To Hell on a Fast Horse (34 page)

6.
THE KID HUNTED

Billy’s original letter to Governor Wallace of Dec. 12, 1880, is available for viewing online as part of the Indiana Historical Society’s Digital Image Library (http:// images.indianahistory.org). According to Garrett, Billy also wrote a letter about this same time to Joseph C. Lea at Roswell, saying that “if the officers would give him a little time, and let him alone until he could rest up his horses and get ready, he would leave the country for good; but if he was pursued, or harassed, he would inaugurate a bloody war, and fight it out to the fatal end.” See
The Authentic Life of Billy, the Kid
, 101.

Governor Wallace’s reward proclamation of Dec. 13 is found in the Territorial Archives of New Mexico, roll 21, frame 565. Notice of the proclamation was published in the
Daily New Mexican
, Dec. 14, 1880. The
Las Vegas Gazette
’s criticism of the reward, published in its issue of Dec. 15, 1880, is as quoted in Keleher,
Violence in Lincoln County
, 291.

There are several primary accounts that illuminate Garrett’s hunt for and capture of the Kid. The best, and the one produced closest to when the events occurred, is Garrett’s
The Authentic Life of Billy, the Kid
, from which I have drawn the bulk of my quoted material. Charlie Siringo, one of the Texas posse members who chose not to go with Garrett, published his version of these events in 1885 in his
A Texas Cow Boy, or, Fifteen Years on the Hurricane Deck of a Spanish Pony
. Siringo reproduced the account of posse member Lon Chambers, who Siringo claimed related it to him a short time later. Unfortunately, Siringo liked to spin a good tale even more than the Kid. Other posse members also left accounts, but they were either written or collected decades later and, like Siringo’s, are not always reliable. By far the best of these is James East’s interview with J. Evetts Haley, Douglas, Arizona, Sept. 27, 1927, J. Evetts Haley Collection. See also the account of Louis Bousman in James H. Earle, ed.,
The Capture of Billy the Kid
(College Station, Tex.: Creative Publishing Company, 1988). The two Las Vegas newspapers, the
Gazette
and the
Daily Optic
, also contain valuable contemporary reporting on these same events. See
Billy the Kid: Las Vegas Newspaper Accounts of His Career, 1880-1881
.

Garrett’s comment about Tom Folliard’s scream after being shot is from Hough,
The Story of the Outlaw
, 302.

The Stinking Spring site is on private property east of the present-day community of Taiban, New Mexico. Only the foundation remains of the rock house, which was discovered in 1984. Some accounts mention that the house had a window, but the majority seems to agree that the only opening in the structure was the doorway.

Contemporary writings, including Garrett, refer to the site as Stinking Spring, singular, while later accounts refer to it in the plural, Stinking Springs. I’ve followed the historic usage. See Allen Barker, “I Refound Stinking Springs,”
True West
36 (Feb. 1989): 14-19.

Garrett does not mention Barney Mason’s threat to kill Billy after he was in custody. However, both Jim East and Louis Bousman related the incident. East told the story twice, in the 1927 interview with J. Evetts Haley (cited above) and in a May 1, 1920, letter to Charlie Siringo, reprinted in Siringo’s
History of “Billy the Kid,"
97-105. Bousman told it in his interview with Haley, Oct. 23, 1934.

Both Bousman and East recalled their unpleasant encounter with Manuela Bowdre. East, in his letter to Siringo of May 1, 1920, claimed that Bowdre’s wife hit him over the head with a branding iron. In a sad follow-up to Bowdre’s death, Acting Governor Ritch received a letter from Captain Joseph C. Lea on Dec. 29 pleading Bowdre’s case and requesting Governor Wallace to ask the district attorney to throw out Bowdre’s murder indictment (for the killing of Roberts at Blazer’s Mill). Lea also enclosed a letter he had received from Bowdre in which Bowdre asked for his help. Lea’s letter was written on Dec. 24, the day after Bowdre was killed by Garrett’s posse. See Lea to Wallace, Roswell, New Mexico, Dec. 24, 1880, and Bowdre to Lea, Fort Sumner, New Mexico, Dec. 15, 1880, both in William H. Bonney Collection (AC 017-P), Chávez History Library; and the
Daily New Mexican
, Dec. 29, 1880.

For the intimate meeting in the Maxwell residence between Billy and Paulita, see East to Charlie Siringo, Apr. 26, 1920, as quoted in Siringo,
History of “Billy the Kid,"
105-107; and East to Judge William H. Burgess, Douglas, Arizona, May 20, 1926, Research Files, Robert N. Mullin Collection.

East told of Billy’s attempt to trick him in the Puerto de Luna store in his interview with J. Evetts Haley, Sept. 27, 1927.

7.
FACING DEATH BOLDLY

Olinger’s unusual full name comes from the research of Frederick Nolan,
The West of Billy the Kid
(Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1998), 146. Interestingly, Olinger is enumerated in the 1860 U.S. Census for Mound City Township, Linn County, Kansas, as a female (the spelling of the first name in the census is Amaradath). Olinger as the “tall sycamore” is from the
Las Vegas Daily Optic
of Feb. 22, 1881.

Ranger Gillett’s brief comments on Olinger are in the James Gillett folder, Box 16, Leon C. Metz Papers. The Gus Gildea quote is from A. M. Gildea to Maurice G. Fulton, Del Rio, Texas, June 5, 1929, Box 2, Folder 2, Maurice G. Fulton Collection, University of Arizona Library Special Collections. Pat Garrett’s remarks on his deceased deputy are from Emerson Hough, “The Imitation Bad Man,”
Washington Post
, Jan. 21, 1906. Garrett made a similar comment about Olinger to Dr. M. G. Paden. See Paden, “Billy the Kid Story” (typescript), as told to Edith L. Crawford, Nov. 22, 1937, Box 49, Folder 6, Marta Weigle Collection (AC 361), Chávez History Library.

Billy’s promise to get Olinger is from Charles Nebo “Nib” Jones to Eve Ball, May 9, 1948, Globe, Arizona, interview typescript, Box 14, Folder 2, Eve Ball Papers. Olinger’s “cur” remark is in the
Daily New Mexican
, May 3, 1881. Pat Garrett’s description of the hatred that existed between the Kid and Olinger is in his
Authentic Life of Billy, the Kid,
119.

The quote praising Deputy Bell is from the
Las Vegas Daily Optic
, Jan. 21, 1881. For information on Bell’s background, which is frustratingly limited, see O. W. Williams,
Pioneer Surveyor-Frontier Lawyer: The Personal Narrative of O. W. Williams, 1877-1902
, ed. S. D. Myers (El Paso: Texas Western Press, 1968), 89; and the 1880 U.S. Census for White Oaks, Lincoln County, New Mexico.

The fact that Billy’s cuffs were both on one hand comes from two letters written from Lincoln immediately after the Kid’s courthouse escape. The letters were published in
Supplement to the New Southwest and Herald
, Silver City, New Mexico, May 14,
1881; and the
Daily New Mexican,
May 3, 1881. My account of Billy’s escape is drawn from these important letters; a news report published in the
White Oaks Golden Era
of May 5, 1881; Garrett’s account in his
The Authentic Life of Billy, the Kid,
120–123, derived in part from interviews with Gottfried Gauss; an account by Gauss that appeared in the
Lincoln County Leader,
Mar. 1, 1890; and John P. Meadows,
Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid as I Knew Them: Reminiscences of John P. Meadows,
ed. John P. Wilson (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2004), 47–50. Meadows, a friend of Billy’s, claimed he received his account of the escape directly from the Kid.

Billy’s exchange with Garrett regarding the killing of Carlyle is in Garrett,
The Authentic Life of Billy, the Kid,
119.

Billy’s complaint about Olinger’s bullying is from Meadows,
Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid,
47.

The prophetic warning to Olinger is quoted from the
Daily New Mexican,
May 3, 1881.

The incident where Olinger left his pistol on the table in front of the Kid is noted in
Supplement to the New Southwest and Herald,
May 14, 1881.

Olinger’s boast that he could herd his prisoner like a goat is from a previously unknown newspaper interview with Garrett titled “Plucky Patrick Garrett,” newspaper clipping, Nov. 26, 1900, Pat Garrett Clippings File, Denver Public Library (“The Times” is penciled on this clipping, which may indicate the weekly
Denver Times-Sun
).

Manufactured between 1870 and 1874, not more than twenty-five hundred of the Whitney double-barrel shotguns were ever made. Olinger’s shotgun is now in a private collection, the only firearm in existence that we can know with absolute certainty that Billy once used.

Billy’s suggestion that Olinger might shoot himself accidentally is quoted from Meadows,
Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid,
47.

No one really knows how the Kid overpowered and shot Bell that day. Some claim that a gun had been secreted in the outhouse by a Kid confederate (e.g., see the account of Francisco Salazar in Leslie Traylor, “Facts Regarding the Escape of Billy the Kid,”
Frontier Times
13 [July 1936]: 509; and of Harry Aguayo in the
Albuquerque Tribune,
Aug. 1, 1957). It is a theory to which I do not subscribe. Forensic testing at the courthouse using luminol was conducted in 2004, which revealed substantial blood residue at the top of the courthouse stairs, blood that I believe came from the severe blow Billy delivered to Bell’s head. For a news report on the forensic investigation, see the
Santa Fe New Mexican,
Aug. 2, 2004.

The last words Billy spoke to Olinger before he killed him have several variations. My source is Garrett,
The Authentic Life of Billy, the Kid,
121. However, I do not believe that Olinger had time to say to Gauss, “Yes, and he’s killed me, too,” as Garrett (and Sam Peckinpah) would have us believe.

Severo Gallegos told his story to Eve Ball in 1949. Severo’s role that day has been overlooked by most historians of the Kid. Young Severo is enumerated in the 1880 U.S. Census, living in the town of Lincoln, and I am inclined to accept his story. See Severo Gallegos to Eve Ball, Apr. 5, 1949, interview typescript, Box 8, Folder 21, Eve Ball Papers. Severo gave a slightly different version of his actions in an interview with William V. Morrison on Oct. 11, 1949. See C. L. Sonnichsen and William V. Morri
son,
Alias Billy the Kid
(Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1955), 45 n. 44.

My reference to Lilly and La Rue and their feeble efforts to stop the Kid is from the
Las Vegas Daily Optic,
May 3, 1881.

Billy’s cursing at the dead bodies of Olinger and Bell is quoted from
Supplement to the New Southwest and Herald,
May 14, 1881.

Billy’s promise to return Billy Burt’s horse is from Garrett,
The Authentic Life of Billy, the Kid,
122.

The quote referring to the Kid having acted with the “coolest deliberation” comes from the
Supplement to the New Southwest and Herald,
May 14, 1881.

Garrett’s admission to some fault in the Kid’s escape is from his
The Authentic Life of Billy, the Kid,
123.

Several individuals claimed to have encountered Billy after he fled Lincoln. For Francisco Gomez’s account, see Leslie Traylor, “Facts Regarding the Escape of Billy the Kid,”
Frontier Times
13 (July 1936): 510. Yginio Salazar related his meeting with the Kid in an interview with J. Evetts Haley on Aug. 17, 1927 (J. Evetts Haley Collection, Midland, Texas). Salazar is buried in the cemetery at Lincoln, New Mexico.

The Lincoln County settlement of Las Tablas was renamed Arabella in 1901. It appears on maps today as Arabela.

The quotes for Billy’s meeting with John Meadows come from both Meadows’s interview with Haley on June 13, 1936, and his
Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid as I Knew Them: Reminiscences of John P. Meadows,
ed. John P. Wilson (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2004), 50–52.

Billy’s friend Martin Chavez claimed that he had talked to Billy at Las Tablas after the Lincoln courthouse escape and that Billy had told him that he was going to Fort Sumner to “see the girl who is to be my wife. If I die, all right; then I will die for her.” Chavez’s statement is in a draft chapter intended for Burns’s
The Saga of Billy the Kid
. This draft chapter clearly identifies Paulita Maxwell as Billy’s sweetheart; however, on orders from his publisher, Burns revised the chapter to include Paulita’s denial (the publisher, Doubleday, Page & Co., feared a lawsuit). A copy of this draft chapter is found in Box 16, Leon C. Metz Papers.

8.
THE DARKENED ROOM

Billy the Kid’s death warrant may be found in the microfilm series Territorial Archives of New Mexico, roll 21, frames 581–582, NMSRCA.

Convincing evidence that Wallace was undeserving of the criticism he received for his performance at the Battle of Shiloh is found in Timothy B. Smith, “Why Lew Was Late,”
Civil War Times
46 ( Jan. 2008): 30–37.

The story of Wallace adding handwritten comments to the offending passages of Badeau’s
Military History of Ulysses S. Grant
is from
The Bucks County Gazette,
Bristol, Pennsylvania, June 23, 1881.

Wallace’s description of the Kid being serenaded while in the Lincoln jail is contained in his Mar. 31, 1879, letter to Secretary of the Interior Carl Schurz and is as quoted in Jason Strykowski, “An Unholy Bargain in a Cursed Place: Lew Wallace, William Bonney, and New Mexico Territory,”
New Mexico Historical Review
82 (Spring 2007): 246–247.

The sales figures for
Ben-Hur
are as reported in the
Daily New Mexican,
Dec. 22, 1880.

The telegraph message to Wallace is as quoted in the
Daily New Mexican,
May 1, 1881.