It came to light in Las Cruces, NM, and was verified as Billy the Kid (right) and his friend Dan Dedrick (left) in October of 2013. Only the second photo ever authenticated of Billy the Kid, this photo is a tintype that was owned at one point by the estate of Pat Garrett.
He knew that many of the Hispanics thought of him as a folk hero. He starred at village fandangos or bailes, where he danced to the polkas, waltzes and schottisches performed by the mariachis playing violins and the traditional convex-back guitars. He had not only challenged the authorities, he had scorned danger, mocked death and charmed local daughters. While criminal and murderous instincts lay at his core, Billy also had a certain raffish charisma, particularly among the Hispanics, whose language he spoke fluently.
Billy surely knew, too, that the governor of New Mexico had put a price on his head. From New York to San Francisco, “people waited in fascinated suspense to learn whether the fearless young killer would remain at large,” according to Utley. Undoubtedly, he realized that he had fired public interest. Meanwhile, from newspapers brought to him by his friends, Billy likely followed the media accounts of his breakout from the Lincoln jail. Utley in his book Billy the Kid: A Short and Violent Life.
He thought that he could hang around the community until he could put some money in his pocket and head south for Mexico, beyond the reach of Pat Garrett, according to Robert M. Billy knew that he could count on them for a bunk and a meal in their adobe homes and sheep camps. Billy the OutlawĪlthough only 21, The Kid also known as Henry McCarty, Henry Antrim or William Bonney, names reflecting the shards of his fractured family life had already given a new dimension to the notion of “outlaw.” He had ridden with several gangs, hustled in the regional gaming halls, busted his companions out of imprisonment, stolen horses across the territory, rustled cows in New Mexico and Texas, fought in the infamous Lincoln County War, escaped from several jailhouses, gunned down at least four and possibly as many as ten men, and terrorized people from the Rio Grande to the Pecos River to the High Plains.Īfter his escape from jail in Lincoln, Billy the Kid had fled to Fort Sumner because he had friends there, including many among the Hispanic people, who like their Spanish ancestors admired a wild spirit and reckless audacity. He surely understood that Garrett would not just forget about him. He had learned that his notoriety had spread from coast to coast. He had shot two deputy sheriffs to death during his escape.
The Kid had just broken out of jail in Lincoln, New Mexico, where he had been sent by a judge and jury in Mesilla, New Mexico, to hang for murder. In the summer of 1881, Billy the Kid, hiding out around the hamlet of Fort Sumner in east-central New Mexico, should have known that Lincoln County Sheriff Pat Garrett would try to hunt him down and kill him. A 3rd photo has been discovered, but not all experts have acknowledged it yet. This is a tintype believed to have been taken One of only two images acknowledged by experts to be Billy the Kid.