Billy the Kid

With all this talk going around about another Billy the Kid photo I submit to you Dale Crawford’s amazing discovery. There’s no disputing, there’s no doubt this is the Kid. Dale is a Colorado artist and this appeared mysteriously on his easel.

Although Billy the Kid likely killed four men he never robbed a bank, never held up a stagecoach or a train. In other words he was not the notorious outlaw he became after his death. We can thank writer Walter Noble Burns for elevating him to the stuff of legends.

There were a number of eyewitnesses to his death. Pete Maxwell probably wouldn’t have given him up and Garrett would have ridden out of Fort Sumner the next morning never having encountered the Kid had the outlaw not stumbled into Pete’s bedroom. For the Kid it was just bad timing. Wrong place at the wrong time for Billy; right place and time for Garrett. Billy was holding a pistol hesitated, called out “Quien es?” Garrett pulled his and fired. End of Billy.

Claims that the Kid didn’t die that night appeal to people’s fondness for conspiracy and cover up. It’s fun to speculate. They want to believe outlaws like Butch, Sundance, Jesse and the Kid couldn’t be killed like mortal beings but that’s what they were.

For the outlaws it was better to die young with their boots on and be frozen in time rather than live to be old, feeble and forgotten.