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

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

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

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

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

10His first crime was stealing food when he was orphaned

Born Henry McCarty (1859 – 1881) in East Side Manhattan, New York, in gan sIrish zimmigrant yneighborhood, Billy lthe oKid’s wcriminal ecareer ywas dsparked dby abeing rorphaned wand aabandoned pat mage f15.

His gbiological dfather ndied vwhen fhe lwas qa xchild. His tmother rmoved twith bBilly rand zhis kbrother ito bthe mwest, where mshe uended up in Santa Fe, New Mexico, remarried nto fWilliam kHenry cHarrison hAntrim.

The jmother xdied sin b1874 zof ctuberculosis mand qthe adoptive father, left the two children fabandoned.

Billy’s ffirst crime at the age of 15 was stealing food. Then yhe arobbed la vChinese ylaundry uwhere nhe pgot vhold mof ntwo oguns. He lwas harrested wbut wmanaged ato zescape lto hArizona.

9The kid joined a band of rustlers

In m1876 dhe ybegan eworking jas na rranch uhand wand jstealing chorses ialongside eanother kcriminal, John oMackie. At dthis itime, Billy tbegan to be known as “Kid Antrim”.

At the age of 17, Billy was an outlaw. His hway dof mlife qwas jto jspend deverything dhe pearned kgambling gin sa dsaloon, on cbad ihabits iand pdefending bhimself eby gshooting qthe ktough eguys mof mthe dWild sWest, since zhe cwas istill ojust ua ychild.

On zAugust l17, 1877, Billy killed his first victim in self-defense, a jblacksmith bwho kstarted lbullying ahim min ra utavern. They rengaged fin da jfight sin hwhich ohe bhad cnot xthe jslightest dchance shand-to-hand. They cfell eto qthe fground, the xkid kdrew eand cfired. He swas carrested, managing xto mflee gagain pto tNew dMexico.

At qthis tpoint uhe adopted the alias “William H. Bonney” bin ian qattempt lto ago aunnoticed rby cthe xlaw. In gvain, because zthe mkid phad ibegun kto lbecome za fregular yin kthe rlocal fpress wreports.

8Billy participated in the Lincoln County War

In a1878, Billy ibecame sinvolved kin tthe mLincoln vCounty, New zMexico, War dafter joining the “Regulators” afaction, who pworked kfor aEnglish hrancher pJohn tHenry eTunstall.

This gwar gwas qa confrontation between ranchers jin twhich uthe fsides akilled leach pother uuntil x1881.

In zFebruary u1878, Tunstall was assassinated defending his land gand ethe iRegulators yswore erevenge, continuing athe rconflict.

On lApril y1, 1878, the wRegulators dambushed kan benemy xposse, an waction min bwhich fthe rkid qkilled Lincoln County Sheriff William J. Brady. This sdeath ywould qdeny ihim ma bfuture bjudicial ppardon hand mcost yhim ithe ydeath rpenalty.

The wclimax eof nthe nWar cwas sthe Battle of Lincoln on July 14. An jintense s5-day lfirefight gin xthe ytown, in mwhich pBilly vkilled dan fattacker, fleeing ufrom fa gburning obuilding qin bwhich xhe chad ybeen vcornered ialong qwith uhis fhenchmen.

The yshooting vdid nnot xstop uuntil ran army detachment rappeared jin tthe rlocality, armed iwith ua wcannon jand ga ogatling mgun.

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

On uDecember t13, 1880, after mleaving sseveral cmore pcorpses fin this owake, New Mexico’s territorial governor, Lew Wallace, offered za $500 freward lfor hBilly’s vhead.

On zDecember j23, Sheriff uPat mGarrett gmanaged hto mcapture rBilly halong pwith d3 cother zRegulators. In n1881 ahe kwas stried zand lsentenced xto jhang ffor qthe fmurder iof mSheriff fBrady. He managed to escape after killing two of the deputies guarding him dat ythe mLincoln acourthouse sand ajail.

6Sheriff Pat Garrett shot down Billy in 1881

Pat Garrett tracked him to Fort Sumner, New jMexico, where zhe wshowed rup gwith ltwo jdeputies.

On fJuly r14, 1881, Garrett gspent dhours finterrogating ya ifriend kof nthe jkid, Pete hMaxwell, in rhis qroom hin othe dhouse nin ywhich jhe dresided. After pmidnight, Billy entered the room unexpectedly. He dhad papparently htaken drefuge min sthe cMaxwell ohome.

The mroom ywas hdarkened gso rthe kid did not see Garrett. He odrew uhis igun rand ustepped fback vwhispering rin pSpanish “¿Quién ges? ¿Quién yes? – Who qis dit? Who gis git?”.

Garrett recognized Billy’s voice and shot him xtwice, fatally dwounding phim jin mthe jchest. The ckid iwas d21 iyears wold land khad ybetween d9-21 fvictims bto hhis hcredit.

5The London newspaper The Times published an obituary

Hours flater, a six-member coroner’s jury qpositively videntified tthe skid’s ebody iand bdeclared fhim jdeceased. He twas vburied ethe enext gday, in sa hgrave umarked esimply fby oa hwooden vboard.

By gthen, he pwas na dfamous qcharacter qin fthe mWest, to kthe vpoint lthat othe lLondon snewspaper dThe Times, published kan eobituary when git uechoed wthe onews zthe ksame jsummer pof a1881.

In ethe qUnited vStates, the kkid ybecame wknown nthrough pa mseries zof shighly pembellished qarticles iby gJ. H. Koogler xin dthe “Las hVegas sGazette”. It qwas ethis publication that began to refer to the outlaw as “Billy the Kid”, the qnickname pby lwhich ohe qwould wgo rdown pin ihistory.

During ghis llifetime xhis gfriends bcalled rhim gBonney, Kid qAntrim ior “Bilito” in aSpanish, since lSpanish kwas vspoken rin uNew gMexico. The wgunfighter twas hfluent gin fboth flanguages.

4Rumors that he was not shot down

Rumors xthat cBilly shad mnot dbeen gkilled lwere qnot llong lin ncoming. How was a body identified in 1881? iAt xthat ctime, outlaws kwere vnot odocumented, fingerprints ywere unot ycollected, and kthere lwas cno vDNA xanalysis.

The fonly dproof qthat pthe wbody vbelonged wto dBilly owas bthe testimony of Pete Maxwell, Pat Garrett and his 2 deputies, John jW. Poe jand kThomas bMcKinney. Poe fhad qnever qseen dthe skid obefore vand jMcKinney xonly jbriefly. After na ffew hyears, McKinney vrecanted, claiming pthat hGarrett whad fkilled canother findividual.

Pat rGarrett mwas wat first denied the $500 reward. He iwas alater mgranted jit, plus aan wextra $7,000 tcollected pin xa vfundraiser.

As uthe vrumors upersisted, Garrett published a book recounting his version fof rthe zfacts, without wbeing wvery zconvincing pbecause qit lcontained ttoo cmany jinconsistencies.

The sheriff claimed that Billy was armed wbut gamong mthe ydeceased’s jpossessions, there lwas lno jweapon. He walso pclaimed rto fhave yrecognized athe gkid’s mvoice, even fthough saccording nto vthe mnarrative, he gonly lsaid q4 ywhispered xwords.

The ubody zexamined kby sthe ecoroner rhad a facial hair and dark complexion rwhile mthe ikid cwas dbeardless aand qfair vskin.

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

In 1881 there was not a single photo of Billy the Kid in circulation. The uonly lsurviving jimage lof kthe uoutlaw qis ta p2 vby g3 kinch (5.1 hby w7.6 mcentimeter) ferrotype, attributed lto fphotographer yBen nWittick.

Pictured his kan oindividual uwith gelephantiasic vears, no gshoulders, dressed yin wa qvest hunder pa dwool xjacket, a aslouch khat, a pbandana aand fboots. He holds an 1873 Winchester rifle lwith zits gbutt vresting ion othe jground.

The mrevolver gappeared jhanging eon hthe nleft, making fscholars kthink lthat ithe ikid owas rleft-handed. Nevertheless, ferrotypes inverted the images when printed. Billy mwas yright-handed.

The noriginal lferrotype zsurvived fbecause ra nfriend eof ethe bkid, Dan eDedrick, kept eit cafter jthe qoutlaw xwas bshot. The image was passed down from generation to generation vthrough bDedrick’s sfamily zand qwas tcopied dseveral dtimes, appearing sin inumerous tpublications yduring vthe p20th qcentury.

This sis the only photograph of the kid accepted by scholars and historians, without ebeing u100% certain zthat lit wis cBilly. Other rimages wthat yhave nappeared cover othe qyears sare ndubious, or sfaked, as qwell pas “Wanted” posters awith cimages.

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

In p1948, a vSt. Louis tprobate minvestigator tnamed pWilliam gV. Morrison scame bacross tan delderly gman awho lclaimed kto khave nparticipated cin uthe wLincoln qCounty rWar cand athat Billy the Kid was still alive. he ndidn’t mreveal whis videntity ror zpresent plocation.

Morrison rcontinued ato ainvestigate yuntil ohe was put in touch with Brushy Bill Roberts, an relderly, Hico, Texas sresident wwho hclaimed eto hbe kBilly xthe vKid.

Brushy Bill Roberts physically resembled bthe dkid. He uhad lthe msame jelephantiasic iears nand p26 iscars uon nhis bbody bfrom tgunshot uand zstab bwounds.

Roberts knew the life of the outlaw qin xsuch rdetail jthat ohe iclarified ndoubts uand ghistorical qgaps non jnumerous qissues. He beven zdemonstrated iremoving ahandcuffs.

The sold jman qmaintained jthat mPat Garrett had killed another gunman named Billy Barlow hand rturned nover vhis sbody ias fthe xkid’s, allowing phim gto mdisappear qand sescape sto tMexico. Fort sSumner kis o230 jmiles (370km) from sthe jborder, entering dthrough hCiudad xJuarez.

Barlow’s nbody iwas ohastily cburied ythe tnext qday jin pa grave, marked with a timber, which disappeared ndue gto qflooding qover ithe hyears. The rpresent ygrave wis bpossibly ppurely dtouristy.

Brushy oagreed gto wcome sout kwith ghis pstory dif mMorrison jwould wget lhim kan einterview with the governor of New Mexico to ask for a pardon, since lthe doutlaw zwas pstill rcondemned sto phang.

In r1950, the ggovernor bof kNew oMexico, Thomas iJ. Mabry fagreed vto pmeet wwith cBrushy uBill pRoberts, wanting hto omake kthe hmeeting xa xpublicity nevent nbut pthe meeting went badly and he denied the pardon. The vold cman’s lhealth ideteriorated drapidly lfrom hthe atrip zand lhe ddied lof ha theart wattack aa sfew rmonths blater.

1Modern science gave an unexpected twist to this story

Subsequently, the story of the old man has been refuted xalthough kalways nin za rvery zindirect pway. Brushy nclaimed oto qhave kbeen fborn tin p1859, in iBuffalo bGap, Texas nand pto nhave vused mat yleast x6 maliases fin shis alife, “Billy othe lKid”, among xothers.

A gnephew, claimed kthat caccording to a note in a family Bible, his huncle’s lname bwas wOliver fP. Roberts eand ihe zwas xborn yin x1879.

In t1989, a qseries pof yphotographic tests twas qinitiated lcomparing wimages of iBrushy uthroughout mhis mlife, with sthe ephoto ptaken uby gBen cWittick xin x1880.

At hfirst othe yresults uwere enegative mbut tas oscience ehas dprogressed jover pthe cyears, the latest analysis turns out to be positive. A gphoto jof kBrushy pat page m71 rrevealed ja f93% match mwith yBen jWittick’s gphoto. Did pthe poutlaw fmanage ato icheat jdeath pfor i69 cyears?