There is something that doesn't sit right in the Fort Sumner confrontation between Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid.
Jesse James was assassinated by Bob Ford, and when it occurred, there was a picture produced that showed the famous gunslinger's body along with him standing beside it. This was proof that Jesse James was dead.
Billy the Kid was the most notorious outlaw in the Wild West. Even to this day, people know his name, yet There was never a body produced, evidence is conflicting, and Pat Garrett never collected the bounty. How is it possible that someone with his notoriety doesn't have some sort of proof that he died?
Also Read: 30 Famous Outlaws of the Wild West
In 1949, there was a man who stepped forward named Bushy Bill who claimed he was Billy the Kid. At the time he made this claim, he was 90 years old, which caused more questions. There were some who said his story was true, and there were others who said his story was false. However, his claims had more proof that he was Billy the Kid than Pat Garrett's.
So, is it possible Billy the Kid survived?
The Story
In 1948, a probate investigator from St. Louis, William V. Morrison, located an elderly man named Joe Hines, who had claimed the lands of his deceased brother. Hines told Morrison of his experiences in the Lincoln County War and surprised him by claiming that Billy the Kid was still alive but refused to reveal the name he had assumed or exactly where he was living.
Morrison continued his search for the man who claimed to be Billy the Kid, and in 1948, an elderly man named J. Frank Dalton in Lawton, Oklahoma, claimed to be Jesse James and said Billy the Kid was still alive in Hamilton, Texas, where he was known as O. L. Roberts.
Morrison then began a correspondence with Roberts, who eventually "confessed" to being the Kid and detailed his supposed exploits as an outlaw. He told anecdotes that, if true, would fill in undocumented gaps in many aspects of the life of Billy the Kid and asked for Morrison's help in acquiring the full pardon he said he had been promised by New Mexico Governor Lew Wallace in 1879, but which was subsequently withdrawn.
He showed his ability to slip out of handcuffs and said that Pat Garrett had actually shot and killed another gunslinger named Billy Barlow and had passed his body off as the Kid's, which had allowed the Kid to vanish and escape to Mexico.
The only three witnesses to the alleged killing of the Kid by Pat Garrett were Garrett himself and Deputies John W. Poe and Thomas McKinney. While McKinney claimed to slightly know the Kid, Poe had never previously laid eyes on him.
Moments after the shooting by Garrett, Poe told Garrett he had "shot the wrong man"; since it was too dark in the room for visual identification, Garrett claimed he knew it was the Kid by his voice, though all present had only heard whispers.
Ultimately, both Poe and McKinney agreed with Garrett, but McKinney recanted years later and claimed - like Poe before him - that Garrett had killed someone else.
Local residents of Fort Sumner also immediately disputed the death of the Kid. Garrett hastily assembled an official inquest by political cronies and clinched his claim to the killing and all outstanding rewards.
The body was quickly buried the following day in a grave that vanished in floods over the years; the grave, as marked today, likely contains no remains at all, and requests for an exhumation have been officially denied.
Roberts told Morrison that he would agree to tell the "whole truth" in exchange for the full pardon that Billy the Kid had been promised by Wallace following the Lincoln County War. His sudden appearance and request for a pardon had a profound effect on Garrett's descendants.
Brushy Bill claimed to have been born William Henry Roberts in Buffalo Gap, Texas, near Abilene, on December 31, 1859 but was known to use several other aliases during his life.
Marshall Trimble, the official historian of Arizona, cites Frederick Nolan, an authority on the life and times of Billy the Kid, who refers to a letter sent in 1987 by Mrs. Geneva Pittmon to Joe Bowlin, the founder of a history buff group called the "Billy the Kid Gang, Inc.", in which she stated that her uncle, the man known as "Brushy Bill", was named Oliver P. Roberts and that he was born August 26, 1879, according to the family Bible.
Brushy Bill's actual name was William Henry Roberts, and Oliver Pleasant Roberts was not the same person as "Brushy Bill," although Roberts's niece definitively stated that her uncle "Brushy Bill" was named Oliver P. Roberts and was not Billy the Kid.
If Brushy Bill had been born in 1859, he would have been 90 at the time of his death from a massive heart attack in Hico, Texas.
Had he been born in 1879, he would have been only 71 at the time of his death.
In addition, Roberts had allegedly claimed to be a member of Jesse James's gang before deciding to come out as the authentic Billy the Kid.
In January 1950, Brushy Bill claimed he was a member of the James-Younger Gang as a teenager and identified J. Frank Dalton as Jesse James.
Morrison vouchsafed that upon examination of Roberts's stripped body, he showed 26 bullet and knife scars. Morrison also attempted to track down former Jesse Evans gang member Jim McDaniels and located him in Round Rock, Texas.
McDaniels, along with Severo Gallegos, Martile Able, and Jose Montoya, all of whom had known Billy the Kid, signed affidavits verifying their belief that Roberts was, in fact, Billy the Kid. Bill and Sam Jones declined to sign such affidavits, Sam Jones begging off with the statement, "Received your letter, and am sorry but feel that I can't sign your affidavit.
I'm old, and I just don't feel like being obligated so..." Bill Jones' grandson expressed doubts about the veracity of Roberts' claims in a letter of refusal written on his grandfather's behalf.
Billy the Kid could read and write English and was fluent in spoken Spanish. Brushy Bill himself was illiterate with moderate proficiency in Spanish.
Mabry announced the meeting, which was covered by the press. Mabry announced that he did not believe Roberts' story and denied the pardon application.
The press attention and the trip from his home in Hico to Santa Fe had a negative effect on the elderly Roberts' health, and he died soon afterward.
After the movie Young Guns II, when Brushy Bill was the narrator, the story began to be checked into. It is impossible to believe what actually occurred because Brushy Bill and Pat Garrett have so many holes in their stories.