In July , the feud reached its climax with a deadly, five-day firefight in the town of Lincoln, after which the Regulators disbanded and the two sides sealed a flimsy peace agreement. He would spend the rest of his life on the run from the authorities. The young gunslinger stole the occasional horse, but he never once held up a bank, train or even a stagecoach.
Outside of his gunfighting days with the Regulators, his main criminal enterprise was rustling cattle on the New Mexico plains. In a four-year span between and , the baby-faced outlaw was involved in the shooting deaths of some nine men, at least four of whom he killed singlehandedly. One particularly legendary gunfight unfolded in January at a New Mexico saloon. It proved to be a wise move. Later that evening, Grant pulled the same pistol on the Kid and tried to shoot him in the back.
The outlaw was found guilty of the murder of Sheriff William Brady and confined to the Lincoln courthouse. He was scheduled for a date with the hangman, but on the evening of April 28, , he engineered the most daring getaway of his criminal career.
During a trip to the outhouse, the Kid slipped out of his handcuffs, ambushed a guard and shot the man to death with his own pistol. He then armed himself with a double-barreled shotgun and gunned down a second guard who was crossing the street.
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The lead role went to an accomplished actress, Edith Storey. Like far too many movies, Billy the Kid , a one-reel short released by Vitagraph in August , is presumed lost. The Hamilton Evening Journal in Ohio was more succinct: She also portrayed a number of tomboys called Billy. The first movie to follow the real story of the Kid, loosely speaking, was the talkie Billy the Kid, directed by King Vidor and starring Johnny Mack Brown.
Storey, however, was a much better actor than Brown. Bonney met with Wallace in Lincoln on March 17, During the meeting and in subsequent correspondence, Wallace promised Bonney protection from his enemies and clemency if he would offer his testimony to a grand jury. As agreed, Bonney provided a statement about Chapman's murder and testified in court. Still in custody several weeks later, Bonney began to suspect Wallace had used subterfuge and would never grant him amnesty. Bonney escaped from the Lincoln County jail on June 17, The origin of the difficulty was not learned.
He walked up to Grant, told him he admired his revolver, and asked to examine it. Grant handed it over. Before returning the pistol, which Bonney noticed contained only three cartridges, he positioned the cylinder so the next hammer fall would land on an empty chamber. Grant suddenly pointed his pistol at Bonney's face and pulled the trigger. When it failed to fire, Bonney drew his own weapon and shot Grant in the head.
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A reporter for the Las Vegas Optic quoted Bonney as saying the encounter "was a game of two and I got there first". In Bonney formed a friendship with a rancher named Jim Greathouse, who later introduced him to Dave Rudabaugh. Cornered at Greathouse's ranch, Bonney told the posse they were holding Greathouse as a hostage. Carlyle offered to exchange places with Greathouse, and Bonney accepted the offer. Carlyle later attempted to escape by jumping through a window but he was shot three times and killed.
The shoot-out ended in a standoff; the posse withdrew and Bonney, Rudabaugh, and Wilson rode away. Unknown to Bonney and his companions, a posse led by Pat Garrett was waiting for them. The posse opened fire, killing O'Folliard; the rest of the outlaws escaped unharmed. When they arrived on December 26, they were met by crowds of curious onlookers.
The following day, an armed mob gathered at the train depot before the prisoners, who were already on board the train with Garrett, departed for Santa Fe. 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.
The laugh's on me this time. After arriving in Santa Fe, Bonney, seeking clemency, sent Governor Wallace four letters over the next three months. Following his sentencing, Bonney was moved to Lincoln, where he was held under guard on the top floor of the town courthouse. On the evening of April 28, , while Garrett was in White Oaks collecting taxes, Deputy Bob Olinger took five other prisoners across the street for a meal, leaving James Bell, another deputy, alone with Bonney at the jail.
Bonney asked to be taken outside to use the outhouse behind the courthouse; on their return to the jail, Bonney—who was walking ahead of Bell up the stairs to his cell—hid around a blind corner, slipped out of his handcuffs, and beat Bell with the loose end of the cuffs.
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During the ensuing scuffle, Bonney grabbed Bell's revolver and fatally shot him in the back as Bell tried to get away. Bonney, with his legs still shackled, broke into Garrett's office and took a loaded shotgun left behind by Olinger. Bonney 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". When Olinger looked up, Bonney shot and killed him. Around midnight, the pair sat in Maxwell's darkened bedroom when Bonney unexpectedly entered.
Accounts vary as to the course of events; according to the canonical version, as he entered the room, Bonney failed to recognize Garrett due to the poor lighting. Recognizing Bonney's voice, Garrett drew his revolver and fired twice. The first bullet struck Bonney in the chest just above his heart, killing him.
A few hours after the shooting, a local justice of the peace assembled a coroner's jury of six people. The jury members interviewed Maxwell and Garrett, and Bonney's body and the location of the shooting were examined. The jury certified the body as Bonney's, and according to a local newspaper, the jury foreman said, "It was the Kid's' body that we examined". Ritch, the acting New Mexico governor, refused to pay the reward.
Because people had begun to claim Garrett unfairly ambushed Bonney, 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. Although only a few copies sold following its release, it eventually became a reference for later historians who wrote about Bonney's life. Over time, legends claiming that Bonney was not killed, and that Garrett staged the incident and death out of friendship so Bonney could evade the law, formed and grew. Most of these claims were easily disproven but two have remained topics of discussion and debate.
In , a central Texas man Ollie P. Mabry dismissed Roberts' claims, and Roberts died shortly afterwards. John Miller, an Arizona man, also claimed he was Bonney. This was unsupported by his family until , some time after his death. Miller's body was buried in the state-owned Arizona Pioneers' Home Cemetery in Prescott, Arizona ; in May , Miller's teeth and bones [] were exhumed and examined, [] without permission from the state. In , researchers sought to exhume the remains of Catherine Antrim, Bonney's mother, whose DNA would be tested and compared with that of the body buried in William Bonney's grave.
In , [] 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 DNA tests and other forensic evidence collected in the Billy the Kid investigations.
2. The Kid’s first arrest came for stealing clothes from a laundry.
In February , historian Robert Stahl petitioned a district court in Fort Sumner asking the state of New Mexico to issue a death certificate for Bonney. The suit asked the court to order the state's Office of the Medical Investigator to officially certify Bonney's death under New Mexico state law. As of [update] , only one photograph confirmed to show Bonney is known to exist; others thought to depict him are disputed.
One of the few remaining artifacts of Bonney's life is an iconic 2-byinch 5. The image shows Bonney wearing a vest over a sweater, a slouch cowboy hat, and a bandanna, while holding an Winchester rifle with its butt resting on the floor. For years, this was the only photograph scholars and historians agreed showed Bonney. It was passed down through Dedrick's family, and was copied several times, appearing in numerous publications during the 20th century.
The image shows Bonney wearing his holstered Colt revolver on his left side.
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This led historians to believe he was left-handed, but they did not take into account that the ferrotype process produces reversed images. Horan and Paul Sann wrote that Bonney was "right-handed and carried his pistol on his right hip". A 4"x 6" ferrotype purchased at a memorabilia shop in Fresno, California in has been claimed to show Bonney and members of the Regulators playing croquet.
If authentic it is the only known photo of Billy the Kid and the Regulators together and the only image to feature their wives and female companions. McCubbin and outlaw historian John Boessenecker concluded in that the photograph does not show Bonney. Kent Gibson, a forensic video and still image expert, offered the services of his facial recognition software, and stated that Bonney is one of the individuals in the image. A photograph curator at the Palace of the Governors archives, Daniel Kosharek, said the image is "problematic on a lot of fronts", including the small size of the figures and the lack of resemblance of the background landscape to Lincoln County or the state in general.
In early October , Kagin's, Inc. The pardon considered was to fulfill Governor Lew Wallace's promise to Bonney. Richardson's decision, citing "historical ambiguity", was announced on December 31, ; his last day in office. Foor, an unofficial tour guide at Fort Sumner Cemetery, campaigned to raise funds for a permanent marker for the graves of Bonney, O'Folliard, and Bowdre. 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. In , stone cutter James N. Warner of Salida, Colorado , made and donated to the cemetery a new marker for Bonney's grave.
New Mexico Governor Bruce King arranged for the county sheriff to fly to California to return it to Fort Sumner, [] where it was reinstalled in May Although both markers are behind iron fencing, a group of vandals entered the enclosure at night in June and tipped the stone over. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. This is the latest accepted revision , reviewed on 14 December For other uses, see Billy the Kid disambiguation. Enhanced photo of Billy the Kid, c.
Manhattan, New York City. Fort Sumner, New Mexico. Cattle rustler cowboy and ranch hand gambler horse thief outlaw. Battle of Lincoln Roberts, Church of St. Bonney, March 20, Garrett, Sheriff of Lincoln Co. Archived from the original on July 8, Retrieved July 19, Facts, information and articles about Billy The Kid, famous outlaw, and a prominent figure from the Wild West".
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