Billy the Kid was deeply affected by the murder, claiming that Tunstall was one of the only men that treated him like he was “free-born and white.” "[c] McCarty responded on the same day, agreeing to testify and confirming Wallace's proposal for his arrest and detention in a local jail to assure his safety. Pat F. Garrett, the famous sheriff of Lincoln County, New Mexico who shot Billy the Kid. When Olinger looked up, Bonney shot and killed him. When it failed to fire, McCarty drew his own weapon and shot Grant in the head. [21] In 1876, he was hired as a ranch hand by well-known rancher Henry Hooker. Wilson. (Spanish for "Who is it? Letter from Governor Wallace to W.H. "[69] According to other contemporary sources, McCarty had been warned Grant intended to kill him. The jury members interviewed Maxwell and Garrett, and McCarty's body and the location of the shooting were examined. [99] Recognizing McCarty's voice, Garrett drew his revolver and fired twice. Billy the Kid became a murderer for the first time when he killed Frank P. Cahill on August 17, 1877. A year and four days after McCarty's death, the New Mexico territorial legislature passed a special act to grant Garrett the $500 bounty reward promised by Governor Wallace. [126] The opinion was confirmed by Clyde Jeavons, a former curator of the National Film and Television Archive. It was the last time the two saw each other. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! He left Arizona about 1880 and lived in Trinidad, Colorado, as a professional gambler. Another posse member took Tunstall's gun and killed him with a shot to the back of his head. He later became embroiled in the infamous Lincoln County War in which his newest friend and employer, John Tunstall, was killed on February 18, 1878. [citation needed] Most of these claims were easily disproven, but two have remained topics of discussion and debate. "[102] McCarty was given a wake by candlelight; he was buried the next day and his grave was denoted with a wooden marker. © 2021 A&E Television Networks, LLC. [14] After moving again a few years later, Catherine married Antrim on March 1, 1873, at the First Presbyterian Church in Santa Fe, New Mexico Territory; McCarty and his brother Joseph were witnesses to the ceremony. While his birth year has been confirmed as 1859, the exact date of his birth has been disputed as either September 17 or November 23 of that year. [18][19] Ten days later, McCarty and George Schaefer robbed a Chinese laundry, stealing clothing and two pistols. [43] On the morning of April 4, 1878, Buckshot Roberts and Dick Brewer were killed during a shootout at Blazer's Mill. William H. Bonney alias Billy the Kid is probably the most misunderstood historical figure of the Old West. Alaskan Bush People star Billy Brown has died. Henry Newton Brown, Dick Smith, and George Coe defended a nearby adobe bunkhouse. [100] The first bullet struck McCarty in the chest just above his heart, while the second missed. At Fort Stanton in the Pecos Valley,[32] McCarty—starving and near death—went to the home of friend and Seven Rivers Warriors gang member John Jones, whose mother Barbara nursed him back to health. [b], On March 20, Wallace wrote to McCarty, "to remove all suspicion of understanding, I think it better to put the arresting party in charge of Sheriff Kimbrell [sic] who shall be instructed to see that no violence is used. "[113], In 2004, researchers sought to exhume the remains of Catherine Antrim, McCarty's mother, whose DNA would be tested and compared with that of the body buried in William Bonney's grave. His legend survived and grew long after his death. Little of substance is known about Billy's life during this period, and myth has replaced fact to shroud the early years of Billy the Kid … 3 of the 5 signed legal documents confirming the elderly man as Billy the kid,the other 2 agreed he was the kid, but did not want to get involved in legal proceedings. A few decades later, three of Billy the Kid’s surviving pallbearers were asked to help locate the spot where their friend had been buried, but they picked three different graves. Instead he was a gunfighter in a feud between two factions in which both sides stole from each other and killed. [41], McCarty then joined the Lincoln County Regulators; on March 9 they captured Frank Baker and William Morton, both of whom were accused of killing Tunstall. In the summer of 1881, Billy the Kid, hiding out around the hamlet of Fort Sumner in east-central New Mexico, should have known that Lincoln County Sheriff Pat Garrett would try to hunt him down and kill him. Wallace refused to intervene,[85] and McCarty went to trial in April 1881 in Mesilla, New Mexico. New Mexico Governor Bruce King arranged for the county sheriff to fly to California to return it to Fort Sumner,[143] where it was reinstalled in May 1981. Marshal John Sherman informed newly appointed Territorial Governor and former Union Army general Lew Wallace that he held warrants for several men, including "William H. Antrim, alias Kid, alias Bonny [sic]" but was unable to execute them "owing to the disturbed condition of affairs in that county, resulting from the acts of a desperate class of men. Although both markers are behind iron fencing, a group of vandals entered the enclosure at night in June 2012 and tipped the stone over.[144]. (His few possessions reportedly included a pistol with 21 notches on the grip, the same as the number of killings that some accounts attribute to Billy. Before returning the pistol, which he noticed contained only three cartridges, McCarty positioned the cylinder so the next hammer fall would land on an empty chamber. He had several aliases but is best known as Billy the Kid. [118], In February 2015, historian Robert Stahl petitioned a district court in Fort Sumner asking the state of New Mexico to issue a death certificate for McCarty. The infamous New Yorker, whose Wild West antics ranged from stealing food to killing at least eight men, was supposedly gunned down at Fort Sumner, New Mexico, in July 1881. Though Morrison needed more proof than that,so the pair went to New Mexico to meet his last remaining acquaintances. ¿Quién es?" How did he become a legend in such a short time? Even though a widely-accepted account says the outlaw was shot by Sheriff Pat Garrett in New Mexico, murky details have led to other theories. [84], After arriving in Santa Fe, McCarty, seeking clemency, sent Governor Wallace four letters over the next three months. After murdering a blacksmith during an altercation in August 1877, McCarty became a wanted man in Arizona and returned to New Mexico, where he joined a group of cattle rustlers. Garrett shot and killed McCarty, by then age 21, in Fort Sumner on July 14, 1881. Tunstall and his business partner and lawyer Alexander McSween were opponents of an alliance formed by Irish-American businessmen Lawrence Murphy, James Dolan, and John Riley. Wright, better known as Billy the Kid". [116], In 2007,[118] author and amateur historian Gale Cooper filed a lawsuit against the Lincoln County Sheriff's Office under the state Inspection of Public Records Act to produce records of the results of the 2006 DNA tests and other forensic evidence collected in the Billy the Kid investigations. [90][91] [92] After about an hour, McCarty freed himself from the leg irons with an axe. [141], In 1940, stone cutter James N. Warner of Salida, Colorado, made and donated to the cemetery a new marker for Bonney's grave. In April 1881, McCarty was tried and convicted of Brady's murder, and was sentenced to hang in May of that year. McCarty met with Wallace in Lincoln on March 17, 1879. [64] However, after McCarty's testimony, the local district attorney refused to set him free. According to most sources, the infamous outlaw met his end at the tender age of 21 in the summer of 1881, when he was gunned down by Lincoln County Sheriff Pat Garrett in Fort Sumner, New Mexico. The laugh's on me this time. [58][59] McCarty wrote to Governor Wallace on March 13, 1879, with an offer to provide information on the Chapman murder in exchange for amnesty. [15][16] Shortly afterward, the family moved from Santa Fe to Silver City, New Mexico, and Joseph McCarty began using the name Joseph Antrim. Sue Land, director of the Billy the Kid museum in Hico, says the best piece of evidence that Billy the Kid escaped Fort Sumner unscathed is Pat Garrett's own deputy. This photo provided by Frank Abrams shows what historians believe is a photo of outlaw Billy the Kid, second from left, and Pat Garrett, far right, taken in 1880. [127] Several historians have written that McCarty was ambidextrous. [79]Garrett refused to surrender the prisoner, and a tense confrontation ensued until he agreed to let the sheriff and two other men accompany the party to Santa Fe, where they would petition the governor to release Rudabaugh to them. [107] The book, The Authentic Life of Billy, the Kid,[d] was first published in April 1882. As Motavalli explains, “People are always willing to believe alternative theories.”. Billy the Kid, pictured on a wanted poster. Although only 18 years old at the time, Billy had now committed as many as 17 murders. New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs, List of fugitives from justice who are no longer sought, "The Old Man Who Claimed to Be Billy the Kid", "Billy The Kid: Facts, information and articles about Billy The Kid, famous outlaw, and a prominent figure from the Wild West", "This Date in History – August 17, 1877 – Billy the Kid kills his first man", "The Tunstalls Return – John Tunstall's kin traveled from England to fathom death in Lincoln", "I Shot the Sheriff (and I Killed a Deputy, Too) – Billy Kid and the Regulators vs Sheriff Brady and His Deputies", "Tunstall Ambushed – Regulators vs Dolan's Henchmen", "New Mexico Office of the State Historian | people", "The Tale of the Empty Chamber Billy the Kid vs Joe Grant", "Deputy Sheriff Antonio Lino Valdez profile", "Book Review: Billy the Kid's Writings, Words & Wit, by Gale Cooper", "The Holy Grail for Sale – The Billy the Kid tintype is on the auction block, and it might just clear half a million", "La controvertida muerte de Billy "el Niño", el pistolero "hispano" de los 21 asesinatos", "122 Years Later, Lawmen Are Still Chasing Billy the Kid", "Historian Seeks Death Certificate to End Billy the Kid Rumors", "A Shot in the Dark: Billy the Kid vs Pat Garrett", "One man's quest to bury the Wild West mystery of Billy the Kid's death", 2 won't face charges in Billy the Kid quest, "Billy the Kid and New Mexico Open Records Law", "Award ends suit over Billy the Kid records", Lawsuit seeks DNA evidence for 1881 death of Billy the Kid, "Billy the Kid quest evolves into records fight", "Historian asks state's high court to help set record straight on Billy the Kid's death", "Billy the Kid photograph fetches $2.3 million at auction", "Billy the Kid portrait fetches $2.3m at Denver auction", "Billy the Kid photograph sold at auction in Colorado for $2.3m", "The fact and fiction of America's outlaw", "Billy the Kid Experts Weigh in on the Croquet Photo", "Billy the Kid: New Evidence. Andrew McCrea reports on the outlaw turned folk hero. Cahill was a known bully who had picked on the Kid numerous times. Just then, a figure appeared in the door, carrying a gun and a butcher knife, and asked in Spanish who was there. The next day, according to Garrett, a Coroner’s Jury held an inquest, determined that the dead man was Billy the Kid, and ruled that Garrett’s killing of him had been a justifiable homicide. Billy the Kid: Billy the Kid, born Henry McCarty in New York City in 1859, became a famous western outlaw during the latter part of the 19th century. McCarty's notoriety grew in December 1880 when the Las Vegas Gazette in Las Vegas, New Mexico, and The Sun in New York City carried stories about his crimes. Billy The Kid summary: William Henry McCarty, Jr. was only 21 years of age when he died of a gunshot wound at Ft. Sumner in the New Mexico Territory. Then they heard voices in Spanish—a language that Billy the Kid spoke as well as English and the Gaelic of his parents’ native country, Ireland. The suit asked the court to order the state's Office of the Medical Investigator to officially certify McCarty's death under New Mexico state law. Garrett noted that the corpse went into the grave fully intact, in order to discredit opportunists who were exhibiting skulls, fingers and other body parts that they claimed had belonged to Billy the Kid. Aug 14, 2019 - Many of these photos are from the photo album that belonged to Paulita Maxwell who was the alleged love of Billy the Kid, and the daughter of wealthy land baron, Lucian B. Maxwell. [6] Sheriff Pat Garrett captured McCarty later that month. He walked up to Grant, told him he admired his revolver, and asked to examine it. [109] Although only a few copies sold following its release, in time, it became a reference for later historians who wrote about McCarty's life.[107]. Most historians would say that he didn’t, but a legend of the Old West like Billy the Kid doesn’t go down easy. Here's the sad, true story of Billy the Kid. [91], While McCarty was on the run, Governor Wallace placed a new $500 bounty on the fugitive's head. McCarty shot and mortally wounded Cahill. He escaped from jail on April 28, killing two sheriff's deputies in the process and evading capture for more than two months. Billy was killed in the room of her brother Pete Maxwell in Fort Sumner. Billy the Kid was an American notorious outlaw and gunfighter. [a][10][11][12] Census records indicate his younger brother, Joseph McCarty, was born in 1863.[13]. McCarty and the other men fled the building when all rooms but one were burning. [65][66] Still in custody several weeks later, McCarty began to suspect Wallace had used subterfuge and would never grant him amnesty. Another group led by Marin Chavez and Doc Scurlock positioned themselves on the roof of a saloon. A witness said, "[Billy] had no choice; he had to use his equalizer." Baker and Morton were killed while allegedly trying to escape. He was a heavy-drinking cattle rustler and thief. The 1882 biography The Authentic Life of Billy the Kid, Noted Desperado of the Southwest, Whose Deeds of Daring and Blood Made His Name a Terror in New Mexico, Arizona and Northern Mexico, which was written by Garrett, his killer, contains what seems to be the most credible account of the fatal confrontation, according to Motavalli. [26][27], On August 17, 1877, McCarty was at a saloon in the village of Bonita when he got into an argument with Francis P. "Windy" Cahill, a blacksmith who reportedly had bullied McCarty and on more than one occasion called him a "pimp". The story is from 1981. [77] Pat Garrett continued his search for McCarty; on December 23, following the siege in which Bowdre was killed, Garrett and his posse captured McCarty along with Pickett, Rudabaugh, and Wilson at Stinking Springs. The image shows McCarty wearing a vest over a sweater, a slouch cowboy hat, and a bandana, while holding an 1873 Winchester rifle with its butt resting on the floor. When Garrett and the deputies examined Billy the Kid’s gun, they found that he had five cartridges and one shell in the chamber, with the hammer resting on it. It specifically excluded persons who had been convicted of or indicted for a crime, and therefore excluded McCarty. As Dale L. Walker details in his book Legends and Lies: Great Mysteries of the American West, one prospective Billy was John Miller, a farmer and horse trainer who lived in a small village in New Mexico near the Arizona border and died in 1937. Marshal Robert Widenmann, a friend of McCarty, and a detachment of soldiers captured Sheriff Brady's jail guards, put them behind bars, and released Bonney and Brewer. [22][23] During this time, McCarty became acquainted with John R. Mackie, a Scottish-born criminal and former U.S. Cavalry private who, following his discharge, remained near the U.S. Army post at Camp Grant. Billy the Kid realized that someone besides Maxwell was there in the darkness, and raised his pistol within a foot of Garrett’s chest. Kent Gibson, a forensic video and still image expert, offered the services of his facial recognition software, and stated that McCarty is indeed one of the individuals in the image. [86] According to legend, upon sentencing, the judge told McCarty he was going to hang until he was "dead, dead, dead"; McCarty's response was, "you can go to hell, hell, hell. He escaped two days later and became a fugitive,[18] as reported in the Silver City Herald the next day, the first story published about him. Brushy Bill Roberts (August 26, 1879 – December 27, 1950; claimed date of birth December 31, 1859) also known as William Henry Roberts, Ollie Partridge William Roberts, Ollie N. Roberts or Ollie L. Roberts, attracted attention by claiming to be the western outlaw William H. Bonney, also known as Billy the Kid. History tells us that the outlaw known as Billy the Kid (aka Henry McCarty, aka William Bonney) was gunned down—at the ripe old age of 21—by Sheriff Pat Garrett on … Born on November 23, 1859, he engaged in several crimes until Sheriff Pat Garret gunned him down on July 14, 1881, at age 21 in Fort Summer. During the following decades, legends grew that McCarty had survived, and a number of men claimed to be him. [72] The shootout ended in a standoff; the posse withdrew and McCarty, Rudabaugh, and Wilson rode away. McCarty waited at the upstairs window for Olinger to respond to the gunshot that killed Bell and called out to him, "Look up, old boy, and see what you get." [68] The Santa Fe Weekly New Mexican reported, "Billy Bonney, more extensively known as 'the Kid,' shot and killed Joe Grant. Retired Arizona State University history professor Robert J. Stahl tried unsuccessfully in 2015 to convince New Mexico officials to issue a belated death certificate for the outlaw, but his petition was rejected by the state’s Supreme Court. He went by the name William Henry Roberts, but most folks just called him Brushy Bill. Garrett began questioning him, and Maxwell admitted that the outlaw had been around, though he wasn’t sure where he was at the moment. [36][38], After Tunstall was killed, McCarty and Dick Brewer swore affidavits against Brady and those in his posse, and obtained murder warrants from Lincoln County justice of the peace John B. That night, Garrett wrote, he and two deputies, John W. Poe and Thomas McKinney, went to the ranch where Maxwell lived. A short distance from the property, Poe spotted an acquaintance who was camped out, and the lawmen dismounted and stopped to have coffee with him before heading on foot through an orchard to the house. The origin of the difficulty was not learned. Following the death of her husband Patrick, Catherine McCarty and her sons moved to Indianapolis, Indiana, where she met William Henry Harrison Antrim. Henry McCarty was born to parents of Irish Catholic ancestry, Catherine (née Devine) and Patrick McCarty, in New York City. [42], On April 1, the Regulators ambushed Sheriff Brady and his deputies; McCarty was wounded in the thigh during the battle. As a result of his efforts, a stone memorial marked with the names of the three men and their death dates beneath the word "Pals" was erected in the center of the burial area. A letter from an official of Saint Peter's Church in Manhattan states it is in possession of records showing McCarty was baptized there on September 28, 1859. "[87] According to the historical record, he did not speak after the reading of his sentence. Billy the Kid, byname of William H. Bonney, Jr., original name Henry McCarty?, (born November 23, 1859/60, New York, New York, U.S.—died July 14, 1881, Fort Sumner, New Mexico), one of the most notorious gunfighters of the American West, reputed to have killed at least 27 men before being gunned down at about age 21. Details of his early life are sketchy, and much of what was written about him just before and after his death was what Motavalli calls “scurrilous literature”—sensationalized newspaper accounts and quickie books churned out by publishing houses. “They didn’t do a lot of actual research when they did these biographies,” Motavalli says. Mabry dismissed Roberts' claims, and Roberts died shortly afterward. In June 2011, the original plate was bought at auction for $2.3 million by businessman William Koch. As agreed, McCarty provided a statement about Chapman's murder and testified in court. As a result, “it’s impossible to tell which of the bodies in the cemetery are his,” Motavalli says. As the story goes, Billy—just 21 years old, but already a murderer who had escaped from jail and killed two guards in the process—made the mistake … By February 1878, McSween owed $8,000 to Dolan, who obtained a court order and asked Lincoln County Sheriff William J. Brady to attach nearly $40,000 worth of Tunstall's property and livestock. [90], McCarty, with his legs still shackled, broke into Garrett's office and took a loaded shotgun left behind by Olinger. Of course, he stuck around and was shot dead by Sheriff Pat Garrett a few months later, surrounded by Hispanic-American friends and admirers who viewed Billy the Kid as their Robin Hood. Hico's Billy the Kid Museum speculates that Billy moved to Texasin 1883, two years after his supposed death in New Mexico. McSween's supporters gathered inside his house; when Buck Powell and Deputy Sheriff Jack Long set fire to the building, the occupants began shooting. Letter from Rev. A letter from an official of Saint Peter's Church in Manhattan states it is in possession of records showing McCarty was baptized there on September 28, 1859. Bonney". Beginning with the 1911 silent film “Billy the Kid”, which depicted McCarty as a girl impersonating a boy,[145] he has been a feature of more than 50 movies including: and a stage musical, Billy The Kid, by Ben Morales Frost and Richard Hough, American cattle rustler, gambler, horse thief, outlaw, cowboy and ranch hand. [95] The ferrotype survived because McCarty's friend Dan Dedrick kept it after the outlaw's death. Paulita and the family servant Delevina were the first people to the scene when Billy was shot by Sheriff Pat Garrett. The three men concealed themselves, as a man in a broad-brimmed hat, a dark vest, shirt and pants walked past them. Born Henry McCarty, he was the first of two boys raised by a small Irish Catholic family in New York City. Brady and Deputy Sheriff George W. Hindman were killed. After returning to New Mexico, McCarty worked as a cowboy for English businessman and rancher John Henry Tunstall (1853–1878), near the Rio Felix, a tributary of the Rio Grande, in Lincoln County. [106], Because people had begun to claim Garrett unfairly ambushed McCarty, Garrett felt the need to tell his side of the story and called upon his friend, journalist Marshall Upson, to ghostwrite a book for him. Richardson's decision, citing "historical ambiguity," was announced on December 31, 2010, his last day in office. Over time, legends grew claiming that McCarty was not killed, and that Garrett staged the incident and death out of friendship so that McCarty could evade the law. Paulita Maxwell was Billy the Kid’s favorite squeeze, and she was pregnant at the time he was killed, so she probably was carrying his baby. [118] but confirmed the records' existence, and that they could have been produced earlier. WATCH: 'Shootouts in the Wild West' on HISTORY Vault. “Things like this typically start out as bar stories,” Motavalli says. “Billy” is actually 7-year-old Frank Salazar (his family called him “Bopsy”) and he was the first child to be helped by the Make-A-Wish Foundation, an organization that fulfills the wishes of children with life-threatening illness. The jury certified the body as McCarty's and, according to a local newspaper, the jury foreman said, "It was the Kid's' body that we examined. That’s because the grave markers in Fort Sumner’s Old Military Cemetery were washed away in a flood in September 1904, according to Richard Melzer’s book Buried Treasures: Famous and Unusual Gravesites in New Mexico History. William Henry McCarty Jr., aka Billy the Kid, born in 1859, was killed in an ambush by Sheriff Pat Garrett in Fort Sumner, New Mexico, in 1881. Sarah Brown, the owner of a boarding house, gave him room and board in exchange for work. [103][104], Five days after McCarty's killing, Garrett traveled to Santa Fe, New Mexico, to collect the $500 reward offered by Governor Lew Wallace for his capture, dead or alive. During the encounter, one member of the posse shot Tunstall in the chest, knocking him off his horse. "[83] During his short career as an outlaw, McCarty was the subject of numerous U.S. newspaper articles, some as far away as New York.