Jose Chavez y Chavez is best known for the role he played with Billy the Kid and the Regulators during the Lincoln County War. He was arguably the best in the gang with the pistol, even better than Billy the Kid, and proved to be valuable to the gang.
Although he became an outlaw and famous gunslinger, he was able to escape the fate of so many of his peers, and he lived a long life and died peacefully.
While he is known as an accomplice to Billy the Kid, Jose Chavez y Chavez went on to become a sheriff (although short-lived) for a period of time.
Lincoln County War
There is little about Jose Chavez y Chavez's early years. It is said that he had a father who was Spanish and a mother who was Apache. However, with so little information about his early years, it is impossible to confirm that.
He was born in 1851 in Ceboleta, New Mexico, and tried his hand at some honest work but drifted into criminal behavior fairly quickly.
When Chavez was in his twenties, he already had a history of breaking the law and drifted into the Lincoln County War. It is unclear how he became acquainted with Billy the Kid and the other Regulators (Doc Scurlock, Charlie Bowdre, Richard Brewer, and others), but he would prove to be useful to them.
The Lincoln County War was a cattle war between the Tunstall-McSween faction and the Dolan gang. The Tunstall-McSween facts were originally led by John Tunstall and Alexander McSween, who would eventually enlist the Regulators as support.
Chavez would become part of the Regulators and, in the process, become close friends with The Kid and Jim French.
On February 18, 1878, the Lincoln County War took a violent turn when John Tunstall was murdered by the Dolan Gang.
The Regulators sought justice, but since the local sheriff was in the pocket of the Dolans, they decided to take matters into their own hands by killing Sheriff William Brady. This escalated the war and would eventually bring in the military. Many credit Billy the Kid with the murder of William Brady, but Jose Chavez y Chaves always claimed he was the one who pulled the trigger.
July 19, 1878, the McSween home is purposely set on fire by the Dolan gang and their supporters. Fourteen people would be trapped, and six would die in the fire. All of Billy the Kid's gang would escape in one of the most talked about feats of the Wild West. However, Alexander McSween would die, which would effectively end the Lincoln County War.
Although the Lincoln County War was over, there was still the issue of justice.
New Mexico Governor Lew Wallace wanted to clean up the territory, and he knew that in order to do that, he needed to stop the fighting going on in Lincoln County.
By March of 1879, Wallace formed the Lincoln County Mounted Rifles. Despite being part of Billy the Kid's Gang, Jose Chavez y Chavez joined the Lincoln County Mounted Rifles. He did so without ever leaving the gang, and he only served in it for a short time.
He and Billy the Kid did their best to argue that the Army aided the Dolan gang in burning the McSween house and that the deaths that followed occurred during the fires. This is an alleged argument, and even if true, it did little to persuade anyone in their favor.
Eventually, the Lincoln County War was prosecuted, and most of those involved were dealt with. Jose Chavez y Chavez was not one of them.
José allegedly testified alongside Billy the Kid in court to try to implicate the Army in connection to the burning of the McSween house and the subsequent deaths that occurred during the fires. It is believed that in 1880, José murdered a dangerous convict in a New Mexico jail.
Later Years
After the Lincoln County War and the death of Billy the Kid, Chavez left the area and wandered around with no real motive.
He was known in some areas for his talent with a gun, and many were afraid to duel him despite their own expertise. There were some legends that surround him and his activity, including one in which he met the man who killed Jesse James, Bob Ford. The two agreed to a duel, but Ford pulled out. This is only legend and not confirmed history.
Chavez would eventually become a deputy sheriff. The outlaw who rode with one of the most famous gunslingers in history had now become an enforcer of the law. While this was not shocking due to many outlaws becoming sheriffs or law enforcement (i.e. Frank Canton), this would not last long for Chavez. He quickly went back to the outlaw life.
He became friends with Vicente Silva and joined Silva's two gangs, including Las Gorras Blancas ("The White Caps"), a group that was considered by many Anglos to be a bandit group and by most Native New Mexican Hispanos to be freedom fighters. Silvas' other group, the "Bandits Society," was accused by Anglo immigrants to New Mexico Territory of operating much like a mafia, trying to make profits by forcing people out of their properties.
Vicente Silva ordered the killing of Patricio Maes, which was carried out on October 22, 1892, by José, Eugenio Alarid, and Julian Trujillo. In February of 1893, the group was ordered to kill Silva's brother-in-law, Gabriel Sandoval, out of fear that he was privy to the murder and was going to inform the police.
Gabriel Sandoval's death backfired on Silva when his wife became concerned about the whereabouts of her brother. Silva ordered Chavez y Chavez, Alarid, and Trujillo to murder his wife, and the three men became worried about Silva's mental state. While digging a grave for Silva's wife, the trio decided they were going to kill him as well. When Silva brought his wife to the burial site, the trio shot and killed both of them and buried them in the same grave.
The following year, in 1894, a man was arrested for the Maes murder and implicated José, Eugenio, and Trujillo in the murder of Gabriel Sandoval. In April of 1894, Eugenio and Trujillo were both arrested, tried, and sentenced to life in prison for the murder. José became aware of the arrests and became a fugitive, with a $500 bounty on his head. He was eventually arrested on May 26, 1894, in Socorro, New Mexico.
A jury found him guilty, and he was sentenced to death by hanging. José was granted a retrial by the territorial supreme court and was yet again handed the death sentence.
This decision was later overturned by Governor Otero, who felt compelled to commute José's sentence to life in prison instead, given the publicity that his case garnered and the public's pressure on the Government to spare his life at the time.
On November 23, 1897, José Chavez y Chavez entered the Territorial Penitentiary as inmate #1089, and he remained there until the age of 57.
Death
The Governor of New Mexico, George Curry, pardoned Jose Chavez y Chavez in 1909. This was due to his good behavior and help during a prison riot.
Chavez returned home to live a quiet life and never engaged in criminal activity again.
He died at his home at the age of 72. At his bedside was Liberato Baca, who had become Chavez's friend despite once participating in a gunfight against him. Baca is the only known survivor of a gunfight with Jose Chavez y Chavez.