Meadows then told Haley of two black men from Tularosa who had been traveling behind the Garrett party and were also headed for Las Cruces. The photographs in this dossier show an unbroken timeline in the life of the person documented below. For starters, Billy the Kid’s name wasn’t Billy and he wasn’t born in the western United States. His life is such a mystery no one can even agree if he was born a McCarthy … Some of what he knew about the Garrett murder came from sources independent of the rumor mill in Las Cruces. Dr. Field’s stated opinion was that Pat had been killed in cold blood—murder in the first degree. Some versions of the story state James P. Miller never attended any of the meetings with Garrett. Lobdill thanks the late Cal Traylor (onetime president of the Doña Ana Historical Society and Friends of Pat Garrett), Frank H. Parrish, Bob Gamboa and Becky Campbell for consultations on Garrett’s murder. Governor Curry agreed, and though there were no funds to launch a deeper investigation, he told Hervey and Fornoff to do what they could. Lady Nancy Astor (Nancy Witcher Langhorne), the first woman to sit in the British House of Commons. Adamson’s presence was risky enough. John P. Meadows was living in Tularosa, Otero County, about 80 miles northeast of Las Cruces, when Garrett was slain. In ...read more, On July 14, 1798, one of the most egregious breaches of the U.S. Constitution in history becomes federal law when Congress passes the Sedition Act, endangering liberty in the fragile new nation. Statements in newspapers and books to the effect Miller was “seen in Las Cruces” on the day of Garrett’s murder were unattributed, implying they were hearsay or whole-cloth fiction. It’s hard to deny that sometimes the environment you’re raised in influences you psychologically. He’d been riding in a rented two-horse buggy driven by Carl Adamson, one of the “buyers,” and accompanied by Wayne Brazel on horseback. They concluded Adamson’s story didn’t make sense. The Man Who Killed Billy The Kid (El Hombre que mató a Billy el Niño). Legendary Sheriff Pat Garrett finally brought Billy the Kid in to stand trial. Beginning in the 11th century, Christians in Jerusalem were increasingly persecuted by the city’s Islamic rulers, ...read more, Parisian revolutionaries and mutinous troops storm and dismantle the Bastille, a royal fortress and prison that had come to symbolize the tyranny of the Bourbon monarchs. When they did continue, they came on the murder scene and noticed horse tracks leading from Garrett’s body into an arroyo about 50 yards to the south. There is no indication anyone knew Adamson and Miller were brothers-in-law. His employers would not only have to lure Garrett to a suitably remote site, but also provide a willing “shooter” to take the blame and an “eyewitness” to relate a credible account of the killing, a case of self-defense Fall might easily defend in court. (Bettmann/Getty Images). Although he kept his word about the testimony, he began to distrust the promise that he would be released and so he escaped. Two men have been charged with the death of rapper EBE Bandz (aka Billy Da Kid) and concealing his remains, which were … Videos you watch may be added to the TV's watch history and influence TV recommendations. Doña Ana County attorney Albert B. Adamson claimed that on February 29 he and Garrett were traveling from the latter’s home ranch on the eastern slope of the mountains just north of San Agustín Pass to meet with James P. Miller and an attorney in Las Cruces, about 4 hours west by buggy. *In early March 2004 a petitioned was filed in Fort Sumner to exhume Billy the Kid and the investigators went as far as listing Billy the Kid as one of those petitioning to have his own corpse exhumed. Such were feasible solutions, but they would require management and coordination in an age of limited communication channels—telephones in towns, telegraph service to more remote areas. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Pat Garrett wrote the biography of Billy the Kid; it was one of many accounts that turned the young man into a legend of the Wild West. An offer to purchase Garrett’s ranch would serve as a lure to secure the victim’s cooperation. This spaghetti western presents a fictitious version of the often filmed legend of Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid. Man Who Killed Billy The Kid - Main Titles. © 2021 A&E Television Networks, LLC. https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/billy-the-kid-is-shot-to-death. By fall 1907 such efforts had obviously failed to dislodge him, and the ranchers reportedly began to contemplate murder. The chosen route would lead through Soledad Canyon, marked by Soledad Peak, visible to the northwest from the El Paso & Southwestern Railroad tracks. Sheriff Pat Garrett shoots Henry McCarty, popularly known as Billy the Kid, to death at the Maxwell Ranch in New Mexico. There he would have turned the horse over to a waiting accomplice and flagged down the southbound afternoon passenger train to El Paso. Existing accounts neglect to mention that key geographic feature of the murder site. Garrett served as sheriff of Doña Ana County from 1896 to 1900. Answer to: Who killed Billy the Kid? Following Billy the Kid's death, writers quickly went to work producing books and articles that made a folk hero out of Billy the Kid, while making Garrett seem like an assassin. Sonnichsen; and Sheriff Pat Garrett’s Last Days, by Colin Rickards. His mother’s second husband, Gerald Ford, adopted the young boy and gave him his name. Legend has it that Billy managed to get a hold of Grant’s gun prior to the fight and made sure that an empty chamber was up first in the man’s revolver. No legal charges were brought against him since the killing was ruled a justifiable homicide. On the night of July 14, 1966, eight student nurses are brutally murdered by Richard Speck at their group residence in Chicago, Illinois. He also fought in New Mexico's Lincoln County War, during which he allegedly committed three murders. Sheriff Pat Garrett shoots Henry McCarty, popularly known as Billy the Kid, to death at the Maxwell Ranch in New Mexico. Allen Fossenkemper Fountain Hills, Arizona. Fall defended Brazel and successfully muddied the waters regarding the real motive behind Garrett’s murder. William Henry McCarty Jr., aka Billy the Kid, born in 1859, was killed in an ambush by Sheriff Pat Garrett in Fort Sumner, New Mexico, in 1881. This dramatic action signaled the beginning of the French Revolution, a decade of political turmoil and ...read more, On July 14, 1968, Atlanta Braves slugger Henry “Hank” Aaron hits the 500th home run of his career in a 4-2 win over the San Francisco Giants. Nothing was mentioned about the latter’s conspicuous absence during the trial. When it came time to fire, only Billy’s gun went off and Grant was left dead. Garrett, who shot and killed Billy the Kid on July 14, 1881 in Fort Sumner, New Mexico, died on February 29, 1908. Then Miller could have tied the horse to a bush in the feeder arroyo and camped for the night. On July 1, 1881, he was hunted down and shot dead by Sheriff Patrick (Pat) Garrett in Fort Sumner, New Mexico. The sighting of Miller on a distinctive horse owned by rancher Baird the day before the murder at a point on the Fleck ranch some 20 miles north of El Paso suggests a route by which Miller could have approached the murder site, done the job and slipped away unseen. W.W. Cox was among the named conspirators, who may have sought to stop Garrett from investigating the 1896 double murder of attorney Albert Jennings Fountain and 8-year-old son Henry. I did not consider Meadows’ account about Miller traveling down through Tularosa, as that is not critical to the murder narrative. It is said that they were very much an item and even had a child together, a boy called Jose Patrocinio Garcia in 1875 which would make Billy only fifteen at the time of the birth. That said, doubtless the debate will continue. He related a tale of self-defense, which seemed dubious, as Garrett was shot in the back of the head while standing beside the buggy in the midst of urinating, one glove off and no weapon in hand. Garrett, the former sheriff of Lincoln County, N.M., was best known as the man who shot Billy the Kid. Word had it Garrett’s friends in Las Cruces overwhelmingly believed Miller was the assassin, though few would publicly state that belief, as they feared the powerful Cox/Lee/Fall faction. In the dark, Billy had gone to cut a slice of meat. Garrett mounted yet another posse to bring in the Kid. Where the arroyos met would be the designated kill site. He was the famous outlaw’s first victim. Of course, he stuck around and was shot dead by Sheriff Pat Garrett a few months later, surrounded by Hispanic-American friends and admirers who viewed Billy the Kid as their Robin Hood. A wagon track through the smaller arroyo trended southeast from the junction across rangeland controlled by influential local rancher William W. “Bill” Cox. Investigators got wind of a 1907 meeting between Jim Miller and conspirators, though the official report has since vanished. The overall route from the railroad ran about 32 miles, easily traversed in about three hours on a trotting horse. The rest of the meeting concerned how to pull off the murder. The third of eight children, Aaron was a star football player, third baseman ...read more, On July 14, 1913, Gerald R. Ford is born Leslie Lynch King, Jr. in Omaha, Nebraska. Among those reportedly in attendance were Cox, Lee, Fall, Rhode, Miller, Adamson and Emmanuel “Mannie” Clements Jr. (another of Miller’s brothers-in-law). Brazel had a lease on the ranch, was grazing goats on it and disputed Garrett’s termination rights. The young Roosevelt was engaged to Flora Payne Whitney, ...read more. The day that Billy the Kid was thought to be killed was on is July 14, 1881 but some skeptics have other ideas on when his death actually happened. Wikimedia Commons Lincoln County, New Mexico Sheriff Pat Garrett would later claim that on the night he shot down Billy the Kid, the notorious outlaw was holding a gun . The pair interviewed Adamson, and on examining the murder site on March 5, 1908—the day of Garrett’s funeral—each found one freshly fired Winchester .44–40 shell. Henry Aaron was born February 5, 1934, in Mobile, Alabama. The young Ford went on to become the ...read more, John Ringo, the famous gun-fighting gentleman, is found dead in Turkey Creek Canyon, Arizona. He would have been back at his hotel by evening. It seems reckless for Adamson to have invented a name for a fictitious partner that differs from known assassin Miller’s name by only the middle initial (using a “P” instead of a “B”). Wayne Brazel confessed to Garrett’s murder the very day of the shooting—but had he done it? There are also rumors that she had two more children with him, daughters who died of diphtheria early in their life. HistoryNet.com contains daily features, photo galleries and over 5,000 articles originally published in our various magazines. Fueling the debate are more than 16 books and scores of articles and archived documents, not to mention countless other sources deemed unacceptable by most scholars. Tellingly, the entire route lay on open rangeland controlled by W.W. Cox or his friends and associates. Adamson’s imaginary partner was said to have been waiting in El Paso during the ranch negotiations. Yet none of the existing books and articles about Garrett reference the Meadows interview, a document that seems relevant for several reasons: 1) Meadows knew Garrett well personally and professionally; 2) Meadows lived in Tularosa throughout Garrett’s stint in Las Cruces and was his deputy during the related Fountain murder investigation and trial; 3) Meadows was considered a reliable source; 4) his story contains information found nowhere else; and 5) it provides new information about the murder. Such a scenario fits the facts. Billy had worked at Tunstall’s ranch and was outraged by his employer’s slaying-vowing to hunt down every man responsible. The latter seems to be the case with One of the most notorious outlaws of the old American West may be given a pardon. When Billy entered, Garrett shot him to death. As witnesses, Fall called policeman John Beal, saloonkeeper Jeff Ake and rancher Jim Baird, each of whom testified Garrett had threatened Brazel’s life. Brazel was indicted on April 13, 1908, and tried on May 4, 1909. Although filled with many errors of fact, The Authentic Life served afterward as the main source for most books written about the Kid until the 1960s. After tracing him to the Maxwell Ranch, Garrett shot him to death. Field described it as a .45 slug, though it could have been the nearly identical .44–40 Winchester bullet, which fits either a Colt revolver or a Winchester rifle. It was Killin’ Jim Miller by way of Soledad Canyon. Police removed his car from outside his home earlier this month. But it was not to be. Back on April 1, 1878, Billy the Kid ambushed Sheriff William Brady and one deputy in Lincoln, New Mexico, after ranch owner John Tunstall had been murdered. There are some people who say that the Kid escaped from jail the night of July 14, 1881 and was later killed in Mexico on March 1, 1883. Billy the Kid (born Henry McCarty; September 17 or November 23, 1859 – July 14, 1881), also known by the pseudonym William H. Bonney, was an outlaw and gunfighter of the American Old West who killed eight men before he was shot and killed at the age of 21. "Killin' Jim" Miller was a known assassin, and Pat Garrett (inset), famed former sheriff of Lincoln County, New Mexico Territory, may have been among his victims. When Adamson pulled off the road for a rest stop, the argument reached the boiling point, and Wayne shot Pat twice with his revolver, allegedly as the latter reached for a gun, despite his compromising position. Jerry Lobdill Collection; inset: Bettmann/Getty Images. Assuming Miller was the assassin, whatever he did would have to be consistent with the hard facts of the case. Such considerations led to the following interpretation of Meadows’ tale. Johann Gottlieb Fichte, German philosopher. Hervey tried unsuccessfully to raise money for the investigation from Garrett’s longtime friend Tom Powers (a partner in the Coney Island Saloon). Garrett, who had been tracking the Kid for three months after the gunslinger had escaped from prison only days before his scheduled execution, got a tip that Billy was holed up with friends. The ranchers could recruit Garrett’s disaffected lessee, Brazel, to be the faux shooter, while the actual assassin, Miller, would travel to and from the secluded site by an improbable route. The Kid was credited with killing Charlie Crawford, but his killer was Fernando Herrera who is said to have shot Crawford as he rode towards town to join Peppin's posse during the siege at McSween's house. The usual suspects in the Garrett case are Cox, his brother-in-law Archie Prentice “Print” Rhode, Adamson, Brazel and notorious hired killer James Brown Miller (aka “Deacon Jim” or “Killin’ Jim”). Following his indictment for the murder of Sheriff Brady, Billy the Kid was the most wanted man in the West. The heritage of Billy the Kid has been in question for over a 100 years, where was he born, what his name was and even more of a mystery, did he really die on July 14th, 1881? But the prevailing power brokers in Las Cruces and Doña Ana County didn’t intimidate Meadows. Pat Garrett became an Old West legend for killing Billy the Kid, yet as the years passed, rumors circulated that … Hico's Billy the Kid Museum speculates that Billy moved to Texasin 1883, two years after his supposed death in New Mexico. Evading posses sent to capture him, he eventually struck a deal with the new governor of New Mexico: In return for his testimony against the perpetrators of the ongoing ranch wars in the state, Billy would be set free. Sheriff Brady and his men, who had been affiliated with rival ranchers, were involved with the gang that killed Tunstall on February 18. All Rights Reserved. Fleck told sometime-cowboy and retired Pinkerton detective Charlie Siringo he’d seen Miller ride by Fleck’s spread, “down here 20 miles this side of El Paso, riding a big gray horse branded S bar,” adding, “Jim Beard [sic] here owned that horse. “He was a friend of mine, and that’s all I have to say.”. Hines told Morrison of his experiences in the Lincoln County Wars with 19th-century American frontier outlaw and gunman, Billy the Kid who was allegedly killed by Sheriff Pat Garrett on July 14, 1881, but he stunned Morrison by claiming that the Kid was still alive and living near Hamilton, Texas under the name Ollie L. "Brushy Bill" Roberts. As is the case with so many mythologized historical figures, it can be difficult to separate fact from fiction. He was murdered at about 10:30 on the morning of Feb. 29, 1908, some 5 miles east of Las Cruces. HISTORY reviews and updates its content regularly to ensure it is complete and accurate. He was murdered at about 10:30 on the morning of Feb. 29, 1908, some 5 … According to Meadows, on February 28, a young cowboy who worked for rancher W.N. Meadows told Haley that on Feb. 26, 1908, Adamson had visited Jim Baird’s ranch, west of White Sands, and the next day Miller had ridden south through Tularosa. Nobody is sure of the exact date he was born but it seems to have been sometime in September 1859 because there’s a baptism record fo… He’d been a friend of Pat’s since about 1880 and had served under him as a Doña Ana County deputy during the investigation into the February 1896 disappearance and probable double murder of attorney Albert Fountain and son Henry. District Attorney Thompson subpoenaed a batch of Western Union telegrams exchanged by Adamson, Cox, Rhode, Brazel and Miller a day or two before the murder, yet he didn’t place them in evidence at Brazel’s trial. If playback doesn't begin shortly, try restarting your device. When he falls in love he tries with the help of Pat Garrett, a fatherly friend, to change back. Defending Brazel was attorney Fall, a ruthless politician and consigliere for the W.W. Cox/Oliver Lee political mafia of Doña Ana County. Garrett had been headed to town ostensibly to finalize the sale of his ranch in Bear Canyon on the eastern slope of the mountains just north of Agustín Pass. Territorial Mounted Police Captain Fred Fornoff examined the murder site, and Brazel and Adamson’s account didn’t pass muster. Cox would recruit Brazel, while Adamson would lure in Garrett and orchestrate the operation, contacting Miller in El Paso by telephone or telegram as appropriate. Born Henry McCarty, he was the first of two boys raised by a small Irish Catholic family in New York City. In the end, 86 were dead, including 10 ...read more, During the First Crusade, Christian knights from Europe capture Jerusalem after seven weeks of siege and begin massacring the city’s Muslim and Jewish population. A well-kept secret among 19th-century ranchers, Soledad is the only canyon that crosses the Organ range. The prosecutor was District Attorney Mark Thompson, a longtime Fall associate, who centered his case on Adamson’s eyewitness account. According to Meadows, Eugene Van Patten—a former sheriff of Doña Ana County and respected pillar of the community—had examined the site on the afternoon of Garrett’s murder and told Meadows of similar findings, adding the horse had dunged four times, suggesting it had waited in the arroyo overnight. Period newspaper accounts suggest officials ultimately accepted Adamson’s story as the truth. Fall, and a lack of evidence to establish motive, means and opportunity beyond a reasonable doubt. Billy the Kid has been blamed for killing Buckshot Roberts, but it was Charlie Bowdre who killed Roberts. Some believe the Kid wasn’t killed in 1881. Man Who Killed Billy The Kid - Main Titles - YouTube. Broach the subject at any gathering of Western history aficionados, and you’ll start a lively, lengthy debate. There they would work out a deal and draw up necessary papers for the sale. On the evening of July 14, Garrett waited inside Maxwell's bedroom. Carl Adamson backed up Brazel’s confession, dubiously claiming the killing had been in “self-defense.” (Jerry Lobdill Collection). The matter is further complicated by the reluctance of primary sources to have revealed all they knew when interviewed, misinformation that originated with attorney Albert B. Moreover, Miller must not be seen in Las Cruces during his approach or retreat. The conspirators reportedly solved all the issues. On August 17, 1877, the Kid fought back—with a pistol. The little-traveled gorge wove an easy 10-mile track through the Organ Mountains. As the case has been legally settled since May 4, 1909, and all players in the drama have long since headed for the last roundup, whatever conclusion researchers draw must be based on a preponderance of existing evidence, the standard imposed on juries in present-day civil cases. The route the men took from the Organs down to Las Cruces (a descent of 1,184 feet) was the Mail-Scott Road, a wagon track that ran just over a dozen miles through Alameda Arroyo. (Jerry Lobdill Collection). He was fresh shod.”. Following are the verified facts of the case. His biological father left the family when Ford was three years old. Once through, Miller could have met Adamson as the latter drove out to Garrett’s place, and together they could have chosen the spot where Adamson would stop the buggy the next morning. Ho Chi Minh (Nguyen That Thanh), Vietnamese nationalist and political leader. On July 14, 2016, thousands gathered along the seafront of Nice, France to celebrate Bastille Day—the country's independence holiday. Cox, Lee and Baird would plan Miller’s route. The mood turned from joy to horror, when a white truck barreled through a pedestrian-filled closed street. When Garrett’s subsequent murder case against Oliver Lee and Jim Gililland ended in acquittal in June 1899, they and their associates hoped Garrett would move on and leave the Las Cruces area. Miller insisted on taking no chances he would be suspected of involvement, let alone arrested. Back in 1896, when Doña Ana County officials had refused to look into the suspected double murder of Albert Fountain and his 8-year-old son, Henry, at Chalk Hill in the Tularosa Basin, territorial officials had brought in Garrett from Uvalde, Texas, to Las Cruces to investigate. Garrett’s body was recovered and brought into Las Cruces. He could have taken a northbound morning train from El Paso on February 28 to a prearranged spot on the EP&SW tracks, debarked, met Baird, mounted the saddled and provisioned horse, and made the three-hour ride through Soledad Canyon to the murder site. So now the investigators are targeting Billy the Kid's grave in Fort Sumner (unless they can dig up Billy the Kid, it would be no use to start digging up Catherine Antrim). )Joe Hines aka Jesse Evans, Fornoff supposedly wrote up the details for Hervey, though his report has since disappeared. The story goes that Frank “Windy” Cahill, a civilian blacksmith at Arizona’s Fort Grant, took some pleasure in bullying the teenage Henry Antrim, who became known as Billy the Kid. (New Mexico State University Library, Archives and Special Collections). The victim, Patrick Floyd Jarvis “Pat” Garrett, was the former sheriff of Lincoln County best known for having killed outlaw Billy the Kid on July 14, 1881. Such an omission seems tantamount to conspiracy to murder, as the telegrams may have been sent to arrange Miller’s journey to and from the murder site, conceivably tying him to the plot. Italian title: ... e divenne il più spietato bandito del Sud See Database Page. Though only a teenager at the time, Billy the Kid wounds an Arizona blacksmith who dies the next day. Around noon that day in Las Cruces, Doña Ana County Deputy Sheriff Felipe Lucero (his brother José R. Lucero was sheriff) was preparing lunch when Brazel burst into the office and exclaimed: “Lock me up! According to Adamson, Garrett and Brazel argued heatedly en route. But contemporary journalists seemingly never wondered about the name. On June 13, 1936, 10 days before Meadows died, historian J. Evetts Haley interviewed him in Alamogordo, N.M. A transcript of that interview resides in the Nita Haley Stewart Memorial Library at Midland, Texas. Watch later. Once a fugitive, Billy killed a few more men, including the gunslinger Joe Grant, who had challenged him to a showdown. Miller was well known by reputation, and it is likely at least some New Mexico Territory lawmen had seen photos of him, so any plan had to steer Miller away from Las Cruces. Had everything played out as planned, at 10:30 the next morning Miller would have been in his selected shooting spot, made the kill with two shots from a Winchester .44–40 rifle (chosen for the range to his target) and retraced his route to the EP&SW tracks. In 1970 El Paso author Leon C. Metz interviewed 93-year-old Frank C. Brito, who had served as a Rough Rider under Theodore Roosevelt, a deputy sheriff of Doña Ana County and the jailer at Las Cruces for 20 years under the Lucero brothers. Billy becomes innocently an outlaw while protecting his mother, but then turns into a trigger happy killer. From the time Garrett filed for a homestead on his ranch near W.W. Cox in 1899, it was apparent to all the Tularosa Basin ranchers who had been suspected of involvement in the Fountain murders that Pat was sticking around and might well be thinking of the $10,000 reward offered by the Masonic Grand Lodge of New Mexico Territory for the arrest and conviction of the murderers. His presence was met with resentment by the existing power structure, a faction dominated by the very people who were likely suspects. Governor Mabry did not take the meeting, or Roberts, seriously. Returning to the building with pistol in one hand, knife in the other, Billy was startled and instead of opening fire, hesitated, repeatedly asking, in Spanish, "Who is it?" The numerous publications bearing on the topic differ in important details of the narrative. Sign up now to learn about This Day in History straight from your inbox. Although Adamson was not subpoenaed and did not testify, his account of the killing to the grand jury was in evidence. He went by the name William Henry Roberts, but most folks just called him Brushy Bill. But never mind—his killer had confessed. The pair said they’d heard the shots and decided it best to pause their journey. Governor George Curry instructed New Mexico Territory Attorney General James M. Hervey and Captain Fred Fornoff of the Territorial Mounted Police to conduct an independent investigation of Garrett’s murder.

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