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Show LIFE OF BILLY THE KID. From the St. (Saint) Louis Globe-Democrat. The Kid's Fist Murder. His real name was Billy McCarthy, and he was born in New York. When he was a very small boy the family settled in Silver City, Grant County, New Mexico, and he was raised in that place. After the death of his father, his mother married a man named Antrim, who is now living in Georgetown, New Mexico, and a brother of Billy is a miner in that region. When he was about fifteen years old he was jailed in Silver City for robbing a store. Being very small for his age, some ladies took pity on him and assisted him to escape which he did by crawling through the chimney of the jail. His feminine sympathizers then furnished him clothes and money and he skipped over into Arizona. Here, when he was 16 or 17 years old, he killed his first man in the most deliberate cold-blooded style. Pursuit was hot and he fled back to New Mexico and took refuge among the cowboys of Lincoln county, just about the time that the Lincoln county war broke out. This war, according to Marion Turner, who was a conspicuous figure in it, originated in the determination of old John Chisum and his partner, Alexander McSween, to establish a monopoly in the stock grazing business and make themselves what they claimed to be, the cattle kings of Pecos Valley. They drove in 80,000 head of cattle. The herds of the smaller ranchers were swept away with the rolling avalanche of hoofs and horns. The losers attempted to reclaim their animals. Collisions between the herders were of constant occurrence. The firm of Murphy, Dolan & Co. (Company) headed the ranchmen and herders opposed to Chisum & McSwain. Both sides used all their strength and influence they could. Chisum & McSween lured Billy the Kid, and his reckless daredevilism, his deadly marksmanship, his skill as a horseman, and his delight to murder made him the leader of his faction. The Kid An Officer Of The Law: Early in 1879 Chisum had the "Kid" appointed Deputy Constable and armed with a warrant for the arrest, on some trivial charge, Wm. (William) Morton and Frank Baker, herdsmen in the employ of Tom Cullens, formerly of Lafayette county, Mo. (Missouri) and the partner of Tom Stephen B. Elkins, also a Missouri boy, but long the New Mexico delegate in Congress; and now one of the solid men of New York. After arresting Morton and Baker the Kid declared his determination to kill them. A man named McClosky, who had accompanied him and assisted in making the arrest, interfered to prevent the murder. The kid promptly shot him dead in an instant and then killed the two prisoners near Chisum's ranch. Sheriff Brady and Deputy Sheriff Geo. (George) Hindmann of Lincoln County went out to arrest him for this triple murder. The Kid waylaid them and, and firing on them ??? around McSween's house, killed them. He now gathered around him a band of outlaws and desperados and defied the County, Territory and United States authorities. In June 1879 ??? Turner, Deputy Sheriff of Lincoln County had a warrant placed in his hands for the arrest of the Kid for the murder of Morton, Baker, McClosky, Brady, and Hindmann. Turner organized a posse of thirty-five men, principally ranchmen and cowboys of the anti-Chisum faction and started on his desperate errand. A Memorable Fight. On the 17th of June he came upon the Kid with sixty-three men, and instantly began a running fight which lasted three days. Lieutenant Dudley of the 9th Calvary, Gen. (General) Hatch's famous colored regiment, fearing that reinforcements were being sent to the Kid, took two companies of his regiment and went to Turner's assistance. The Kid and his gang took refuge in McSween's house, in the town of Lincoln, the most elegantly furnished dwelling in the Territory, and it is said that during the fight Mrs. McSween encouraged her wild garrison by playing inspiring songs on her piano and singing rousing little songs, until the besieging party getting the range of the piano from the sound shot it to pieces with their heavy rifles. On the third day of the skirmish Turner had the house fired by throwing baskets full of blazing coal into it and over it, and about dusk the desperadoes made a rush to escape to their horses. A desperate hand-to-hand conflict ensued, in which twelve of the Kid's men and two of Turner's posse were slain, McSween himself being among the killed. In the break from the burning house, the Kid's partner, Tom O'Folliard, a young boy from San Antonio, Tex. (Texas), noticed one of his friends fall near his side. Amid a perfect shower of balls and buckshot he coolly stopped, picked up his comrade, and started to carry him off in his arms, but finding him dead, threw the body down and, pistol in hand, fought his way out. Tom was killed by Deputy Sheriff Pat Garrett's posse shortly before the capture of the Kid last winter. The Kid escaped fire, bullets, and Turner's posse at the McSween's house fight and immediately reorganized his gang. Lew Wallace's Admiration Of The Kid. About this time Axtell was removed from the Governorship of the Territory, and Lew Wallace was appointed in his place. Chisum went up to Santa Fe, and by some means, won the new governor over to the side of the Kid. George Taylor, Turner's partner, talking to me last night about the affair said "Wallace was a d____d romantic old fool, and easily led himself to sympathize with the Kid, often speaking of him as "the brave boy," or "that wild young knight errant." He lost sight of his crimes in the romance of his devilishness." Under the influence of this foolish sentiment, Gov. (Governor) Wallace posted a general proclamation of pardon to all parties, including army officers, who had been engaged in the Lincoln county outbreak, commanding them to lay down their arms, go home, and keep the peace. The army-officer allusion of this remarkable proclamation was aimed at Lieut. (Lieutenant) Col. (Colonel) Dudley of the Ninth Cavalry, and very naturally exasperated that gentleman by placing him, by Gubernatorial grace and estimation, exactly on a level with cowboys, outlaws and Kid's. His novelistic Excellency's bugle had scarcely rung truce when the widow of McSween resolved to prosecute the slayers of her husband and destroyers of her home. She employed a lawyer named Chapman of Las Vegas, who went down into Lincoln county and promptly began to stir up all the old strife, but was soon murdered by a man named Campbell and others of the opposite section. When Gov. (Governor) Wallace heard of the death of Chapman, he rose in all the might and majesty of a little territorial official with a tin ear, and went down into Lincoln County, outlawed Turner and his posse and all other officials of the law who had been fighting Chisum and McSween and the Kid and his gang, had Turner and ten or twelve of his posse put in irons, and had Col. (Colonel) Dudley arrested and relieved of his command. How Turner Lost His Bride: Twenty-one indictments were found against Turner for murder, arson and cattle stealing. He and his associates lay in irons four days and night, and were then brought over to the court for trial, the Kid appearing as the principal witness against them. They were all acquitted, but Turner has been barraged from that day to dusk. "By God," said he one night, "they have me arrested in every court and it has cost me $6,000 to stand trial besides all the annoyance and loss of ???. On the morning of the 27th of September 1879, Turner was married, at a hotel in the town of Lincoln, to a young girl named Hattie Phillips, who had a cousin married to Surgeon Appel of the Ninth Calvary. The same evening Appel, with two companies of Negro troops, surrounded the hotel, seized the bride, and carried her off, claiming that she was only sixteen years old and a minor. She was afterward sent to Monroe, Michigan, and placed in a female Seminary, where she still is. She has an uncle living there, Frederick Godsure, who was formerly an Indian agent at the Mescalero Agency in Lincoln county, and who took an active part in spiriting her away. Her mind has since been influenced against Turner that she recently applied for a divorce on the ground that her marriage was illegal an account of her minority. It was not so under the law of the Territory, but Turner admitted it to free her and the divorce was granted last month. The Kid And Col. (Colonel) Dudley. After the acquittal of Turner and his men at the trial in Lincoln, the Kid, on the advice of his friends, decided to leave the country, but he swore he would kill Col. (Colonel) Dudley before he went. A court martial or court of investigation as to Dudley's part in the fight of June 1879 was going on at Fort Stanton, in Lincoln County. Judge Ira E. Leonard, formerly of Missouri, but now of New Mexico, had been employed my Mrs. McSween to prosecute the charges against Col. (Colonel) Dudley of being accessory on the murder of her husband and the burning of her house. Judge Leonard, at the time a resident of Las Vegas was accompanied to Fort Stanton, by John McPherson, Chief of Police at Las Vegas, where they were warned by the gamblers and thugs of that place to leave on pain of death. McPherson had been with Quantrill during the war and was himself a desperado. Returning to Las Vegas sometime afterward, the roughs carried out their threats and killed him. As he and Leonard were sitting in their room at Fort Stanton one night, they heard a tap on the window. Upon opening the shutters the Kid stepped into the room and announced that he had come to end the trial of Dudley by killing him. With much difficulty they succeeded in persuading him from attempting to execute his bloody purpose. He then mounted his horse and struck out for the staked plains, where he embarked in the business of cattle stealing at wholesale, making his headquarters about Fort Summer, and hiding purchases for his stolen herds among men whose names are by no means obscure in territorial history and affairs. Having a difficulty with his old employer, Chisum, in regard to wages due him for various services, he swore vengeance against him and his, and from that time on Chisum's herds and herders suffered. How many men he killed, how many cattle he stole, how many deeds of daring or villainy and cruelty he perpetrated, will never be known until the record books of damnation are opened, and cowboys and Congressmen, lawmakers and lawbreakers, Presidents, pirates, Governors and thugs are summoned to judgment. Two Murders In Thirty Seconds. During the early part of the present year Deputy Sheriff Pat Garrett of Lincoln county captured the Kid and took him to Mesilla, where he was tried and sentenced to be hanged in the town of Lincoln. He was taken to Lincoln, ironed and put under a strong guard. Soon after reaching the town he managed to knock Deputy Sheriff Bell on the head with his handcuffs, and before he could recover from the stunning effect of the blow, the Kid seized his pistol and shot him dead. Deputy United States Marshall Robert Ohlinger, who had been one of the Turner posse in 1879, hearing the shot, came running, gun in hand, to Bell's assistance. The Kid, armed with Bell's shotgun, saw Ohlinger coming, and coolly hailed him with "Hello, Bob." Ohlinger paused a second, and it cost him his life; the Kid poured a charge of buckshot into his heart, killing him instantly - two murders in half a minute. The young monster then stepped out on the portico of the old house in which the dead men had been guarding him, and defied the whole town. He made one man knock his irons off, and covering another with his death-dealing shotgun, ordered him to saddle a horse that was standing in the street, walked out, mounted, and galloped out of town in the presence of the whole population. The End Of The Kid. But such a career must have an end, and Billy the Kid was rapidly nearing the inevitable close of his blood-stained career. He had heretofore carried death with him; but death was now close after him. The manner of the Kid's death, on July 14th, has already been given by us. - Ed. (Editor) Leader. The Kid was anything but a desperado or a monster in appearance. He was very small and slender, being but about five feet two inches tall, and weighing scarcely 120 pounds. He had a plain but pleasant face, with sharp features, blue eyes, and light hair. He was calculated to make friends, and strange as it may seem, left many who sincerely mourned his death. |