May 8, 1931
Happily Wed For 50 Years __ Billy Regretted Killing Two Men, Says One-Time Companion __ Frank
Coe, 79, veteran rancher and one time compadre of Billy the Kid, who
rode and lived with the famous outlaw in 1876 and ’77, arrived in El
Paso with his wife and family yesterday, enroute to California. Coe and his wife celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary last month. “I
never was afraid of my husband though he was a comrade of Billy the
Kid,” said Mrs. Coe. “I lived in peace and I needed it, for there were
plenty of Indians around the country where we settled. Had Confidence “I had plenty of confidence in my husband and the natives didn’t dare molest him.” Coe
stood trial in Santa Fe following the Lincoln County war. Gen. Lew
Wallace, territorial governor, had promised him that were he found
guilty he would be pardoned. Billy the Kid was offered the same chance
but refused it. Coe was acquitted on the first ballot but left
the country and lived in Colorado for six years because he had so many
enemies in New Mexico. It was while he was in Colorado that he met and
married Mrs. Coe. “Was Good Boy” “Billy was a good boy,” said Coe. “He was sociable, funny, and good natured. “How come he shot so many people? “They got in his way. “He always told me he was living from day to day only. So was I; and I still am. “Billy
was the best shot I’ve ever seen. And I wasn’t so bad myself. But Billy
could shoot snow birds with a six shooter and him on a galloping horse. Sorry For Shooting “He
only regretted killing two men, Deputy Sheriff John Bell, whom he shot
while he was escaping from the Lincoln county jail, and a blacksmith at
White Oaks.” Mrs. Coe thinks well of her husband’s outlaw friend.
At her home at San Patricio she has planted, and cultivated a rose
bush, giving it more care than all her other flowers. The roses are
shoots from plants set out by Bill the Kid’s mother many years ago at
the Brewer ranch.
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