American Outlaws E-Book

Robert Stahl

• Herausgeber: Fox Chapel Publishing
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Serie: Visual History
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Seitenzahl: 344

Beschreibung

Take a step into the criminal underworld of the United States with American Outlaws. Explore the exploits of some of the Wild West's most notorious murderers and gangs, from Jesse James to Wyatt Earp, and find out what went down at the OK Corral. Then move onto the seedy underbelly of Prohibition-era New York to meet the five major crime families that are still operating today. You can also take a trip to Chicago to discover the crimes of Al Capone before heading to Las Vegas to find out about Bugsy Siegel, the mobster who made Las Vegas. We also reveal ten infamous bank heists and introduce you to some of early 20th century's best con men -- some of which could even sell you the Brooklyn Bridge!

Leseprobe

True Stories of the Most Wanted: Wild West Outlaws,

Bank Robbers, Mobsters, Mafia, and More

Robert Stahl

©2023 by Future Publishing Limited

Articles in this issue are translated or reproduced from

American Outlaws

and are the

copyright of or licensed to Future Publishing Limited, a Future plc group company, UK 2022.

Used under license. All rights reserved. This version published by

Fox Chapel Publishing Company, Inc., 903 Square Street, Mount Joy, PA 17552.

e-ISBN: 978-1-6374-1260-2

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

To learn more about the other great books from Fox Chapel Publishing, or to find a retailer

near you, call toll-free 800-457-9112 or visit us at

www.FoxChapelPublishing.com.

We are always looking for talented authors. To submit an idea, please send a brief inquiry to

[email protected].

Have you ever wondered how Bonnie met Clyde? How the Mob came

to rule the east coast? Or how some of the most notorious criminals

escaped Alcatraz?

American Outlaws

has the answers.

Explore the tumultuous Wild West, the seedy underbelly of New York, and the conmen

who made their living across the United States as we take you on a tour of America’s

most wanted outlaws. We reveal the true stories behind gunslingers like Jesse

James, the gangs who made their money in astonishing bank heists, the Prohibition

Era’s greatest gangsters – and the men who tried to take them down. Discover what

really happened at the OK Corral and meet the man who created the first pyramid

scheme. Find out who bought Machine Gun Kelly the weapon that gave him his

name, and discover the farmer who created a safe house for fugitives on the run.

Filled with incredible stories, turn the page to enter the world of America’s

greatest outlaws and see why they live on in infamy today.

WELCOME TO THE BOOK OF

10

Butch Cassidy

Uncover the life of one of the

Wild West’s most infamous

figures

14

Billy the Kid

Learn the truth behind the man

who has been immortalized in

myth

22

Jesse James

The story of an iconic outlaw and

his feared gang

26

How to Rob a Train

The tips you need to carry out

your train heist

28

Henry Starr

Discover the thief and killer

who nearly made a career in

Hollywood

32

The Dalton Gang

The band of brothers who

terrorized the Wild West

36

Lawmen of the

frontier

Meet the men who tried to bring

some order to the lawless frontier

42

Wyatt Earp

Find out what really went down

at the OK Corral

56

Public Enemies:

America’s Most

Wanted

Get acquainted with the Crime

Wave and find out who was

Public Enemy Number One

62

How to Escape

from Alcatraz

Take a trip to the Rock – and

discover how to break out

64

Al Capone

Welcome to Chicago – the city

controlled by mobster Al Capone

72

Bugsy Siegel

Get up close and personal with

the mobster who made Vegas

78

Machine Gun Kelly

The mobster and the kidnapping

that gained him notoriety

82

Charles Birger

Meet the Illinois gangster who

took on the Ku Klux Klan

86

The Castellammarese

War

When the Mafia goes to war,

New York City is changed forever

90

The Rise & Fall

of the New York

Mafia

The five crime families of New

York

122

22

WILD WEST

GANGSTERS &

THE MOB

98

Charles Ponzi

Behind the first pyramid

scheme was an Italian

con man

102

Soapy Smith

Uncover one man’s slippery

swindles in Alaska

106

George C. Parker

The man who sold the

Brooklyn Bridge – twice

110

The Great

Diamond Hoax

Take a look inside the hoax

that fooled one of the world’s

most famous jewelers

114

Joseph Weil

It’s time to meet the man who

hoodwinked Mussolini

118

Gaston Means

With the death of a president

comes an opportunity

122

Bonnie & Clyde

Uncover the real story of

America’s infamous criminal

lovers

126

Ten Infamous

Bank Heists

Money doesn’t grow on trees

– so some raided their banks

132

Pretty Boy Floyd

Get the lowdown on the

turbulent life of the Phantom

Bandit

136

Deafy Farmer

Every criminal needs a

safehouse – for some, it was

Deafy’s farm

140

From Villains to

Heroes

Why do we remember so

many notorious criminals as

celebrated heroes today?

126

64

72

CONMEN &

COMMON

CRIMINALS

36

36

42

26

WILD

WEST

10

32

14

S

ay the name Butch Cassidy and it’s hard to

not immediately think of the Sundance Kid

and the 1969 film. Its story of two wise-

cracking buddies is so ingrained in culture,

some could take it as fact. But it isn’t. For a start,

Cassidy and Sundance were not best friends. They

did flee to Argentina together, but that was more

opportunity than choice. But even if the film didn’t

nail it in terms of accuracy, that is not to say that

Butch Cassidy’s life wasn’t full of thrills, adventure,

and intrigue.

Born Robert Leroy Parker on April 13, 1866, in

Utah, Cassidy’s parents were staunch Mormons. His

dad, Maximillian Parker, was 12 when he arrived

with his family in Salt Lake City in 1856, and they

became Mormon pioneers. Cassidy’s childhood was

spent on his family’s ranch but perhaps sensing that

the Mormon life was not for him, he left home during

his early teens. He supported himself by working on

various ranches, and it was while at a dairy farm that

he started to get drawn into the criminal world.

Mike Cassidy, whose real name was John Tolliver

McClammy, was a cowboy and rustler and soon-to-be

mentor and friend of the young Parker. In fact, it’s

said that Robert dropped his last name, changing

it to Cassidy in honor of his friend, adding it to his

nickname of Butch. It is also said that the name

change was due to a desire to not disrespect his

family, as at the time he had a feeling his path would

take a significant diversion from the Mormon lifestyle

he had been brought up to believe in.

For a while, Butch continued to move between

ranches, living the life of a cowboy in Wyoming and

Montana until he gravitated to Telluride, Colorado,

in 1887. After striking up a friendship with racehorse

owner Matt Warner some time earlier, Cassidy robbed

his first bank.

It was June 24, 1889 and Cassidy, Warner, and the

two McCarty brothers helped themselves to about

$21,000 from the San Miguel Valley Bank. The crew

didn’t hang around for long, making their way to the

Robbers Roost, an area of rough terrain in southeast

Utah. The natural crags and canyons made this a

popular hideout for outlaws, and in fact it was while

Cassidy and his best friend Elzy Lay were lying low

there that they formed the Wild Bunch.

When the heat had died down, Cassidy made his

way to Wyoming, where he bought a ranch on the

outskirts of Dubois. Although it’s possible he did this

in an attempt to earn an honest living, the fact he

never actually made any money from it and that the

location was just over from another outlaw hangout

– the Hole in the Wall – suggests the ranch was a

front for nefarious activities. There’s also the fact he

was arrested in 1894 for stealing horses and possibly

running a protection racket among ranchers.

Cassidy served 18 months of a two-year sentence

at the Wyoming State Prison, where upon his release

in 1896 he was pardoned by Governor William Alford

Richards. While some may have taken the pardon as

an opportunity to turn their life around and walk the

straight and narrow, it did absolutely nothing to quash

Cassidy’s criminal tendencies. After his release from

His exploits with the Wild Bunch captured the

imagination of the public and even his death

became the stuff of legends. Is Butch Cassidy the

most infamous figure of the Wild West?

BUTCH

CASSIDY

10

| WILD WEST

The Pinkerton

Detective Agency

became the main

adversaries of Cassidy

and his Wild Bunch

Butch Cassidy

took great pride

in the fact that

he never had to

take a life in his

criminal career

was in place to make an arrest. However, a local

sheriff who had become friends with Cassidy

tipped the trio off, so in May 1905 they made

their escape north, ending up in Chile. Then for

some reason they returned to Argentina, and

not only did they return, but they also robbed

a bank. Now being pursued for certain, they

returned to Chile once again.

But it was too much for Etta Place. Sundance

took her back to San Francisco while Cassidy

took an alias of James “Santiago” Maxwell and

worked at the Concordia Tin Mine. Sundance

eventually joined him there. In 1907, the pair

moved to Santa Cruz, apparently to lead the life

of ranchers. But somehow it all went wrong.

jail, he instead went on to form the Wild Bunch

and forever seal his place in the Wild West’s

notorious hall of fame.

Perhaps fittingly for a bunch of thieves, the

gang’s name was literally taken from the Doolin-

Dalton Gang (also known as the Wild Bunch)

and consisted of a rag-tag crew of criminals. In

addition to Cassidy and his best friend, William

Ellsworth “Elzy” Lay, the core gang consisted

of Harvey “Kid Curry” Logan, Ben Kilpatrick,

Harry Tracy, Will “News” Carver, Laura Bullion,

and George “Flat Nose” Curry.

Other members would come and go,

including Harry Alonzo Longabaugh, perhaps

better known as the “Sundance Kid,” who

Cassidy recruited not long after leaving jail. But

it was this core group who went on to perform

the longest stretch of successful train and bank

robberies in American history.

They wasted no time. Cassidy, Lay, Logan,

and Bob Meeks targeted the bank in Montpelier,

Idaho, on August 13, 1896, just a few months

after his release from prison. This first robbery

set off a chain of others, taking the gang across

South Dakota, Wyoming, Nevada, and New

Mexico. Their hauls would range from just a few

thousand to $70,000 from a train outside Folsom,

New Mexico.

Rather than encourage the ire of law-abiding

citizens, the public were enamored with their

adventures, almost rooting for them to do well.

Some of the reason for that could be because

Cassidy had a bit of a Robin Hood persona,

often sharing his loot with local people who were

struggling to get by.

Although seen as the leader of the gang,

Cassidy was always a little bit removed from his

criminal colleagues. For a start, he took great

pride in the fact he had never killed anyone in

his criminal career. If being chased, his preferred

defence was to shoot the horse carrying the

person chasing him. However, this refusal to

shed human blood did not extend to his criminal

comrades, many of whom had no qualms about

killing people – usually officers of the law –

during close pursuits.

Wilcox, Wyoming, became the location of the

most famous and most destructive Wild Bunch

robbery. On June 2, 1899, the gang robbed a

Union Pacific Overland Flyer passenger train.

There was a shootout with the law following the

robbery, which saw Kid Curry and George Curry

kill Sheriff Joe Hazen. The gang got away with

$30,000.

For Cassidy, the robbery had serious

ramifications. The train was carrying gold to

pay troops in the Spanish-American War, and

by robbing it he was deemed to have committed

an act of terrorism. From that robbery onwards,

Cassidy and the Wild Bunch were targeted as

national terrorists with a reward of $18,000 if

they were caught dead or alive.

Even though it’s doubtful Cassidy actually

robbed the train – one of the terms of his 1896

pardon was to not commit a crime in Wyoming,

and Cassidy was a man of his word – it put the

gang firmly in the sights of local law enforcement

and the infamous Pinkerton Detective Agency.

Yet, still they robbed. In fact, just a few weeks

later on July 11, the Bunch robbed a Colorado

and Southern Railroad train near Folsom, New

Mexico. Another shootout with law enforcement

ensued, and this time Cassidy’s best friend, Elzy

Lay, killed sheriffs Edward Far and Henry Love.

Lay was eventually caught and convicted for his

crimes, sentenced to life imprisonment for the

double murders.

Things then went from bad to worse. During

1900 and 1901, various members of the Wild

Bunch were either shot or captured. It was too

much for Cassidy. He had gone from being seen

as a cowboy Robin Hood to feeling suffocated

by the law, so he fled to New York City with

Sundance and his girlfriend, Etta Place, and then

on to Buenos Aires, Argentina, in February 1901.

They bought a ranch and settled down for a few

years. But the peace was not to last.

The Pinkerton Detective Agency had been

hired by Union Pacific after the Wilcox robbery

to hunt down Cassidy, and its agents were very

good at their jobs. Agent Frank Dimaio had

learned of Cassidy’s location, and everything

When did Cassidy Actually Die?

A still from

Butch Cassidy and the

Sundance Kid

. Did the infamous

shootout actually happen?

The Wicox train robbery is the most

infamous crime of the Wild Bunch but

Cassidy might not have even been there

One of the most memorable scenes

from

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance

Kid

is the great shootout at the end,

with both of the outlaws going down

in a blaze of glory. But there have been

many theories that Cassidy did not die

in Bolivia, that he instead returned to

America to live out the rest of his days

in peace.

One of the most interesting theories

came from a 1978 TV series called

In

Search Of. . .

It focused on an argument

made by Wild West historian Charles

Kelly in his 1938 book

The Outlaw Trail:

A History of Butch Cassidy and his Wild

Bunch

. In it, Kelly states that if Cassidy

was alive he would have visited his

father, and because he didn’t do so he

must have been dead.

In the episode, residents of Baggs,

Wyoming, all state that Cassidy

visited during 1924. There was also an

interview with Cassidy’s sister, Lula

Parker Betenson, who says that not

only did he visit his father, but he went

on to live out his life in Washington.

Betenson’s 1975 book

Butch Cassidy,

My Brother

also states that Cassidy told

her he had got a friend to say one of the

bodies in Bolivia was his so he could

live a life free of pursuit. Although

these theories are vastly different, it’s

important to remember that there is no

actual evidence one way or another.

12

| WILD WEST

On November 3, 1908 in Bolivia, a courier

for the Aramavo Franke and Cia Silver Mine

was transporting his company’s payroll, worth

around 15,000 Bolivian pesos. Two masked

Americans attacked and robbed him, before

lodging in a small boarding house nearby. But

the boarding house owner was suspicious.

After alerting a nearby telegraph officer, on

the night of November 6, soldiers, the police

chief, the local mayor, and his officials all

surrounded the boarding house, waiting to arrest

the robbers. Things didn’t quite go to plan. The

robbers started to shoot, killing one soldier and

wounding another. The gunfire was returned and

before long an all-out gunfight erupted. Then

there was a scream, a shot, and then another

shot. Silence followed.

The authorities entered the boarding house

the next morning and found two dead bodies.

One had a bullet wound in the forehead, while

the other had one in the temple, in addition to

various bullet wounds in the arms and legs. The

police report assumed that one robber had shot

his partner to spare him further agony before

then killing himself.

The report also concluded that the two bodies

were the men who had robbed the courier, but

there were no other forms of identification,

although it was assumed that the bodies

belonged to Cassidy and Sundance. They were

buried in a small cemetery in unmarked graves.

It was an inauspicious end to an action-packed

era of looting and shooting, and perhaps not one

that suited the legend of Butch Cassidy and the

Sundance Kid.

However, death was by no means the end

for this notorious duo. While the eponymous

1969 film is the most widely recognized tribute

to them, its sequel,

Butch and Sundance: The

Early Days

, released in 1979, is just one more

example of many media portrayals of their

famous escapades.

The Sundance Kid and girlfriend Etta Place, taken

while in New York before heading to Argentina

The famous Fort Worth

Five photo of Cassidy,

Sundance, Logan, Carver,

and Ben Kilpatrick

©20th Century Fox, Alamy, Getty

13

BUTCHCASSIDY |

It’s the iconic Wild West story and thus, in the 150

years since its making, it has become fraught with

embellishment and myth. What was the real history of

the hunt that made the legendary lawman Pat Garrett?

BILLY

THE KID

B

y the late nineteenth century,

cartographers had mapped much of the

world and the globe, almost as we know

it today was a well-established fact.

To the east, the Victorian Empire had peaked

despite being ousted from its interests in the New

World colonies a century earlier, and the decades

that followed Independence Day had seen a

fledgling United States simmer with civil war

and lawlessness.

In the wake of the British, the new American

government had made vast territorial gains,

picking up the entire Louisiana region – a

huge swathe of grasslands over 600,000 square

miles– from France’s Napolean Bonaparte for

a bargain, at just $15 million. Border disputes

and infighting followed, but that did not halt

the USA’s progress from the Great Plains to the

coastline of the Golden State.

The boundary of this new nation had spilled

westward too rapidly for any population to fill,

let alone for the lawmakers of the White House

to effectively control it. The West was true

frontier territory, its people as feral and intense

as its unrelenting climate – it was no place for

the timid or fragile. This crucible forged two

characters, the outlaw Billy the Kid and sheriff

Patrick Floyd Garrett. Their independent life

stories alone have resonated through generations,

but it is perhaps Pat’s pursuit and the ultimate

death of the Kid that has defined them both.

Hollywood has traditionally presented an

extremely romanticized notion of this era, so

while the stereotypes of sherriff, outlaw, saloon

owner, settler, Mexican, cowboy, and their ilk

can usually be taken with a mere pinch of salt,

the black and white morality of the Silver Screen

is laughably far from the truth. There was often

little to separate lawman from lawless but a small

steel star, so we’re going to rub away the sepia

and journey to New Mexico in late 1880, where

Pat Garrett has just been appointed the sheriff of

Lincoln County.

Garrett was an imposing 6 foot, 5 inches

of lean gunman and a known deadeye

shot. Coupled with his imposing figure and

reputation, he made a first-class choice for a

visiting detective in the employ of the Treasury

Department, Azariah Wild, to help track down

the source of $30,000 worth of counterfeit

bills that were circulating the county. Garrett

himself employed another man – Barney Mason

– to bait the two suspected of distributing

this currency: ranch owner Dan Dedrick and

another, W.H. West, who had made himself and

their intentions clear in a letter that Mason had

intercepted. Those intentions were that they

would launder the money by buying cattle in

Mexico as fast as they could with an assistant,

who would unwittingly take the hit in the

event that their ruse was discovered. Mason

was to be the fall guy. Now that they had the

advantage, Garrett instructed Mason to travel to

the White Oaks ranch and play along with their

nefarious plans.

In the brisk New Mexico winter, Mason

rode out to Dedrick’s. There, he ran into three

gunslingers on the run from the authorities:

14

| WILD WEST

Dave Rudabaugh, who had killed a Las Vegas

jailer during a break-out; Billy Wilson, another

murderer yet to be caught; and the last was none

other than Billy the Kid – the unlawful killer

who had busted himself out of jail once already,

made a living by cattle rustling and gambling,

surrounded himself with like-minded outlaws,

and whose reputation was on the cusp of

snowballing towards near-mythological status.

The attitude of the era was such that

a lawman and a wanted man could

be trading campfire stories one

day, then bullets the next. The

Kid and Garrett were once

thought to have gambled

together, and Mason was also

known to be on friendly terms

with these three. Thus, both

parties made their pleasantries

then entered a game of high-

stakes mind games, whereby the

Kid attempted to ferret out the true

nature of Mason’s visit (suspecting he had

come to ascertain his location and then report

to the sheriff), while Mason threw the Kid a

red herring, stating that he was there to take in

some horses. The Kid didn’t buy it. Smelling a

rat, he met with Dedrick and his fellow outlaws

with the intention of killing Mason, but Dedrick

feared the repercussions would ruin his illicit

plans, so the Kid relaxed his proverbial itchy

trigger finger.

A local posse on the hunt for Billy had

been raized and the town of White Oaks was

agitated with the news that the outlaw was in

the area. The heat was too much for Mason

to follow through with his orders without

raising suspicion, so he lay low for a few days

before returning to report at Garrett’s place in

Roswell. Shortly after, Garrett received a letter

from Roswell Prison’s Captain Lea, detailing

the criminal activities of the Kid and his

companions in the area. Garrett was

commissioned as a United States

marshal and given a warrant for

the arrest of Henry McCarty,

a.k.a. William H. Bonney,

a.k.a. Billy the Kid, on the

charge of murder. The hunt

was on. The Kid’s days were

numbered and on November

27, 1880, the curtain was lifted

on one of history’s most famous

Wild West dramas.

The new marshal already had a

reputation and might have put the fear of God

into the common criminal, but he was no fool.

The Kid was by now a true desperado, one who

had cut his teeth in the revenge killings of the

Lincoln County War, and he was more likely

to go out in a blaze of glory than he was to lay

down his arms and come quietly. Garrett had

raized a posse of about a dozen men from the

The shooting of Billy

the Kid solidified

Garrett’s fame as a

lawman and gunman

The Kid rode for a time with the

gang of cattle rustlers known as

the Jesse Evans Gang

Born in New

York City, Billy

the Kid moved to

New Mexico after

brief periods in

Kansas and

Indiana

16

| WILD WEST

citizens of Roswell and made his way to Fort

Sumner to pick up the outlaws’ trail, which

would lead them to his suspected hideout at

Los Portales. The many miles of desert scrub

and overgrown track were neither an easy

nor uneventful ride, and saw a Kid associate

named Tom Foliard flee the posse in a hail of

bullets. When the “hideout” at Los Portales – a

hole in a cliff face with a fresh water spring –

turned up nothing more than a few head of

cattle, the posse fed and watered themselves

before returning to Fort Sumner, where Garrett

dismissed them. It was not the showdown

he had hoped for, but Garrett wasn’t the

quitting kind.

Over the next few days, Garrett,

accompanied by Mason, encountered Sheriff

Romero leading a posse of swaggering Mexicans

to Puerto de Luna, shot and wounded a

felon named Mariano Leiva, talked

his way out of Romero and his

posse’s attempts to arrest him

for this shooting, and then

learned of another party – led

by an agent for the Panhandle

stockmen the Kid had rustled

cattle from – who was also

on the trail of the Kid. Steel

nerves, a steady hand, sharp wit,

and some luck had eventually seen

Garrett true once again.

The Kid is thought to have killed

his first victim a few months

before his eighteenth birthday

v

45

The number of murders from 1870-85

in five Kansas towns, a lower per capita

than today

28

The number of times the outlaw

Black Bart robbed stagecoaches in

California, making thousands of

dollars a year

The number of bank

robberies across 15

states from 1859 to

1900. There weren’t

many banks and no

cars, so it was a lot

harder to get away

with it back then

The highest annual body count for Tombstone, Arizona, happened in

1881, the same year as Wyatt Earp’s famous gunfight at the OK Corral

$5-10 million

The biggest value stagecoach shipments in today’s equivalent – usually gold bullion

May 13,

1881

Billy the Kid’s hanging

date set by Lincoln

County courts

The Wild West in Numbers

Billy the

Kid’s date of

birth is unknown,

but it’s thought

that he was just

twenty-one years

old at the time of

his death

The times were hard, but surprisingly, the crimes were nowhere near as bad as they are in the western United States today

17

BILLY THE KID |

fashion and returned to meet Garrett with the

news that the outlaw he sought was certainly

at Fort Sumner, that he was on the lookout for

Garrett and Mason, and that he was prepared to

ambush them. The Kid had no idea that Garrett

had company with him.

Following this, the posse made their way to

an old hospital building on the eastern side of

the town to await the return of the outlaws. The

Kid arrived sooner than expected. A light snow

carpeted the ground so that, despite the low

light of the evening, it was still bright outside.

Nevertheless, Garrett and company were able

to position themselves around the building to

their advantage. Outlaws Foliard and Pickett

rode up front and were first to feel the sting of

the posse’s six-shooters, though whose bullets

killed Foliard that day remains unknown. Garrett

himself missed Pickett, who wheeled around and

made for their ranch retreat along with the Kid,

Bowdre, Wilson, and Rudabaugh–the stagecoach

robber and a particularly unsavory character

who the Kid admitted to being the only man

he feared.

The marshal’s posse regrouped and made

preparations for the chase. There were just five

men to track now. Garrett had learned from

another reliable local that they had holed up

in an abandoned house near Stinking Springs,

a piece of no-man’s land where murky water

bubbled up into a pool in a depression. It was

a few hours before dawn that they made this

short ride, which proved their new information

true: horses were tied to the rafters outside the

building. The Kid was cornered and furthermore,

Garrett’s approach had not been detected, so they

still had the advantage of surprise. The posse split

and spread out along the perimeter to play the

waiting game in the darkness.

For shootouts, showdowns, soldiers, and civilians,

these were the guns that won the West. The Kid

and Garrett made darned sure their tools of the

trade were the best

Garrett met with Panhandle agent Frank

Stewart at Las Vegas, the former Spanish colonial

town of New Mexico and not the bright-light

city-to-be more than 600 miles to the west. They

left on December 14 to catch up with Stewart’s

party and broke the news to them: some baulked

at the idea of an encounter with the Kid and his

gang, but Stewart did not reproach any man who

had reservations. “Do as you please boys, but

there is no time to talk,” he told them. “Those

who are going with me, get ready at once. I want

no man who hesitates.” In the end, they added a

further six men to their cause.

Ahead of the party, Garrett had sent a spy, a

trustworthy man named Jose Roibal, who rode

tirelessly to Fort Sumner to sniff the Kid out.

Roibal performed his duty in a suitably subtle

Pat Garrett’s

Sharps rifle

USA 1850-81

»

DESIGNERS:

CHRISTIAN SHARPS

»

MANUFACTURER:

SHARPS RIFLE MANUFACTURING

COMPANY

»

NUMBER

PRODUCED:

120,000+

»

EFFECTIVE

RANGE:

500 YARDS

»

WEIGHT:

9.5 LBS

»

CALIBER:

.52

»

FEED SYSTEM:

1 ROUND

»

ACTION:

FALLING BLOCK,

BREECH LOADING

»

ADVANTAGES:

VERSATILE

»

DISADVANTAGES:

WASTEFUL, EXPENSIVE

»

POPULAR USES:

MILITARY, HUNTING, SPORT

FIREARM SHOWDOWN

“The jig was up for Garrett, but the Kid’s

gang was now down to four”

Pat Garrett’s Frontier Colt

USA 1878-1907

»

DESIGNERS:

WILLIAM MASON

»

MANUFACTURER:

COLT’S PATENT FIREARMS

MANUFACTURING COMPANY

»

NUMBER

PRODUCED:

51,210

»

MUZZLE VELOCITY:

TWENTY-FIVE3 M/S

»

WEIGHT:

2.3 LBS

»

CALIBER:

.44-40

WINCHESTER

»

FEED SYSTEM:

CYLINDER MAGAZINE

»

ACTION:

DOUBLE-ACTION

REVOLVER

»

ADVANTAGES:

INTERCHANGEABLE AMMUNITION

WITH RIFLE, GOOD STOPPING

POWER

»

DISADVANTAGES:

NONE

»

POPULAR USES:

CIVILIAN, SHERIFF

18

| WILD WEST

As day broke, one of the gang left the building

via its only exit. In the half-light, he appeared

to have the height, build and, most importantly,

was wearing the characteristic Stetson of Billy the

Kid. Knowing the Kid would not give up easily,

Garrett signaled to the posse, who peppered the

figure with bullets. Mortally wounded, Charley

Bowdre stumbled back into the house but the

Kid pushed him back out with the words: “They

have murdered you Charley, but you can still get

revenge. Kill some of the sons of bitches before

you die.” But if the blood hadn’t all leaked out

of him by then, the fight certainly had, because

Bowdre lurched towards the posse and collapsed

in a heap on the floor before he could even get

his hand to his pistol.

The jig was up for Garrett, but the Kid’s gang

was now down to four and their only exit was

covered. Just to tip the scales further in his favor,

Garrett shot one of the three horses dead to

partially cover the exit and then shot the ropes on

the other two, both of which promptly cantered

away. The marshal felt he was in a position now,

to parley: “How you fixed in there, Kid?”

“Pretty well,” came the reply, “but we have no

wood to get breakfast.”

“Come out and get some. Be a little sociable.”

“Can’t do it, Pat. Business is too confining. No

time to run around.”

An idea struck Garrett. Having rode through

the pre-dawn and played the waiting game in the

bitter cold, his men were likewise famished, so

he sent for some provisions from Wilcox’s ranch;

a few hours later, a fire had been built. The sweet

scent of roasting meat further weakened the

outlaws’ resolve until Rudabaugh dangled a filthy

handkerchief out of a window in surrender. An

eager foursome exited the house to collect the

meal that had just cost them their freedom.

Garrett now had his man, but the Kid was as

slippery as an eel. They survived a lynch mob at

Las Vegas before the Kid was tried at Mesilla for

the murder of Andrew “Buckshot” Roberts. He

was acquitted in March 1881, but was then found

guilty of the murder of Sheriff William Brady and

sentenced to be hung five weeks later on May 13.

Because there was no jail in Lincoln county, he

was held in a two-story repurposed warehouse

watched by Deputy Sheriff Bell and Deputy

Marshal Olinger, where the Kid made the most

of a window of opportunity to steal a gun, kill

his guards, and make a spectacular escape from

his prison.

Garrett was smarting when he realized his

inadequate provision for the incarceration of

the Kid and returned to Fort Sumner, where the

Kid was believed to have fled, but the trail had

once again gone cold. For the next two and a half

months, Garrett would be kicking over stones

well into the sweltering New Mexico summer

before his final encounter with the fugitive.

In early July and in the company of Frank

Stewart’s replacement, John W. Poe, and Thomas

K. Mckinney, who had been deputized, Garrett

could be found a few miles north of Fort Sumner,

adjusting his course according to hearsay and

Billy the Kid’s Colt 1873 Single Action Army

USA 1873-1941

»

DESIGNERS:

WILLIAM MASON AND CHARLES

BRINKERHOFF RICHARDS

»

MANUFACTURER:

COLT’S PATENT

FIREARMS MANUFACTURING COMPANY

»

NUMBER PRODUCED:

357,859

»

MUZZLE VELOCITY:

TWENTY-FIVE3 M/S

»

WEIGHT:

2.3 LBS (WITH BARREL)

»

CALIBER:

.45 COLT

»

FEED SYSTEM:

6-SHOT CYLINDER

»

ACTION:

SINGLE-ACTION REVOLVER

»

ADVANTAGES:

WELL BALANCED, SIMPLE

TO USE, GOOD STOPPING POWER

»

DISADVANTAGES:

DIFFICULT TO FIRE

RAPIDLY

»

POPULAR USES:

MILITARY, CIVILIAN

MODEL

Billy the Kid’s 1873 Winchester rifle

USA 1873-1919

»

DESIGNERS:

BENJAMIN TYLER HENRY AND

NELSON KING

»

MANUFACTURER:

WINCHESTER REPEATING

ARMS COMPANY

»

NUMBER PRODUCED:

720,000

»

MUZZLE VELOCITY:

335 M/S

»

WEIGHT:

9.5 LBS

»

CALIBER:

.44-40 WINCHESTER

»

FEED SYSTEM:

15-ROUND TUBE MAGAZINE

»

ACTION:

LEVER-ACTION

»

ADVANTAGES:

INTERCHANGEABLE

AMMUNITION WITH PISTOL, EASILY TRANSPORTED,

ACCURATE

»

DISADVANTAGES:

MAGAZINE FEEDING

PROBLEMS

»

POPULAR USES:

HUNTING, CIVILIAN

19

BILLY THE KID |

Robert Stahl

Robert was a historian,

professor emeritus at

Arizona State University,

and member of the Billy The

Kid Outlaw Gang (BTKOG)

– a nonprofit organization

with the aim of preserving

the truth and promoting

education in the history of

Billy the Kid.

Several theories counter the reports of the

Kid’s death with tales of his survival. Why

do you think these tales persist today?

Number one is that a great many people who

accept the “survival” tale have not read the

histories of the Kid’s death by serious historians,

so they are susceptible to entertaining stories

about the Kid not being killed. Number two is

the fact that many people cannot accept that it

was mere coincidence that Garrett and the Kid

were in Pete Maxwell’s bedroom at the same

time while believing the Kid was too smart

or too fast on the draw to allow himself to be

killed in the dark as he was. Number three is

the fact that many documentaries – even those

that include professional historians – bring

up the rumors that the Kid was not killed as

though these rumors have a touch of credibility.

Is it possible that Garrett could have shot

the wrong man in that darkened room?

The whole hamlet of more than fifty people

saw the Kid’s body once or more during the

morning of his death, as his body was washed

and clothed by local women and was on display

in the saloon for part of the morning. It was

also taken back to Pete Maxwell’s bedroom

and placed at or near the spot where the Kid

fell. Not one of the individuals who were there

ever said it was not the Kid. Indeed all went

to their graves, some over fifty years after the

Kid’s death, insisting they saw the Kid dead.

Furthermore, six men who knew the Kid well

both in person and on sight served on the

coroner’s jury, and all swore it was the Kid. So

there is ample eyewitness support by numerous

credible persons that Garrett did not kill the

wrong man in that darkened room.

You’ve been pursuing a death certificate

from the New Mexico Supreme Court for

the man known as “Billy the Kid,” for

July 15, 1881. Why wasn’t that originally

issued? What would the reason be for the

court not to create the certificate today?

My colleagues, Dr. Nancy N. Stahl and Marilyn

Stahl Fischer, and I pursued a death certificate

for the Kid because one was never created –

and as part of that certificate we have been

adamant about the fact that it should include

the Kid’s actual death date of July 15, 1881

as opposed to the traditional date of July 14.

The coroner’s jury report never stated a time

or date of death, which was typical of the era

in rural areas of the Old West. Furthermore, I

have yet to find a violent death in New Mexico

in the 1800s that was followed by a death

certificate being created.The Supreme Court

cannot “create” a death certificate, but can

order the state office that can to do its duty

and create one. We went to the Supreme Court

after months of trying to get the Office of the

Medical Investigator to act.They refused to do

their statutory duties and then refused to get

back to us. We had no other legal recourse in

New Mexico other than to go to the Supreme

Court. We supplied credible and substantial

documentary evidence to the Supreme Court

for them to act in our favor, but they have not

issued the court order to the New Mexico

Office of the Medical Investigator for them

to act. We believe that the Supreme Court

and the New Mexico Office of the Medical

Investigator consider our efforts to be publicity

stunts rather than a good faith request by three

historians to correct the historical record.

The BTKOG seeks to preserve and promote

the truth about the Kid. Is there much in

the way of rumor surrounding the legend

you’d like to quash?

I do believe that important events in the

current accepted stories of his escape from

the Lincoln County Jail on April 28 need to be

“squashed,” such as the notion that he picked

up a gun in the bathroom when he went to

relieve himself and that he intended all along

to kill Bob Olinger. Another that needs to

end immediately is the rumor that there was

widespread belief that Garrett did not kill the

“real” Billy the Kid. Quite the contrary, for

more than three decades after 1881 there

were no stories – not even a hint of a rumor

– printed in even one New Mexico newspaper

that suggested the Kid was still alive. Indeed, at

the time of his death in 1908, Garrett was well

recognized throughout New Mexico and the

nation as the man who killed Billy the Kid. Had

there been any doubt, he would not have been

acclaimed by everyone as the killer of the Kid.

William Henry Roberts claimed to be Billy the

Kid after his death

Some believe Billy

the Kid wasn’t killed

in 1881 and that he

faked his own death

– or Pat Garrett got

the wrong man

Pat Garrett (left) with

fellow Lincoln County

sheriffs James Brent

and John W. Poe

20

| WILD WEST

instinct. This took them to the home of Peter

Maxwell where, near a row of dilapidated

buildings, a slim man in a broad-rimmed hat

could be heard talking in Spanish to some

Mexicans. They had found their man – but none

of the trio recognized him from a distance. As it

turned out, the Kid hadn’t recognized them

either. He slipped off the wall he was

perched on and walked casually

away to Maxwell’s house.

After the stand-off at

Stinking Springs and the Kid’s

dramatic escape from jail,

his death seems somewhat

anticlimactic. Just after

midnight on July 15, Billy the

Kid entered Peter Maxwell’s

house to pick up some beef for

his supper. Garrett was in Pete’s

darkened bedroom, quizzing him on the

whereabouts of the Kid, when the very man

he was hunting stepped through the door. Pete

whispered to Garrett his identity and, leaving

nothing to chance, Garrett took two shots, struck

the Kid in his left breast, and killed him.

In the memoirs he wrote shortly after the

inquest that had discharged the marshal of

his duty and deemed the homicide justifiable,

Garrett dedicates no more than a short

paragraph to the unfolding scene in the

dark room. There was no classic

showdown – the men weren’t even

aware of each other’s presence

until those final mortal seconds

– and with his last words, it

seems the Kid didn’t even know

who had sent him to meet

his maker.

In as much that the Kid’s

infamy began to spread during

the long nothing periods of

Garrett’s hunt, when rumor of this

rebellious young gunslinger and his long-

legged lawman nemesis gestated into legend,

his ignominious demise has, perhaps fittingly,

been made much of by countless authors and

Hollywood film makers since.

11:55 p.m., July 14, 1881

The Kid is in one of

the run-down houses

on Peter Maxwell’s

property when he

decides he’s hungry,

grabs a knife and

makes his way over

to Maxwell’s house to

cut himself some beef.

Midnight, July 15, 1881

Garrett has already

entered the house

himself and goes to

the bedroom to speak

to Maxwell to glean

information on the

whereabouts of the

Kid. He sits on a chair

near his pillow.

12:04 a.m.

Garrett’s companions

are outside when

the Kid passes them,

but they have no