| Billy The Kid Joins A Gang |
| Wanted for murder Billy headed back to New Mexico, winding up at Silver City where He hooked up with Jesse Evans� the head of an Outlaw gang calling themselves The Boys. Evans had a pretty well organized operation and was stealing his fair share of cattle and selling them to anyone who didn't ask questions. The local law did not want to tangle with this bunch of rustlers so they pretty much had their way, until the editor of the local paper started putting� pressure on the law to arrest them. �� Evans was beginning to feel the heat so he decided to move on and headed for Lincoln County about a 150 miles away. Shortly after arriving the Evans became allies with the� L.G. Murphy & Dolan Company, a cattle operation that was a powerful force in Lincoln County and� had close ties with the Governor and local� Sheriff William Brady. ��� � An Englishman� by the name of John Tunstill� with the backing of a wealthy Father in England was making his present known in the area and this was not going over easy with Dolan. Both men wanted to control everything that went on in Lincoln County and was willing to fight to do so. Tunstill a newcomer to the West had taking on attorney Alex McSween as a partner and together they started their own ranch and town store. This� became a thorn in Dolan�s side. and was beginning to cause problems for� Dolan & Company which was a bad mistake Tunstill would soon find out. � � Dolan was getting frustrated. He was having financial problems and on the verge of� bankruptcy, and was doing everything in his power to get rid of John Tunstall but with little success. Tunstill was stubborn and would not simply move on. Finally Dolan persuaded sheriff Brady to arrest McSween on phony embezzlement charges. Tunstall struck back by writing an editorial about Sheriff Brady stealing collected tax money in the local paper. Things were about to come to a head. �� Billy who was sometimes riding with the Boys was arrested for stealing one of Tunstill's horses, (Possibly for Dolan) and was jailed. Tunstill saw this as an opportunity and talked the Kid into quitting the Boys and going to work for him. In exchange Tunstall would drop all charges against the him. (Some say that Tunstall wanted Billy for his gun skills, but at that time the kid really had no reputation as a gunfighter) � Billy saw an opportunity and was released, going to work for Tunstill where he seemed to fit in. For the first time in Billy's life he had a job earning an honest living and was well liked by the other cowhands that worked for Tunstill. �� On� the morning of February 18, 1878, Deputy Bill Matthew's and a posse made up mostly of members of the Boys gang, went to Tunstall�s ranch to serve papers in the case of McSween who was now free on bail. The posse was going to confiscate some of Tunstall's cattle that was said to be stolen. Tunstall allowed them to take the cattle, but not the horses that were with them. Tunstall and a handfull of his men cut the horses out and started off with them. Deputy Matthew's later chanced his mind and decided to take the horses also and had half the men go after Tunstall. Bill Morton, Jesse Evans, Tom Hill, Frank Baker, George Hindmann and several more caught up with Tunstall and came charging in killing Tunstill in cold blood. Some say Billy was riding drag and could not get there in time to help, but its not known where Billy actually was at the time. If he was riding drag he should have been pretty close with only a few animals in the snall herd. �� The following day The Kid and Dick Brewer who was with Tunstill when he was murdered went to the Justice of the Peace and signed affidavits concerning the murder. A warrant was issued for the arrest of the guilty men, The Kid and Fred Waite were deputized and along with the Constable went to arrest the guilty party who were at Dolan's store. When the Constable and his two deputy's arrived at the store, Sheriff Brady was there and refused to let the Boy's be arrested. � Two days later Fred Waite, The Kid and Brewer formed a group called the Regulators and all hell broke loose in Lincoln County. Frank Baker and Bill Morton were the first killed by the Regulators, followed by William McCloskey who was a friend of Morton and Baker and then Sheriff Brady and his deputy George Hindman were ambushed and killed. A few days later one of the Boys called Buckshot Roberts was shot and killed but not before He killed Dick Brewer. Out of these six men it will never be clear how many if any that Billy actually killed. Murphy and Dolan turned to Colonel Dudley and the troops at Fort Stanton For help and it was just a matter of time before the army had the Regulators surrounded at Alex McSween's home in Lincoln, but about 9:00 that night the Regulators made a run for it with guns blasting. Being out gunned and surrounded they lost five men that night including Alex McSween with several more being wounded but able to escape. Billy was not hurt during the gunfight, but was blamed for everything that happened. �� After the shoot out at Lincoln, Billy and what was left of the Regulators visited quite a few places and were involved in a couple of minor altercations but mainly laying low and stealing a few horses ever once in awhile then selling them in Texas. �� February 18, 1879 Billy is back in Lincoln County and is trying to make peace with� Dolan and Evans. A truce is reached� but later on that night Attorney Huston Chapman is shot and killed by�Bill Campbell� one of� Dolan's men, while Billy looks on. Billy knew that this was big trouble so he hit the trail. . |
| The Govenor Comes To Lincoln The new Governor of New Mexico, Lew Wallace upon hearing of the cold bloodied killing of Chapmen decides if the local lawmen couldn't do any thing about all the killing's that He would. Arriving in Lincoln he finds out that Billy was� a witness to the killing and puts out the word that he wanted his testimony, and upon conviction of Chapman's killers� would give Billy a pardon. Billy saw this as a golden opportunity an agreed, even though he knew that any member of the Dolan gang would now kill him on sight. �� The plan was for the Kid to surrender in Lincoln where he would testify, then be tried and if convicted, the governor would step in and pardon him. Billy did as he was told but when it came time for his trial the prosecutor got the trial moved to Dona Ana County, where it was likely that Billy would be convicted, and if that wasn't bad enough the Governor was having second thoughts about the pardon. ( "He didn't need Billy anymore") Billy was in trouble, the Dolan gang was after him and he was to be tried and surely convicted then hung. The guards that were watching Billy were sympathetic and let him virtually walk out and leave. �� Billy went back to his old ways of stealing a few cattle and just drifting around. January 10, 1880, found Billy back in Fort Sumner where he was in a gunfight with Joe Grant another town bully who was looking for trouble and found it when he drew on Billy. Grant was killed in a fair fight but Billy was still wanted and couldn't hang around. �� The Kid was around� nineteen now and would try to square� himself with the law one last time. He wrote a letter to attorney Ira Leonard wanting to meet him in White Oaks to see if he could help to get the pardon the governor had promised him earlier. Upon arriving in White Oaks Billy found out that the attorney was not there, but was in Lincoln. Billy and his gang headed out for Lincoln, after stealing a few supplies, with a posse headed by James Carlyle on there tail �� That night Billy and his friends made camp and settled down for the night when gunfire erupted, Carlyle had slipped up on there camp and opened fire without warning. Billy and his friends somehow escaped unharmed but it wasn't over. Four days later Carlyle was to catch up with Billy again at the house of Jim Greathouse, were a furious� gun battle erupted that left Carlyle dead and the posse hightailing it back to White Oaks with there tails tucked between there legs. As soon as the coast was clear Billy� and his men saddled up and headed out again, this time back to Fort Sumner where they would get supplies and leave New Mexico for good. Seems there was a new Sheriff in Lincoln by the name of Pat Garrett and it was said that he wanted Billy. |
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| The Chase December 18, 1880, Pat Garrett the new elected sheriff� had word that Billy and his gang were at Fort Sumner, but when he arrived, they were not there, but hiding out at a ranch owned by Tom Wilcox and Manuel Brazil. Garrett decided to wait for Billy knowing that it was just a matter of time before he would come riding in. �� On a cold winter night Billy and his gang saddled up and headed for Fort Sumner. Billy had received a message that Garrett had left town earlier.( Some say that Garrett sent the message. ) Thinking everything was ok Billy and his men rode right to Garrett who was waiting. Garrett with his shoot now and ask questions later attitude, opened fire as� as the men rode into town, killing David Rudbaugh, thinking� it was Billy. The Kid and the remaining outlaws lit a shuck and hightailed it out of town unhurt. � Billy and his men out maneuvered Garrett for a while, but on the third day Garrett slipped up on them hiding out in an old abandoned house at Stinking Springs. Waiting for Billy to come out with full intentions of killing him the door opened and again without warning� Garrett, thinking� it was Billy opened fire, this time killing Billy's friend Charlie Browdre. Billy and his men were caught, they held out� for most part of the day but when they saw that it was useless they surrendered. |
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| The Trial Billy was Taken to Mesilla where he was tried on March 30th Before Judge Bristol� for the murder of Buckshot Roberts He was represented by the court appointed attorney Ira Leonard, whom Billy had tried to hire earlier. Leonard was able to get the Robert's case thrown out on a technicality, but Billy still had to face the charges� of the Brady killing. �� The following day Billy was tried for killing sheriff William Brady. Judge Bristol for some reason replaced Billy's attorney and� turned the case over to two lawyers who had no sympathy for Billy. Why He did this we will never know. The trial was a hoax as for as most people were concerned, but proceeded anyway. � On April 13th. the jury found Billy guilty and Judge Bristol sentenced him to be carried back to Lincoln where on May 13th. he would be hanged. Billy not� one to give up easy wrote several letters trying to get someone to appeal the case but without any money no one would represent him. April 21, Billy is back in Lincoln� being held� in jail under guard 24 hours a day by Bob Olinger and James Bell waiting to be hung.� On to Billy Escapes............ |
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