09/13/2010
By Leon Metz
Special to the Times
In the Aug. 22 El Paso Times, an article appeared on Page 7B, the headline reading: "To pardon a killer," the reference being to Billy the Kid, the New Mexico gunman who, by age 21, had allegedly slain 21 men, all in New Mexico.
During this period, the Kid was also known as Henry "Kid" Antrim, and/or William Bonney.
The Kid was born Henry Antrim in New York City (no date established), his mother apparently unmarried. His father has never been identified. Sometime during his youth, the Kid and his mother arrived in New Mexico.
We now jump to 1974, when the University of Oklahoma Press published a 328-page book of mine titled, "Pat Garrett: The story of a Western lawman" (still in print in soft-cover).
I chose to write about Pat Garrett because little at that time had been written about him, and Garrett was my way of also digging through the life and death of Billy the Kid. It was lawman Garrett who spent months tracking down the Kid, and shooting him dead at midnight inside a Fort Sumner, N.M. bedroom on July 14, 1881.
This killing happened when the Alabama-born Garrett entered Pete Maxwell's home after Maxwell had gone to bed, but was still awake.
Bonney abruptly entered the house, strolled past a deputy who failed to recognize him, and then stepped into the Maxwell bedroom. Startled, the Kid asked, "Pete, who is that guy at the front door?"
At that time, he also spotted Garrett, sitting near the bed. but due to the darkness, the Kid did not recognize him. Instead, he hoarsely voiced, Quien es?, meaning, "Who are you?"
And Garrett, knowing this was a bad time to say, "It's me, Billy! Old Pat! I've come to take you back to hang," simply pulled the trigger and fired. The Kid fell dead.
Garrett was exonerated, although financial troubles commenced plaguing him.
Shortly afterward, Pat Garrett, while driving a buckboard, commenced arguing about cattle with his ranching neighbor, Wayne Brazel. During this period, Garrett paused to urinate.
He stopped the buggy, stepped to the rear, and was in the usual position when Wayne Brazel shot him in the back of the head. Brazel was subsequently acquitted in a New Mexico court on grounds of self-defense.
Returning now to the Kid's death at midnight July 14, the subsequent coroner's report stated that Billy was buried alongside two of his friends. But all grave records are foggy. Therefore, I question the Kid's grave location. Granted, there exists a stone marking Billy's alleged resting place, his two outlaw friends Tom O'Folliard and Charles Bowdre beside him.
Meanwhile, the original coroner's report has disappeared. So as matters now stand, Billy the Kid is not "legally" dead.
I also searched the 1880 Fort Sumner census reports, and here's what I found: An 1880 Fort Sumner census listed a William Bonney as 25 years old and being born in Missouri. It also mentions his given name as Henry McCarty.
Two children are listed, but without names or ages. Also mentioned is a brother referred to only as Joe, and Billy did have a brother named Joe.
Anyway, in my judgment, the Kid did not come anywhere near the fabled killing of 21 men. My own evaluations and research places the figure at somewhere around 10 or 11.
But who knows?
1931: Billy the Kid’s Compadre Here
1934: Pistol That Killed Billy The Kid Will Be Returned to Garrett's Widow
1943: Billy The Kid Killed 62 Years Ago
1987: Billy the Kid made 1st escape from Silver City jail
2009: Straight shooter; Old West historian separates myth, fact
2010: 2010: Counterfeit bank note rewrites chapter of Billy the Kid
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