Billy the Kid

by Robert M. Utley

  4. Exhibit 14 appended to McSween’s deposition in the Angel Report is a certified copy of an entry of February 20, 1878, in Wilson’s docket book, which says that the warrant based on the larceny charge was issued on February 19. Brady’s request for military protection, February 18, is annexed to Purington to Angel, June 25, 1878, in the Angel Report, NARA.

  5. Deposition of Longwell, Angel Report, NARA. Longwell’s dating is imprecise. My reconstruction of Billy’s whereabouts leaves this as the only day on which the event could have happened.

  6. Deposition of Widenmann, Angel Report, NARA; Widenmann to Purington, February 20 [about 1:00 A.M., according to the deposition], 1878, Angel Report, NARA. U.S. Marshal John Sherman to Colonel Edward Hatch, Santa Fe, December 3,1877; 1st end., Loud to Purington, December 10; 2d end., Purington to Loud, March 14, 1878, RG 393, LR, Hq. District of New Mexico (hereafter DNM), NARA (M1088, roll 30).

  7. The rest of the possemen were Tunstall store clerk Sam Corbet, Lincoln’s black handymen George Washington and George Robinson, Josiah G. Scurlock, Frank McNab, Sam Smith, Ygnacio Gonzalez, Jesús Rodriguez, Esequio Sanchez, Roman Barregon, and one Edwards. Since Brady later charged the Martínez posse with riot, the names appear in court records: Lincoln County, District Court Journal, 1875–79, April 1878 term, pp. 264–91, NMSRCA. They are also named in an affidavit of George W. Peppin, sworn before clerk of the district court, April 18, 1878, Fulton Collection, Box 12, Folder 2, UAL. According to Peppin, the deputies in the store were himself, Longwell, John Long, Charles Martin, and John Clark.

  8. Depositions of Longwell, Martínez (2), Widenmann (2), and Goodwin; affidavit of Wilson, Exhibit 14 to McSween’s deposition; all in Angel Report, NARA. Longwell’s deposition is the most informative, although he dates the episode February 23, which is contradicted by Wilson’s docket book as well as other evidence.

  9. Purington to Acting Assistant Adjutant General (hereafter AAAG) DNM, Fort Stanton, February 21, 1878, encl. to Pope to Assistant Adjutant General (hereafter AAG) Military Division of the Missouri, April 24, 1878, RG 94, Adjutant General’s Office (hereafter AGO) LR (Main Series) 1878–80, File 1405 AGO 1878, NARA (M666 Rolls 397 and 398) (hereafter cited as File 1405 AGO 1878); Purington to Bristol, February 21, 1878, RG 393, Post Records, Fort Stanton, N. Mex., Letters Sent (hereafter LS), vol. 18, 1876–78, NARA.

  10. Deposition of Goodwin, Angel Report, NARA.

  11. Depositions of Goodwin and Widenmann, Angel Report, NARA.

  12. Depositions of Martínez, Widenmann, and McSween, Angel Report, NARA.

  13. Purington to AAAG DNM, February 21, 1878, File 1405 AGO 1878, and Purington to Bristol, same date, RG 393, Post Records, Fort Stanton, N. Mex., LS, vol. 18, 1876–78, NARA. Deposition of Goodwin, and Purington to Angel, June 25, 1878, Angel Report, NARA.

  14. Depositions of Gonzalez and John Newcomb (the fourth member of the group), Angel Report, NARA.

  15. Depositions of McSween and Adolph Barrier, Angel Report, NARA. The bond, with Rynerson’s disapproving endorsement, is Exhibit 15 to McSween’s deposition.

  16. Affidavit of Wilson, August 31, 1878, attesting to entry in his docket book of February 22, 1878, Exhibit 13 to McSween’s deposition, Angel Report, NARA.

  17. The standard authority on vigilantism is Richard Maxwell Brown, Strain of Violence: Historical Studies of American Violence and Vigilantism (New York: Oxford University Press, 1975), pt. 3.

  18. New Mexico Biographical Notes, Mullin Collection, HHC.

  19. Frank Coe, interview with J. Evetts Haley, San Patricio, N. Mex., February 20, 1928, HHC.

  20. New Mexico Biographical Notes, Mullin Collection, HHC.

  21. Details of the chase are given in Morton to H. H. Marshall (Richmond, Va.), South Spring River, March 8,1878, printed in Mesilla Valley Independent, April 13, 1878. The story is told in greater detail in Garrett’s Authentic Life, 54–57. Except for the hyperbole and the effort to place Billy at the center of events, I credit this part of the Authentic Life. Ash Upson was Roswell postmaster. He received Morton’s letter, cited above, and talked with him as well as the Regulators. More than anyone else outside the Regulators, he was in a position to know what happened. He identifies Billy as the Regulator who wanted to kill Morton. Upson’s account tallies well with reports that appeared in the Mesilla Valley Independent, March 16, 1878, and the Weekly New Mexican (Santa Fe), May 4, 1878, the information for which he himself furnished.

  22. Morton to Marshall, as cited in n. 21.

  23. William Chisum, interview with Allen A. Erwin, Los Angeles, 1952, AHS.

  24. Weekly New Mexican (Santa Fe), May 4,1878.

  25. Upson to My Dear Niece, Roswell, March 15, 1878, Fulton Collection, Box 11, Folder 4, UAL.

  26. Dispatch from Roswell, March 10, 1878, almost certainly written by Upson, Mesilla Valley Independent, March 16, 1878; deposition of McSween, Angel Report, NARA. John Middleton recounted this version in his deposition in the Angel Report, NARA.

  27. Depositions of McSween and David P. Shield, Axtell responses to Angel “interrogatories,” and Montague R. Leverson to President Hayes, March 16, 1878, Angel Report, NARA. The proclamation is Exhibit 16 to McSween’s deposition. Widenmann to Ed., March 30, 1878, Cimarron News and Press, April II, 1878. The justice of the peace elected in November 1876 had resigned, and the county commissioners had appointed Wilson, who had been justice in the past, to serve pending another election. Although the appointment was in accord with the 1876 act of the territorial legislature creating county commissions, it contravened the New Mexico organic act, which required justices to be elected and which took precedence. Technically, therefore, Axtell was right. But he himself had sponsored the 1876 law, and his proclamation suggests more of a desire to back Dolan than to uphold the law.

  28. Deposition of McSween, Angel Report, NARA.

  29. Garrett, Authentic Life, 56.

  30. In Garrett, Authentic Life, 55–57, Upson gives a detailed account of this version, derived, he says, from Billy himself and confirmed by “several of his comrades.” In this rendering, McNab killed McCloskey, then all the Regulators pursued the fleeing Morton and Baker, and Billy fired the shots that felled them both. It is possible that Billy told Upson the story, but one must look on this claim with healthy skepticism. At the same time, Upson was close enough to the event to have learned what happened in its essentials, and his report deserves respect.

  Florencio Chavez told J. Evetts Haley that he was one of the Regulators, that Henry Brown killed McCloskey, and that the other two fled and were killed as related by Upson: Florencio Chavez, interview with J. Evetts Haley, Lincoln, N. Mex., August 15, 1927, HHC. Upson, in the account in the Weekly New Mexican (Santa Fe), May 4,1878, says the bodies bore eleven wounds, one for each Regulator. (He saw the bodies brought into Roswell, according to his letter to his niece cited in n. 25.) Morton, in his letter to Marshall of March 8 (cited in n. 21), names ten Regulators: Brewer, Scurlock, Bonney, Bowdre, Waite, Middleton, Brown, McNab, French, and Smith. The eleventh, if there was an eleventh, could have been Chavez. Given the attitudes of the time and place, a Hispanic among the Regulators might not have registered on Morton or might not have been known to him by name.

  Although not claiming to have been present, Francisco Trujillo knew what was going on and talked with Billy in San Patricio immediately afterward. Trujillo’s version also has McCloskey killed first and the other two then executed. Francisco Trujillo, interview with Edith L. Crawford, San Patricio, N. Mex., May 10, 1937, WPA Files, Folder 212, NMSRCA.

  31. New Mexico State Tribune (Albuquerque), July 27, 1928.

  6. THE ASSASSIN

  1. A biography is Donald R. Lavash, William Brady: Tragic Hero of the Lincoln County War (Santa Fe: Sunstone Press, 1987). For his military record, see his enlistment papers, RG 94, Appointments, Commissions, Promotions (ACP) File, NARA, and the pension application of Bonafacia Brady, 555976, August 28, 1892, NARA.

  2. Garrett, Authentic Life, 60–61.


  3. Of all the participants in that meeting, only Francisco Trujillo left an account: interview with Edith Crawford, San Patricio, N. Mex., May 10, 1937, WPA Files, Folder 212, NMSRCA. The account is chronologically confused and somewhat incoherent, but it unmistakably credits McSween with offering a reward for Brady’s slaying.

  As I indicated in chapter 3, n. 27, certain portions of Trujillo’s account ring true and where susceptible to cross-checking are generally supported in other sources. One reminiscent account fifty-nine years after the fact is pretty thin evidence on which to base such a major allegation, however, and so the question must remain open. My own feeling is that McSween at least implied, seriously or not, that Brady’s demise would be welcome, and that the assassins believed they were doing what McSween wanted and, possibly, would pay for.

  4. Deposition of McSween, Angel Report, NARA; Montague Leverson to President Hayes, Lincoln, April 2, 1878, in Frederick W. Nolan, ed., The Life and Death of John Henry Tunstall (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1965), 308–10.

  5. Deposition of McSween, Angel Report, NARA.

  6. Taylor F. Ealy, “The Lincoln County War As I Saw It,” MS, c. 1927, Ealy Collection, UAL. There are three versions, each differing slightly from the others. All three, therefore, should be consulted. Portions of the Ealy papers have been published: Norman J. Bender, ed., Missionaries, Outlaws, and Indians: Taylor F. Ealy at Lincoln and Zuni, 1878–1881 (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1984).

  7. Deposition of McSween, Angel Report, NARA; Ealy, “Lincoln County War.” Brady’s purpose in walking down the street draws no less than three explanations, and there is dispute over whether he was walking east or west.

  In addition to my explanation, which represents my reading of the evidence, another is that, as a ruse to draw Brady into the trap, Henry Brown staged a drunken disturbance near the Ellis store on the east edge of town (George Coe, interview with J. Evetts Haley, Glencoe, N. Mex., March 20, 1927, HHC; and Juan Peppin, interview with Maurice G. Fulton, c. 1930, Mullin Collection, HHC). Reverend Ealy’s explanation, representing the McSween point of view, was that Brady was on the way to the east end of town to intercept McSween, known to be coming in for court, seize him and throw him in the cellar jail (Ealy, “Lincoln County War”).

  Brady’s biographer believes that Brady, coming in from his home east of town, had arranged to meet his deputies at the courthouse, proceed to the Tunstall store to await the arrival of McSween, and there arrest him and once more invoke the writ of attachment. Thus he has the Brady party, not having been at the Dolan store at all that morning, proceeding west on the street (Lavash, Sheriff William Brady, 105–6). Fulton also has Brady walking west, having reached the courthouse and begun the return to the Dolan store (Maurice G. Fulton, History of the Lincoln County War, ed. Robert N. Mullin [Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1968], 158–59). Fulton cites no authority. Lavash’s authority is Brady’s grandson, who is thus reflecting family tradition. Ealy, of course, saw the party walking east, but this is not inconsistent with its reaching the courthouse and starting back before the killings. The son of George Peppin, Juan ran to the scene immediately after hearing the firing.

  The relationship of the wall and the east face of the store is another reason for believing that Brady was headed west. Walking east, the victims could not be seen until they were opposite the killers; walking west, they could be tracked for some distance before reaching the store.

  8. Frank Coe, interview with J. Evetts Haley, San Patricio, N. Mex., March 20, 1927, HHC.

  The original writ of attachment has survived: Lincoln County, District Court, Civil Case no. 141, NMSRCA. The writ bears a notation that it was retrieved from the body of Sheriff Brady. The arrest warrant must have been there too, for Deputy Peppin tried to serve it on McSween later in the day.

  The basic facts of the Brady killing are set forth in the Mesilla Valley Independent, April 13 and 27 and May 4,1878, and in the Weekly New Mexican (Santa Fe), May 4, 1878. Reminiscent accounts are Robert Brady (the sheriff’s young son), interview with Edith L. Crawford, Carrizozo, N. Mex., c. 1937; Gorgonio Wilson (son of Justice Wilson), interview with Edith L. Crawford, Roswell, N. Mex., 1938; and Carlota Baca Brent (daughter of Saturnino Baca), interview with Frances E. Totty, December 6, 1937; all in WPA Files, Folder 212, NMSRCA. These also appear in Robert F. Kadlec, ed., They “Knew” Billy the Kid: Interviews with Old-Time New Mexicans (Santa Fe: Ancient City Press, 1987). See also Ealy, “Lincoln County War.”

  9. Carlota Baca Brent, December 6,1937, NMSRCA.

  10. Ealy, “Lincoln County War.” Most accounts identify Billy’s companion in the bolt to Brady’s body as Fred Waite and the man treated by Ealy as Billy himself. In the passage here quoted, Ealy does not name the man he treated. But in another of his three versions of this manuscript he does name French. In addition, Mary Ealy later declared that French “was pretty badly wounded and the Dr. dressed his wounds.” Mary R. Ealy to Maurice G. Fulton, January 16, 1928, Fulton Collection, Box 1, Folder 8, UAL. Frank Coe agrees: “Someone—Mathews said he did it—shot the Kid just above the hip, and the same bullet went through French’s leg. Kid and his crowd rode out of town, but French could not run.” Frank Coe, March 20, 1927, HHC.

  11. Ealy, “Lincoln County War.”

  12. Ibid. Frank Coe says Corbet put French and the two pistols in the basement of the Tunstall store and dragged a carpet over the trapdoor. Frank Coe, March 20, 1927, HHC. The Tunstall store did not have a cellar either, but it had enough space between floor and ground for French to have hidden. Since Corbet had clerked in the Tunstall store and knew it well, and since the search centered on the McSween house, I favor the store.

  13. The events of the afternoon of April 1 are treated in more detail in Robert M. Utley, High Noon in Lincoln: Violence on the Western Frontier (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1987), 62–63 and notes.

  14. Frank Coe, March 20, 1927, HHC. Waite was indicted for the murder of Hindman. The original indictment, badly water stained, is in the Research Files, Mullin Collection, HHC, and was probably among documents that Mullin retrieved from a trash barrel in Lincoln in 1914. The indictment lists seven witnesses to Hindman’s slaying by Waite: Rob Widenmann, Isaac Ellis, Saturnino Baca, Bonifacio Baca, J. B. Mathews, Ike Stockton, and once again the elusive McCormick.

  15. Gene Rhodes to Maurice G. Fulton, Santa Fe, May 12, 1927, Fulton Collection, Box 4, Folder 3, UAL.

  7. THE SHOOTOUT

  1. Much that is known about the events of this day, and some that is erroneous, comes from Almer Blazer and Paul Blazer, son and grandson respectively of Dr. Joseph H. Blazer, proprietor of the sawmill and gristmill. Almer was a boy of thirteen in 1878, and Paul was born twelve years later. Almer’s account appeared in the Alamogordo News, July 16, 1928, and was reprinted as “The Fight at Blazer’s Mill in New Mexico,” Frontier Times 16 (August 1939): 461–66. Paul’s account is “The Fight at Blazer’s Mill: A Chapter in the Lincoln County War,” Arizona and the West 6 (Autumn 1964): 203–10. Almer also gave important details in letters to Maurice G. Fulton, Mescalero, N. Mex., April 24, 1931, and August 27, 1937, Fulton Collection, Box 1, Folder 7, UAL. The Blazers’ explanation for Roberts’s presence at South Fork is much more persuasive than the story embraced by the Coe cousins and other McSween adherents. According to the latter group’s version, the Lincoln County commissioners had posted a reward of either one or two hundred dollars a head for each Regulator, and Roberts had appointed himself a bounty hunter to collect the prize by killing as many as he could. Given the destitute state of the county treasury and the paralysis of the county government, such a reward seems highly unlikely. I have seen no contemporary documentation for it and doubt that any exists. Nor does it make much sense. The Regulators were not widely enough perceived as outlaws to prompt the county commission to put a price on their heads.

  That Roberts was employed by Dolan at the South Fork branch store is testified to by Mathews in his dep
osition for the Angel Report, NARA.

  An excellent synthesis of the evidence is Colin Rickards, The Gunfight at Blazer’s Mill, Southwestern Studies Monograph No. 40 (El Paso: Texas Western Press, 1974).

  2. George W. Coe, Frontier Fighter: The Autobiography of George W. Coe, as related to Nan Hillary Harrison, Lakeside Classics ed., ed. Doyce B. Nunis, Jr. (Chicago: R. R. Donnelley and Co., 1984), 90; Frank Coe in Walter Noble Burns, The Saga of Billy the Kid (New York: Grosset and Dunlap, 1926), 95–100. Burns’s book, so influential in advancing the Kid legend, will not often be cited in these pages as a source. However, Frank Coe’s account to Burns, reproduced verbatim, is detailed and generally supported in other sources. See also Frank Coe, interview with J. Evetts Haley, San Patricio, N. Mex., March 20, 1927, HHC, for another good Coe reminiscence. Still another account by Frank Coe appeared in the New Mexico State Tribune (Albuquerque), July 23, 1928. The Mesilla Valley Independent, April 13, 1878, reported that the Regulators were at Blazer’s Mills searching for Roberts. For the ambush plot, see Murphy to CO Fort Stanton, Lincoln, April 4,1878, and Lt. Col. Nathan A. M. Dudley to Judge Warren Bristol, Fort Stanton, April 5, 1878, Exhibits 77–3 and 77–4, Records Relating to the Dudley Inquiry (QQ 1284), RG 153, Judge Advocate General’s Office, NARA (hereafter cited as Dudley Court Record). See also Mesilla Valley Independent, April 13, 1878. Colonel Dudley assumed command of Fort Stanton, superseding Captain Purington, on April 4.