To Hell on a Fast Horse (32 page)

3.
WAR IN LINCOLN COUNTY

Billy was spotted in Cooke’s Canyon by Samuel P. Carpenter, a thirty-six-year-old Silver City contractor, as reported in the
Mesilla Valley Independent
, Oct. 13, 1877.

For more on Jesse Evans, see Grady E. McCright and James H. Powell,
Jessie Evans : Lincoln County Badman
(College Station, Tex.: Creative Publishing Company, 1983). The Jesse Evans involved in the Kansas counterfeiting scheme is mentioned in Koop, “Billy the Kid: The Trail of a Kansas Legend,” 16-17, which also includes the quote regarding the decision of the court.

Fountain’s call to string up the Evans gang is in the
Mesilla Valley Independent
, Oct. 13, 1877. The journey of The Boys across southern New Mexico was reported in the
Mesilla Valley Independent
of Oct. 6 and 13.

The story of the stolen mare, as related by the Kid himself, is in Lily Klasner, “The Kid,” in Nolan, ed.,
The Billy the Kid Reader
, 237.

A description of the Seven Rivers settlement as it appeared in the early 1880s is in the
Waterloo Courier
, Waterloo, Iowa, Feb. 24, 1897.

The Chisum Range is described in the
Thirty-Four
, Las Cruces, Apr. 2, 1879.

For a brief biographical sketch of Heiskell Jones, see Nolan,
The West of Billy the Kid
, 77.

In Garrett,
The Authentic Life of Billy
, the Kid, 32-39, may be found the melodramatic account of how the Kid and a companion, Tom O’Keefe, stumbled upon a party of Apaches, the result of which was the separation of the Kid from both his partner
and his horse. Whether or not this episode actually occurred is something else, but Nib Jones said that Billy told this story to his mother and that “Ash [Upson] told us the same story.” Ash Upson is enumerated as a boarder in the Heiskell Jones household in the 1880 U.S. Census for the 5th Precinct, Lincoln County, New Mexico. The Nib Jones interview, as well as interviews with Nib’s brothers, are in Box 13, Folder 7, and Box 14, Folders 1-3, Eve Ball Papers.

Lily Casey, who would become Lily Klasner, is quoted from her book,
My Girlhood Among Outlaws
, 174. Robert Casey’s negative opinion of the Kid on that first meeting is from an interview with J. Evetts Haley, Picacho, New Mexico, June 25, 1937, J. Evetts Haley Collection. Casey also told Haley that once the Kid started working for Englishman John H. Tunstall, “he paid his way, and he was a different man altogether."

The widow Casey did not complete her cattle drive to Texas. Tunstall claimed 209 of the cattle in her herd, and about October 25 a posse under Dick Brewer stopped the Casey caravan and cut Tunstall’s animals out. Her sons Robert and William were subsequently arrested and taken to the county seat of Lincoln. See Frederick Nolan,
The Lincoln County War: A Documentary History
(Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992), 167-168.

Frank Coe’s recollection is from the
El Paso Times,
Sept. 16, 1923. Coe had a way of remembering his old friend as larger than life. So did a lot of others.

Some histories have Billy working for John Chisum during this period. While Billy likely visited Chisum’s South Springs ranch headquarters, both Lily Klasner and Florencio Chávez were emphatic in stating that Billy was never employed as a Chisum cowboy. Also, James Chisum, who joined his brother’s operation on the Pecos in 1877, testified in court that “Billy the Kid didn’t work for me.” See Klasner, “The Kid,” 245-246; Eugene Cunningham, “Fought with Billy the Kid,”
Frontier Times
9 (Mar. 1932): 243; and
Territory of New Mexico vs. Robert Casey, et al.
, Case #751, New Mexico Supreme Court Records, New Mexico State Records Center & Archives, Santa Fe (NMSRCA).

The capture of The Boys and their card playing in the Lincoln jail was reported in the
Mesilla Valley Independent
, Oct. 27, 1877. My description of the jail comes from Robert Brady, “Billy the Kid Story” (typescript), as told to Edith L. Crawford, Box 49, Folder 6, Marta Weigle Collection (AC 361), Chávez History Library; and the
Mesilla Valley Independent
, Oct. 13, 1877.

For an excellent history of the town of Lincoln, see John P. Wilson,
Merchants, Guns & Money: The Story of Lincoln County and Its Wars
(Santa Fe: Museum of New Mexico Press, 1987).

Ham Mills’s murder of Balenzuela is discussed in Nolan,
The West of Billy the Kid
, 47 and 306 n. 9. Interestingly, according to the 1870 U.S. Census for Lincoln County, Mills was married to a Hispanic woman, with whom he then had one child.

For details of the Evans jailbreak, I have relied on the primary sources quoted in Nolan,
The Lincoln County War
, 171-173. In 1938, Robert Brady, the son of Sheriff Brady, told the story that Billy and “his gang” simply hunted up the jailer and forced him to turn over the keys. See Brady, “Billy the Kid Story."

My sources for Billy’s incarceration in December of 1877 are Robert Casey, in his interview with Haley, June 25, 1937, cited above; Klasner, “The Kid,” 234 and 241; and
Garrett,
The Authentic Life of Billy, the Kid
, 74. The jail stay is also discussed by Nolan,
The West of Billy the Kid
, 87-88.

For the Lincoln County War, which has had no lack of chroniclers, I have relied upon Frederick Nolan,
The Lincoln County War: A Documentary History
(Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992); John P. Wilson,
Merchants, Guns & Money: The Story of Lincoln County and Its Wars
(Santa Fe: Museum of New Mexico Press, 1987); Maurice G. Fulton,
Maurice Garland Fulton’s History of the Lincoln County War
, ed. Robert N. Mullin (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1968); and Robert M. Utley,
High Noon in Lincoln County : Violence on the Western Frontier
(Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1987). For my narrative, I have purposely covered only the high points of the feud as they relate to the Kid. Those interested in all the specifics and the numerous personalities involved-laborious and tiresome, for the most part-should consult the above works.

The quote referring to Murphy & Co.’s local domination is from Klasner,
My Girlhood Among Outlaws
, 98.

The J. H. Tunstall letter to his father is quoted from Wilson,
Merchants, Guns & Money
, 63.

For more on Tunstall, see Frederick Nolan,
The Life & Death of John Henry Tunstall
(Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1965).

For more on McSween, see Frederick Nolan, “The Search for Alexander McSween,”
New Mexico Historical Review
62 ( July 1987): 287-301. There has been some confusion as to whether or not McSween was a native of Scotland-needlessly so. McSween’s wife, Susan, is the source of the confusion, for she told later scholars that her former husband was born in Canada. McSween, however, stated in his own writings that he was a “Scotchman,” and a biographical sketch published in the
Cimarron News and Press
, Aug. 8, 1878, stated plainly that McSween was “a native of Scotland.” In 1948, William E. Johnson told Eve Ball about taking his mother, Camelia Olinger, to see the King Vidor-directed film
Billy the Kid
, released in 1930. Camelia had known many of the principals in the Lincoln County War, including Billy and McSween. “She said the only thing in the picture true to the facts,” Johnson recalled, “was the Scotch brogue of McSween.” The Johnson interview is in Box 13, Folder 3, Eve Ball Papers.

A biographical sketch of James J. Dolan appears in Nolan,
The West of Billy the Kid
, 154. Dolan’s obituary, dated Mar. 4, 1898, observed that he had been “a good hater,” which was an understatement. The obituary is reproduced in Lillian H. Bidal,
Pisacah: A Place of Plenty
(El Paso, Tex.: Robert E. and Evelyn McKee Foundation, 1995), 307 n. 267.

The John Middleton and Robert Widenmann accounts of Tunstall’s murder are published in Nolan,
The Lincoln County War
, 198, 209-210, and 231-232. Billy gave his version of the murder in a June 8, 1878, deposition to Department of Justice special investigator Frank Warner Angel, File 44-4-8-3, RG 60, Records of the Department of Justice, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.

That the corpse was scratched and its clothes torn is from an interview of Edith Coe Rigsby to Eve Ball, Ruidoso, New Mexico, Aug. 22, 1967, Box 16, Folder 29, Eve Ball Collection. Edith Coe Rigsby was the daughter of Frank Coe.

Billy’s pledge to “get some of them before I die” is quoted from Frank Coe, interview with J. Evetts Haley, San Patricio, New Mexico, Aug. 14, 1927, J. Evetts Haley Collection.

The Frank Collinson quote is from his book,
Life in the Saddle
, ed. Mary Whatley Clarke (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1963), 129.

Billy’s heated exchange with Sheriff Brady is quoted from Nolan,
The West of Billy the Kid
, 109.

My account of the capture and killing of William “Buck” Morton and Frank Baker essentially follows the version in Garrett,
The Authentic Life of Billy, the Kid
, 46-49, much of which supposedly came from the Kid. Morton’s letter to H. H. Marshall, dated South Spring River, Mar. 8, 1878, was published in the
Mesilla Valley Independent
, Apr. 13, 1878. See also “Regulator Victims,”
Wild West
19 (Feb. 2007): 10.

Billy’s remark to George Coe that he never intended to let Morton and Baker reach Lincoln alive is from George W. Coe,
Frontier Fighter: The Autobiography of George W. Coe Who Fought and Rode with Billy the Kid
, ed. Doyce B. Nunis Jr. (Chicago: The Lakeside Press, 1984), 132.

For more on Sheriff Brady, see Donald R. Lavash,
Sheriff William Brady: Tragic Hero of the Lincoln County War
(Santa Fe, N.Mex.: Sunstone Press, 1986).

It has often been written that the Kid was wounded by Billy Mathews as he stooped over Brady’s body. However, Reverend Taylor F. Ealy, who treated French’s wound, wrote in his personal copy of Garrett’s
The Authentic Life of Billy, the Kid
, that Billy “was not hit.” Ealy’s copy of Garrett is in Box 1, Folder 1, Ealy Family Papers, MSS 443 BC, Center for Southwest Research, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque.

Like most things regarding Billy the Kid, there are wildly conflicting accounts as to what actually happened at Blazer’s Mill on Apr. 4, 1878. Time and again, Frank Coe told the story of how he met with Roberts outside the big house before the shooting began and tried for thirty minutes to talk him into surrendering. Coe also claimed it was Charlie Bowdre, not the Kid, who delivered the fatal gunshot wound to Roberts. Coe’s account is supported by a news report on the fight in the
Mesilla Valley Independent
, Apr. 13, 1878, as well as by the June 7, 1879, testimony of David M. Easton, who was employed at Blazer’s Mill and claimed to have witnessed the shoot-out. This all may be true. My narrative, however, is based on the recollections and written accounts of the Blazer family, who, like Coe and Easton, were also witnesses to the affray and had the opportunity to later speak with the dying Roberts about what had transpired, as well as with Billy when he stopped at Blazer’s Mill under armed guard in April 1881. Almer Blazer did not have a high opinion of Easton and considered his testimony suspect. For the Blazer accounts, see Almer Blazer, “The Fight at Blazer’s Mill, in New Mexico,”
Frontier Times
16 (August 1939): 461-466; Paul Blazer, “The Fight at Blazer’s Mill : A Chapter in the Lincoln County War,”
Arizona and the West
6 (Autumn 1964): 203-210; and A. N. Blazer to M. G. Fulton, Mescalero, New Mexico, Apr. 24, 1931, and Aug. 27, 1937, Box 1, Folder 7, Maurice G. Fulton Collection.

The grand jury’s statement exonerating McSween is quoted from Nolan,
The Lincoln County War
, 270.

McSween’s letter to Tunstall’s sister is quoted from Fulton,
Maurice G. Fulton’s History of the Lincoln County War
, 205.

The quote from Reverend Ealy’s pupil is from Ruth R. Ealy,
Water in a Thirsty Land
(privately published), 80.

Sheriff Peppin’s note to Colonel Dudley is quoted in Nolan,
The Lincoln County War
, 315.

The man who overheard the conversation between Colonel Dudley and Jimmy Dolan was Samuel G. Beard. His testimony is published in R. M. Barron, ed.,
Court of Inquiry, Lieutenant Colonel N. A. M. Dudley, Fort Stanton, New Mexico, May-June-July 1879
(Edina, Minn.: Beaver’s Pond Press, Inc., 2003), 1: 77.

For more on Nathan A. M. Dudley, see E. Donald Kaye,
Nathan Augustus Monroe Dudley, 1825-1910: Rogue, Hero, or Both?
(Parker, Colo.: Outskirts Press, 2007).

McSween’s note to Dudley and Dudley’s response are as quoted in Nolan,
The Lincoln County War
, 325.

McSween’s cry that he had lost his reason is from Taylor F. Ealy, “The Lincoln County War as I Saw It,” c. 1927, Ealy Papers, University of Arizona Library, Tucson. The quote urging McSween to make a run for it, which I have attributed to the Kid, is from the same source.

For Billy Bonney’s testimony as to what happened at the McSween house on the night of July 19, see Barron, ed.,
Court of Inquiry, Lieutenant Colonel N. A. M. Dudley
, 1: 185-187.

3.
A NEW SHERIFF

The Sallie Chisum description of Garrett is from Burns,
The Saga of Billy the Kid
, 17.

The Paulita Maxwell description of Juanita Martínez is from Burns,
The Saga of Billy the Kid
, 186.

Paco Anaya, in
I Buried Billy
, 75, gives the date of the Garrett-Martínez wedding only as November 1879. Anaya is my source for the presence of Billy and his gang at the wedding. There is some disagreement over the identity of Garrett’s first wife. Leon Metz suggests that Pat’s first wife was named Juanita Gutiérrez, possibly a sister of his second wife, Apolinaria Gutiérrez. However, both Paulita Maxwell and Paco Anaya identify Juanita Martínez as his first bride. And Pat Garrett’s son, Jarvis, in handwritten corrections found in a copy of Metz’s 1974 Garrett biography, wrote that “Mama did not have a sister named Juanita Gutierrez.” (My thanks to historian Marc Simmons for supplying me with the Jarvis Garrett notes.) Unfortunately, no wedding record or certificate for Garrett’s wedding to Juanita Martínez has been located.