New image shows Billy the Kid playing croquet

I would almost bet that photo (if it is the same house--more on that uno momento) is taken from the other side of the house. :smile:

Regarding the house--it would not be uncommon for the house in the photo to still be standing. 30+ years go, we visited some friends--the husband is a well-known cowboy artist--who were leasing a house from the Hurd estate (Ricky Nelson was staying in a house about 200 yards away) in the Hondo valley....turned out the house they were living in belonged to one of the first victims of the war, Dick Brewer (killed at Blazer's Mill). Sheesh. Didn't know that till several years later! Historical stuff related to the Lincoln County War is all over the place if you know where to look.
 
Ah, yes! That's it. The gentleman in the article used the terms retarded and cretin, which I think are considerably inaccurate and not very nice to boot! Sure would explain Billy, though, wouldn't it? Wonder if anybody in his family had characteristics that might indicate that disorder? It's genetic.
--------------------
Well apparently he could see well enuf to shoot straight.
 
At least 8 times! Think he was credited with a lot more, but those were the ones they could prove...
------------------------
It's been my experience that a sniper will have X a mount of confirmed kills & double that X in probables. It's a moot point I guess… he certainly has left his mark in US Western history. Is there a well searched biography of The Kid? Who wrote the bench mark?
I kind of scoffed at this thread but that darn kid with the buck teeth is so darn fascinating I'd love to know the facts of his life.
 
------------------------
It's been my experience that a sniper will have X a mount of confirmed kills & double that X in probables. It's a moot point I guess… he certainly has left his mark in US Western history. Is there a well searched biography of The Kid? Who wrote the bench mark?
I kind of scoffed at this thread but that darn kid with the buck teeth is so darn fascinating I'd love to know the facts of his life.

He really is interesting but bios are very short - his life was very short! Most focus on the Lincoln County wars, Pat Garrett and Lew Wallace. Billy wasn't a Southerner but many of the Regulators were and that's always a factor in the Western outlaw/marshal era. Many of the reasons these people fought in the CW were similar to the reasons they did what they did in the West! I seldom see Western post-CW history as irrelevant to CW conversation - these vets had great impact. Another interesting factor is people like Billy who were children during the war - nobody seems to take notice of the effect of war on the kids.
 
------------------------
It's been my experience that a sniper will have X a mount of confirmed kills & double that X in probables. It's a moot point I guess… he certainly has left his mark in US Western history. Is there a well searched biography of The Kid? Who wrote the bench mark?
I kind of scoffed at this thread but that darn kid with the buck teeth is so darn fascinating I'd love to know the facts of his life.

I would read Robert Utley's biography: A Short and Violent Life (http://www.amazon.com/dp/0803295588/?tag=civilwartalkc-20). That's the gold standard. I have at hand Maurice G. Fulton's History of the Lincoln County War, and has been noted, most of the books are about the Lincoln County War and include information on Billy the Kid....this one has been around since 1968. Fulton researched it for years and this was only published after his death. It's my Bible. I know a lot of people prefer Frederick Nolan, but there are some things he just blew it on, and I happen to prefer Fulton. I would also recommend To Hell on a Fast Horse by Mark Lee Gardner just because it's fun....and it brings up some new research. I'm embarrassed to admit I had a really good book on his youth (including the bit about his abilities as a student) which I used in a grad school paper--and I've lost it. I can't even find it online to cite it. I know it was fairly short (no pun intended) and the dust jacket was blue. If anyone does find it, let me know.

Just to explain--as a child I was obsessed by the whole Lincoln County War. My dad sold mineral and feed out in the Lincoln County area during WWII, and a number of the older ranchers he sold to( he was a history nut, like his daughter!) were either alive during the LCW...children....or their parents were. He pumped them relentlessly for information. When he realized what a little gem I was, he indulged me with numerous vacations to Lincoln County....we stayed at the Wortley Hotel...we walked the streets of White Oaks and Lincoln as he explained what happened...it was amazing. Then, after I married, my husband and I had friends who lived in the Hondo Valley. One of them was a cowboy artist, and we joined with him and a couple of others in putting in a gallery. Lincoln was not yet a National Historic Site, and they actually leased the West room of the Tunstall store to us and GAVE US THE KEY. I spent hour upon hour there--with my trusty copy of Fulton's book. I can't even begin to tell you how excited I was when--cleaning out the house we were renting in nearby Alto--I found paperwork relating to Jimmy Dolan's role in the war. He was an ancestor of our landlord! It was sort of one of those Diane things.

So....I'm not just someone who's sort of read about it....I am about as close as you can get to someone who was there :smile: TMI, I know. :mstickle:
 
Last edited:
civilwarincolor is right. I've seen Billy's letters to Lew Wallace and he certainly was not uneducated. There are several major problems that may never be overcome in the mystery of Billy the Kid. First, his grave is not really known. The great Pecos River flood of 1904 washed away the headstones and graves of the Old Fort Sumner Cemetery and Billy's grave went unmarked for the next 28 years. In 1932 the headstone that exists today was placed where it was thought the grave was located.
Billy's mother, Catherine Antrim, is buried in Silver City, New Mexico. the cemetery where she was buried was sold to a developer in 1881. He was required by law to move the graves to a new site outside the city limits, however, it is thought that to save himself a lot of money he only moved the tombstones and built over the cemetery. So there is some question as to where she really rests as well. This makes any attempt at DNA testing very difficult if not impossible.
Lastly, the courts of New Mexico have sided with the City of Hico, Texas, the Billy the Kid Museum in Hico, the relatives of Brushy Bill Roberts, and others to block any exhumations.
 
I would read Robert Utley's biography: A Short and Violent Life (http://www.amazon.com/dp/0803295588/?tag=civilwartalkc-20). That's the gold standard. I have at hand Maurice G. Fulton's History of the Lincoln County War, and has been noted, most of the books are about the Lincoln County War and include information on Billy the Kid....this one has been around since 1968. Fulton researched it for years and this was only published after his death. It's my Bible. I know a lot of people prefer Frederick Nolan, but there are some things he just blew it on, and I happen to prefer Fulton. I would also recommend To Hell on a Fast Horse by Mark Lee Gardner just because it's fun....and it brings up some new research. I'm embarrassed to admit I had a really good book on his youth (including the bit about his abilities as a student) which I used in a grad school paper--and I've lost it. I can't even find it online to cite it. I know it was fairly short (no pun intended) and the dust jacket was blue. If anyone does find it, let me know.

Just to explain--as a child I was obsessed by the whole Lincoln County War. My dad sold mineral and feed out in the Lincoln County area during WWII, and a number of the older ranchers he sold to( he was a history nut, like his daughter!) were either alive during the LCW...children....or their parents were. He pumped them relentlessly for information. When he realized what a little gem I was, he indulged me with numerous vacations to Lincoln County....we stayed at the Wortley Hotel...we walked the streets of White Oaks and Lincoln as he explained what happened...it was amazing. Then, after I married, my husband and I had friends who lived in the Hondo Valley. One of them was a cowboy artist, and we joined with him and a couple of others in putting in a gallery. Lincoln was not yet a National Historic Site, and they actually leased the West room of the Tunstall store to us and GAVE US THE KEY. I spent hour upon hour there--with my trusty copy of Fulton's book. I can't even begin to tell you how excited I was when--cleaning out the house we were renting in nearby Alto--I found paperwork relating to Jimmy Dolan's role in the war. He was an ancestor of our landlord! It was sort of one of those Diane things.

So....I'm not just someone who's sort of read about it....I am about as close as you can get to someone who was there :smile: TMI, I know. :mstickle:
---------------------------
Thanks for the recommendations but you get extra likes for the story ..... I'm jealous as heck tho… sounds like a dream come true:smile:
 
Did Billy speak both English and Spanish?

He did, as I understand it. Anyway, his last words were Spanish. Think that's how he came to be shot by Garrett - staying at his girlfriend's house. @Nathanb1, didn't Billy have a Mexican sweetheart or two? Since his DNA went missing, we'll probably never know if he sowed any wild oats! Think one was Paulita Maxwell, another something Garcia...?

I tend to think of the Lincoln County War as being one of those 'affair of honor' things left over from the old Southern code as far as the Kid was concerned. Tunstall was good to Billy, who appreciated it and he was vengeance-bent when the rancher was murdered. Messed up situation, sort of if we want decent law around here we're going to have to kill the law there is and get some better!
 
Back
Top