Billy the Kid: An Autobiography

by Edwards, Daniel A.

  Now why would a common trooper, a private from M troop, present the “Bronc Buster” statue to Roosevelt? Some could argue that it was merely due to him being considered “one of the most eloquent men in the West” and not that he had anything to do with handling horses but this is not the case. According to Vorpahl he didn’t say much of anything which doesn’t exactly resonate with what one would expect the “most eloquent man in the west” to say. Even Marshal says that Murphy prepared an “elaborate” speech but ended up not being able to speak it and, he says, no one would have heard it if he did. In the end this attribute of eloquence given to Murphy seems to be simply an attempt to fill in the gaps to make a better story than an actual characteristic of the man.

  Marshal’s book also states: “Just before the regiment departed for the concentration camp at Tampa, the gathering and shipping of the livestock afforded much pleasure and instruction to the men. That any of the men who entered the corrals lived to go afterwards to Cuba was not the fault of the merry mustangs who plunged therein. "Judge" Murphy was the sergeant of the guard. His heart had been broken by the work of getting the horses out. He had been at it for twenty hours, and war seemed cruel to him. That was when he learned to love Captain Capron. He was between two plunging brutes in the middle of the corral, finding it difficult to keep awake, even in such distressing circumstances. Captain Capron, long and big, climbed over the surrounding fence and said: "Go up and go to sleep on one of those boxes. I'll do your work for you. I don't want to kill my men — yet."

  Clearly then, Murphy had been working at the job of getting horses mustered out for more than 24 hours at a time at one point. This speaks to someone who is active in mustering them out for the whole regiment and obviously not just for his own use. This would seem to fit the narrative that, if he and Brushy were one and the same, that he was talented and active in the handling of horses.

  What does not seem to fit at first glance, however, is the chronology of how Brushy explains his rise to being in charge of the horses. Brushy stated that he was at first a scout and then rose to head bronc buster. How then would he be handling horses prior to shipping out to Cuba? Under closer inspection his statements are found to not be necessarily mutually exclusive of each other. Anyone who has been involved in large scale logistics knows that they are constantly evolving situations. It is very reasonable to think that while in camp Brushy could have been utilized to help handle horses and then once on the ground in Cuba he was assigned to be a scout.

  Later, when a need arose for someone to handle the horses, he could have been remembered and assigned to bronco busting. This would explain why, if he was one of the few scouts that was able to avoid getting killed on his missions as he claimed, that they would be willing to donate him to the horse breaking effort. His skill had already been demonstrated. It therefore makes logical sense that all of the above is true. Brushy assisted with other duties, including mustering out the horses in camp, before he became a scout. He then later returned to working with horses, eventually rising to be in charge of the effort. This would also explain why this lowly private, who was the head of the bronc busting effort, would be the one to present Remington’s “Bronc Buster” statue to Roosevelt.

  Unfortunately there are not any individual photos attributed to be of William S. Murphy but in Theodore Roosevelt’s 1899 book: “THE ROUGH RIDERS” there is a group photo of “Five Bronc Busters” and one of these men, the man 4th from the left, looks surprisingly like Brushy.

  “FIVE BRONC BUSTERS” – Note “arrow straight” posture with sloped shoulders, mustache, tilted head, long fingers, and other features of the rider fourth from the left, a close match to Brushy Bill Roberts.

  The presence of this photo provides opportunity to conduct analysis verses known photos of not just William Henry Roberts but to the tintype of Billy the Kid as well. After all, both are full body shots of the men. Upon close examination, there is in fact a match in body type, posture, tilt of the head, arm length, foot placement and facial structure. Even though the tintype would have been taken when Billy was just over twenty years old and the bronc buster photo when he was thirty nine years old they are remarkably similar.

  It is a known fact that human beings maintain certain habits and tendencies their entire life and sometimes even pass these traits down from generation to generation. Each of these (i.e. posture, head tilt) are helpful in identifying the Rough Rider as Billy the Kid.

  A COMPARISON OF BILLY THE KID WITH ROOSEVELT’S ROUGH RIDER BRONC BUSTER

  As you can see when scaled correctly (heels on the ground) the two are exactly the same height and similar dimensions, although the Rough Rider looks to have slightly more muscle on him than the Kid which would make sense since he would have been a full grown man by this time. The apparent discrepancy in the length of his right arm is explained by the younger Billy’s arm resting behind his pistol.

  An even more obvious comparison results from looking at photos of Brushy versus a close up of the Trooper in the photo.

  The Trooper in the photo appears to be frowning and tilting his head to the left. His facial profile is also slightly turned to the left which somewhat distorts his profile. What is clear, however, is that his high cheekbones, chin, nose, close set eyes, mustache, eyebrows and what is shown of his hairline are a match with Brushy Bill. His piercing, angry glare may show the other side of the smiling, joking aspect of the Kid’s personality that everyone has heard about.

  It is interesting that in the photo of the five bronc busters the other men are standing a bit apart from Brushy. The three on the left stand very close together to each other (but apart from him) and the one on the end on the right also maintain a respectable distance despite Brushy being in the middle. Could this be fear, or could it be respect? No one really knows but again this seems to support Brushy’s claim that men in the company knew who he was and respected, or feared, his ability.

  Another claim of William Henry Roberts that is easily verifiable by history was that he had said that he enlisted in the Rough Riders in Muskogee, OK and then transferred to San Antonio Texas. M Troop just happened to be one of the Indian Territory troops, including the Oklahomans which sure enough were sent to be briefly trained in San Antonio, Texas. Brushy claimed that they were trained in San Antonio for three weeks and according to records the troops stayed in San Antonio exactly 19 days or the almost exactly three weeks, exactly as Brushy claimed.

  Brushy then says he went through Mobile, AL on his way to Cuba as part of the rough riders. As it so happens, The Encyclopedia of the Spanish-American and Philippine-American Wars, Volume 1 edited by Spencer Tucker says on p. 94 that there were three main embarkation points in the Eastern US; Tampa, FL, Mobile, AL and New Orleans, LA. In addition, many of the troops would travel by train from Mobile and New Orleans to Tampa and then depart from there.

  But there is additional support for Brushy’s story in Hall’s book. Brushy mentioned that during his period as a Rough Rider that some of the officers were shot in the back and that their own enlisted men were suspected. He states that an inquiry was held but charges dismissed. Hall, too, mentions a similar incident in his book, he states “In fact one officer came back from his troop to protest that some other troop of "ours" was firing on his from the rear. It was explained to him that there was no troop which could fire on him from the rear as all were at that time on the line.”

  Hall goes on to say that the shooting was later attributed to guerilla snipers and not to the other Rough Riders. This simple statement from Hall’s first-hand account dovetails perfectly with the comments of Roberts. Clearly there were officers during the Rough Rider campaign that suspected their own soldiers of firing at them from the rear. Given their resentment of Brushy’s status as the horse handler, his notorious reputation, and the jealousy and friction between he and some officers it would make sense that he would have been a prime suspect in this incident. It would further make sense that he would be cleared because there wer
e other officers, Hall included, that held the position that the firing was from the enemy and not their own men.

  What is interesting is that Brushy links this incident to the fact that he received a “bobtailed” discharge but what is more likely is that it was a result of jealousy for him, being a private, having the opportunity to participate in the prestigious activities he participated in. A “bobtailed” discharge is a type of discharge that is an act of spite by the discharging officer. It occurs when the bottom portion of the discharge certificate, the portion that provides information on the soldier’s character, is cut off making it appear that he was dishonorably discharged and the soldier cut it off to hide the fact. In the case of Brushy Bill this would make total sense. Brushy had earned an honorable discharge but the discharging officer apparently could not stand to show him that respect, so he cut off the paper above the character line.

  Clearly someone who received a dishonorable discharge would not be permitted to present the enlisted men’s gift to Colonel Roosevelt. However, if in fact Brushy was held in high regard by the men but was held in contempt by certain jealous and spiteful officers, it would make sense that they would take one final petty jab at the lowly private to show their contempt…one that could easily be defended as a cutting mistake if they were ever to be called on it.

  The bottom line is that every new piece of evidence that is discovered over time supports Brushy's story rather than detracts from it. Whether he used his real name of William Henry Roberts or the alias William S Murphy the fact remains that he knew numerous detailed insights into the history and activities of the Rough Riders, information that was only known by those who participated firsthand at the time.

  Following the Rough Riders Brushy says he returned to his ranch in Old Mexico. He states “In June, 1899, Old Diaz seized everything. They would not let us ship or drive our cattle out of there. They sent soldiers down to drive our stuff off. We asked for thirty days grace. We thought we might get some help from the U. S. If not, we could get some ammunition.

  "About fifty soldiers came there to round up our cattle and horses. We sent an interpreter down to talk to them. They said it was Diaz' orders. We had thirty-six cowboys. We fired into them with .3o-3o rifles and picked them off like blackbirds. The fourth morning when we got up, we were surrounded by almost two thousand soldiers. I climbed up on the barn and tacked up a red blanket.”

  "Each man packed his horse like he was going off for a ride. We agreed to fire into them in the weakest spot, then make our getaway if we could. We fought for twelve days, living on wild game and trying to escape into the U. S. On the thirteenth morning we crossed the Rio Grande below Del Rio. I had a cousin there on the Ranger force. He helped us with food. I was supposed to be worth about thirty thousand dollars, but came out with one horse and saddle.”

  “In the spring of 1902, I started a Wild West show which I operated until 1904. Then I went to Canton, in Van Zandt County. From Canton I went into Indian Territory, trading horses and cattle.”

  It is important to remember here that Brushy stated that during this period he primarily used the alias “TEXAS KID” and was recognized by that name by one of the Rough Rider officers. This alias was a familiar one to Brushy and the one by which he had been known since he was a young boy, during his time with Belle Starr and from time to time throughout his adult life. He had used many aliases off and on from his birth but claimed he went back to using the name “Texas Kid” during the period from roughly 1892 until 1900 or so. It would seem then that if such a personality like Billy the Kid were to use an alias that there should be some contemporary record of a man by that name.

  Fortunately, like many of Brushy’s other claims, contemporary records do exist of a man in New Mexico going by the moniker of the “Texas Kid” during the period William Roberts claimed he was known by that name.

  The following article was published in the Fort Worth Gazette on April 21, 1895 and was titled “Bad Men with Records”. After describing several other notable “bad men” the writer comes to the “Texas Kid”. Below is the remainder of his article in its entirety.

  TEXAS KID WAS A COOL ONE

  “….From the beginning to the end Dan Scott was a type of the man who, twenty years ago, was handy with a gun. In later times the man called “The Texas Kid” was another. True, he was not so cowardly, and he was far more interesting. But he was not a chivalric gentleman, nor a model of Christian forbearance. Furthermore, he was not handsome. But that is another matter.

  In Albuquerque, New Mexico, one day, at a horse auction, a newspaper man named Rhoades, who was visiting a rancher friend in the vicinity, felt himself severely jostled in the crowd, and the next moment his hat was knocked off. As soon as he could free himself he turned about, and saw a youngish, towheaded fellow, who albino eyes seemed hopelessly weak under the glaring sunlight and who was laughing at him. It was clear that he had knocked off the hat.

  Rhoades approached him in a temper of either peace or war, and asked urbanely if the act was intentional. “Not at all,” said the insignificant youth, still laughing. And there was the end of their quarrel.

  Late that afternoon Rhoades was standing by his mustang, ready to start home, when a commotion in the saloon across the street aroused him.

  A man came running out crying: “Texas Kid has killed Johnny Summers!”

  And behind him strolled, very deliberately, that same weak-eyed young man who commanded the alarmist to make less noise, accenting his wishes by shooting the herald in the leg.

  There was another answering shot from across the street. The city marshal was on hand. In a very prompt and orderly manner the Texas Kid disabled the marshal’s pistol arm, and then pulled down the rim of his hat, for the light was troubling him.

  Then the crowd came from the saloon, some shooting, some declaring they would shoot and all very much excited. The Kid sheltered himself between a wagon and dispersed them, paying occasional attention to gentlemen in the flank and rear who were annoying him.

  But he seemed to catch some hint of a rising unpopularity, and so turned and trotted—not too hastily—across the street. He had a pistol in each hand and Rhoades tried to get out of his way.

  “I want to borrow your pony,” said the Kid, and taking two or three running steps he leaped into the saddle and ambled awkwardly away. There was a posse out after him in no time, and how he ever managed to escape was more than Rhoades could understand. One cinch strap was still unfastened, and they found a saddle blanket about a mile from town. If he had been a prudent man he might have had most of New Mexico and Arizona for a habitat, but he was not.

  “He filled up on unripe whisky at Deming, was arrested and brought back to Albuquerque for trial. There he escaped, and appearing at the ranch of Rhoade’s friend, asked for shelter. The farmer had small choice, and he took it. In the morning the Kid gave him $40, and told him to go to town and buy two good revolvers, and a quantity of cartridges, centre fire and long.

  When the rancher came back he found the Kid examining with much interest the somewhat damaged works of a Waltham watch. “What have you been doing?” demanded the host. “A man never knows when he will need the mainspring of a watch.” Replied his guest, removing his left boot and pointing out where he had bestowed that flexible wand of steel, round and round the leg, beneath the lining. The heavy gold case he had hung back on the nail where he had found it, for he was an honest man.

  They ran him out of Texarkana in an attempt to capture him, but he stole a saddle horse of a contractor along the railroad and went gaily into Las Vegas, where he consorted with a woman of the town—to his undoing; for they took his weapons away and imprisoned him. He lay there for two weeks, resting and writing poetry for the Vegas Herald, and then one night he sawed his way to liberty with his mainspring, took his revolver from the sheriff’s office, and a couple of horses from a livery stable, whose title was in litigation, and was next seen in Trinidad, far away from danger.

  How
many men he had shot, more or less seriously, or dangerously, rather—he never did anything serious in his life—I do not know. In that Bradstreet of blood, current on the border, I have heard him quoted variously at from five to twenty-five, but the exact number was something he probably could not have told himself.

  And whether he is dead, or whether he still troubles those sunlit plains—I do not know. I only know that the Texas Kid is a man of note in the country.”

  This article contains a number of interesting references that match what is known about Billy the Kid. For one, the youth described has a very strange personality that combines humor and cockiness along with humility, morals, and a deadly cool demeanor in combat. These are strange combinations in the measure that are ascribed to both Billy and the “Texas Kid”. On the one hand he is deferential and polite, almost clumsy and “tow-headed” (which, among other meanings, can refer to “tousled” hair and not necessarily “blonde” hair) but on the other hand he is a stone cold blooded killer that keeps his head when greatly outnumbered by the townspeople bent on ending his life.

  The article also references the Texas Kid’s “albino” eyes. It is well known that Billy had clear blue eyes as a prominent feature. Eyes, by the way, that exactly match those of Brushy Bill Roberts down to the “little brown specs in them”. Whether the story teller in the article meant “clear blue” by “albino” is debatable but certainly the Texas Kid shared notable eyes as a feature just like Billy the Kid.

  PHOTO OF BILLY THE KID provided by the Jones Family. Could these be the “Albino Eyes” of the Texas Kid?

  Apparently the Texas Kid had his own sense of fairness also and was not a thief to rob a man’s pony without cause. Clearly Billy the Kid stole many cattle, but according to Roberts it was only to get what was coming to him or to make a living instead of starving when times were lean. He did not steal for fun or without cause.