Tales of the Southwest: Billy the Kid and the Lincoln County War
By John H. Eicher and David J. Eicher
Few figures of western history have gripped the public’s attention like the infamous outlaw Billy the Kid (1859–1881). Yet like many legends of history, the real story of Billy the Kid is far different than many of the tales that have gripped the public imagination since the 19th century. The Kid still looms large over New Mexico and the region of Granite Gap and Lordsburg itself, as part of his story unfolded in the region. Those who love astronomy, mineralogy, archeology, and other intellectual pursuits typically also love history, and the Kid’s story is one of the best pieces of western lore around.
Tales of the Kid circulated during his short life and immediately after his death and were confused by several early books about his life. In 1882 Sheriff Patrick Floyd Jarvis Garrett (1850–1908), known familiarly as Pat Garrett, wrote a biography of Billy in collaboration with a journalist, Marshall Ashman Upson. This work, The Authentic Life of Billy the Kid, exaggerated the Kid’s life story and exploits immensely to make the story more intriguing than it actually was. Garrett was involved with Billy the Kid as a lawman who tracked him and ultimately shot him dead at Fort Sumner, New Mexico Territory. (Oddly enough, Garrett himself would be assassinated near Las Cruces, New Mexico Territory, in 1908.)
Garrett’s book made Billy out to be an innocent yet ruthless gunfighter who was courageous and resourceful, and a romantic. In reality, Billy was known as a card shark, a gambler, a horse thief, a cattle rustler, a drunk, and a desperado who killed at least several men. A second early book also attempted to exploit the Kid’s growing legend; it was written by Miguel Antonio Otera, Jr. (1859–1944), who had been the governor of New Mexico Territory.
The legend of Billy the Kid has been fed by more than 1,000 books and pamphlets, including lurid stories in the National Police Gazette and in nickel and dime paperbacks during the great age of pulp fiction. A look through publications such as these amaze historians due to their extensive quotations of conversations the Kid and others had, despite the fact that no witnesses were around to describe any conversation! Several movies covered or involved the Kid’s life, including Billy the Kid (1930, starring Johnny Mack Brown), Billy the Kid (1941, starring Robert Taylor), Chisum (1971, starring John Wayne), and Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973, starring James Coburn and Kris Kristofferson). Garrett’s book was reprinted in 2000 along with extensive annotations by historian Frederick Nolan, and several scholarly or well researched popular biographies exist.
The actual life of Billy the Kid
The reality of Billy the Kid is far different than the legends or the movies. The Kid’s real name was probably Henry McCarty, and he was supposed to have been born in New York City in 1859. The documentation for this has not been located, however. His father was probably Michael McCarty (?–1868) and his mother was Catherine McCarty (1829–1874). He had a brother named Joseph McCarty, known as Josie, whom historians believe was younger than the Kid and who lived until 1930.
Soon after the Kid’s birth the family moved to Indianapolis, Indiana, and then to Wichita, Kansas, where the father died in 1868. Along the way a friend, William Henry Harrison Antrim (1842–1922) joined the party and, when they again moved, Catherine McCarty and William Antrim were married in Santa Fe, New Mexico Territory. About a year later the family moved again, this time to the mining town of Silver City, New Mexico Territory, in the southwestern corner of the territory. Silver City stands about 40 miles northeast of Lordsburg. In Silver City, the Kid adopted the name William Antrim and worked as a carpenter, prospector, and a butcher shop employee. Billy attended some school but also associated with miners, cowboys, gamblers, and rustlers around the town while his mother took in laundry and perhaps boarders.
Life in Silver City was a tough, crude existence. But contrary to later claims, the Kid did not engage in gunfights nor did he kill anyone at this time. In 1874 Catherine died of tuberculosis and Billy started hanging out with drifters in the town, including George “Sombrero Jack” Schaffer, a petty thief. Billy and Sombrero Jack burglarized a laundry in 1875 and were caught by the town constable, Harvey Whitehall, sometimes called Whitehill. The Silver City Herald reported that the boys were jailed, but that Sombrero Jack slipped away and Billy was held only because he had possession of some “loot.” He was scheduled to be released, but escaped through a chimney opening and also skipped town, now wanted by the law.
Sometime during this period Billy the Kid showed up in Shakespeare, a thriving mining town of 3,000 just south of Lordsburg. When the railroad passed through Lordsburg, Shakespeare’s fortunes began to decline. For a time, the Kid found employment washing dishes and sweeping the floor at the Grant House Hotel in Shakespeare, in a structure that can still be viewed today, complete with many of the original items in the room.
Leaving Shakespeare, Billy headed to Arizona Territory. He may have held a similar dishwashing job at the Hotel de Luna near Camp Grant. But this slender, teenaged kid with blondish hair and a tendency toward buck teeth found his way into more trouble. The Kid pursued gambling, cattle rustling, and horse thievery.
He frequently stayed at Bonito in the San Simon Valley. Billy was soon arrested for horse theft by Constable J. P. Miles Wood and locked up in the Camp Grant guardhouse, but he managed to escape, now bearing an actual criminal record.
August 17, 1877 would be a memorable day for the Kid. In the midst of a card game, he started an altercation with Francis R. “Windy” Cahill (1846?–1877), a blacksmith with a reputation for being a braggart, and the argument ended with a struggle. The two wrestled over Cahill’s gun briefly until it discharged, striking its owner in the stomach. Cahill died the following day and Billy, now wanted for murder, fled back to New Mexico Territory, allegedly hiding in the Burro Mountains west of Silver City.
Some sources suggest Billy lived for a time at Apache Tejo, a settlement on the site of old Fort McLane, south of Silver City. The Kid has also been credited with killing Don José Martinez, a monte dealer in Sonora, Mexico, but there is no verifiable record of his having been in either Sonora or Chihuahua at this time. Historians believe he did befriend Jesse Evans (1853–?), a horse thief and cattle rustler. Together they roamed the Rio Grande Valley and at one time allegedly helped defend a wagon train against an Apache attack.
Along with Evans, the Kid joined a group of renegade cowboys known as “the Boys” that included William “Buck” Morton (1856–1878), the gang’s leader; Francis Baker (1856–1878), who died in a shootout at Agua Negra; James McDaniels (1847?–1881?), who was reportedly killed by Indians; and Thomas O’Keefe. The Boys camped in Mesilla, New Mexico Territory, and in this town the young lad who tagged along with the others, who stood 5’7” and weighed 135 pounds, acquired the sobriquet “Billy the Kid.” One other probable adventure occurred during this period: late in 1877, the Kid supposedly rescued a pal — Melquiandes Segura, a Mexican gambler, from a jail in San Elizario, Texas. The Kid and Segura escaped from a chase by a large posse by fording the Rio Grande.
The Lincoln County War
At the time Billy’s exploits were heating up, trouble was brewing in New Mexico Territory. Some 260 miles northeast of Silver City, the town of Lincoln in Lincoln County was becoming the locus of a new set of problems. And Lincoln County was an enormous free range for cattlemen — it was the largest county in the United States, covering as much area as the states of Delaware, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Rhode Island combined. The town of Lincoln had been called Placita and was renamed after the Civil War. Fort Stanton stood about 8 miles west of the town and had a small garrison, and Fort Sumner stood to the northeast. Amid a vast sea of cattlemen, the two small Federal garrisons, a county sheriff, and a handful of deputies formulated the only reliable protectors of the entire region.
In 1877, disagreements among cattlemen brought about the so-called Pecos War over control of unfenced areas, ownerships of wandering herds, control of gangs and rustlers, and the management of trading posts and saloons in the county’s villages. Lincoln County was then awash in cattle, horses, guns, and liquor, and at the same time overpopulated with Indians, cowboys, gamblers, and drifters. Two competing groups emerged as forces in the county.
The first group was led by John Simpson Chisum (1824–1884), a Texan who became known as “King of the Cattlemen” and the “Baron of the Bosque Grande Ranch.” At this time Chisum had more than 60,000 cattle. He also backed other ranchers, including a wealthy young Englishman named John Henry Tunstall (1853–1878) and his partner, Alexander Anderson McSween (1843–1878), who became Chisum’s attorney.
Their opponents were Lincoln merchants Lawrence Gustave Murphy (1831?–1878), a former major in the Union Army, James Joseph Dolan (1848–1898), and John H. Riley (1850–1916). Together than constituted L. G. Murphy & Co., which was soon reorganized as J. J. Doan & Co. when Murphy became an invalid. The group collectively continued to be known as the Murphy Co., or simply as “The House.” They were backed by Thomas Benton Catron (1840–1921), a U.S. Attorney and head of the powerful political machine called the Santa Fe Ring.
Most of the “Boys,” the group including Billy the Kid, worked for the House after migrating eastward to get in on the growing action in Lincoln County. But after a short time the Kid began preferring to work for John Tunstall of the Chisum crowd, enjoying the steadiness of the employment. At this time Billy assumed the name of William H. Bonney, his most celebrated alias. In the town of Lincoln, where the Boys spent much of their time, instability was king. Murphy & Co. had a large store on the west end of one street, while Tunstall had a small store, a bank, and several houses on the eastern end. They competed heavily, each desiring a monopoly on supplying ranchers in the county and in cattle sales to the army and at large.
Trouble escalated in the region in October 1877. Sheriff William Brady (1820–1878) and Deputy Dick Brewer (1850–1878) arrested a group of the Boys at Seven Rivers as they were rustling cattle from the House. Those arrested included Jesse Evans, Frank Baker, George Davis (who was later killed by Texas Rangers), and Tom Hill (who was later killed in Tularosa).
The lawlessness was beginning to take a staggering toll on the region. On February 13, 1878, Deputy Sheriff Jacob Basil “Billy” Matthews (1847–1904) formed a posse that included John Hurley (1855?–1886), George Hindman, Manuel “The Indian” Segova, and Andrew J. Roberts (1833–1878), aka Bill “Buckshot” Williams. They were joined by some of the Boys, Jesse Evans, Ponciano Domingues (a horse thief), and Tom Hill. When this posse arrived at Tunstall’s Felix Ranch, a few miles south of Lincoln, they found it strongly defended by newly formed Tunstall men, now called “The Regulators,” who included Dick Brewer, the deputy. Also in the group were Robert Adolf Widenmann (1852–1930), John Middleton (1854–1882), Fred Tecumseh Waite (1853–1895), and Billy the Kid.
When they encountered each other, the two groups discussed the situation and decided to avoid violence and submit their differences to a court. However, five days later, on February 18, 1878, a posse led by Deputy Sheriff Buck Morton overtook John Tunstall near his ranch and shot him dead, claiming he had drawn a gun first. Billy the Kid was enraged and swore revenge on Morton and his comrades. A coroner’s jury found that Morton had died from “divers bullets” fired by a group consisting of Buck Morton, Frank Baker, Tom Hill, George Hindman, Jesse Evans, Jim Dolan, and perhaps others. Sheriff William Brady, having authorized the Morton posse in the first place, declined to arrest anyone for the Tunstall shooting, thus inducing further increased hatred over the matter in the Kid.
By March 1878, Dick Brewer was appointed a special constable to search for the killers. This gave the Regulators more legitimacy. The group now also included Judah Gordon “Doc” Scurlock (1849–1929), a onetime medical student; Charles Bowdre (1845?–1800), Henry Newton Brown (1857–1884), Frank MacNab, Samuel Smith, James French, and William McCloskey. Now both sides were deputized, sworn to restore law and order. The groups each employed rustlers to steal each other’s cattle and horses, leading to frequent gunplay.
On March 9, 1878, Buck Morton and Frank Baker surrendered to the Regulators and, on the Agua Negra Trail on their way to Lincoln, they attempted to escape and were killed. At the same time, Bill McCloskey, a reluctant witness to the shootings, was mortally wounded. Another gunfight occurred four days later in Tularosa, in which Tom Hill was killed and Jesse Evans wounded by the Regulators. Town Marshal Antanacio Martinez then appointed the Kid and Fred Waite as special deputies to arrest the Tunstall murderers. However, Sheriff Bill Brady arrested them instead, and held them overnight without a warrant. When he was released the next day, Billy the Kid announced to all his associates that Brady was now his mortal enemy.
The events escalated the tension again. On April 1, 1878, the sheriff and four deputies — George Warren Peppin (1841–1909), Jack “Frank Rivers” Long, George Hindman, and Billy Mathews, set off riding toward the County Court House in Lincoln when they were ambushed by the Regulators. Brady and Hindman fell immediately, while Jim French and Billy the Kid were wounded by return fire, Billy struck in the left thigh. To replace Brady, John N. Copeland was appointed acting sheriff on April 27 and by May 28, 1878, Peppin, an ex-soldier from California, replaced Copeland and became a strong supporter of the House.
Three days later yet another confrontation took place. At Brazer’s Sawmill on the Mescalero Indian Agency, south of Lincoln, the Regulators, led by Dick Brewer and including Billy the Kid, Charley Bowdre, John Middleton, Benjamin Franklin Coe (1851–1931), and his cousin George Coe (1956–1941), battled for several hours against the gunfighter Andy “Buckshot Williams” Roberts. Brewer was killed and Bowdre, Middleton, Frank Coe and Billy were all slightly wounded. The Kid was credited with killing Buckshot, but Bowdre actually finished him off.
By now Lincoln had become a town full of heavily armed occupants. Frequent ambushes took place. With each side seeking redress for past shootings, it was becoming difficult for ordinary citizens to move about freely. Each faction had about 50 active followers. The territorial governor, Samuel Beach Axtell (1819–1891) visited Lincoln and announced that Federal troops would be called in to assist the local authorities in restoring law and order. He rescinded local appointments, which reduced the Regulators from a legal posse to a band of illegal vigilantes. A few days later, Billy had a gunfight with Bill Mathews on Lincoln’s main street. Each fired several rounds without hitting the other.
But tensions continued to mount and altercations rolled on. A short time later a band of men from the House, led by Jesse Evans, ran into Billy the Kid as he rode along the Rio Ruidoso near Lincoln. Another lengthy skirmish ensued as the Kid, along with Charley Bowdre, Hank Brown, Doc Scurlock, John Middleton, and Tom O’Folliard (1858–1880) shot it up against the House. On April 29, 1878, Deputy Sheriff William Johnson led a posse of 30 out of town to arrest the Regulators. The group caught up with Frank Coe, his ranch partner James Albert Saunders (1851–1883), and Frank MacNab, newly elected captain of the Regulators. In the shootout that followed, MacNab was killed and Saunders wounded. And on May 4, as the posse traveled down the Rio Pecos, they were in turn ambushed by the Regulators, now captained by Doc Scurlock. Manuel Segovia of the House was killed.
Fallout from the widespread gang war killings
The deaths of John Tunstall and Sheriff Brady brought wide repercussions from President Rutherford B. Hayes and from the British Ambassador to the United States. Both generalized that, with the exception of the U.S. Marshal in Santa Fe, every law officer in New Mexico Territory was “either a thief or an assassin.”
On July 13, 1878, Sheriff Peppin assembled another posse to pursue the Regulators, this time led by Marion Francis Turner (1831–1908). He found them in Lincoln, barricaded in the large double house of McSween’s. The Regulators also occupied the Tunstall store and the homes of Montaño and Ellis, completely outnumbering Peppin’s men. The following day, the sheriff sent for reinforcements and appealed to Nathan Augustus Monroe Dudley (1825–1910) for Federal troops. Dudley was the newly assigned commander of Fort Stanton and had been a brevet brigadier general in the Civil War. However, the amy did little to calm the situation as the Posse Comitatus Act forbade army interference in civil affairs. Peppin’s force occupied the center of the town as well as the large Murphy store and the Wortley Hotel. Amazingly enough, each side held warrants for the arrest of most members of the opposition.
On July 15, 1878, the so-called Lincoln County War began in earnest with sporadic firing all day between the two sides, each with about 50 men. Exchanges took place over the next two days and several were wounded on each side. House member Charles Crawford (1841–1878) died of his wounds. July 18 marked a standoff, as Col. Dudley stood by with 35 soldiers manning a mountain howitzer and a Gatling gun. The soldiers scared off about 30 Mexicans who had come to support McSween and the Regulators.
The Regulators now comprised Alex McSween, Billy the Kid, Tom O'Folliard, Hank Brown, Sam Smith, Jim French, Francisco Zamora, Vincente Romero, Harvey Morris (1848–1878), Doc Scurlock, Frank Coe, George Coe, Ferdinand Herrera, John Middleton, Charley Bowdre, Ignacio Gonzoles, Don Martin Chavez (1855–1931), Jose Chavez y Chavez (1851–1923), and Yginio Salazar (1863–1936).
The House faction now included Sheriff Peppin, Jesse Evans, Jack Long, John Wallace Olinger, Robert Olinger, James Dolan, Andy Boyle, Thomas “Tip” McKinney, Lucio Montoya, Milo Lucius “Old Man” Pierce (1839–1919), Marion Turner, John Beckwith (1855–1880), and Robert W. Beckwith (1850–1878).
On Friday, July 19, Deputy Marion Turner decided to burn the McSween house where most of vigilantes were stationed. He sent Andy Boyle and Jack Long in with cans of coal oil to set fire to the house’s kitchen. As the Regulators fled the building for the brush along the nearby Rio Bonito, Morris, McSween, Romero, and Zamora were killed and several others were wounded. Robert Beckwith of the House was also killed. The remaining members of the Regulators fled South into the Mescalero Apache Agency, where an Indian agent, Morris Bernstein (1856?–1878), was presumably killed by them on August 5.
Billy the Kid, who had escaped from Lincoln untouched, continued to rustle cattle and horses all along the Rio Pecos Valley. The newly appointed territorial governor, Lewis “Lew” Wallace (1829–1903), a major general during the Civil War, soon extended amnesty to all felons in the territory, except for those under indictment for murder, including Billy. In November 1878 L. G. Murphy died of cancer in Santa Fe, thus ending the longstanding feud between the two political factions. About 25 men had died during the Lincoln County War. Altogether, more than 2,000 rounds of revolver, rifle and shotgun ammo had been fired during the war.
After the Lincoln County War
Bands of rustlers and robbers continued to operate in New Mexico Territory. John Kinney (1848?–1919?) led a group of former House men under the appropriate name “The Rustlers,” while Billy the Kid became leader of the outlawed Regulators. Billy made a long attempt to clear his name, writing several letters to Governor Wallace which went unanswered. After hiding out in San Patricio with Tom O’Folliard and Doc Scurlock, the trio surrendered to the new sheriff, George Kimbrell (1842–1925) in March 1879, intending to clear their names before a grand jury. The Kid defended himself, always citing extenuating circumstances, and was duly released, but continued rustling throughout 1879.
Soon thereafter, a $500 reward was offered for apprehending the Kid. Several law groups tried to arrest Billy to collect the reward, and Billy was finally trapped at the Greathouse ranch near White Oaks in the Carrizo mountains north of Lincoln. But once again he miraculously was able to escape. In November 1879 Pat Garrett was appointed sheriff, replacing Kimbrell, and actively took up the chase. Early in 1880 Billy was charged with killing Joseph “Texas Red” Grant in Bob Hargrove's saloon at Fort Sumner. Also, about this time, both of Billy's best friends, Tom O’Folliard and Charley Bowdre, were killed by lawmen. In December 1880 Billy was captured near Fort Sumner at Stinking Springs (since renamed Taiban) by Garrett, who placed him in the Santa Fe jail. The end of the road for Billy the Kid appeared to be near.
On April 9, 1881, Billy was convicted in Mesilla of the murder of Buckshot Roberts and was sentenced to be hanged in Lincoln on May 13. The Kid was soon caught trying to dig his way out of jail, so he was transferred under heavy guard to the two story building in Lincoln, the former Murphy Store, since converted into the county courthouse, sheriff's office and jail. (The building still exists as the Lincoln County Museum.)
Deputies James W. Bell (1842–1881) and Robert Ameridith Ollinger (1841–1881) were in charge of the prisoner. On the evening of April 28, 1881, Ollinger transported several prisoners across the street for dinner at the Wortley Hotel cafe, while Bell watched Billy in his second floor room. Billy asked to use the privy in the backyard and he was conducted downstairs wearing handcuffs and leg shackles. Returning, Billy went up the stairs first. He abruptly turned around and pulled a gun on Bell. Historians debate whether Billy grabbed the gun in the courthouse or whether it had been hidden for him in the outhouse by friends. Either way, as Bell rushed him, Billy shot Bell in the head and then, once upstairs, found a double-barreled shotgun. As Ollinger ran out of the cafe and raced across the street, Billy yelled a greeting from a second story window and killed him with two blasts. The Kid then yelled for others who helped him file off the cuffs and shackles, and he escaped Lincoln for Fort Sumner with a new double murder charge.
Pat Garrett and his deputies John W. Poe and Thomas “Tip” McKinney learned the Kid was living around Fort Sumner and they found him at Pedro “Pete” Maxwell's house, where Pedro’s daughter and the Kid’s girlfriend Paulita resided. About midnight on July 14, 1881, Garrett stationed Poe and McKinney on the front porch and entered a corner bedroom where Maxwell was in bed. They talked for a while and suddenly Billy the Kid entered and asked “¿Quien es?” (“who is . . .”). Garrett recognized the voice and quickly fired two shots, the first striking Billy near the heart. The two deputies rushed in and grabbed Maxwell for questioning.
Billy the Kid was dead. In his short life he killed at least four and perhaps as many as 24 men — probably closer to the former. One of the great outlaw figures of the West was dead, and a legend was born.
John H. Eicher is emeritus professor of chemistry at Miami University and a longtime historian, mineral collector, and student of the Old West. He is coauthor of Civil War High Commands (Stanford University Press, 2001). David J. Eicher is editor of Astronomy magazine and a longtime mineral collector and historian; he is author or editor of 16 books