While the vigilante justice was carrying itself out on March 9, on that same day Governor Samuel Axtell rode into Lincoln County to investigate, per the request of Brady, who described the situation in Lincoln County as “anarchy.” Federal troops from Fort Stanton were put on alert, and Axtell cancelled Squire Wilson’s appointment as justice of the peace and revoked Widenmann’s duties as deputy marshal. By doing so, he removed any legal authority that the Regulators had, turning them into a band of outlaw vigilantes.
Late in the evening of March 31, the Regulators launched their plan to get Brady. The Kid and five other men snuck into town and hid behind an adobe wall in a corral near Tunstall’s store. The next morning, as Brady left the Dolan store, the Regulators unleashed at least a dozen rounds of gunfire and killed him in the muddy street. A deputy was also killed. For unknown reasons, the Kid and another man named Jim French ran to Brady’s body, perhaps looking for warrants or a gun. A shot came from a nearby house and went through the Kid’s thigh and into French’s leg, but they were both able to escape.
Sheriff Brady
With the cold-blooded assassination of their sheriff, the Regulators lost sympathy from many in the town. They were now viewed as murderers and no better than The House. The Regulators went back to San Patricio, the tiny community on the Ruidoso River that served as their headquarters. The Kid and French recovered from their wounds, and the Regulators picked up new men to join the crew before moving up the river and into the mountains on April 4. Their destination was Blazer’s Mill, located on the Mescalero Apache Indian Reservation in the Tularosa Creek canyon. The Regulators heard that men who were involved in Tunstall’s murder were there and Brewer planned to serve his arrest warrants, whether they were valid or not.
The small settlement called Blazer’s Mill belonged to a dentist named Joseph Blazer, who leased a two-story adobe house to the federal government, where Indian agent Frederick Godfroy and his wife lived. The Godfroys took in lodgers and Mrs. Godfroy ran a small restaurant, known for its hearty meals. While the Regulators were enjoying the hot meal, Buckshot Roberts rode into town, possibly to see if a check he was waiting for had arrived. Roberts wanted no more to do with the Lincoln County War and was in the process of selling his ranch. He also had ridden in the posse that killed Tunstall.
When the Regulators spotted Roberts, it left neither side with very little choice of what to do. If the Regulators simply left, Roberts would chase them down and shoot them. If Roberts tried to leave, the Regulators would kill him. Frank Coe, one of the Regulators who knew Roberts the best, tried to talk him into surrendering, but Roberts would not agree to that.
Meanwhile, Dick Brewer grew impatient and led his posse, including the Kid, out of the dining room, and toward Roberts and Coe. Both Roberts and Charlie Bowdre fired simultaneously, touching off the gunfight. Roberts was almost immediately shot in the stomach, a mortal wound, but he managed to keep firing from his Winchester at the Regulators as he headed for the doorway of Blazer’s house. In the process, Middleton was hit in the chest, Frank Coe’s cousin George had his trigger finger blown off, and Doc Scurlock had a graze wound. When Billy the Kid realized Roberts had fired all his bullets, he ran up to kill Roberts, only to be beaten unconscious by the barrel of Roberts’ gun.
Roberts managed to get into the house and barricade himself, now using another rifle that belonged to Blazer to keep shooting. The Regulators, however, were stunned by the carnage that had been inflicted by Roberts. As most of the posse began to care for their own, Brewer moved around the house and started firing into the room in which Roberts was laying down. Seeing the smoke from Brewer’s gun rising behind the log pile Brewer was hiding behind, Roberts waited for Brewer to stick his head out. As soon as Brewer did, Roberts let off a shot that hit Brewer in the eye and tore off much of his head with it.
The Regulators were stunned by the bloodshed and the loss of their leader. Gathering up their wounded, they left Roberts behind, who died a painful death the next day. Ironically, Roberts and Brewer were buried side by side.
The gunfight at Blazer’s Mill only served to further tarnish the image of the Regulators; some felt that Roberts had been ambushed and appreciated how he continued to battle despite his fatal wounds. The Regulators went back to San Patricio to plot their next move. In the spring, a grand jury handed down indictments in the Tunstall murder, as well as indictments in the killings of Brady, his deputy, and Roberts. William H. Bonney was one of the men wanted for the murder of Sheriff Brady and Buckshot Roberts.
George Coe in later years, clearly missing his trigger finger
Chapter 4: The End of the Lincoln County War
With Brewer dead, the Regulators elected Frank McNab, a former cattle detective, as their new leader. Meanwhile, John Copeland was appointed the new sheriff to replace Brady, which was a bit of a stroke of luck for the Regulators since he was friendlier to them than The House. The new sheriff was often seen out in the saloons and gambling halls with the Regulators, never getting around to serving the warrants that he had for their arrest. McSween also returned to town when the embezzlement charges were dismissed.
During this time, the Kid preferred to go to McSween’s house instead of the saloon. On many nights, Mary Early, the preacher’s wife, played the piano in McSween’s parlor, and the Kid liked to go there and sing. Early recalled that the Kid and any of the other Regulators that joined him sang with enthusiasm, “They stood behind me with their guns and belts full of cartridges; I suppose I was off tune as often as on it as I felt very nervous, though they were nice and polite.”
On April 29, 1878, the Seven Rivers Posse, Dolan’s new posse, headed to Lincoln to join up with Dolan’s other men. The group stopped for a break at the Charles Fritz Ranch on the Rio Bonito, about nine miles out of town. The Fritz family passed the word that Frank Coe, McNab, and another of the Regulators, Ab Saunders, would be by that day to get water for their horses. The posse waited and they shot at the Regulators as they passed by on their way to the spring. When it was over, McNab was dead, Saunders was wounded and captured, and Coe’s horse was killed, forcing him to surrender. Coe was taken to Dolan’s store when the posse rode back into town.
When word got back to the Regulators about the new posse, they scattered throughout the town. Another gun battle broke out, allowing Frank Coe to simply walk back to his crew. Sheriff Copland had had enough and finally called out the army for assistance. Buffalo soldiers were sent into Lincoln with orders to arrest anyone involved in the war, resulting in the arrest of 30 men, who were taken back to Fort Stanton. Copland asked that the men be remanded to his custody, but when the men were released to him, he could do nothing other than to order them to stop fighting.
However, neither side was willing to quit yet. By early May 1878, the Regulators had replaced yet another killed leader, this time with Josiah “Doc” Shurlock, who was deputized by Sheriff Copland. Meanwhile, the partnership between Dolan and Riley was also in the process of formally ending. On May 14, a group of Mexican-American and white riders, with Scurlock and Josefita Chavez in the lead, swept into the Seven Rivers area and overtook a camp of Dolan’s men, killing their cook, Manuel “Indian” Segovia. Two of Dolan’s men were also wounded but managed to escape. The Regulators also took a couple dozen of the horses and mules from the camp and set the cattle free.
What the Regulators did not realize was that the cattle and horses did not belong to Dolan and Riley anymore. They were the property of Tom “Boss” Catron, one of the most powerful men in the region, who was not at all pleased about his cattle being scattered into the plains. He sent an angry letter to Governor Axtell insisting that law and order be restored. He also pointed out that the sheriff was friendly with the Regulators. Even though he had no authority to do so, Axtell removed Copland as sheriff and hand-selected George Peppin.
As with any war, both sides spent their last weeks trying to get in as many shots and take
as many casualties as possible before the war inevitably had to end. Such was the case with the Lincoln County War, which continued with a barrage of gunfights and bloodshed into the summer of 1878. Unfortunately for Peppin, Congress had recently passed the Posse Comitatus Act, forbidding military intervention in civil disturbances unless authorized by an act of Congress or the Constitution. However, in violation of the act, Colonel Nathan Dudley intervened in Lincoln County on July 19, bringing with him a howitzer and a Gatling gun with 2,000 rounds of ammunition.
At this point, many of the Regulators left town, while those that remained holed up in McSween’s house. When they refused to surrender, Peppin set the house on fire, and as the fire burned into the night, the Regulators and the McSweens plotted their escapes. McSween finally agreed to surrender, but as he walked toward his yard, his body was hit with several bullets and he was killed. Dolan’s posse had won. As their crowning achievement, they made two of McSween’s grief-stricken men play their fiddles as they cried, while the victorious Dolan crew danced around the dead bodies and fired their guns into the air. Others ran for Lincoln’s only street and looted Tunstall’s store. The war was over, but the corruption continued on.
What remained of the Regulators now used Fort Sumner as their home base. The exact movements of the Kid during this time are not known, but several of the Regulators quit and he became the new leader. With the Kid in the lead, they stole horses and 150 head of cattle from the Fritz ranch, the site of Frank McNab’s murder, and moved on toward the town of Tacosa in the Texas Panhandle. The town was a popular cattle stop and trading center, as well as a good place to unload stolen cattle. Billy’s loyal friend, Tom O’Folliard, was likely with him throughout these times.
It was here that the Kid met a young doctor named Henry Hoyt, who also became a close friend. Hoyt confirmed years later that the Kid was active in horse trading, gambling, and target shooting, but he apparently did not like whiskey. He was only in the saloons so he could gamble. Many times, Hoyt encouraged the Kid to take off for Mexico or South America, where he could blend in and start a fresh life, but the Kid refused. Tacosa suited him well as a temporary stop-off, with its weekly dances and pretty senoritas in festive dresses.
The woman he really loved, though, was Paulita Maxwell, the younger sister of Pete Maxwell in Fort Sumner. Pete was the son of Lucien B. Maxwell, a rich land baron who bought the abandoned military fort and developed it into a town. Pete was not happy about his sister’s relationship with the Kid, and unfortunately for the Kid, he also happened to be friends with Pat Garret, who the Kid would soon come to know all too well.
When the Regulators officially disbanded, the Kid and O’Folliard were regularly seen about town in Fort Sumner. Things had changed since they were in Texas, though. President Rutherford B. Hayes, tired of the chaos in New Mexico, fired Samuel Axtell and appointed Civil War veteran Lew Wallace as governor. Wallace had a controversial Civil War career due to the battle of Shiloh, and he later became best known for the novel Ben-Hur, but now he found himself trying to sort out a mess in the Southwest. One of Wallace’s first actions as governor was to issue a statement that he would grant amnesty to anyone involved in the Lincoln County War, assuming they were not already under criminal indictment. On December 22, 1878, the Kid and O’Folliard turned themselves in for the purpose of getting a proclamation of amnesty from Wallace, but the Kid was facing two murder indictments and was not eligible for amnesty. After a few hours, figuring they might have inadvertently placed themselves in a predicament, the Kid and O’Folliard walked out and fled.
Lew Wallace
It is not exactly clear what made the Kid decide to try and make peace with his enemies, but on February 18, 1879, a year to the day of Tunstall’s murder, the Kid and some of his friends went to Lincoln to meet James Dolan and his men. Upon the Kid’s arrival, Jesse Evans suggested to Dolan and his men that they should shoot the Kid, to which he allegedly responded, ‘’I don’t care to open negotiations with a fight, but if you’ll come at me three at a time, I’ll whip the whole damned bunch of you!’’
Whether or not that’s true, it seemed the famous adversaries eventually reached a truce, and everyone except the Kid sealed the deal with several shots of whiskey. However, the Kid became alarmed when he witnessed the drunken group of men shoot and kill Huston Chapman. The man, who only had one arm, was a successful attorney and had taken Susan McSween’s case in the murder of her husband, making him a sworn enemy of Dolan’s crew. Even though there is nothing to suggest that he was involved, the Kid was now associated with another murder.
Governor Wallace ordered that anyone involved in Chapman’s murder be arrested. On March 13, 1879, he received a letter from the Kid offering information about Chapman’s murder in exchange for amnesty. The governor agreed, but told the Kid that he had to be willing to be part of a “fake arrest.” Wallace said that if the Kid complied, “I will let you go scot free with a pardon in your pockets for all your misdeeds.”2 After ensuring that O’Folliard was part of the deal, the Kid agreed.
Thus, that March Billy the Kid met Governor Wallace in person, allegedly with his revolver in one hand and a Winchester rifle in the other. The deal called for the Kid to stay in the Lincoln County jail for a bit before testifying, and during his short stay, the Kid scrawled on one of the prison’s wooden doors, ‘’William Bonney was incarcerated here first time December 22, 1878; second time March 21st, 1879, and hope I never will be again.” Wallace was baffled when local minstrels serenaded the Kid as he and O’Folliard played cards with their guards, and he described the scene in a letter to Secretary of the Interior Carl Schurz, ‘’A precious specimen named ‘The Kid,’ whom the sheriff is holding here in the Plaza, as it is called, is an object of tender regard. I heard singing and music the other night; going to the door, I found the minstrels of the village actually serenading the fellow in his prison.”
Billy the Kid’s testimony was used to indict John Dolan, but the District Attorney himself was affiliated with The House, and he refused to set the Kid free after his testimony. Eventually, the Kid was put under house arrest in Lincoln in the home of Juan Patron.
Chapter 5: Criminal Indictments against William H. Bonney
Over 200 criminal indictments were filed against 50 men involved in the Lincoln County War. Most had the charges dropped or they just disappeared, but this was not the case for the Kid, who appeared to be the scapegoat that the men who were actually responsible for the war needed. District Attorney William Rynerson, a colleague of James Dolan, had no intention of letting the Kid get away unscathed, and it seems unlikely that Wallace ever intended to honor his deal with the Kid. Wallace later told a reporter that he was not sure why the Kid would expect clemency from him. The Kid would write a letter complaining to Wallace, ‘’I have done everything that I promised you I would and you have done nothing that you promised me.’’ Ultimately, the only man to ever be tried and convicted for crimes committed during the Lincoln County War was none other than William H. Bonney. While this no doubt annoyed the Kid, Dolan and his group’s attempt to paint him as one of the large instigators of the Lincoln County war eventually had the side-effect of making him a legendary frontier outlaw, as the Kid would be credited for much of the war’s violence, even though he personally perpetrated little of it.
The Kid ran away before he could be taken into custody, but once again, rather than disappearing into Mexico, he went to Las Vegas, New Mexico to earn some money at the gaming tables. In early 1880, Billy the Kid would have one of the most famous run-ins of his life. That January, the Kid was at a saloon in Fort Sumner when a Texan named Joe Grant loudly bragged he would kill Billy the Kid if he ever encountered him. According to legend, the Kid asked to see Grant’s gun, and rotated the gun’s cylinders so that the hammer would fall on an empty chamber the first time Grant pulled the trigger. After telling Grant he was the Kid, the drunken Grant fired his revolver, only to have the hammer
fall on an empty chamber. The Kid then responded with a shot to the chin, instantly killing him. The Kid would later famously claim of the Grant shooting, “It was a game for two, and I got there first.”
Other variations of the Grant story have popped up, but all of them involve the Kid making sure the next shot was an empty chamber. In one telling of the story, the Kid’s back was turned, and when he heard the click of the dry fire of the gun, he whirled around and shot the man.
It was also at some point during this time that he posed for a ferrotype photo in Fort Sumner, the only authenticated photo of him that exists.
In November 1880, the handsome and tall Pat Garrett was elected sheriff of Lincoln County. Later that month, Garrett tracked the Kid down at the Greathouse-Kuch ranch and when Jim Carlyle, a blacksmith who was a member of Garrett’s posse, was killed, the Kid was implicated again, although he denied it. The negative publicity against the Kid grew and, for the first time, he was referred to in print at “Billy the Kid,” which only added to his notorious outlaw image. The Kid again reached out to Governor Wallace to insist that the way he was being portrayed was inaccurate, but Wallace not only ignored him, he issued a bounty on his head: $500 for the capture of Billy the Kid.
The Top 5 Most Notorious Outlaws Page 6