Billy the Kid

Of all the legends from the days of gunslingers and desperadoes, no one fires our collective imagination more than Billy the Kid. Now maybe that's because no outline better blurred the lines between good and bad. He's actually going to jail, and he's probably going to be hanged, and yet he's laughing about it. From his point of view, he would have been killed within a matter of days if he hadn't killed them first. But at the same time, I

think that's not a justification for murder. If the law had not been so incredibly corrupt, he wouldn't be in this situation. The Kid had learned a hard truth about the way the world worked in New Mexico. Just a few years earlier, he'd been a skinny, orphan boy from New York City. Calling themselves the regulators, they vowed to dispense their own brand of justice. Now Billy was the most feared man in New Mexico. The people he was fighting against, even the ones who were on the side of the law,

were brooks. These were not fine, outstanding citizens who were being gunned down. William Henry McCarty alias William Antram alias Kid Antram, alias William H. Bonnie alias Billy the Kid. Yeah, I'll make your things. The best part about researching Billy the Kid is the fact that not even historians can agree

on his early years. So what I had to do was I had to research all kinds of different shit and I kind of put it all together and I went by what historians would say the most of So basically, if five historians said this and three historians said that, I'm going to go with what the five agreed on. So this is pretty much what I came up with. And I will tell you right now, after researching Billy the Kid, I have a whole new respect for this guy, man, I truly do.

Yeah. He was at times a cold blooded murderer, as you're going to find out, he was a victim of circumstance more often than not. It's really interesting. So let's go ahead and get rolling here. Now. He was supposedly born William Henry McCarty junior, and he was born in either eighteen fifty nine or eighteen sixty one. They believe his birthday is November twenty third, and they say that he was born in New York. His father

is unknown. His mother was Catherine McCarty who was an Irish immigrant who came to America during the Great Potato Famine over in Ireland. Now, he did have a brother who was named Joe. Even history oriens can't agree on when he was born. His death certificate says he was born in eighteen fifty four, which would make him older than Billy, But Joe himself and there are documents that correlate with this, says he was born in eighteen sixty three,

which would make him Billy's younger brother. They can't agree on whether Billy was born in New York or if he was born in Anderson, Indiana, which is just kick ass in my book because I'm from Indiana. So the reason they think he was born in New York is because, ironically enough, in eighteen sixty one, there is a kid that shows up getting a baptism that is going by the name Henry McCarty. They're not one hundred percent sure if this is him, though, because his father is unknown. There's so many

stories about his father. It has suspected that his dad was a guy named Michael McCarty who had died in the Civil War. That's unconfirmed. Is also stated that they believe young William McCarty might have been an illegitimate child. And where this comes from is Catherine, his mother. When historians would try to talk to her family, her surviving family about her, they literally would change the subject and would not really acknowledge her. So that would kind of give

the idea that maybe these kids were illegitimate. Now we do not know that. Even his birthday of November twenty third is not certain. The only person that said his birthday was on November twenty third was in Pat Garrett's biography of Billy the Kid, and I believe it was titled The Authentic Life of Billy

the Kid. The thing about it is is his co author on this book that person's birthday just so happens to be on November twenty third as well, So they think they really didn't know, and they just kind of inserted that birthday in there and just everybody accepted it as fact. So we really don't know. Most historians will say that he was born on November twenty third,

eighteen fifty nine, in New York. Now where Indiana comes into play is this is the first official record per a census and Anderson, Indiana on June eighteenth, eighteen sixty eight, there was a census taken, like I said, and Katherine McCarty does show up, and she states that she has two boys that go by William, Henry McCarty and Joseph McCarty. While they are living in Anderson, Indiana, this is where Katherine meets a guy named William

Antrim. She has like a laundry business. She's washing people's clothes, she's baking stuff. She's pretty much trying to get by any way that she can. William Antrim not much is known about his past up until he comes into contact with Catherine. He really doesn't care about the Bays too much. Young Joseph and William. He really, you know, he just kind of wanted Catherine. And as we're gonna come to find out, William Antram was probably

not the best husband or father figure that these boys could have had. They are going through a courtship for a couple of years. On August tenth, eighteen seventy, they move their little family to Wichita, Kansas. Actually is right outside of Wichita, Kansas, and Katherine is actually in the papers here. This is documented. She is a business leader. She opens up her

laundry business again she's doing pretty well for herself. But this is also around the time that she is diagnosed with consumption, which is also known as tuberculosis at the time the infection of the lungs, so she needs to move to a less humid climate. They need to go do somewhere dry and possibly warmer, So in August of eighteen seventy one they leave for a dryer climate because of the consumption. The next time we see them pop up is in Denver,

Colorado, in October of eighteen seventy two. Now they really weren't there too long from what I could find out, because they later end up moving to Santa Fe. And how we know this is because on March first, eighteen seventy three, William Antrim and Catherine McCarty are married in Santa Fe where Little Billy was a witness and he signed the marriage certificate as the witness. He signed it to little Harry McCarty, which is absolutely adorable. I don't

even know why. But so from here on she's still doing her business. You know, she's washing clothes, she's baking stuff for people. Now, right around this time, in April of eighteen seventy three, they move the Antrim family to Silver City, New Mexico. William wants to start work as a prospector. There's silver mines popping up everywhere. Everybody's wanting to get their

riches, so they do settle in Silver City. Catherine starts washing clothes, she starts baking, selling those baked goods, and she even takes on boarders in her house to make ends meet. William, on the other hand, is pretty much a piece of shit. He is running around, never really around. He's always trying to make his riches. He's off in the silver mines. Whatever little money he does make he spends. He has a gambling addiction. He's a heavy drinker, and like I said, he really doesn't

care too much. Dude's just not around. But Billy and Joe, on the other hand, are doing fairly well. Billy is doing good in school. His personality starts coming out right about now, and from schoolmates that did go to school with young William McCarty, they said his personality was kick ass. He just was happy, go lucky, real care free. It is said that he had like a little bit of protruding buck teeth, but he was still a ladies man because of that. Personality. Everybody got along with

him really, really well. Another thing that we did find out is that he's a hell of a dancer because picture this if you can, young Billy. The kid is a dancer because him and his mom used to go to town dances. She taught him how to dance. So this kind of helped his reputation of being a little bit of a ladies man. The girls did love him, and like I said, everything's going great. You know, this kind of gets bad around September of eighteen seventy four, after four were

months of bed rest because of her consumption. On September sixteenth, eighteen seventy four, Catherine dies from her consumption, also known as tuberculosis. William Antrim was not around when his wife died. He was off doing whatever the hell he was doing. But before she does die, she arranges for the boys

to be taken in by a neighbor of hers. That right there is just crazy admirable because this woman's working three different jobs taking care of these two boys, raising little gentlemen for the most part, and her husband's off whatever. Her husband doesn't even come back for her funeral, so they get taken in by this neighbor. What happens is when William Antrum ends up coming back, he does not want anything to do with these boys. He doesn't want anything

dragging him down. He doesn't want anything to do with them, so he takes off for Clifton, Arizona and leaves the boys behind. Now, at this point, this death of his mother just devastated Billy all right, like this was his rock. This was the one person in his life that was stationary, that loved him unconditionally, that was always there for him, and she's gone. He gets pushed off to a neighbor's house and he's not doing bad, but obviously he's dealing with some shit. He's just a young kid

at this point in time, he's thirteen years old. Now. While he was living with these neighbors, he does, in early of eighteen seventy five, get his first arrest, and believe it or not, he gets arrested for stealing butter from a rancher and trying to sell it to a local merchant.

Now, because Billy is friends with the sheriff's kid and his name was Sheriff Whitehill, you know, they ran around together and stuff, all he gets is a little bit of some verbal discipline, you know, the Sheriff's is like, hey, you know, this ain't the road you want to go down. We're not gonna get you in too much trouble. Just get your shit together, quit steal and stuff. Now, at this point in time, he is also bouncing around two different houses, different little foster homes.

He has no stationary place to live, so it's not out of the realm of possibility that he's trying to make a living. He's on his own at thirteen fourteen years old. So he starts getting into a little bit of more trouble and on September twenty third, eighteen seventy five, young William Henry McCarty is arrested again, this time for stealing laundry. Now I have heard a couple of different variations of this story. Here's the first version of the

story that we have. Billy, the kid, ends up meeting with this guy named Sombrero Jack. Shit you not, that's the name that this guy goes by. He's pretty much a local hoodlum whatever. Now, Sombrero Jack has Billy steal these clothes from a local Chinaman. Now, unfortunately, this was a different time and the whole thinking process behind this was that if they stole from this guy, the local authorities probably wouldn't really care too much because

he was a foreigner. Unfortunately, that was the mindset in this time. It was a different era. You know, if they would have gotten caught, then Billy wouldn't have really gotten in trouble because he was still just a young kid. Now, he was supposed to take these clothes, hide him, and then meet up with Sombrero Jack later and give him the clothes. And supposedly he had stolen a couple of pistols as well. That is unconfirmed.

I only heard that in a couple places. But the other story that I heard is that basically Sombrero Jack stole the clothes and he told Billy that he would give him some clothes if he ended up getting caught, then Billy would take the fall. Well, Billy's living in a boarding house at this point in time, and he does end up getting caught, the lady who was running the house comes in to check on his room, clean his room, or whatever, finds the clothes, reports it to the local authorities.

The local authority just happens to be Sheriff Whitehill, who had arrested Billy previously, so he is you familiar with him. He knows Billy. What they do is he kind of wants to prove a point to Billy, so he arrests him and he puts him in a jail cell. Now, at this point in time, they had traveling judges, so Billy could have been sitting in jail for a few months waiting for a judge to come around, in which case he probably would have gotten nothing more than probably another warning is slap

on the wrist. Maybe they'd put him to work for a little bit. But Billy doesn't know this, and he's just a local kid, and the sheriff knows him. So when they put him in jail, they don't actually put him in a cell. They just kind of let him roam around in that area and don't really keep an eye on him. Well, the sheriff goes out to dinner on September twenty fifth, just a couple of days later, and when he comes back, Billy's gone. The sheriff is looking,

He's like, how the hell did he get out of here? Well, what Billy does is he goes up the chimney. You know, they look up the chimney, and they can see in the soot, they can see, you know, a little hand and footprints going all the way up the chimney. Billy climbed his little body all the way up there, got out the top, jumped off the roof, stole a horse, and took off. But this also makes Billy a fugitive at the tender age of about sixteen.

So it's a pretty interesting little story right there, because, as you'll come to find, Billy is kind of the Hoodini of the wild West. This guy literally escaped so many times and got out of so much shit that it's honestly amazing. So what Billy does is he ends up going to Clifton, Arizona to try to track down William Antrum, basically to take him in

to ask him for help, any kind of help that he has. Well, he does end up finding his stepfather, and you know, he tells him what happened, and his stepfather pretty much tells him to get out of there, and I don't want anything to do with you, just to leave.

So Billy literally is on his own, and he's on the run and unforgiving territory, and he is technically a fugitive So the next time young Billy turns up is right around April of eighteen seventy six, and he's hanging around a Camp Grant, Arizona or Fort Grant, however you want to refer to it as. And he's working at a hotel there, washing dishes and cooking some food, a little place called the Hotel de Luna. This is where he meets up with a guy named John Mackie, and Mackie starts getting him

into stealing horses and stealing saddles. And he's not just stealing them from anybody, he's stealing them from the soldiers who are based at that camp there in Arizona. This is where Billy starts really getting into some trouble. Now Billy is a horse thief, a saddle thief. He's stealing from the soldiers based at this camp there in Arizona. And this is where he starts hanging out

with a little bit of the rougher crowd. He's playing cards, he's gambling, he's drinking, and mind you, at this point in time, he's still merely right around sixteen years old. So in March twenty fifth, eighteen seventy seven, after months of doing this, him and Mackie end up getting caught. They are confined at Camp Grant. Billy escapes later that night and again he is on the run. He doesn't go very far, though, he still hangs out in that area and on August eighteenth of eighteen seventy seven,

this is where Billy officially kills his first man. Now, the circumstances of this are extremely interesting because around Camp Grant there's a local blacksmith named Frank k Hill, known as Wendy k Hill. He was known to bully young Billy the kid quite bad. He would often throw him to the ground.

He would open hand slap him in the face. He would humiliate him in front of everybody, and Billy just kinda took it until August eighteenth, eighteen seventy seven, when they were playing cards and Wendy k Hill refers to Billy as a pimp and a son of a bitch. Well, he's throws Billy to the ground from what witnesses say, about three times, and he takes his knees and he pins him on Billy's shoulders while Billy is on the ground,

backface has his back to the ground. He's on the ground he's got him pinned down, and he's literally just open hand slapping Billy in the face, just being a total asshole. They're kind of wrestling around a little bit, and Billy manages to get one of his arms free and manages to grab a pistol and he takes a shot and hits Ky Hill right in the gut. Now, Kayhill slumps over. Billy kind of wiggles free. Now he takes off, gets it onto the nearest horse that he can find, and

starts riding off. And his luck would have it, the horse that he steals is a racing horse. So Billy is gone into the sunset. Now, all these witnesses, there were several witnesses to this incident that said this was a clear cut case of self defense. This guy had it coming. What was Billy supposed to do? You know what I'm saying. The only person who did not think it was self defense was the justice of the peace.

Literally, everybody that was a witness, everybody that was asked, everybody that was there, says it was a clear cut case of self defense. Billy had no choice. So it doesn't take long for him to get captured by local soldiers. Now the best part about this is is because, like I said, Billy is about seventeen eighteen years old at this point in time, and the soldiers take pity on him because he tells them the story of what happened. So they let him go. But they tell him when they

let him go, you are a wanted fugitive for murder. Whether it was in self defense or not. You didn't stick around to find out, you didn't stick around to go to court, so technically you are a fugitive wanted for murder. Billy doesn't care. He takes off and he leaves for New Mexico. Now, while he's on his way to New Mexico, I'm not one hundred percent sure if it's in New Mexico or on his way there,

he runs in to some Apache American Indians. These Apache take his guns, they take his horse, and they pretty much leave Billy for dead out in the middle of the desert. Now, I cannot stress enough for those of you not familiar with the American Southwest, this is unforgiving territory. If you do not have food, water, a horse, and a weapon of any kind, you will for sure die. So Billy's out here wandering around for a few days, damn near close to death, and he stumbles upon a

shack. I believe the shack is owned by the Joneses, I'm not one hundred percent sure. Well, this lady, the lady of the house, takes him in and pretty much nurses him back to health. Now, like I said, Billy was very very close to death. He was extremely dehydrated at this point in time, and these apache beat the hell out of this kid. So he gets a nurse back to health and they give him a horse and tell him, you know, hey, go ahead, get out of here, do what you gotta do. And it is at this point

in time that Billy does change his name to William H. Bonnie. So the next time he shows up is about a month later in eighteen seventy seven. This is right around September, and he joins a little gang known as the Boys, led by Jesse Evans. This gang is also known as the Jesse Evans Gang. And these dudes are legit. They are a gang of killers and rustlers. Now Billy, who is no stranger to danger, he

has nothing else to lose. He's a young kid and he literally has to hold his own He pretty much has to stay claim to a reputation that he is not one to be messed with. These guys are older, they've been around. These are some rough guys, okay, And Billy starts riding with these guys at at the age of seventeen or eighteen. So the next time he shows up is October of eighteen seventy seven, when the boys ride into Lincoln County. And it is at this point in time that a man named

Frank Coe actually writes about Billy the Kid. What he writes about is his ability with pistols. It's really really interesting because he's talking about how Billy can twirl his pistols while they are cocked one in each hand going the opposite way. There's lots of stories out there about Old West gunslingers, but this is the first documented thing that I saw about Billy the Kid that someone actually commented on his abilities with the pistol and how fast he was and how skilled he

was with him. I'll think about it. Billy didn't have nothing else to do. He was out here doing his thing, living his life, you know, and he had a lot of time to get really good with those pistols. I would like to touch base a little bit on what's going on at Lincoln County at this point in time. All Right, in the early eighteen seventies, two guys named Lawrence Murphy and James Dolan opened the only store in all of Lincoln County. They call it the Murphy and Dolan Merchantile and

Banking. Now what they are doing is they have a shipload of cattle and a shitload of ranches. And what they do is they get these government contracts. Now they owned all the cattle, and they owned the only store that sells meet in all of Lincoln County. Now, to put this into perspective, Lincoln County at this point in time is the size of Ireland. This is a huge, massive county. And for them to own the only cattle, have a government contract, and own the only store that sells their own

meat, they literally have a monopoly going on it. They have bought all the local politicians, they have bought all the local law enforcement, which is only one guy. They have one sheriff in this entire county that goes by the name of Sheriff William Brady. Now what Dolan and Murphy do is they form this faction and they call it the House now the House, because they

literally are rich and extremely powerful. They control everything in Lincoln County. If you want to buy something, trade something, sell something in Lincoln County, you have to go through the House and there's not much of anybody to stop them. They have everybody in their pocket. So what happens now is in

February of eighteen seventy seven, an Englishman shows up in Lincoln County. Now, besides the fact that English and the Irish are not exactly friendly in this county, I'm not sure about the rest of the world, but they do have their differences. This guy's name is John Tunstall. He's an English banker and he ended up coming from Victoria, British Columbia, and he wanted to

invest in some cattle. He had some money to invest somewhere, and he knew there was a lot of money in the cattle trade down in Lincoln County, around the Pecos Valley area. What he does is he hooks up with a guy named Alexander McSween. Now McSween was a former lawyer for the House. I'm not exactly sure why he ended up wanting to leave the House and go into business with Tunstall, but that is how it happens. Now, what they do is McSween pretty much hooks him up with this guy named John

Chisholm. Now John Chisholm is a cattle baron. He is literally known as the King of Pecos Valley because he owns tens upon thousands of heads of cattle. When he moved cattle from the Pecos Valley, he moved a hundred thousand head of cattle at a time. This is a lot of money right here. And what he does is John Chisholm decides that he wants in on this too because he knows there's a lot of money to be made in Lincoln because as of right now, there's only one store there which are owned by the

House Murphy and Dolan. Now John Chisholm's wanting to expand, so he thinks it's a great idea to back McSween Tunstall. Not only does the House have the sheriff the local politicians in their pocket, they also have the governor of the territory, guy by the name of Governor Axtel in their pocket as well. So they literally are doing whatever they want, whenever they want. And it is said that one of the reasons. A lot of the locals they

hated the House. All the local rounding Lincoln County and in Lincoln County could not stand the House because it was a monopoly. They literally did whatever they wanted. Some of the lands in the surrounding areas. The House would write up fake foreclosure papers, they would act like they weren't getting paid. They would go foreclose on people's land, take their shit, take their assets. People hated the House. So when they see this competition opening up, naturally

they start going to that competition. Now, what the House does is they start putting a lot of political pressure on Tunstall and McSween. They do that through like bullshit, little court cases and everything like that little political bullshit. But Tunstall is a smart guy and he literally refuses to give into them. So at this point they start threatening violence. So this is kind of where we jump back to the Billy timeline because when they start threatening violence, Tunstall

knows that he needs protection. He has to hire some tough guys from the area. This guy is way out of his element. The way he did business was different than Dolan and Murphy. Dolan was known to literally kill anybody that got in his way. That's not how John Tunstall did shit. That's not how they did stuff in England at the time. Like I said, this was the American wild West. There were no rules. Now, while all this inner fighting in Lincoln County, it's pretty much a merchant war.

It's referred to as account of war, but it is technically a merchant war because in the fall of eighteen seventy seven, the house is losing a lot of money. They are almost struggling to stay afloat at this point in time because of the competition of Tunstall and McSween. We jump back into Billy. This is October of eighteen seventy seven when Bill and Jesse Evans and the boys gang ride back into Lincoln County. Now, right around in November of eighteen

seventy seven, the boys are stealing cattle from anybody that they could. They were stealing cattle from the house side, they were stealing cattle from the Tunstall side. They were stealing cattle from John Chisholm. They were wrestlers, they were killers, they were trying to make a living. So Billy gets caught stealing a couple of horses from John Tunstall. Now it is right directly around this time, not one hundred percent sure of win, but Billie and Jesse

Evans have a little bit of a falling out. Billy ends up getting caught stealing those horses from John Tunstall, so he ends up going to jail there in Lincoln County. Now, while the threats of violence against John Tunstall start growing and growing, McSween suggests that, hey, you know, maybe you should hire some tough guys. Maybe you should hire some cowboys to help protect your ass dude, because these guys are powerful men. They do not care.

They have local law in their pocket. So John Tunstall goes to the Lincoln County jail and he gets Billy out, and he offers Billy a chance to work on his ranch. His official title was a cattle guard. He says, I'll give you a job. You can work the ranch. You offer me protection basically as a bodyguard, and I will make sure that you are taken care of. And he gets Billy out of jail. Now, Billy agrees to this because this is a chance that he has really never been

given before. You got to think of what this kid has been through in the last two three years. This guy that he has no idea who he is is literally getting him out of jail after stealing his cattle and his horses and giving him a job. So Billy wants to go straight. He's like, yeah, this is a great opportunity for me to have like a real job and not do stupid shit anymore. So he gets he gets out of

jail. Now John Tunstall gives him a horse and a rifle. There's a good possibility this is the first gifts that Billy the Kid has ever been given in his life. He's got to a strange guy who he literally got caught stealing from, who is giving him a job, and all he's got to do is offer him a little bit of protection, guards some of his cattle. So he's just kind of thrown back by it. But because John Tunstall gave him this opportunity, despite who he was, Billy at this point in

time just has gained so much respect. He respects John Tunstall like no other. It's a really cool thing. It's a really cool thing to get in depth with. Especially you know, I'm no psychologist, but you got to put yourself in Billy's shoes right now. Billy is not the only local gun slinger that Tunstall hires. He hires quite a few other guys as well, because he knows some shit is about to go down now. At the same time he's hiring all these gun slingers and guys to protect his cattle, the

House is doing the same thing. Well, what the House does is they go and hire Jesse Evans and some of the boys gang that Billy used to ride with to do the same thing. Be little bodyguards, offer protection pretty much, just go and do the dirty work. So, like I had mentioned before, Billy literally walked into a really bad situation. But he made a friend in John Tunstall, somebody who believed in him and gave him a

chance. So he is very, very loyal to the Englishman. By February of eighteen seventy eight, the House is losing a lot of money to Tunstall in mcsween's other store that they had opened up. They are hurting really, really bad. So what they do is they go to the local politicians. And here's why the House is particularly mad at Alexander McSween at this point in time, because Alexander McSween is the executor of a will of a deceased member

of the House. Guy by the name of Fritz. Now, Dolan and Murphy had one hundred thousand dollars life insurance policy on this guy, and McSween refuses to sign off to pay the house the insurance money. Now, the House needs this money to stay afloat, so they take it to court, and of course the court is in the House's pocket, so they side with the house. McSween still refuses to sign off on this life insurance policy and award the money to the house because he knows the entire court case was total

bullshit because all these dudes are still paid off. So this is when things start getting really really hairy. On February eighteenth, eighteen seventy eight, the kid in, some of the other ranch hands that Tunstall had hired, and Tunstall himself are herding horses into Lincoln. This is like a whole day long

thing. Some say that there were some wild turkeys around, so Billy and a couple of ranch hands rode off to go shoot some turkeys, and while they were off in the distance, they see Dolan and Sheriff Brady's men. Tunstall, who is a pretty calm and collective guy, and unfortunately he thinks words can settle disputes in this land, and that cannot be further from the truth. So what happens is Sheriff Brady's men, because what it was with

Sheriff Brady organized a posse. He was the main organizer to go serve warrants to collect some of Tunstall's assets since McSween wasn't paying the hundred thousand dollars life insurance policy. It was basically a bunch of written up, fake bullshit. It was just a way for the house to get back at Tunstall. Well, they go off, they go to serve these quote unquote warrants and sees a bunch of his shit. Well Tunstall starts writing up to him. Brady's

men are quoted as saying wait till he gets a little bit closer. Now. When Tunstall is riding towards them to try to talk to them, he is shot one time with a rifle and knocked off his horse. At that point in time, one of the members of the posse walks up and puts a single shot in the back at Tunstall's head. Now, Billy and the rest of the guys see this, and not because Billy's a coward, but because he does have a little bit of common sense. They take off because

they know there's nothing they can do. Otherwise there's a good chance they're probably gonna get killed too. It. Now, to add insult to injury, what they do is they not only shoot Tunstall, but they shoot his horse too, and they position them like they are taking a nap together, just as a form of humiliation. They put a gun in Tunstall's hand and they go back and say, well, he fired on us first. We had no other choice. And of course it's the law. The Sheriff Brady organized

the posse. He had the law in their pocket. The house controlled everything, ran everything, so there was literally nothing that these guys could do. Now, while Tunstall is being buried, a guy named Fred Waite and a guy named Martinez, they attempt to serve warrants to the men who murdered Tunstall, but they are pretty quickly disarmed. They got their weapons taken from him, and Sheriff Brady throws them in jail. Now Martinez is allowed to leave.

Billy and Fred Waite are held prisoner until after Tunstall's funeral. They are released on February where twenty third, eighteen seventy eight, after spending a couple days in jail, and it is said at this point, and it's unconfirmed, but I've read this in more than one place that while standing over the grave of John Tunstall, Billy the Kid known as William H. Bonnie at this point in time, swears revenge on every single person that killed his friend.

Tunstall's foreman was a guy named Dick Brewer. Dick Brewer was a very respected guy in Lincoln County at this point in time, and he was also respected by Billy. He was a very level headed, smart guy. He was a leader. He gets appointed constable and they have a good enough argument to justify being able to serve warrants to have Tunstall's murderers arrested. So what happens is Billy the Kid and a bunch of other ranch hands are deputized.

And what they do is they call themselves the Regulators, because they are going to go and they are going to serve out their own brand of justice and

they are going to regulate this shit. Now. Some of the known members of the Regulators are Billy the Kid, Charlie Bowdrey, Dick Brewer who was the first leader, guy named Henry Brown, Jose Chavez, Chavez, George Coe, Frank co who I mentioned earlier, who was one of the people who came out and mentioned and had written about Billy's ability with the pistols, another guy named Jim French, and then Doc Skurlocke. Now together these guys

were the ones who formed the Regulators. These are the known members. There are some that joined up later, specifically a guy named Tom o'folliard who does play a little bit of a role a little bit later on in the story. And then you have another guy who joined later on by the name of McCloskey. So within five days of the Regulators getting deputized on March sixth,

eighteen seventy eight, the Regulators arrest Bill Morton and Frank Baker. Now what happens is a few days later, the Regulators pretty much come to the understanding that even if they go and take them to court, there's probably nothing going to be done about it because these guys are members of the House. They realized that no punishment is ever going to come of this. Now, it's often said that Billy was the one who really wanted to just straight up kill

these guys. That's totally unconfirmed. We don't know now. Like I said, these guys really wanted to just kill Morton and Baker because they were two of the four man posse that had gunned down Tunstall. Now, it is said that Billy was the one who was very vocal about just shooting them right on the spot. Now, Dick Brewer was a very level headed guy. He is very collective. He's like, no, we're gonna do the right

thing. We're gonna take him in, they're gonna stand trial. Well, what happens is they get about fifteen miles outside of Lincoln County and some ship goes down. We don't exactly know what happens, but Bill Morton known as Buck, and Frank Baker are shot down along with a guy named William McCloskey. Now William McCloskey was a regulator, but he was also believed to be a trader because he was very weird about a lot of his actions and the

things that he said. It is said that Billy kind of sniffed him out a little bit. Those guys never made it back to Lincoln County. They were shot dead. Now, even though the regulators did have warrants, they really didn't treat him as much as warrants as they did straight up hunting licenses. It is said that they had a kill list, that they had a list of men that they were gonna kill that were responsible for the death of John Tunstall, which you can take that is, you know, one way

or the other, but that is what is stated. On April first, eighteen seventy eight, some of the members of the Regulators, who were Frank McNabb, Jim French, Fred Waite, John Middleton, Henry Brown, and of course Billy the Kid, they're in Lincoln and they see Sheriff Brady and his deputies, and one of his main deputies was George Hyman. Now they see him, and they don't see Billy and the rest of the Regulators.

So what they do is the Regulators are hanging out at John Tunstall's store and they see the sheriff and his posse's little posse and some of his deputies like start, you know, coming down the street or whatever. So they go hide in the alley beside Tunstall's store, and as Sheriff Brady and the rest of the group of his men are walking by, they unload a hail storm of bullets on him. They shot Hyman dead right there. Several other men

were shot. Sheriff Brady himself was shot eleven times, but he did not die. He groaned a little bit on the ground and went to sit up, and he said, oh, he's like I've been shot. And as soon as he moved and said he'd been shot, they unloaded another hailstorm of bullets on this dude. They said, probably about a dozen more rounds hit Sheriff Brady, and the Regulators know that they're more than likely their deputization has

run its course. Now, just three days later, on April fourth, eighteen seventy eight, the Regulators end up finding another guy who was part of that little posse, guy by the name of Buckshot Roberts, and they run into him at a place called Blazer's Mill. Now, this huge gunfight ensues. Dick Brewer, the leader of the Regulators, and a man that Billy respected so much, is shot right between the eyes and killed along with Buckshot

Roberts, who also died. Now, Frank co one of the regulators, had his trigger finger shot off, and John Middleton, also a member of the Regulators, was wounded in that gunfight. And ironically enough, Dick Brewer and Buckshot Roberts were buried side by side, which is weird, but that's how it went down. A couple weeks later, on April eighteenth, eighteen seventy eight, Billy the Kid, John Middleton, and another guy named Henry

Brown of the Regulators are indicted for the murder of Sheriff Brady. Now this makes them wanted men like no other. Now, these guys are seriously wanted at this point in time. And in the next month May of eighteen seventy eight, Governor Axtel pretty much tells everyone to disarm and stop because shit is getting way out of hand, all right. Word has gotten to the President of the United States about the Lincoln County War that is going on right now.

So Axtel, who is under the thumb of the house, nobody takes him seriously, Nobody listens to him. The fighting ensues. So on July fourth, eighteen seventy eight, the regulators go to hide it Chisholm's Ranch. John Chisholm, who if you remember earlier, he was a backer of McSween and Tunstall, so he was a friend to them. He offered them a place to hide out, gave him a little bit of protection. So they hide out there for a couple of weeks until ship dies down a little bit.

On July fifteenth, eighteen seventy eight, they ride back into Lincoln. Now what happens next is some pretty messed up stuff. Now this is referred to as the five Day Battle for three days and nights straight. What happens is is they are at Alexander mcsween's home in Lincoln. This is him, and there's some of the regulators. They are found out to be there. What's suspected is that somehow they got coaxed into going there, that it was

some kind of a trap. Now what happens is the new sheriff, Sheriff Pippen, shows up and surrounds the house. But he is not alone. He shows up with the United States Cavalry led by Colonel Dudley. This is no bullshit. They have this entire house surrounded. You got McSween, You have mcsween's wife, Susan, and you have their two kids in the house along with some of the regulators. And what the cavalry and the sheriff do is they set the house on fire to smoke them out. Now this fire

is burning very very slowly doesn't get torched right away. Well, this is towards the end of the standoff, and on July nineteenth, just four days after the initial gunfight started, and on a side and hope this is really really cool. Susan McSween did survive this, and she probably survived this because of Billy himself. She goes on to talk later years about Billy's personality and

says, he's literally one of the sweetest guys she had ever met. She's like the way he was portrayed in later books and by a lot of historians wasn't right. She's like, he was one of the nicest, most honest, loyal guys you could ever meet. But she goes on to tell a story that she had a grand piano in the house and Billy knew that she

loved this piano. So as the house is burning down room by room, Billy and a couple other regulators kept moving this piano from room to room so that it would not get damaged by the fire, which I thought was a really really cool story. And I'm going to take that as fact because that is something that Susan McSween did say, Like I had said on on the fourth day of this standoff, on July nineteenth, eighteen seventy eight, it all comes to a head. They need to get out of this house bad.

But above all else, Billy is very vocal on the fact that Susan and the kids need to get out of this house. They do not need to be in here. He doesn't care about himself. During the standoff, Alex McSween, Francisco Zamora, and Harvey Morris are all killed on the Regulator's side. Now on the Dolan side, a guy named Robert Beckwith is killed. And what ends up happening how Billy gets away is he calls for four volunteers. And I'm gonna tell you right now, anybody that says Billy the

kid was a coward has no idea what they were talking about. This dude had balls of steel. He straight up as for four volunteers with him to be decoys so that Susan McSween and the kids can get out of this house. And I shit you not. While this house is burning to the ground, surrounded by US cavalry and a shitload of Sheriff's deputies, they've come out the back door firing, and what they walk into is a hailstorm of bullets. There were three people on the regulator side that did lose their life,

alex McSween being one of them. How Billy got out of this alive is beyond me. It's nothing short of amazing. But Billy did get out, Susan mcsweene and the kids did end up living as well. Now Billy does end up escaping. He goes down the riverbed up the other side and is pretty much gone. Now, to put this into perspective for you, Alexander McSween when he came out of that house was shot more than a hundred times. Just to put that into perspective, he was riddled with more than a

hundred rounds. Billy and the other four decoys, Billy especially was not even grazed. Now, Billy does decide to get out of Dodge for a while. He goes to Texas where he's stolen some horses, and they are, you know, selling him to some dudes in Texas. Not much as really going on. On September fourth of eighteen seventy eight, Governor Axtel is removed from office and replaced by a guy named Lou Wallace. Now, a little history lesson for you. Governor Lou Wallace was an Indiana guy. He was

a pretty shrewd guy. Lou Wallace takes control of Lincoln County and that entire territory at this point in time. From this point on, the House also knows, oh shit, we don't have this dude paid off or anything. So maybe, you know, we need to start thinking a little bit of

shit. So while he gets appointed new governor right around the end of September in eighteen seventy eight, it is said on a side note that another gang referred to as the Wrestlers come through Lincoln County and they're led by a man named John Selman. Now what they start doing is stealing livestock robbery. They kill any man or boy who gets in their way, along with raping women. Now in early October, Billy is still in Texas selling some horses that

he had previously stolen. But he decides in about November to come back to Lincoln. Now, on November thirteenth, eighteen seventy eight, Governor Wallace issues a proclamation of amnesty for all parties involved in the Lincoln County War. Now what this means is that any person that had not formally been indicted on charges could come forward and be issued a pardon as long as all of the fighting stopped. Because of the murder of Sheriff Brady, Billy is exempt from this

and he knows that. So the kid ends up returning to Lincoln County in early December of eighteen seventy eight. He's tired of running, he's tired of the bullshit. Even though he's good at living on the lamb, he kind of wants to make peace. So what he does is he writes a letter to his old gang buddy Jesse Evans, and he kind of wants a truce. He writes a truce and they accept the offer. So on February eighteenth of eighteen seventy nine, the kid meets up with Evans in Lincoln and they

literally write up a contract for a truce. Now this is literally Dolan is involved in this as well. Peace treaty ends up getting formed like they literally lined up on each wall of the street, came together, shook hands, put their guns away, and a truce was formed. This truth does not last very long because they're in a bar drinking later that night. Along with this truce is Susan mcsween's attorney, a guy by the name of Houston Chapman.

They're all drinking, having a good time in the saloon and Jesse Evans and some of the other boys are harassing Houston Chapman, the attorney, And what happens is James Dolan ends up shooting him and killing him right there on the spot. Now, after this, Billy is like, you know what this like, There's no way we're gonna end up being able to form any kind of true side of this, So he gets out of dodge. Now.

About a month later, on March thirteenth, eighteen seventy nine, the Kid ends up writing in one of his first letters to Governor lou Wallace, and he states that he'll be willing to surrender and testify against Chapman's killers and Tunstall's killers for a pardon. Now, by doing this, he totally breaks the truce that was formed by Evans and Dolan and the regulators. And by

breaking this truce this is punishable by death. Now, the Governor on March fifteenth, eighteen seventy nine, just two days later, writes Billy the Kid back, telling them that he would like to meet with him to discuss the terms. And it's really cool because at the end of this letter, Governor Wallace says, and I quote, if you can trust Jesse Evans, you

can trust me. So another couple days later, on March seventeenth, eighteen seventy nine, the kid and the governor meet and an arrangement is made. And what it is is Governor Lou Wallace wants to take him in for a fake arrest. Now while this is going on, he would come in, he would testify in court against Dolan, Jesse Evans, and Colonel Dudley, and he would be pardoned. Now, like I said, Arnold Dudley was a cavalry officer who was involved in killing a couple of innocent people, the

main one being Alex McSween. And obviously we know of Dolan and we do know of Jesse Evans. So what happens a few days later on March twenty first, what's supposed to happen is they are going to be quote unquote fake arrested and they are going to go into voluntary confinement. And this is kind of for their own protection. Now, Billy knows that if something went wrong, he was pretty much writing his own death worrd at this point in time,

because he is testifying against these guys, he's breaking the truth. I mean seriously, like, these guys are not people to turn your back on. You cannot trust him whatsoever. So on March twenty first, Billy the Kid and one of the regulators, Tom o'folliard, are arrested and brought to Lincoln. On April fourteenth, just about three weeks later, on eighteen seventy nine, the Kid testifies in court against Chapman's murderers, which would have been

Dolan and Jesse Evans. And then just another two weeks later, on May twenty eighth of the same year, the Kid goes on to testify against Colonel Dudley for his involvement in the siege of the McSween home. Now, as you can imagine, these guys were not found guilty. Absolutely none of them were found guilty. Because even though Governor lou Wallace is not on the take of the house, the judge and the politicians still are. So these guys

are found innocent. It was either innocent or a mistrial I cannot remember specifically. So Billy never really gets his pardon. What happens is the judge in the case ignores the governor's pardon and keeps Billy can find. Now he's sitting in jail voluntarily for three months, Billy keeps writing him letters, you know, saying, Hey, you know, we need to talk about the pardon.

I feel like i'm you know, you're pretty much screwing me over to put it into context, you know, on June seventeenth, eighteen seventy nine, Billy simply got up and walked out of jail and wrote off and by October of eighteen seventy nine he goes back to doing what he does best, living on the lamb and rustling, and the kid lives pretty quietly for the next couple of months until January tenth of eighteen eighty a drunk guy in Fort

Sumner because this is where Billy's at. The people of Fort Sumner offered Billy a lot of protection. They hid him whenever he needed it because these were his people. Billy spoke fluent Spanish, and at this point in time, he also had himself a little girlfriend by the name of Paulina Maxwell. And these people around Fort Sumner loved him. He was pretty much their hero.

And the reason that he was their hero is because he was a one man army against an entire corrupt political situation that we're screwing all of these people over. They loved him, They gave him whatever he wanted, They offered him protection when they needed it. So this was his safe place. So on January tenth, eighteen eighty, there's some drunk guy hanging out Fort Sumner named Joe Grant. Now Joe Grant is supposedly a bounty hunter and he is on

the hunt for Billy the kid. Well, Billy knows this all right, now, he doesn't know what Billy looks like or anything like that. The way the story goes is that Billy just kind of asks him to see his gun, and what he does is he takes his gun and kind of moves the chamber. Because what you did with a six shooter is you've kept one chamber empty. That way your pistol would misfire. You know, these weren't

the greatest weapons on earth, even though they were seriously reliable. Well, what Billy does is he adjust sit to where that empty chamber is the next one out. He pretty much just to starts a fight with old Joe Grant here Now, when Billy turns his back, he hears the gun go click, and at that point in time, Billy turns around, puts his pistol under Joe Grant's chin, and pulls the trigger three times. How much of that is truth, We're not too sure. I've heard anywhere from one time

he shot him to three times. But Billy did definitely kill that dude. And he goes back to doing the same ship that he's always been doing. You know, he's just hanging out for almost a year there in Fort Sumter. On October sixth, in eighteen eighty, the kid is really getting tired of living outside the law. He's tired of dodging laws, tired of being on the lamb. And he writes to a guy named Ira Leonard, who is a lawyer, and he's saying that he wants to try straightening things out

again with Governor Wallace. Now. He agrees to meet him in White Oaks within a week. Unfortunately, it takes Billy six weeks to get there, so Ira Leonard tells him to screw off. The deal is off. Now. About a month later, on November second, eighteen eighty, Governor Lew Wallace gets a hold of a guy named Pat Garrett. Pat Garrett is officially elected sheriff of Lincoln County. And how this happens is Billy is running around

Fort Sumner. If you remember John Chisholm, Billy starts stealing his cattle. I'm not exactly sure why, because he had a lot of it. There is probably hard to keep track of. But Billy starts stealing John Chisholm's cattle. Now, John Chisholm was supposed to be a friend. So Chisholm is like, listen, this little asshole needs to be dealt with. So what

Chisholm does is he backs Pat Garrett as sheriff. And with backing like that, you can almost guarantee that Pat Garrett was not going to lose that election. Now, the stipulation was is that Pat Garrett's first order of business had to be to eliminate the man known as Billy the kid. You know that was supposed to be his main order of business. Now, before we go any further, I do have to take a break. I gotta play a

couple commercials here real quick. I gotta go grab another beer. So you guys sit tight for about roughly a minute to a minute and a half. Go refill your drinks. I'll be right back, all right. So to give you guys a little bit of history on Billy the Kid and Pat Garrett. Yes, there was a previous friendship there. The extent of it is not really too well known, but they did ride together and they were friends.

But the extent of their relationship is in Lincoln County. Pat Garrett was a bartender at a saloon that Billy the Kid used to frequent all the time. Now, they ended up hanging out for about a year. They were supposedly really good friends. They actually gave each other nicknames. Pat Garrett was known as Big Casino. Billy the Kid was known as the Little Casino. And the reason they got these nicknames is because Pat Garrett was a linky ass

six foot four dude. Billy the Kid full grown, was about five foot seven, no more than one hundred and forty pounds, soaking wet. So they gave each other those nicknames. Another set of nicknames. After Pat Garrett became sheriff, Pat Garrett used to refer to him as a little asshole. Billy the Kid used to call him the old woman. So while Billy is in white Oaks. Like I said, he shows up six weeks late for

his meet up with the lawyer Ira Leonard. While he's there, Apostle, he finds out that he's there, and they surround him at this place called a Great House Ranch. Now, during this little standoff, a guy named James Carlyle, who was a deputy, is said to have been killed by his own men. Now, Billy did get blamed for this murder, and a lot of the people involved on Billy's side do say Billy didn't do this.

This guy was not killed by him. A lot of the posse after James Carlyle did die pretty much disbanded, they took off, which would honestly lead you to believe that it is a good possibility that that he was killed by his own men. Now, later on, Billy would go on to say, quote, there's more about the killing than people known, which means there's a lot of shit going on to where you know, you guys just don't understand what exactly happened. And that's true. Nobody knows. Now.

This happened on November twenty seventh of eighteen eighty, all right about three weeks after Pat Garrett gets elected Sheriff. Now, on December twelfth, eighteen eighty, the kid rights Governor Wallace again. This time he's pleading for his innocence and concerning the death of Deputy Carlyle and some of his rustling activities in the territory. Because Billy is really kept pretty quiet up until this point, you know, and Governor Wallace pretty much ignores him, he does not write him

back. So on December fourteenth, eighteen eighty, Sheriff Garrett finds out that Billy the Kid more than likely is in back in Fort Sumner, and he forms a posse and they start to hunt for Billy the Kid. Now, around December fourteenth, eighteen eighty, Pat Garrett and a posse began the official hunt for Billy the Kid. He hears word that he might be in Fort Sumner and he's like, well, shit, I know people there. My wife is from Fort Sumner, so we should have no problem tracking him down.

And the very next day, Governor lou Wallace puts out a five hundred dollar reward for the kids. Capture a little bit of background on Pat Garrett, you know a lot of his history aside, Pat Garrett is a pretty bad compulsive gambler. He's always losing money, he's always in debt. So he sees his five hundred bucks and he's all about it. So on December nineteenth, eighteen eighty, they're in Fort Sumner and Pat Garrett and his men

are stationed out there. Okay, now just imagine this picture of this for one minute. It's a full moon outside, it's dark out, there's about three inches of crisp snow on the ground, and you see this gang down the side of this hill, single file. And Pat Garrett's like, I know this is the kid. I know he's got to be leading these guys. So he's sick. First posse to start shooting, and they start shooting.

The only person that gets hit is a guy named Tomo Folliard, who is a member of the Regulators. Now they pretty much see the extent of the damage if Tomo Folliard and they keep going, they pretty much leave him for dead. Now the other Regulators escape. Pat Garrett and his posse are like, shit, you know, we didn't kill him. We killed the

wrong guy. Now. A few days later, about four days later, on December twenty third, eighteen eighty, they end up tracking Billy the kid and his gang to this tiny little rock hut basically right around a place called Stinking Springs. Now what happens here is Pat Garrett is like, listen, wet up. The first time we shot the wrong guy. I know Billy, the kid, I know what he looks like, I know what he wears. You wait for my signal so we don't make another mistake. And

what happens is Charlie Bowdre comes out the front. Billy had a very specific hat that he used to war. He used to wore this um like smaller size some brero with like a green band around the head part of it. Well, it just so happens that Charlie Bowdre was wearing the same type of hat. And he comes out and they think it's the kid. So Pat Garrett gives the order to fire. He gives a signal, and they shoot Charlie Bowdre down. Now this is after a little bit of a standoff.

They had a standoff for probably a good day. And the whole time, Billy's just taunting Pat Garrett. I'm not even gonna bullshit you. He knows that if he walks out of there, he's either getting killed or he's getting taken back to Lincoln charged with murder and gonna be hanged, But he's sitting

there fucking around with Pat Garrett just blowing him shit. After the death of Charlie Bowdre, which really affected Billy the Kid because think about it this way, the only people in Billy the Kid's life that ever showed him respect, where ever cared about him for that matter, where his mother, John Tunstall, Dick Brewer, McSween, Charlie Bowdrey, and Tomo Filliard. They've all been killed. Billy has pretty much nothing, so after a little while,

he does end up surrendering. Now, in between this time of Christmas of eighteen eighty and at about March twenty eighth of eighteen eighty one, Billy the Kid is being transported for trial, and this whole time he's writing letters to Governor Lew Wallace again, and at one point he even threatens to expose the letters that Governor Lew Wallace had written him two years earlier about the pardon that he was promised that he was never given. Billy is really really frustrated at

this point in time, because he he could trust this guy. He literally promised him a pardon if he testified against all these people and he did not follow through with it, Billy put his life on the line. And I know some of you are sitting there like, the dude's a stone cold killer, you know what. Yeah, he is. But when you're promised a pardon to testify against people that will literally shoot you in the face as soon as you walk out of the courtroom, that's kind of not right, you

know what I mean. That's not how the government when they offer you a pardon, is not supposed to work that way. Now, what happens is he knows that he's running out of time and he's on thin ice. So on March thirtieth and eighteen eighty one, the kids first trial for killing Buckshot Roberts goes ahead and commences. About seven days later, the case is dismissed

due to a technicality. Now two days after that, on April eighth, eighteen eighty one, the kids se trial commences for the killing of Sheriff Brady. The very next day, on April ninth, eighteen eighty one, the kid has found guilty of first degree murder and his sentence to death by hanging.

Now, think about this for a second. Out of all the people involved and the Lincoln County War, the one guy on the losing side who was involved in every single little gunfight is the only person to have ever been convicted of any crimes involved in the Lincoln County Wars. Everybody else that were actually tried in a court of law, we're all acquitted or pardoned. Does that seem fair to you, because it honestly does not seem very fair to

me. During the Lincoln County War, roughly seventy five to eighty people died, and Billy the Kid was the only person who was convicted and given a sentence. That right there is pretty fed up if you ask me. Now, Billy the Kid is sentenced to hang on May thirteenth, between the hours of nine am and three pm. Now he is sentenced on April thirteenth of eighteen eighty one, so he knows he's roughly got about a month to live. Now. On April twenty first of eighteen eighty one, the Kid arrives

back in Lincoln and is jailed in the local courthouse. Now, while he's there, he's jailed by two local deputies, one of which being J. W. Bell and the other one being a guy named Bob Ollinger. Now, the whole time Billy is in jail, he's waiting to be hanged. Pat Garrett is pretty much out of town at this point in time. He is the only sheriff in the county, so he's out doing other shit. He's collecting taxes and he's also collecting wood to build the gallows for Billy the

kid his at one point in time. Friend. So what happens is while he's in jail, the whole time, this guy, Bob Ollinger, just keeps harassing the shit out of him. While he's confined, Bob Ollinger keeps telling him, Hey, I got this brand new shotgun. He's sitting there cleaning this shotgun, just looking at Billy the Kid, literally begging him to try to escape. He's like, please, please escape. I got this brand new shotgun. I want to use it on you. He's like,

I want to kill you so bad. And Billy the Kid literally is just not even really phased by it for some odd reason. And Billy the Kid's brain if he's pretty much gotten out of any situation imaginable. He's escaped from jail numerous times. He's walked away from gunfights, unscathed. So he's always an optimist. He's always got it in the back of his mind, like

I will get out of this, I will away. So what happens is Bob Ollinger puts his shotgun in the arsenal and he takes a couple other prisoners over across the street to the restaurant to get some dinner for the night. Now this is about right around six pm, I believe. So he's gone and J. W. Bell is a younger deputy and he's tasked with guarding Billy the kid. Now, the next events are not exactly known. There's two different stories, one of which being Billy asks to go to the bathroom,

which would be outside in the outhouse. Now, one story goes is that a local sympathizer because these people still did not like the house at all, hit a gun in the outhouse for him to break out a jail with. And while he was in the outhouse, he managed to get one of his shackles off his hands. Now, historically, you know what you see in the movie Young Guns is pretty fin right. He had big risks and very small girly hands. So this dude was able to slip out of shackles

fairly easily, all right. So while he's in the outhouse, somebody either planted the gun, we don't know, but we do know that he manages to get one of his hands out of the shackles. Now, the other part of the story is is that he does go to the outhouse, gets his hand out of the shackles. But while he gets back into the jail, the other half of the story is that he literally takes JW. Bell's gun out of his holster and uses it on him. Now, JW.

Bell is shot through the chest and the hole goes right through him into the wall. There is also another part of the story that says Billy kind of fired like a like a warning shot to JW. Bell and the bullet ricochet and hit him in the chest. Personally, that one is not very believable. It is one of the other stories out there. The local people hear the gunshot, and the first thing that they think is that Bell shot the kid. While Bob Ollinger is coming across the street from the restaurant, JW.

Bell is stumbling out the front door of the courthouse and he falls face down dead right there on the street. Now, there was a witness at the scene, guy by the last name of Goss. Now what he says is that Bob Ollinger comes walking across the street after he shot Bell. Billy the Kid goes and he gets that shotgun from the arsenal that Bob Bollinger was taunting him with, and he sits on the second story where his cell is

and just crouches down below the window. And as Bob Islinger's walking across the street, he sees JW. Bell fall flat face in the middle of the street dead. Now, this guy Goss goes on to say, and he was a witness. Bob Islinger's like, what the hell happened? You know, did Bell shoot the kid? This other guy comes forward and says, no, he shot Bill. He shot shot the deputy. Right about then

Bob Ollinger sees Billy the Kid pop up from the second story window. He hangs the shotgun out the window, looks at Bob, points that double barrel shotgun right at him and says hello, Bob. And at that point Bob says, well, shitty just killed me too. Billy the Kid pulls the trigger puts eighteen buckshot in Bob Ollinger's chest and face. He falls flat dead about this point in time, obviously, the people in town are shit in their pants, are like, what in the hell's going on? Billy the

Kid's about to go free. Billy the Kid steps out onto the second floor balcony outside the courthouse and he proceeds to address the people standing out there and he explains, Hey, I had to do this. You guys don't understand that I was ust to pardon that was never given to me. I'm not supposed to be in this situation. I was never supposed to be put on trial. So as long as you guys just let me do my thing and let me go, we will not have any problems. But I do need

a horse. So he has one of the local guys get him a horse, and while he's doing that, he packs up two pistols, a Winchester rifle, and a shitload of ammo. Now he tells the guy who he got the horse from. He literally tells him I will make sure this horse makes it back here. He's like, I only need to borrow this. I'm not going to steal it. And ironically enough, a couple of days later, that horse does show back up in Lincoln County with a rope,

the rope still around its neck. It's not really known whether Billy the kids sent it back or if he fell off the horse and then the horse came back. But that's just a little side fact right there. There's no turning back for Billy. There's a cool little story, you know, that one of the local guys goes to reach for his pistol while Billy's up there on his balcony, and his wife looks at him and he's like, no, dude, no, that's Billy the kid. You're not getting shot down.

Get your damn hand off your six shooter. So they let him ride off, and at this point in time, there's no turning back for Billy. He is just shot two cops and he is on the run. Now at this point, everybody thinks Billy's got to be heading to Mexico. He has at least a day or two heads start on Pat Garrett. So Pat Garrett really doesn't proceed to look for him, because anybody in their right mind knows Billy's not gonna stick around. He's going to Mexico and you're never gonna see

him again, because don't ever forget Billy spoke fluent Spanish. He was protected by the Mexicans, by the Hispanics down there because he was revered as a hero. He could have gotten away so easily, but he didn't. He goes right back to Fort Sumner. He ends up going north. There are a couple suggestions of why he did not go to Mexico, but one of them is because of Paul to Maxwell, Billy the kid was supposedly pretty madly in love with this woman. And let's be real, Billy is twenty one

years old at this point in time. He's still a kid. But instead of going to Mexico, he goes back to Fort Sumner. So on April twenty eighth, eighteen eighty one, Billy escapes. There's a lot of rumors about Billy being in Fort Sumner. Pat Garrett keeps hearing these rumors, but he's not really paying any attention to him until a lot of people start blowing him a bunch of shit, saying, oh, man, you know, you know, we all know where he is. He's back at Fort Sumner.

There's reports of him being around there. We have people saying that he's there, you know, and they start telling Pat Garrett that, oh, you must be scared of him. That's why you're not going to get him, because you must be scared of Billy the Kid. So Pat Garrett does end up going to Fort Sumner with a few deputies to look for Billy the Kid, and on July fourteenth, eighteen eighty one, one night, Billy the Kid is in Fort Sumner. Now Pat Garrett gets there before him.

He meets up with a guy named Pete Maxwell, who is the older brother of Paul. To Maxwell, Pete is pretty much offering him a lot of information. Now, what it said is Billy comes into town and he's pretty much looking for some food. He had been out on the trail for a couple of days at this point, from what I understand, and he's looking for some food and somebody directs him over to Pete Maxwell's house, saying, oh, he just kills some cattle. He's got some of beef hanging up.

You know, you can go over there and get some fresh meat. So Billy the Kid goes over there. Now he goes over to Pete's house and he notices that it's all dark inside Pete Maxwell's house. Now Pat Garrett and Pete Maxwell are in his bedroom, are in Pete Maxwell's bedroom. Pat Garrett and Pete Maxwell are in Pete's bedroom talking about Billy the Kid where he's

been when he's coming back, and they hear it. They hear a voice going Guiness, Guinness because Billy shows up at this door and he can't tell who's inside it, and all Pete Maxwell and Pat Garrett can sees a silhouette of a man pretty much shrouded by the moonlight that should be known, and even Pat Garrett says that in his book that they could not see exactly who it was because all they saw was a silhouette. Well, Pat Garrett is sitting kind of on his holster, pulls out his gun. Fires one round,

hits Billy right above the heart. Second round he fires, Missus goes into the wall. Billy the Kid drops dead right there where he stood. It is still debated to this day whether or not Billy the Kid actually had a weapon in his hand. Some say that he did have his pistol out. Others say that it was a knife in his hand because Billy walked up to this door not wanting to shoot a friend, So a lot of people say that he actually did holster his pistol and had a knife in his hand

instead, because he didn't know who was in this room. Now, obviously, about a year later, Pat Garrett co authors a book called The Authentic Life of Billy the Kid. Now, if you think about this for a second, how would you like it if your murderer got to write your biography. They could literally say whatever they wanted to about you, stretch the truth, make themselves look a lot better. Now, this is pretty much where the story of William H. Bonnie ends, in the legend of Billy the

Kid begins. Now, you'll hear a lot of people say, well, there's a lot of rumors flying around that maybe Billy the Kid wasn't shot that night, Maybe it was somebody else. Maybe it was Billy's good friend, guy named Billy Barlow, who looked exactly like him. A lot of the locals said that Billy's body had a darker complexion than what he had actually looked like, suggesting that maybe it was a local from that area he was shot

and not Billy. Because there's a lot of speculation out there that says that was not Billy the Kid that died that night, And as a matter of fact, the first deputy of Pat Garrett's that ran up and saw the body and says, you shot Billy the kid. You shot Billy the kid. After he runs up to the body, he says, that's not Billy the kid. You shot the wrong guy. Now, this deputy ended up writing some memoirs not too long after that about his life, and he would claim

that Pat Garrett shot the wrong guy until the day he died. Is there motivation for Pat Garrett to claim that he shot Billy the kid, collect reward money and tell Billy to get the scout of town if you even talked to Billy. Yeah, there is a lot of motivation there. Pat Garrett wasn't dead up to his eyeballs. He was a compulsive gambler. That five hundred dollars reward and sales from a book would have gone a long way for Pat Garrett. M hm hm planet. I haven't a minute minute of mantle Planet.

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