New Mexico Governor Considers Pardon for Billy the Kid

[Lady Cop]

i'm not all that interested in Old West history, but thought this may be of interest to some.



New Mexico Governor Considers Pardon for Billy the Kid

Published July 30, 2010. Associated Press.

The 130-year-old feud between outlaw Billy the Kid, left, and frontier lawman Pat Garrett isn't over, as New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson considers granting a posthumous pardon to the notorious criminal.

SANTA FE, New Mexico -- The showdown between frontier lawman Pat Garrett and notorious outlaw Billy the Kid has fascinated the American public for nearly 130 years with its classic, Old West storyline.

As it turns out, the feud isn't completely over.

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson is considering granting a posthumous pardon to Billy the Kid, angering descendants of Garrett who call it an insult to recognize such a violent outlaw.

Three of the late lawman's grandchildren sent a letter to Richardson this week that asked him not to pardon the outlaw, saying such an act would represent an "inexcusable defamation" of Garrett.

"If Billy the Kid was living amongst us now, would you issue a pardon for someone who made his living as a thief and, more egregiously, who killed four law enforcement officers and numerous others?" the Garrett family wrote.
The issue has resurfaced because Richardson asked a New Mexico columnist earlier this year to check with historians to measure their support for issuing a pardon. The governor plans to meet with Garrett family members next week to discuss the issue.

Garrett shot Billy the Kid down on July 14, 1881. Garrett tracked him after the outlaw escaped from the Lincoln County jail in a famous gunbattle that left two deputies dead.

The Kid's status as an Old West folk hero grew as countless books, films and songs were written about the gunslinger and his exploits. According to legend, he killed 21 people, one for each year of his life, but the New Mexico Tourism Department puts the total closer to nine.

The pardon dispute is the latest in a long-running fight over whether Garrett shot the real Kid or someone else and then lied about it. Some history buffs claim Billy the Kid didn't die in the shootout with Garrett and landed in Texas, where he went by "Brushy Bill" Roberts and died of a heart attack at age 90 in 1950.

Richardson joined the tussle in 2003 by supporting a plan by then-Lincoln County Sheriff Tom Sullivan to reinvestigate the century-old case.

The governor said he was willing to consider a pardon for the Kid -- something the outlaw hoped for but never received from New Mexico territorial Gov. Lew Wallace.

"Governor Richardson has always said that he would consider making good on Governor Wallace's promise to Billy the Kid for a pardon," Richardson spokeswoman Alarie Ray-Garcia said Thursday. "He is aware of the Garrett family's concerns and will be meeting with them next week."

Susan Floyd Garrett of Santa Fe is one of the grandchildren who signed the letter to Richardson. She said the family decided to speak out because a pardon represents a "defamation of character" to their grandfather. She described the Kid as a "gangster."

"Everybody wants to mythologize Billy the Kid," she said.

Garrett and her brother, Jarvis Patrick Garrett, met Thursday with descendants of another key figure in the Kid's story -- John Henry Tunstall, a rancher whose murder in 1878 triggered a bloody feud known as the Lincoln County War. Billy the Kid, also known as William Bonney, worked as a ranch hand for Tunstall.

Hilary Tunstall-Behrens of London, a great-nephew of Tunstall, said he's not backing a modern-day pardon for the Kid.

"I wouldn't join the cause," said Tunstall-Behrens, 83. "There is so much strong feelings."

Gale Cooper, an amateur historian who lives near Albuquerque, said a pardon by Richardson would be the "culmination of the hoax that contended Pat Garrett was a nefarious killer and Billy was not buried in his grave."

Cooper has written a book, "MegaHoax," to debunk claims that Garrett killed someone other than the Kid.

After serving as Lincoln County sheriff, Garrett's career soured. He ran unsuccessfully for higher political office, served as a customs collector, but ran into financial problems as a rancher.

He was shot and killed in 1908 in a dispute over his land.


Billy, left. Garrett, right.

[QueenBee]

(CNN) -- Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico will not pardon legendary Wild West outlaw Billy the Kid in the death of a law enforcement officer more than a century ago, he said Friday.

Richardson made the announcement on ABC's "Good Morning America" the same day he leaves office.

The issue facing Richardson was whether one of his predecessors, Gov. Lew Wallace, promised about 130 years ago to pardon Billy the Kid -- known more formally as William H. Bonney -- for killing Sheriff William Brady of Lincoln County, New Mexico.

Wallace has long been said to have promised a pardon if Bonney testified before a grand jury that was investigating another killing. Wallace did not follow through on that promise, many say, and the reasons are debated.

Richardson said he believes that Wallace did promise to pardon Bonney. Yet there is "historical ambiguity" about why Wallace did not follow through, Richardson said, and he did not want to second-guess the former governor's decision.

"It was a very close call," Richardson said. "The romanticism appealed to me to issue a pardon, but the facts and the evidence did not support it."

The governor acknowledged a positive side effect of his consideration of a pardon.

"It's good for tourism," he said. "It's gotten great publicity for the state."

Billy the Kid was born Henry McCarty but was also known as Bonney and Henry Antrim. He died at the hands of Sheriff Pat Garrett 129 years ago. He was 21 at the time of his death.

Wallace's great-grandson, William Wallace of Westport, Connecticut, has said there is no proof of an offered pardon. "Where is the hard, concrete evidence?" he asked CNN Friday, adding discussion of exactly what happened is full of "gray areas."

While crediting Richardson for "the correct rational track" in his decision, Wallace said "why the governor commenced this nonsense four months ago remains a mystery."

A pardon would have defamed his ancestor, Wallace said. "(Lew Wallace) was a heroic figure in the history of the United States in the 19^th century."

Some members of the Garrett family opposed a pardon. Besides arguing that Billy the Kid was an incorrigible killer, they wanted to make sure the sheriff was absolved of any wrongdoing related to the killing.

Jarvis Patrick Garrett, the grandson of the sheriff, cheered the governor's decision Friday.

"Yay! No pardon! Looks like it will be a great New Year!" he said.

Richardson had said he would not do anything that cast a cloud on Garrett.

Some residents, including Governor-elect Susana Martinez, said there are more pressing issues facing the state.

Richardson, a Billy the Kid buff, examined a promise by Wallace, the territorial governor, about 130 years ago to issue the outlaw a pardon.

"A promise is a promise and should be enforced," said Albuquerque defense attorney Randi McGinn, who filed the petition for the pardon and volunteered to handle the case for free.

Following Richardson's decision, McGinn said in an e-mail, "We won the battle (acknowledgement of Lew Wallace's broken promise), but lost the war (the pardon). The historic debate will continue and perhaps a future New Mexico governor will grant justice for the Kid."

Garrett killed Billy the Kid on July 14, 1881, in Fort Sumner, weeks after the outlaw escaped from a jail.

The sheriff, legend has it, was hiding in the dark and shot the Kid when he entered a room. Garrett was gunned down in 1908 at age 57.

Richardson had stressed that he would decide only the matter of Wallace's promise of a pardon.

Wallace -- who had also been a Union general in the Civil War and wrote the novel "Ben-Hur" -- had promised to grant Bonney amnesty for the fatal shooting of Brady and other "misdeeds" if he agreed to testify before a grand jury investigating another murder. Bonney cooperated, but the pardon didn't happen.

According to Mark Lee Gardner and other historians, Bonney at one point wrote to Wallace, asking him to honor the deal.

Garrett's family argues Bonney decided to flee house arrest, making the pardon moot. He eventually was convicted in Brady's death and was sentenced to death, the petition states. But he escaped from jail on April 28, 1881, killing two deputies.

"Still, regardless of Billy's crimes, the motives of Richardson or the hollowness of posthumous justice, it all comes back to Wallace's promise. A deal is a deal, and 129 years doesn't change that. Billy is owed a pardon," Gardner wrote earlier this year in the Los Angeles Times.

[Lady Cop]

THE PHOTO

He went down in history as the most famous gun slinger in the Wild West, but little record exists of legendary outlaw Billy the Kid.

One single authentic photograph - that historians can agree on - remains. Now, it's set to be offered to the public for the first time ever.


Bids on the credit card-sized tintype photo is expected to fetch as much as $400,000 when it goes up for auction in Denver next week.


The photo was taken outside a saloon in Fort Sumner, New Mexico, when Billy the Kid, born William Henry McCarty and later known as outlaw William Bonney, was barely out of his teens.


Experts estimate it was taken around 1879. But 132 years later, it endures as the most recognisable photo of the American West.

The Kid gave it to his friend, Dan Dedrick, and it's been kept in the family for the last century, going on public display only once at Lincoln County Museum in New Mexico in 1986 to 1998.

It was famously featured a book by Pat Garrett, the sheriff who gunned Billy down on July 14, 1881 -130 years ago next month.

Relatively unknown during his own lifetime, he was catapulted into legend that year by Garrett's tome, The Authentic Life of Billy, the Kid.

(CNN) -- A 130-year-old photo, billed as the only authenticated picture of legendary outlaw Billy the Kid, sold for $2.3 million at a Denver auction Saturday night.

The Kid reportedly paid 25 cents to have the photo taken in Fort Sumner, New Mexico.

The Old West Show & Auction had estimated the tintype -- an early photographic technique that used metal plates -- to bring in between $300,000 and $400,000.

"When the bidding ended, the whole room erupted in clapping and people leapt to their feet," said Melissa McCracken, spokeswoman for the auction. "I've never experienced anything like this before."

The winning bidder was billionaire William Koch who founded Oxbow Carbon, with reported sales of $4 billion annually. Koch comes from a well-known family whose last name has made headlines in the past year for their political involvement.

[Lady Cop]

Daily Mail

Billy the Kid has been described as a vicious and ruthless killer - an outlaw who died at the age of 21 having raised havoc in the New Mexico Territory.

It was said he took the lives of 21 men, one for each year of his life, the first when he was just 12.

The more likely figure was nine, but this and many more accusations of callous acts are merely examples used to create the myth of Billy the Kid.

In truth the Kid, born Henry McCarty but later known as outlaw William Bonney, was not the cold-blooded killer he has been portrayed as but a young man who lived in a violent world where knowing how to use a gun was the difference between life and death.

He was a master of his craft and enjoyed showing off his gun-twirling abilities to his friends, taking a revolver in each hand and spinning them in opposite directions. But in his quieter moments he would meticulously clean his firearms.

He was also good-natured and generous, but his reckless 'they’ll-never-catch-me' attitude would eventually lead to his his downfall.

Relatively unknown during his own lifetime, he was catapulted into legend the year after his death in 1881 when his killer, Sheriff Pat Garrett, published a sensationalised biography The Authentic Life of Billy, the Kid.

After this, Billy the Kid grew into a symbolic figure of the American Old West.

On the run from his enemies and the law, the Kid had made a living by stealing horses and cattle, until his arrest in December of 1880. Five months later, after being sentence to death for the killing of Sheriff Brady during the Lincoln County gang war, the Kid broke out of jail by killing his two guards.

But he decided not the leave the territory after his escape when he had more than enough time to do so, allowing Garrett to catch up with him at the home of Pete Maxwell in Fort Sumner, New Mexico, on July 14, 18