anything, even with the assistance of the President of the United States and the favors of several governors of New Mexico. I asked Mr. Coe if he had any narrow escapes from death during the Lincoln County War. Yes, he replied, I had several close calls. On one occasion a man called The Indian, who was working for the Murphy outfit, shot at me from ambush, the bullet going through my hat and hair. I think that was the closest call I ever had. I told The Kid about my luck and he said The Indian had also been a source of trouble to him. A few days later, Billy came to my house and said, Frank, I got that Indian who shot you through the hair. He tried the same game on me but he was too slow. Thus The Kid disclosed to me a killing about which I have never read in any of the accounts of his life. I want to say something about my old friend, Dick Brewer. He was one of the best men in this country, and was unquestionably the handsomest man in Lincoln County; on horseback, he was a picture to look at. Dick was a fine charactertrue as steel, as honest and brave as they make them. It was a sad blow to all of us when Buckshot Roberts killed him. Dick Brewer was our leader, whom we held in the highest esteem and to whom we gave loyal obedience. The aged Frank Coe took great delight in recollecting his youth and we absorbed his narrative with keen interest. We made our departure regretfully.
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CHAPTER XI
A Vis it to Fort Sum ner
The second part of our journey into the haunts of Billy the Kid took us to Fort Sumner. Our route thither led through Roswell, which in The Kids time had a population of twelve people. Billy sought refuge there after the fatal Brady battle. Now it is an attractive and thriving town of seven or eight thousand. It is indisputably the metropolis of southeastern New Mexico and has played a great part in bringing law and order into what was a sorely distracted section in the seventies and early eighties of the last century. Upon arriving at Fort Sumner, we secured Ollie B. Earickson, a resident and old friend of mine, to take us to see people identified with The Kid. We called on Mrs. Jose Jaramillo, the daughter of Lucien B. Maxwell, former owner of the Maxwell Land Grant. Lucien B. Maxwell, after selling his interests in the land grant, bought from the Government in 1870 the remains of the Bosque Redondo, an experiment directed toward making agriculturists out of the Navajo and Apache Indians. Fort Sumner had been established as a garrison for the soldiers who had to be on hand to keep the Indians under control. When the project was given up, the land and buildings had been offered for sale and were purchased by Lucien B. Maxwell. Inasmuch as The Kid frequented Fort Sumner and had been friendly with the Maxwells, I was eager to talk with Mrs. Jaramillo, ne Paulita Maxwell. When she knew The Kid she was an attractive young woman in her teens. Since Billy found the Maxwells to be warm friends, he frequented their home, and he and Paulita were naturally thrown into contact. Despite the fact that Mrs. Jaramillo was suffering from rheumatism, she evinced a lively interest in the object of my visit and consented to drive with us to the old military cemetery in which Billy the Kid is buried. Irrigation has done much for the country around Fort Sumner. Our road lay between orchards and truck gardens which were marvelous in their productiveness.
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The old cemetery at once attracts the eye by the barbed-wire fence which has taken the place of an adobe wall. The bodies of the soldiers who were buried in the cemetery had been exhumed, carried to Santa F and placed in the National Cemetery. The bodies of civilians remained. Among these were the bodies of Billy the Kid and two members of his band. The three were buried in a row in the order of their deathsfirst, Charlie Bowdre, then Tom OFolliard, and finally Billy the Kid. Without hesitation Mrs. Jaramillo walked to a spot about twenty paces south of the old gateway, stopped, saying as she pointed directly in front of her: Here is where Billy the Kid is buried. I ought to know because I was once able to find the grave at night. When we returned to the car, Mrs. Jaramillo explained the reason for her nocturnal visit to The Kids grave: One night my brother, Pete; my brother-in-law, Manuel Abreu; and I were sitting up and chatting in the room adjoining the one in which The Kid was killed. There came a noise which sounded as if someone were walking stocking-footed. What was that? I asked. Did you hear it? Yes, answered my brother-in-law, it must be The Kid come back to earth. My brother remarked that he heard that noise every night. They tried to frighten me by telling me that a murdered man often returns to the scene of his death. Not being superstitious, I laughed at their story and told them I didnt believe in ghosts. The sound came again so I decided to investigate. I opened the door just in time to see a little rabbit, the source of our fright, leaping off the porch. Pete and Manuel, who were either annoyed or amused by my bravery, defied me to go to the cemetery at midnight to prove my bravery. Pete said: Go on, Paulita, lets see how brave you are. We dare you to go. Reaching in his pocket, Pete continued: Ill bet you $10 you wont go to The Kids grave right now. Here, Manuel, you hold the stakes. The cemetery was about a quarter of a mile from our house. I left the house alone and walked straight to the old graveyard. On The Kids grave was a small wooden cross with his name printed on it. I pulled it up and took it back with me to prove to Pete and Manuel that I had been there. Manuel handed me the money without a word. The next morning I asked Deluvina, an old Indian
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woman, to return the cross. She was especially devoted to The Kid and often visited his grave. She regarded the removal of the cross, even temporarily, as sacrilege. Mrs. Jaramillo suggested that we drive to the home of her sister, Mrs. Abreu, to meet Deluvina. I had heard many stories of the faithfulness with which this old Indian cherished her memories of Billy the Kid, and welcomed the opportunity to meet her. In looks she was easily a hundred years old but in actions and mannerisms she was a girl of twenty. She was working on a rag mat, her source of livelihood, but as soon as she was made to understand the purpose of our visit, she dropped her work and began to talk volubly about my little boy, her affectionate term for Billy the Kid. She told vividly of Pat Garretts killing of The Kid, anathematizing Pat as a coward. He was afraid to go back to the room to make sure of whom he had shot! she exclaimed. I went in and was the first to discover that they had killed my little boy. I hated those men and am glad that I have lived long enough to see them all dead and buried. It was not necessary to ask old Deluvina if she believed Billy the Kid was dead. Her emotions over the recollections of the killing were sufficient to evidence her absolute conviction that it was Billy who was shot that night in Pete Maxwells bedroom. We returned to Fort Sumner and saw three natives who had known The Kid. We looked up Frank Lobato, at whose sheep camp The Kid had stayed just before he departed for his fatal visit to Fort Sumner. Frank Lobato was easily persuaded to give his recollections: Billy the Kid had been stopping with me for several weeks. He came to me after he had escaped from jail at Lincoln, thinking my camp was a safe place. He was with me nearly all the time Pat Garrett was seeking him. We were good friends; Billy would do anything for me and I would do anything for him. He often rode to Fort Sumner at night but always returned to the camp before daylight. On the night he was killed, he and I went to Fort Sumner together. We were hungry and stopped at Jesus Silvas to eat. Billy wanted some beefsteak and asked Silva if he had any fresh meat. Silva replied that he had none but had helped Pete Maxwell kill a
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JESUS SILVA The Kid was staying at Silvas home the night he was slain. Silva made The Kids coffin and buried him in the old cemetery at Fort Sumner.

FROM THE ROSE COLLECTION, SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS

GRAVE OF BILLY THE KID Here beside him are the graves of two of his pals, Charlie Bowdre and Tom OFolliard. The Kid was buried here on July 15, 1881. 117

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yearling that morning. He told The Kid he could get all he wanted if he went over to Maxwells for it. Soon after Billy left we heard two shots from Maxwells direction, and Silva and I went over immediately. We found a great deal of excitement. Pat Garrett, and two other men whom I did not know, were standing outside the house, rifles in hand, and ready to shoot. Pete Maxwell and the household were standing at the door of Petes bedroom. Someone had been shot in the bedroom and we were told it was The Kid. Jesus Silva and Deluvina Maxwell, the old Navajo woman, went in to see who it was. Deluvina came out sobbing, My little boy is dead! We took The Kids body over to the carpenter shop, laid him on a bench and held a wake over him. Billy had been very popular at Fort Sumner and had a great many friends, all of whom were indignant toward Pat Garrett. If a leader had been present, Garrett and his two officers would have received the same fate they dealt Billy. The next day I went to the graveyard and saw Billys burial. Jesus Silva and Vicente Otero dug the grave. We located Vicente Otero, who sadly recalled his memories of The Kid: I was at Fort Sumner the night Billy the Kid was killed. I went to the carpenters shop and stood at the wake all that night. Jesus Silva made a wooden box which served as a coffin for The Kid. The next day Silva and I dug the grave and buried the body in the old graveyard. I know the exact spot of Billys burial though I have not been to the graveyard for many years. We went to see Jesus Silva, who spoke boastfully of his friendship with The Kid: Yes sir! I knew Billy the Kid very well, and we were the best of friends. He often came to my home and stayed with me for days at a time. He did not go out very much in the daytime, and when he did he visited only his most trusted friends. The night Pat Garrett killed him, he and Francisco Lobato stopped at my house. Billy said he was tired, threw his hat on a chair and took off his coat and shoes. I got them something to eat and even went over to Beaver Smiths for more beer. But Billy said he wanted a beefsteak and hot coffee. I had no beef in the house, but told him I had helped Pete Maxwell kill and dress a yearling calf that morn118

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ing. I suggested that he go over to ask Pete for some meat, knowing he was welcome to anything of Petes. We had heard strange voices coming from the peach orchard but had given no thought to who it might be. If we had, The Kids life might have been saved. It was Pat Garrett and his two deputies. Billy would not have walked into the trap laid for him. Someone in Fort Sumner must have given Billy away. Billy took the butcher knife and went over after the meat. He had been gone only a few minutes when Lobato and I were startled by two shots coming from the direction of Pete Maxwells house. We ran over as quickly as we could, finding Pat Garrett and his two deputies by the open door of Pete Maxwells bedroom. Deluvina, an old Navajo woman who had always been particularly devoted to The Kid, went into the room to find out whom Garrett had shot. I went in with her. There on the floor, we saw Billystretched out, face down. We turned him over, and when Deluvina realized fully it was The Kid, she began to cry bitterly, interspersing with her tears the vilest curses she could bestow on the head of Pat Garrett. We asked permission to remove the body, Pete Maxwell suggesting removal to the old carpenter shop. We laid the body on the carpenters bench and placed lighted candles around the corpse. News of the killing spread quickly through the town and surrounding country, and consequently a large number of Billys friends were gathered at the wake. Everyones grief at The Kids death was genuine and sincere. Pat Garrett and his two companions were badly frightened, and did not dare to sleep that night. They remained awake, arms in readiness for any emergency. The next morning, a coroners inquest was held before Alcalde Segura and a jury, which declared that Sheriff Pat Garrett had killed William H. Bonney in the discharge of his official duty and that the homicide was justifiable. The morning after the killing, I measured Billys body and made a rough box which we used as a coffin. That afternoon we dug his grave and buried him. I have read reports which say that Billy the Kid is still alive. I know that Pat Garrett killed The Kid on the night of June 14,
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1881, in Pete Maxwells bedroom. I also know with absolute certainty that he was buried in the old graveyard the next day. Before you go I want to tell you a little incident about The Kid. One day John Singer, a butcher from Las Vegas, came to Fort Sumner to buy some stolen cattle from Pat Garrett. Singer was riding a pinto pony to which The Kid took a fancy. While Singer was in one of the stores, Billy went to the hitching post, untied the rope with which the horse was hitched, remarking: Im not stealing this horse; Im just taking him. John Singer hunted for the horse until he realized the futility of his search and had to buy another one. The Kid felt that since John Singer had stolen the horse from someone in Las Vegas, it might just as well be his as anybodys.

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CHAPTER XII
An Old Fr iend of The Kid Speak s
Though our visit to Fort Sumner definitely settled the authenticity of The Kids death, we stopped at Santa F to see Martin Chavez. He had been an active participant in the Lincoln County War and we were keen to hear his memories. Mr. Chavez began by commenting on some of the accounts he had read: Most of the accounts of the Lincoln County War are far from true. The stories I have read were written by Pat Garrett, Charlie Siringo, Harvey Fergusson and Walter Noble Burns. I have also read the account of the killing of The Kid, published by E. A. Brininstool, which is correct. It was written by John W. Poe, who was with Garrett. All the other accounts are filled with inaccuracies and discrepancies, and do no justice to The Kid. All the wrongs have been charged to Billy, yet we who really knew him know that he was good and had fine qualities. We have not put our impressions of him into print and our silence has been the cause of great injustice to The Kid. In the killing of Sheriff Brady and his deputy, George Hindman, for which The Kid was tried and convicted, it would be hard to determine whether or not he was directly the guilty one. When they were shot, these two, together with Billy Matthews and Dad Peppin were in the middle of the street, going from the Murphy, Dolan and Riley store to the courthouse. They were all heavily armed. A group of McSween men had concealed themselves behind some adobe jacales, and they all opened fire as soon as the Murphy men reached the point where they could be seen by everybody behind the wall. Among the McSween men were Billy the Kid, Jim French, Charlie Bowdre, Tom OFolliard, Frank McNab, Fred Wayte, Harvey Morris, Hendry Brown, Doc Scurlock, Sam Smith, John Middleton and Stephen Stevens, and all were firing. Brady fell with about nine bullet holes through him. It is possible that a bullet from Billys gun struck him, but it is just as possible that the fatal shot emanated from any of the other guns. George
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Hindman was killed by a single bullet which was fired into his back while he was running. General opinion was that Frank McNab killed Hindman. The shooting of Brady and Hindman was unfortunate because it reversed the opinions of many who up to that time had favored the McSween side. McSween himself had no part in the killing. If he had known about it in time, he would have prevented it. It was after this incident on April 1, 1878, that the two factions declared war upon each other and became bitter enemies. The Murphy faction challenged the McSween faction to meet them at the Jose Chavez ranch to settle the matter with a pitched battle. The McSween men met the challenge but the Murphys failed to appear. The Murphy crowd was becoming overbearing, intolerable and very dangerous. They helped themselves to whatever they wantedanywhere. If any one of them found a woman or a girl unprotected and alone, she was treated with insult and horrible usage. Their conduct caused them to be intensely hated. However, they had adherents, among whom were many of the county officials. They too were paid hirelings. I shall never forget the night they took forcible possession of Lincoln and set fire to the McSween home. I was in command of a group of law-abiding citizens who had been forced to side with the McSween party. We were stationed in Jose Montaas store. The night was very dark and my party of thirty-five men was able to slip into the Montaa store unobserved by the enemy. Early the next morning our presence was discovered. Eleven of us climbed to the roof, leaving a force of twenty-four inside. The Murphy men located us in our concealment and immediately opened fire. We returned it and the fight was on. The shooting continued until nightfall. There were no casualties. The second day was almost a repetition of the first. Shooting continued all day with still no loss of life. The third morning, two Murphy men started down the hill from behind the Montaa house. I ordered my men not to fire until they came dangerously near. Taking two men with me, I went out to meet them. When the one in front caught sight of us, he stopped and fired at me from a distance of not more than thirty yards. He
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miraculously missed me. They turned and started to fleemy assailant running toward Mrs. Cisneros home. We searched her home but found no trace of him. We went next door to search the Romero house but he told us that no one had passed, so we continued looking nearby, with no success. Years later when we were at peace, I had many hearty laughs with Lucio Montoya because he had been concealed in a box in Romeros living room and had heard our entire conversation. He had made his escape disguised as a woman. As we were leaving Romeros house, we were fired on by a man who was concealed behind the rocks at the foot of the hill. We returned the fire vigorously, mortally wounding him. An ambulance came for his body and took it to Fort Stanton. Colonel Dudley would not have sent his ambulance if it had been one of the McSween men needing aid. The man was Charlie Crawford, one of Murphys best sharpshooters. At eleven oclock in the morning, Colonel Dudley had arrived with a mounted company of negro troops and a squad of artillery equipped with a Gatling gun and a twelve-pounder. His artillery was placed in front of the Montaa house. One of the artillery men pointed me out to Colonel Dudley, telling him I was an outlaw. Colonel Dudley turned to me saying: If a single shot is fired by your men, I will blow your house to pieces. There were many women and children refugees in the house, who had sought refuge there because it was more solidly built than their own homes. Feeling a sense of responsibility for their lives, I gave one of my men orders to kill the man in charge of the cannon at his first move. Colonel Dudley heard me and ordered Green Wilson to get an order for the arrest of the damned son of a bitch. I immediately mounted my horse and shouted for my men to come out, directing them to proceed to the Ellis house, where our horses were stabled, and to saddle them at once in preparation of leaving. Colonel Dudley was too obviously sided with Murphy, and his force was overwhelming. Before we departed for the hills, I wrote a note to Mr. McSween and sent it by a colored man, Joe Dixon, who was privileged because he was friendly with both sides. My note read, Come
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into the field at once. I will go with all my force to protect you. Colonel Dudley is against us, and if we remain it is at great risk. If they had come out, the McSween home would not have been burned. That night we attempted to be of assistance to those who were in the burning house. We tried a counter attack upon the Murphy store but we were at a disadvantage because we had to cross the caon of the river on foot. We did get close to the store but none of the crowd came out. When we were returning to the hills, I got as close as possible to the McSween house and yelled to them to come out. Whether or not we were heard, Ive never known; the fact is that nobody came out. We had been across the river for several hours and had begun to suffer from thirst, so we returned to where we had left our horses. Dusk was coming on and the fire could be seen distinctly. The Murphy crowd, and even some of the soldiers, were firing into the burning house. It was impossible for us to be of any assistance, but we remained in the vicinity to be on hand in case they did escape. According to information I received later, Vicente Romero was maliciously murdered. He had called out that he did not want to fight any more. When he went out to surrender, someone in the Murphy crowd shot him in the forehead, killing him instantly. The others realized that there was no safety in surrendering. Their only recourse was to make a run for safety under cover of darkness. The first man to run was Francisco Zamora; he was killed as he left the door. Ignacio Gonzales made the attempt next, and he managed to escape although he was badly wounded. Hijinio Salazar tried to get away, was badly wounded and fell near the two dead men. Mr. McSween, The Kid, Jim French, Doc Scurlock, Harvey Morris, Tom OFolliard and Jose Chavez y Chavez still remained in the house. Harvey Morris attempted the next run and he too was shot and killed. Jose Chavez y Chavez made the attempt and was successful in getting away unhurt. Doc Scurlock followed him and also managed to get away unscratched. When Hijinio Salazar was hit, a plan had been devised to save McSween. The Kid was to go on one side, Jim French on the other, and with both firing, they hoped to lead him to safety. The Kid,
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French and McSween had made ready for the attempt when Hijinio Salazar, learning of the program, decided to go with them. He started on the run just as Mr. McSween turned around, and their faces came together with such terrific force that McSween was stunned for a moment and had to sit down to get himself collected. Salazar continued on the run but was badly wounded. The Kid handed McSween a shotgun and told him to use it in defense, but McSween threw the gun into one of the burning rooms, saying he could not use it. While McSween was recovering from the blow, blood flowing from his face, Bob Beckwith, a Murphy man, caught sight of him, and running up, fired at him, the bullet entering his chest near the heart and killing him instantly. Beckwith raised his hand above his head and shouted: I am the man who killed McSween. I have won the reward. The Kid heard his boast and replied; Yes, you have won the reward all right; now take this, and he fired a shot which hit Beckwith between the eyes and killed him. A few seconds later, The Kid, OFolliard and French were out of the door, firing in all directions as they dashed for the fence. They reached it and scaled it without being hit, making a dash for the river, where they were comparatively safe. They joined the others who had escaped and headed for the ranch of Juan Patron at Agua Azul or Blue Water. After learning of McSweens death, we felt that further fighting with the Murphy faction was useless. As spokesman for our group, I told The Kid our decision. The Kid did not like our logic and retorted: Your decision has been reached simply because you are a coward. We have no other recourse than to fight. I have no family, and bit by bit I intend to get even with them. I told him I could not join him and we parted good friends. Thus ended my participation in the Lincoln County War. Chavez, in his recollections of The Kid, told us of one of his early experiences in Lincoln County: I was working on my farm, trying to plow with only one horse, when OFolliard and The Kid came along, leading a pack horse loaded with their camp outfit. I greeted them and said: Im glad you boys came along with three horses. Somebody has stolen mine and I cant get along with one horse. Billy got down from his
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horse, and calling Tom to help him, they put their camp outfit on their saddle horses, leaving me the pack horse to help with my plowing. Some time afterward the boys passed through my ranch again, and since I had bought another horse, I offered to return it. Billy said, Never mind about that, Martin. You can keep him. I insisted, telling them that I no longer needed it. After much persuasion they finally took him back. Billy was one of the kindest and best boys I ever knew, and far superior in many respects to his pursuers. He was not blood-thirsty, he was forced into killing in defense of his own life. After the three days fight at Lincoln, The Kid went to Frank Coes ranch, where he secured work. I think his intention was to make his home with Coe. Things moved along serenely and it looked as if Lincoln County were really at peace. Suddenly, rumors began to circulate to the effect that warrants were out against Billy for the killing of Brady and Hindman. Some of Billys friends went to Frank Coes to tell The Kid what the old gang was doing. They advised him to get out of the country, and Billy lost no time in taking their advice. There was a posse of twenty-five trailing Billy and they found the place where he made his camp. They surrounded the house while The Kid was asleep; his horse was in the house with him. They closed all avenues of escape, and the leader shouted to him to surrender. The Kid answered: Take care of your own head and Ill take care of mine. The leader repeated his demand, saying, Surrender or Ill take you and strap you across the back of my horse. He foolishly came closer to the window in an attempt to look in. Billy caught sight of him and fired, killing him instantly. Notwithstanding the presence of the other twenty-four men, he mounted his horse and made a successful dash for liberty. He reached a section of the country which was broken and craggy, offering much natural protection from bullets. He fortified himself on one of the inaccessible crags, tieing his faithful horse nearby. There he awaited the coming of his pursuers. They found him by recognizing his horse. Only one man in the posse, a native, would risk going near the horse. When The Kid saw him, he called out: You go back and tell some of those brave fellows with you to
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come up and get my horse. The fellows took The Kids warning, glad to make a retreat. At dusk The Kid mounted his horse, and started for Fort Sumner, ignoring the presence of his pursuers. On his way, he encountered a second posse, which consisted of Pat Garrett and eight men. He had another narrow escape but he successfully dodged them. From midnight until daylight, The Kid waited for an opportune moment to escape them and then the opportunity came. From this time on, all my knowledge of Billy was from hearsay. Pat Garrett finally captured him at Stinking Springs, near Fort Sumner. The Kid was tried at Mesilla and convicted, being sentenced to hang. He was sent back to Lincoln to remain in Pat Garretts charge until the date of the execution. He was kept in an upstairs room in the court-house, which had formerly been the big store of Murphy, Dolan and Riley. About eighteen days before the hanging was to take place, Sam Corbett, Captain Saturnino Baca, his wife and I went to visit The Kid in jail. Bob Ollinger was guarding the prisoner and permitted everyone but me to visit with Billy. He declared that I had been too friendly with him. Ollinger thought he could control The Kid by scaring him. He said: If you make a break to get away, Ill empty this gun on you. These bullets will pierce your lungs if you attempt to escape while Im guarding you. The Kid smilingly queried: But what if they should pierce your lungs? Bob Ollinger, angered, shouted: Shut your mouth, you little son of a bitch! Then he gave Billy a brutal kick in the shin despite the fact that he was handcuffed and shackled. The Kid made good his threat to Ollinger just three days later when Ollinger temporarily left Bell in charge. A line had been drawn down the center of The Kids room and he had been ordered to stay on one side of it. The reason was that his jailors did not want him to come too near the weapons. His penalty was to have been immediate death. The Kid deliberately stepped a foot across the line, for which he was severely reprimanded by Bell. Bell started toward The Kid. Billy waited until he was within two feet of him and started to walk again, Bell following him slowly, still scolding him for the risk he was taking. The Kid slackened his pace as if to hear better what Bell was saying, and detected
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the fact that Bell was off his guard. Turning quickly on one heel, he brought himself face to face with Bell, jerking Bells pistol from its scabbard. Cocking it, he ordered Bell to throw up his hands, saying: Bell, I dont want to hurt you because youve always been good to me. Now please go into that room. Bell refused and risked an attempt to jump for the stairs. The Kid opened fire and mortally wounded him. Bell fell dead at the foot of the stairs. Ollinger was at a hotel across the street when he heard the shot. He ran over and just as he reached the gate leading into the yard of the courthouse, he heard The Kids voice from one of the windows above, saying: Hello, Bob. Please turn around so I can look you in the face. Ollinger turned and The Kid fired eighteen buckshot from one of the barrels of the gun Ollinger had shown him a few days before. Ollinger fell to the ground face down, dead. The Kid then went out on the balcony to the courthouse, whence he could look down on Ollingers body, and taking deliberate aim, fired the eighteen buckshot in the other barrel into his body. Breaking the gun across the railing of the balcony, he said; Take that too, damn you. You wont follow me anymore with that gun. The Kid hobbled down the back stairs (he had leg shackles on) and old man Geiss cut the chain that connected the shackles. Then The Kid told Geiss to bring him Billy Burts race horse. As a ruse to keep people away from the front, he had stuck a rifle near his hat on a board and had aimed the rifle toward the street. It looked as though he were standing there ready to shoot at the first interference. Everyone was glad to see The Kid escape and no one did anything to prevent it. The only person who attempted to interfere was J. A. La Rue, proprietor of the saloon which had replaced the Tunstall & McSween store. He grabbed a shot gun and started for the door, intending to prevent The Kids escape. But Mrs. La Rue pushed him back into the house, saying: Dont you take any cards in this game. That boy is entitled to his life if he can get away and you must not try to stop him. La Rue either followed his wifes advice or reflected long enough to realize that his chances against The Kid were too slim.
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When The Kid had saddled Billy Burts horse, he brought it around to the front door of the courthouse and before mounting, he delivered a short speech to the curious onlookers, saying; I have no friends today. If anyone is tired of living, just let him follow me and show his head. He leaped into the saddle, fully armed, and dashed down the road and out of town. A free man, Billy started to sing:
I go to the plains with much sadness, And never again shall return. And with patience Ill wait for my passing, And no one will weep when Im gone.

About two hours later, Billy Burts horse returned to Lincoln. The bridle was off but to the horn of the saddle was tied a silk handkerchief in which there was a note addressed to Billy Burt. It read: I am returning your horse because I know you love him so much. You would probably not sleep tonight. Horses never worry me; I can find them anywhere. W. H. Bonney. This consideration for Billy Burt was another evidence that Billy the Kid was a perfect gentleman and a man with a noble heart. In all his career, he never killed a native citizen of New Mexico, which was one of the reasons we were all so fond of him. I felt grateful to Martin Chavez for his recollections of Billy the Kid and the Lincoln County War. He had fought side by side with The Kid in the days when Lincoln County was a by-word for lawlessness. My purpose from the beginning has been to seek the recollections and impressions of these events from personal contact with the participants. Occasionally their accounts may conflict but that is due to difference of opinion and to the lapsing of over fifty years. That, however, will not lessen the value of the knowledge. Some later comer may try to collect this material, and from it there may merge a corrected and connected account of one of the most remarkable outbreaks of lawlessness the United States has ever witnessed.

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CHAPTER XIII
When the Author Met The Kid
My own meeting with Billy the Kid was coincidental. On the morning of December 23, 1880, Pat Garrett, Frank Stewart, Lon Chambers, Lee Hall, Louis Bozeman, alias The Animal, James East, Barney Mason, Tom Emory, alias Poker Tom and Bob Williams killed Charlie Bowdre and captured Billy the Kid, Dave Rudabaugh, Billy Wilson and Tom Pickett. Shortly after The Kid and his companions had taken refuge in a little rock house, Pat Garrett closed around them. The posse besieged the little house all night, and when Charlie Bowdre appeared at the door early next morning, Garrett, giving unmistakable indication of the nature of his quest, shot and killed Bowdre. It may be true, as Garrett claimed, that he mistook Bowdre for The Kid because of the hat he was wearinga hat which supposedly resembled The Kids. However, the act was a manifestation of the Garrett spirit. The Kid and the remaining three of his company proposed terms of surrender with promise of protection of their lives until they could be tried, to which Garrett agreed. In seeking a jail secure enough to hold the four outlaws, Garrett turned toward Santa F. Since the nearest railroad station was East Las Vegas, he carried his prisoners thither, heavily shackled, and with an escort of mounted deputies. The news that the noted desperadoes were coming through Las Vegas brought together large numbers of people curious to see them. Albert E. Hyde was in Las Vegas at the time, a guest at the Grand View Hotel, where I also happened to be stopping. Years later, Hyde wrote a magazine article giving a graphic account of the entry of Garretts party into Las Vegas: It was a beautiful afternoon, the elevation of the hotel affording a wide vision across the plains. As the hours passed waiting for their arrival, the crowds became impatient and skeptical when, from our point of vantage, we suddenly discerned a cloud of dust in the southwest. When it advanced closely enough and the people saw a
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wagon outfit accompanied by mounted men, a mighty shout went up. The news was true! Billy the Kid was a prisoner and Pat Garrett was a hero. As the wagon approached, we saw four men sitting in the bed, two on either side, facing each other. The Kid, whom Dr. Sutfin had known in his cowboy days and instantly recognized, was on the side nearest us, chained to a fierce-looking, dark bearded man who kept his slouch hat pulled down over his eyes, looking neither to the right nor to the left. He was the daring and dangerous Dave Rudabaugh who had killed the Mexican jailer at Las Vegas a short time before. He feared recognition because he knew the Mexican population thirsted for his blood. The other two prisoners were Pickett and Wilson, prominent members of The Kids gang. Billy the Kid was in a joyous mood. He was a short, slender, beardless young man. The marked peculiarity of his face was a pointed chin and a short upper lip which exposed his large front teeth, giving a chronic grin to his expression. He wore his hat pushed far back, and jocularly greeted the crowd. Recognizing Dr. Sutfin, he called, Hello, Doc! Thought Id drop in to see how you fellows in Vegas are behavin yourselves. Heavily armed deputies rode on each side of the wagon, with two bringing up the rear. Garrett rode in front and was obviously annoyed as well as surprised at the large crowds. Fearing for the safety of Rudabaugh, he turned and ordered the mule driver to run across the plaza to the jail. Garrett heard during the next few hours that an attempt was about to be made to lynch Rudabaugh. He promptly increased his force to thirty men, who guarded the jail that night. He proposed to take the prisoners to Santa F for safe-keeping the following morning, but his plans were kept secret. The next morning he began preparations to move them to Santa F by railroad, but he had great difficulty in getting the San Miguel County officials to allow him to take Rudabaugh along. Local sentiment was strongly against it now that he was back at the scene of his crime. Garrett protested that he held his prisoners under a United States warrant and that he had precedence over the local officials. Despite the crowds protests, Garrett placed his pris131

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oners in a closed carriage and got them to the railroad station, where a group of Las Vegas officials had already assembled. Again Garrett had to put up an argument for taking Dave Rudabaugh. Under heavy guard he succeeded in getting his prisoners aboard the train. A mob had collected and was surrounding the train. Garrett stood on the platform calmly awaiting developments and said: I promised these men I would deliver them to the Sheriff of Santa F County or to the United States Marshal at Santa F. If you people insist on trying to take them away from me, I will arm every one of them and turn them loose to defend themselves as best they can. Whats more, all my officers and I will assist in protecting them. When Pat Garrett finished talking, my father, Miguel A. Otero, mounted the platform and stood beside him. He shook Garretts hand, and turning to the mob, speaking first in Spanish and then in English, he said: Gentlemen, these prisoners are in the custody of Mr. Garrett and he has given his word that he will turn them over to the proper authorities at Santa F. It is a very serious thing for you men to hold up the United States mail as you are doing. I appeal to you to retire at once because the consequences may be severe. Let Mr. Garrett fulfil his promise. The judge of this judicial district lives in Santa F, and on their arrival he will take full charge. My fathers speech had the desired effect. The officers and the mob withdrew, and the train which had been held up for about an hour pulled out on its way to Santa F. The Kid was disappointed that the mob did not attack the car since it would have unquestionably resulted in his escape. He was on the friendliest of terms with the native element of the country; he had protected and helped them in every possible way. The natives would have done all in their power to have been of assistance to him. If there had been an attack, the chances were that Garrett and his companions would have been killed; Rudabaugh would have fallen into the hands of the mob and been lynched on the spot. The Kid would probably have lost himself in the crowd and disappeared from the scene.
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My brother and I were so much interested that Father permitted us to go along on the train to Santa F. On the way we talked with Billy the Kid and Dave Rudabaugh. We knew Rudabaugh well; he had been on the police force in East Las Vegas. Though we had never seen The Kid before, we were familiar with his part in the Lincoln County War and in the reign of terror he had created. In Santa F we were allowed to visit The Kid in jail, taking him cigarette papers, tobacco, chewing gum, candy, pies and nuts. He was very fond of sweets and asked us to bring him all we could. The Kids general appearance was the same as most boys of his age. I was just one month older than Billy. I liked The Kid very much, and long before we even reached Santa F, nothing would have pleased me more than to have witnessed his escape. He had his share of good qualities and was very pleasant. He had a reputation for being considerate of the old, the young and the poor; he was loyal to his friends and above all, loved his mother devotedly. He was unfortunate in starting life, and became a victim of circumstances. I had been told that Billy had an ungovernable temper; however I never saw evidences of it. He was always in a pleasant humor when I saw himlaughing, sprightly and good natured. Mrs. Jaramillo, at Fort Sumner, said of him: Billy was a good boy, but he was hounded by men who wanted to kill him because they feared him. He was always on the defensive. Don Martin Chavez, of Santa F, said of him: Billy was a perfect gentleman and a man with a noble heart. He never killed a native citizen of New Mexico in all his career; the men he did kill, he had to in defense of his own life. He had plenty of courage. He was a brave man and did not know what fear meant. They had to sneak up on him in the dead of night to murder him. I have known Mrs. Jaramillo for many years. She is a lovely womankind and gentle, honest and truthful in expressing her opinion of Billy the Kid. Martin Chavez is a quiet, unassuming and kindly gentleman. He has always been highly esteemed by the residents of his community. The testimonies of these two regarding the real character of The Kid carry weight. My own personal impressions corroborate those of other people. In looking back to my first meeting with Billy the Kid, my impressions were most favorable and
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I can honestly say that he was a man more sinned against than sinning.

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Chapter XIV
And Now the End
When Pat Garrett arrived in Santa F with his prisoners, he turned them over to Charles M. Conklin, Deputy United States Marshal and Sheriff of Santa F County, on December 27, 1880. The prisoners were placed in the Santa F County Jail to await the orders of the District Court. They made an effort to escape by digging a hole through the adobe walls, concealing the dirt under their bedding, but their attempt was frustrated by vigilant guards. My last talk with The Kid was just before he was taken to Mesilla, Doa Ana County, to be tried by the District Court there for the murder of Buckskin Roberts. Judge Warren Bristol, the presiding judge, appointed Ira E. Leonard of Lincoln County to defend The Kid. He was acquitted. He was tried again at the same term of court for the murder of Sheriff Brady the outcome of the second trial being a conviction. Judge Bristol sentenced The Kid to be hanged on the 13th day of May, 1881, at Lincoln. He was brought from Mesilla to Lincoln County by Robert Ollinger and David Woods and turned over to Pat Garrett, Sheriff of Lincoln County, at Fort Stanton, the county seat. Shortly before the capture of The Kid at Stinking Springs, Brazil, a partner of E. J. Wilcox, came into Fort Sumner to see Pat Garrett, saying Billys band of outlaws had sent him. He described the condition of the crestfallen desperadoes, telling Garrett they had sent him to gather news for them. Garrett instructed him to return and to tell them, as a ruse, that he was in Fort Sumner with Mason and three Mexicans, wanting to return to Roswell but afraid to leave the plaza. He told Brazil to return to the ranch where they were hiding, to remain with them if they were still there, but to return to Fort Sumner if they had departed. The understanding was that if Brazil did not return by two oclock in the morning, Garrett would start for the ranch. However, Brazil returned by midnight. But let Garrett tell his own story:
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There was snow on the ground and it was so cold that Brazils beard was full of icicles when he returned. He reported that The Kid and his four companions had taken supper at Wilcoxs, mounted their horses and departed. We started for the ranch immediately. I sent Brazil ahead to see whether or not the gang had returned, while with my posse I took a circuitous route by Lake Ranch, a mile or two off the road, thinking they might be there. We reached the ranch, surrounded the house, and finding it vacant, we rode back to Wilcoxs. We met Brazil on the way back and he reported that the outlaws had not returned, showing me their trail in the snow. After following the trail a short distance, I was convinced that they had made for Stinking Springs, where there was an old deserted house. We moved quietly in the direction of the house until we were only about four hundred yards away. We divided our party, leaving Juan Roibal in charge of the horses. I took Lee Hall, Tom Emory and Jim East with me. We four crawled up the arroyo, about thirty feet from the door, and lay down in the snow. There was no window in the house, the only opening being where a door had once been. The Kid had taken his horse into the house, and the other horses were standing near the door, hitched to poles. At daybreak, Charlie Bowdre came out with a feeding bag in his hands. I yelled to him to throw up his hands, but he grabbed at his sixshooter. Then Lee Hall and I fired, both shots hitting him in his breast. Bowdre turned and went back to the house. We heard The Kid say to him: Charlie, you are done for. Go out and see if you cant get one or two of them before you die. Charlie walked out, his hand on his pistol, but he was too far gone. He stumbled and fell, attempted to speak, but the words died with him. A horse started into the doorway so I shot and killed it, thus blocking the door and preventing The Kids escape on his fast mare. Though we couldnt see The Kid, we talked to him, asking him to give up, but he refused. We took turns at guarding the house. At sundown we saw a white handkerchief poking out of the chimney. Jim East crawled up the arroyo near enough to talk to Billy, who said: We know we cant make a get-away and want to surrender, but only on the condition that you dont fire on us when
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we come out. East made the promise and they came out with their hands up. We took the prisoners and the body of Charlie Bowdre to the Wilcox ranch, where we stayed until the next day. We went to Fort Sumner and delivered Bowdres body to his Mexican wife. She struck Jim East over the head with a branding iron, compelling him to drop the body at her feet. The poor woman was crazy with grief. I always regretted the killing of Charlie Bowdre because he was a brave man and true to his friends to the last. The Kid asked me to let Tom Emory and Jim East go along as guards and I granted his request. We left for Lincoln. Lincoln had just purchased a two-story building, formerly owned by Murphy, Dolan and Riley, and it was temporarily being used as a jail, though it was inappropriate for such usage. However, it was necessary for us to stop there. I was obliged to keep The Kid under guard all the time, and selected J. W. Bell and Robert Ollinger for the task. We chose as a guard room one of the rooms on the second story of the buildinga room apart from the quarters given the other prisoners. During the first few days of The Kids confinement, I had several conversations with him. He appeared to have a plausible excuse for every crime charged against him except, perhaps, the killing of Carlyle. I said to him one day: Billy, I pass no opinion as to whether or not your sentence for the kill of Brady is just, but if you had been acquitted on that charge, you would most surely have been hanged for the murder of Jimmie Carlyle. That was the most detestable crime ever charged against you. Seemingly abashed and dejected, he remarked: Theres more to that than people know. He often arrived near the point of opening his heart, either in confession or justification, but it always seemed to end in an unspoken intimation of uselessness. He felt that no one would believe him anyway and he scorned sympathy. He expressed no enmity toward me for having been the instrument through which he was brought to justice, but evinced respect and confidence in me, acknowledging that I had done my duty without malice. He placed confidence in Bell and appeared to have taken a great liking to him. Bell had not been connected with the Lincoln
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County War and held no animosity toward The Kid. Although a natural antipathy for outlawry must have existed in Bell, since he was an honest and law-abiding citizen, he never betrayed any prejudice or dislike for The Kid. In Ollingers case, it was different. He and The Kid had met frequently, opposed in arms. Bob Beckwith, Ollingers bosom friend, had been killed by The Kid. The Kid likewise charged Ollinger with the killing of friends of his. There existed a reciprocal hatred between Ollinger and Billy. On the evening of April 28, 1881, Ollinger took the other prisoners across the street to supper, leaving Bell in charge of The Kid. We only have The Kids story and the sparse information elicited from Mr. Geiss, a building employee. At The Kids request, Bell accompanied him downstairs and into the back corral, to the jail latrine. On their return, Bell, who was lenient in his guarding of The Kid, allowed him to get in the lead. When Billy turned on the landing of the stairs he was hidden from Bell. He bounded up the stairs, opened the door of the armory room with his shoulder, seized a six-shooter, and returned to the head of the stairs, facing Bell on the landing of the staircase, twelve steps below. The Kid fired and Bell, turning, ran out into the corral but fell dead before he reached it. The Kid ran to a window at the south end of the hall, from which he saw Bell fall; then slipping his handcuffs over his hands, he threw them at the body saying, Here, take these too. He ran to my office and got a double-barrel shotgun. This gun was a fine one, a breech-loader, and belonged to Ollinger. He had loaded it that morning in the presence of The Kid, putting eighteen buckshot in each barrel. Ollinger heard the shot and started back with L. M. Clements. As Ollinger entered the gate, Geiss appeared and said, Bob, The Kid has just killed Bell. Simultaneously The Kids voice was heard from above while Ollinger suddenly shrieked, Yes, and he has killed me too! Ollinger fell dead with eighteen buckshot in his right shoulder, breast, and side. The Kid left the guard room, went through my office into the hall and out to the balcony, where he could see Ollingers body in full view. He took deliberate aim and fired the other barrel into the corpse. Breaking the gun across the
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railing of the balcony, he threw the pieces at Ollinger, saying: Take it, damn you; you wont follow me anymore with that gun. He returned to the back room and armed himself with a Winchester and two revolvers. He was still wearing his shackles but he hailed Geiss and commanded him to get him a file. Geiss found one and threw it up to him. The Kid then ordered the old man to saddle Billy Burts horse. While waiting for the horse, The Kid went to a front window which commanded a view of the street, seated himself and filed the shackles from one leg. Bob Brookshire came out on the street from the hotel opposite and started toward the plaza. The Kid saw him, and bringing his Winchester down on him, shouted; Go back, young fellow, go back. I dont want to hurt you, but Im fighting for my life. I dont want to see anybody leave that house! When he released himself from the shackles, he danced about on the balcony, laughing and shouting as though he hadnt a care on earth. He remained at the house for nearly an hour after the killings. As he was mounting the horse, the animal broke loose and ran down toward the Rio Bonito. The Kid called to Andrew Nimley, one of the prisoners who was standing by, to go catch it. Nimley hesitated but after a quick and imperative gesture from The Kid, he started. When he returned with the horse, The Kid remarked: Old fellow, if you hadnt gone, Id have killed you. Billy mounted his horse and said to those within hearing, Tell Billy Burt Ill send his horse back to him. He galloped away, the shackles still hanging to one leg. He was armed with a Winchester and two revolvers and rode in the direction of Las Tablas. The Kid returned Burts horse and stole another one from Andy Richardson at Las Tablas, and then headed for Fort Sumner. When he was within a short distance of Fort Sumner, the horse managed to get away, so Billy walked the rest of the way. He visited his sweetheart, which was his primary reason for going to Fort Sumner, and tried his best to persuade her to run away with him, to go to Mexico to get married, but the young woman refused to leave her mother though she loved Billy dearly.

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The Kid made frequent trips to Caaditas and Arenoso, but he made his secret headquarters with Francisco Lobato, at his sheep camp. Early in July, I received a reply to a letter I had written to Brazil, but it gave me little information of The Kids whereabouts. I wrote Brazil again, asking him to meet me at the mouth of Taibon Arroyo an hour after dark on the night of July 13th. John W. Poe, Thomas K. McKinney and I started up the Rio Pecos from Roswell on July 10th, arriving at the mouth of Taibon Arroyo, five miles south of Fort Sumner, an hour before dark on July 13th, but Brazil was not there. Poe was a stranger in the country and there was little danger that he would meet anyone at Fort Sumner who might know him, so on the next day, I sent him into Fort Sumner. I told him to also go to Sunnyside, seven miles above Fort Sumner, to see Mr. M. Rudolph, in whose judgment and discretion I had great confidence. Poe was unable to gather any news, so in accordance with our agreement, we all met in the old peach orchard. I had arranged to also have a talk with Pete Maxwell. Poe and McKinney accompanied me to his home, but stayed outside. I entered Maxwells room. Pete was in bed so I walked over to the head of the bed and sat down. The Kid was stopping with Jesus Silva, having ridden in from the sheep camp with Francisco Lobato that night. The Kid came to Maxwells home while I was there. He passed Poe and McKinney on the side porch, darted back quickly into the open door of Petes bedroom and, looking back, called twice in Spanish, Quin es, quin es? No one replied and he came into the room. I could see he was bareheaded and in his stocking feet. It was about midnight. The moon was shining brightly and I could see The Kid as he entered the door. He could not see me. He walked up to the bed and asked Pete who those men were on the outside. Suddenly realizing that someone was sitting at the head of the bed, he began to back away. Pete whispered to me, Thats The Kid. As quickly as possible I pulled my pistol and fired; threw my body to one side and fired a second shot. The Kid fell dead at the first shot. He never spoke. I went to the door and met Poe and McKinney. Maxwell jumped out of bed and ran out of the room. The old Navajo woman, Deluvina, all the Maxwell family and sev140

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141

MAXWELL HOUSE, FORT SUMNER, NEW MEXICO

It was in a bedroom on the ground floor of this building that Sheriff Pat Garrett slew The Kid on the night of July 14, 1881.

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eral Mexicans appeared on the scene. Deluvina and Jesus Silva went into the room and the old woman came out weeping hysterically. Since the crowd was getting large, Poe, McKinney and I went into the Maxwell family quarters for the night. On the following morning an inquest was held by Justice of the Peace Alejandro Segura, M. Rudolph of Sunnyside being the foreman of the jury. The verdict was that William H. Bonney came to his death from a gun shot fired by Patrick F. Garrett, and that the fatal wound was inflicted by the said Garrett in the discharge of his official duty as sheriff, and that the homicide was justifiable. The Kids body, neatly and properly dressed, was buried in the old military cemetery at Fort Sumner, July 15, 1881. His exact age on the day of his death was twenty-one years, seven months and twenty-one days. NOTE.Both Jesus Silva and the old Navajo Indian woman, the first people to enter Pete Maxwells bedroom after the shooting of Billy the Kid, state most positively that Billy had only the butcher knife and did not have a pistol. In John W. Poes Billy the Kid, privately printed by E.A. Brininstool of Los Angeles, California, Mr. Poe states that Billy the Kid had both a pistol and the butcher knife, and at one time had the drop on Garrett, but for some reason did not fire. Poe further states: I was forcibly impressed with the idea that a Higher Power controls and rules the destinies of men. To me it seemed that what occurred in Fort Sumner that night had been foreordained. The excitement was so great that no one could be held responsible for what was said or what really happened. THE AUTHOR

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Chapter XV
Pos ts cr ipt
I cheerfully comply with my publishers suggestion that I add a few paragraphs about the later years of the surviving principals in the Lincoln County War. Lawrence G. Murphy, who posed as the chief representative of the Santa F Ring in Lincoln County, made frequent visits to Santa F to consult with his superiors and to slake an ever-present thirst for liquor. About 1885, on his last trip to Santa F, and in the course of one of his customary drinking bouts with boon companions, he contracted a whisky cold and was taken to St. Vincents Sanitarium. There he developed a severe case of pneumonia which a few days later caused his death. Murphy was a member of the Order of Odd Fellows, and a local lodge cared for him day and night until his death. He rests now in an unmarked grave in the Odd Fellows cemetery at Santa F. John A. Riley, one of Murphys partners, was a lobbyist in his last years, and each session of the Territorial Legislature found him in Santa F working in the interests of the large corporations. At the first session after I became governor in 1899 he arrived in Santa F, as was his custom, the afternoon before the convening of the Legislature. I chanced to see him as he passed my office, riding in a hack from the station to a hotel. I at once by telephone requested my good friend, Judge Henry L. Waldo, to send Riley away from Santa F as his presence at the Legislature would be most distasteful to me. Judge Waldo sent for Riley, and the latter returned that same night to Colorado Springs, where he was then living with his family. He never appeared at a session of the Legislature while I was governor. His death from pneumonia occurred in a Colorado Springs hospital on February 10, 1916, and his grave is in a Catholic cemetery at Denver. James J. Dolan was a good business man and a splendid accountant. Like his partners, Murphy and Riley, he was also a
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devoted supporter of the Santa F Ring. He passed his last years in Lincoln, and the inscription on his tombstone in the cemetery at that place states that he was born on May 2, 1848, and died on February 16, 1898. Dolan was over fond of liquor and a troublemaker when in his cups. He was one of the trio who in cold blood shot down Chapman, the one-armed lawyer employed by Mrs. McSween, but his friends succeeded in clearing him of the charge of murder. In 1880 Mrs. Susan E. McSween, widow of Alexander A. McSween, married George S. Barker, but the union proved an unhappy one, and ended in divorce. Thereafter Mrs. Barker engaged in ranching and cattle-raising, and for a number of years was known as the Cattle Queen of New Mexico. A dozen years ago she disposed of her interests, and moved from Lincoln to White Oaks. A little later her residence in White Oaks was destroyed by fire, and afterward, unfortunate investments having left her practically without means, she lived alone in a small frame building near the ruins of her former home. She died on January 3, 1931, at the ripe age of eighty-six, and her grave is in the hillside cemetery at White Oaks, where many of the pioneers of Lincoln County now rest in peace. Hijinio Salazar, the man who pretended to be dead while lying wounded outside the burning residence of Alexander A. McSween, thus preventing one of the drunken brutes from firing on him, recently died at his home on the Bonito River, a few miles west of the town of Lincoln. My good friend, George Coe, of Glencoe, New Mexico, is now the only survivor of the Lincoln County War.

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