Billy The Kid was born Frank McCarty in New York City in 1839...the son of a Catherine (McCarty) Antrim of Ireland.  Due to her asthma, she moved to Silver City New Mexico with a new husband and Billy changed his name to William H. Bonney.  In the 1870's, Lincoln County in New Mexico was involved in 'cattle wars' and Billy earned a reputation as a man to be feared.  New Mexico was then a territory and Lew Wallace (author of Ben Hur) was the territorial governor.  He wanted to end the 'wars' and promised Billy a Pardon if he would turn himself in and testify against two men who were also his political rivals.  Billy agreed and went to a 'safe house' in Stinking Wells to await his pardon.  He was in a back bedroom with his Mexican girlfriend when Sheriff Pat Garrett burst into the room and opened fire.  The official version is that the Sheriff had him buried immediately afterwards in Fort Sumner.

     Maybe.

     A second version is that The Kid and Garrett were long time drinking buddies and he was allowed to escape into the surrounding hills and that a transient at the 'safe house' was the person killed and hastily buried.  A third version is that Billy escaped to Texas and lived as a ranch hand under the name of 'Brushy Bill' Roberts.  He died in 1950 but before his death he traveled to Santa Fe and tried to obtain the Pardon from the then Governor but died a month later and is buried in Hico Texas.  The movie "The Young Guns" was based on his life.  Another person claiming to be The Kid was a John Miller of Prescott Arizona who died in 1937 and stated on his deathbed that he was The Kid.

     Billy's great-grandson, Elbert Garcia, had petitioned the State of New Mexico to honor Governor Lew Wallace's promise to grant Billy a Pardon.  Catherine Antrim, Billy's mother who died in 1874, was buried in a Silver City cemetery.  A few years ago, Governor Bill Richardson requested that her body be exhumed and DNA extracted.  He also requested that DNA samples be obtained from the bodies of the three 'Billy Claimants' and compared to that of Catherine Antrim.

     However, the towns of Fort Sumner and Silver City in New Mexico, Hico in Texas, and Prescott in Arizona have retained legal counsel to prevent any exhumation.  I wrote to Governor Richardson about how I had obtained posthumous exonerations from Governor Michael Dukakis for Dominic Daley and James Halligan , two Irish Immigrants, who were wrongly hanged in 1806 and suggested a play written by school children of New Mexico might today obtain the same for The Kid.


     John Daly, host of the old "What's My Line' television quiz program might well ask...'will the REAL Billy The Kid rise up and sign in...please!