5th AUGUST, 1999
BILLY THE KID
Around 1950 State officials in New Mexico
realised what Billy The Kid could do to boost tourism in the
state. Up until that time the ‘Land of Enchantment’ was
only known for it’s roadrunners. Now the books began to
appear, movies from Hollywood were being turned out by the dozen.
Most of these semi promotions contradicted each other. The truth
became clouded as the legends grew. Today, from Santa Fe to
Mesilla, from Silver City to Fort Sumner, in every corner of the
state the Kid is immortal. New Mexico has become the Land of
Billy The Kid. But who was he and how much do we really know ?
First of all copies of newspapers from that period of American
history, still exist, but they only give us a record of events as
they happened, there is little or no background to their stories.
The first book about the Kid was written in 1882 by Sheriff Pat
Garret, the slayer of 21 year old Billy. Pat had joined forces
with journalist Ash Upton and the book was called ‘The
Authentic Life of Billy the Kid’, it was a fanciful book
that supplied the ‘facts’ for numerous histories to
follow. The press jumped on the Billy the Kid story - and so did
the ‘dime’ novelists. Billy the Kid became a household
word in houses a long way from New Mexico. It took state
officials nearly 70 years to ‘adopt’ the Kid or to
accept his glamorization in print and latter in film.
Garret wrote in his book that the Kid was born in New York City
in 1859. His early years, however, remain a mystery. He most
likely came to the Territory of New Mexico in the early
1870’s. Records show that on March 1, 1873, 13 year old
Henry McCarty witnessed the marriage in Santa Fe of his mother,
the widow Catherine McCarty and Bill Antrim. Most likely, Henry
McCarty (who would also be called Henry Antrim, Billy Bonney, Kid
Antrim and the ‘Kid’ before finally becoming
‘Billy the Kid’ in the last few months of his life) and
his family lived in Santa Fe for a short time. They would soon
move to Silver City in southwestern New Mexico, but the Kid would
see Santa Fe again as a prisoner in the Santa Fe jail some seven
years later. (After Billy was captured by Garret at Stinking
Springs, near Fort Summer, on Dec 21st 1880, he was jailed in
Santa Fe for about three months before being moved to Mesilla,
near Las Cruces, to stand trial for the murder of Sheriff Pat
Brady.)
On September 16th, 1874, the Kid’s mother died of
tuberculosis in Silver City, and a year later he was arrested for
stealing clothes from a Chinese Laundry. He escaped to Arizona,
where he stole stock and killed his first man ù Francis P.
‘Windy’ Cahil, during a saloon brawl at Camp Grant on
September 16th 1877. The young outlaw then fled back to New
Mexico, venturing into the vast and volatile Lincon County.
The February 18th 1878, killing of John Tunstall, who had hired
the Kid the previous fall, touched off the Lincon County War. The
Kid , who swore vengence for Tunstall’s death, was one of
the men responsible for gunning down Sheriff Brady on April 1st,
and he also played an active role during a five day shootout in
Lincon, the county seat, that July. In the aftermath of the
fighting, newly elected territorial governor Lew Wallace and the
law seemed to forgive everyone except Billy. By the summer of
1879, he had fled Lincon for Fort Sumner, a former military fort
that was now a lawless frontier town. While in the area he
rustled both cattle and horses, and when Pat Garret became
sheriff of Lincon County in November 1880, one of his top
priorities was to bring in the Kid.
Garrett succeeded, and in March 1881 in Mesilla, Billy was
convicted of Brady s murder and sentenced to be hanged in Lincon
on May 13th. However, on April 28, while Sheriff Garrett was out
of town collecting taxes, the Kid killed two deputies and
escaped. Less than three months later Garrett would catch up with
the Kid for the last time.
Garrett traveled to Fort Sumner in July 1881 to check reports
that Billy was in the area. Pete Maxwell lived in a house that
had once been the officers’ quarters at the fort, it was
night and Garrett went to Maxwell’s bedroom to ask about the
Kid. Minutes later Billy was startled by two deputies who had
accompanied Garrett to Fort Sumner, and he ducked through a
doorway that happened to lead into Maxwell’s bedroom. The
kid’s last words were “WhoÆs that ? Who’s that
?”. And Garrett answered with a fatal shot to the Kid’s
heart. On July 15th 1881 Billy the Kid was buried at Fort Sumner.
His grave is known as “Hell’s half acre”, because
for some strange reason no flowers have ever grown on it.
The legend has it the Kid killed 21 men in his 21 years, but the
official evidence does not support this claim. In fact the
records show that he only killed 8 men. However, in his book in
1934 Eugene Cunningham gives an entirely different version,
according to Cunningham Billy’s friend Jesse Evans told a
witness of the shooting of some Mexicans and some Mexican Indians
by Billy. If this is correct then Billy killed a lot more than 21
men. The truth we’ll never know. But one thing is clear,
Billy the Kid was no hero nor was he a cold blooded killer. He
reportedly loved to laugh and to enjoy himself, whether in the
company of Anglos or Hispanics. He spoke English and Spanish
equally well. And if Governor Wallace had given him a pardon
after the Lincon County War, Billy might have gone straight,
grown up, married a nice girl and had children, and who knows ?
He might even have run for President. Imagine President Billy the
Kid - it has a familiar ring to it.
Ronnie McGinn.
