How did the Kid arm himself for his big escape? Some accounts claim that when Billy the Kid escaped from the Lincoln County Jail in 1881, he used a...
Billy Got His Gun
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First, Kill the Lawyers
The death of Lincoln County attorney Huston Chapman. February 18-19, 1879. The two sides in the Lincoln County War have a peace conference to end...
Billy the Kid’s Many Aliases
The Kid's official birth name was William Henry McCarty Jr. His birthplace is not certain. Some say New York City. In 1873 his mother, Catherine...
The Lincoln County War: Armistice Gone Bad
When Lew Wallace was appointed Territorial Governor of New Mexico in 1879 one of the first missions he hoped to accomplish was to stop the killings...
Did Billy the Kid and Jesse Evans Ever Have a Showdown?
They didn’t really “have it out” but they rode together briefly and later were on opposite sides in the Lincoln County War. The Kid might have been...
The West’s First Preservationist Will Surprise You
In Lincoln County, New Mexico, the name John Tunstall is as famous as his hired gun, Billy the Kid. His ambition, his capitalistic competition, his...
Great Danger Rests on the Town! God Save Us!
A doctor and pastor found little healing during the Lincoln County War. It must have seemed like a simple assignment—providing medical care...
An Unusual Background Lincoln County warrior Robert Widenmann wasn’t the typical westerner.
Of all the participants in the Lincoln County War, Robert Widenmann may have had the most interesting backstory. His father was the German consul in...
Feed the Dog An unusual explanation for being heavily armed.
Robert Widenman was a New Mexico deputy US marshal—and an associate of Billy the Kid and the Regulators during the Lincoln County War. He was...
Walking into War A pastor-physician moved to Lincoln County in 1878.
Taylor Ealy thought he had a simple assignment: go to Lincoln County, New Mexico to serve as a doctor, Protestant pastor and to run a school for...
Paying the Price? James Dolan didn’t have to pay the piper for Lincoln County actions.
James Dolan was a 25-year-old hothead when he got in trouble in Lincoln County, NM in 1873. He got into a tiff with Captain James Randlett, an...
Resisting Arrest Nicholas Aragon proved deadly to two Lincoln County lawmen.
Lincoln County (NM) lawmen had no idea what they were getting themselves into when they chased after rustler Nicholas Aragon in the fall of 1894. He...