October 12, 2023 • 38 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, in the 1870s, the American West was a refuge for outcasts as the nation recovered from the Civil War. In fact, life was so hard that 80-percent of the population was under 30. It was in this harsh and lawless place where a legend was forged. Roger McGrath tells the story of Billy The Kid.
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Speaker 1 (00:11):
This is Lee Habib and this is Our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American People.
To search for the Our American Stories podcast, go to
the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
In the eighteen seventies, the American West was a refuge
(00:31):
for outcasts as the nation recovered from the Civil War.
In fact, life was so hard that eighty percent of
the population was under thirty. It was in this harsh
and lawless place where legend was forged. Roger McGrath is
the author of Gunfighters, Hiowomen and Vigilantes Violence on the Frontier.
(00:51):
A US marine and former history professor at UCLA, doctor
McGrath has appeared on numerous History Channel documentaries and he's
a regular tributor to Hear for us at Our American Stories.
Here's McGrath with the story of Billy the Kid.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Billy the Ged is an American legend. He's been portrayed
as everything from a gallant young man fighting for justice
to a psychopathic killer. I think the truth lies much
closer to gallant young man.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
Billy the Ged is.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Born Henry McCarty in eighteen fifty nine to Irish immigrant
parents Patrick and Catherine in New York City. He is
an older brother named Joseph. The father dies when the
boys are still young, and mother takes them west to Indiana,
then to Kansas, then.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
To New Mexico.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
In Santa Fe, Katherine McCarty marries William Antrim in eighteen
seventy three. Shortly after the wedding, the new Antrim family
moves to Silver City, a booming mining town in southwestern
New Mexico. There in Silver City, Henry McCarty gets his
new nickname, Kid Antrim. He is described by a schoolmate
(02:12):
as being full of fun and mischief, but a school
teacher says he is no more of a problem than
any other. Boy. Is described as a handsome boy with
blue eyes, sandy blondehair, pale skin, and rosy cheeks. He
has a charming smile that is already melting girls' hearts.
(02:34):
Early in eighteen seventy four, the Kid's mother dies at
tuberculosis and he's taken in by another family. He works
at odd jobs, but within a year he's in trouble
for petty thefts. Deciding it's time for him in Silver
City's part company, he heads west for Arizona and finds work.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
As a cowboy.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
All of fifteen years old, he's on his own. While
working on Arizona ranches, the kid makes trips with his
cowboy buddies in New Mexico to russell cattle. As long
as his wrestling stays south of the border, Arizona.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
Lawman pay him no mind.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
However, in eighteen seventy seven, he starts stealing horses from
Arizona ranches and selling.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
Them at mining camps.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
He's soon arrested, shackled, and jailed. Within a day, he
makes a daring escape as a newspaper reports shackles in all.
Six months later, he's arrested again, but again he breaks free.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
The Kid is an escape artist.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
In August eighteen seventy seven, the kid rides into Bonita,
a small settlement next to Camp Grant in southeastern Arizona,
and runs into the old nemesis. Frank Cahill kl is
a browny thirty two year old irishman from County Galway
who pummeled the Kid in a recent fistfight. A second
(04:06):
fight erupts. This time the kid pulls a gun and
puts a bullet in Cayhill's belly. A day later, Cahill
dies from the womb. The kid doesn't wait around to
see if his shooting of Cahill will be declared self
defense and rides hard for New Mexico. By the fall
(04:27):
of eighteen seventy seven, the kid is working as a
cowboy on a ranch in Lincoln County owned by twenty
four year old Englishman John Dunstall.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
Dunstall arrived in.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
New Mexico in eighteen seventy six with a plan to
take control of Lincoln County through land acquisitions and business operations.
He's financed by his wealthy father working with Hunstall is
a lawyer, Alexander MacSween. MacSween is the son of Scottish
immigrants to Canada. He starts his adult life as a
(04:58):
Presbyterian minister, but after moving to the United States, he
attends law school and later establishes a practice in the
town of Lincoln, the county seat for Lincoln County. Business
in Lincoln County focuses on supplying the Fort Stanton Army
Post and the Mescalero Apache Reservation with beef, corn, and flour.
(05:20):
Tunstall reckons he can make a small fortune if he
monopolizes the trade. However, there is already someone in Lincoln
doing just that. That someone is Lawrence Murphy.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
Murphy is an.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
Irish immigrant in his middle forties with sandy blonde hair
and a red beard. Is a veteran of both the U.
S Army and the New Mexico Volunteers and served in
Indian Wars and in the Civil War. He is stationed
at Fort Stanton at the close of the Civil War
and has risen to the rank of major. When he
(05:54):
leaves the service, he develops a mercantile business, first located
at Fort Stanton and and then in the town of Lincoln.
In Lincoln, he builds a store two stories high and
three thousand square feet. The dwarfs every other building in town.
Murphy's business thrives. Residents of Lincoln County refer to L. G.
(06:16):
Murphy and Company as the House of Murphy, or simply
the House. Murphy has two young protegees. One is Irish
born James Dolan. The other even younger protege is John Riley.
John Tunstall thinks he can overthrow the House and establish
(06:36):
his own monopoly. As he writes to his father back.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
In England, everything in New.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
Mexico that pays it all is worked.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
By a ring.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
There is the Indian Ring, the Army Ring, the Political Ring,
the Leagal Ring, the Roman Catholic Ring, the Cattle Ring,
the horse thieves Ring, the land Ring, and half a
dozen other rings. Make things stick.
Speaker 3 (07:01):
To do any good, it is.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
Necessary to either get into a ring or to make
one for yourself.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
And you're listening to Roger McGrath tell the story of
Billy the Kid and who would think born in New
York City of all places? When we come back more
of the story of Billy the Kid with doctor Roger McGrath.
Here on our American Stories.
Speaker 4 (07:30):
Here are our American Stories.
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Speaker 4 (08:09):
And we continue with our American Stories.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
Billy the Kid is working as a cowboy on a
ranch in Lincoln County, New Mexico, in eighteen seventy seven,
and it's owned by a twenty four year old Englishman
named John Tunstall. Hunstall thinks he can overthrow the county's
business monopoly and its owner, Lawrence Murphy. Hunstall plans on
doing this by either becoming a part of a special
(08:32):
interest group or making one up himself. Let's return to
Roger McGrath.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
Dunstall makes ones for himself, and he has the money
to do it. He writes to his father. It is
his goal to get the half of every dollar that
is made in the county by anyone. To put this
into effect, Dunstall first needs a cattle ranch. Mac Sween
gets them a four thousand acre spread some thirty miles
(09:03):
south of Lincoln. Dunstall now thinks here will open a
store in Lincoln to compete with the house, but he
needs a hook to lure farmers away from Murphy's business.
Dunstall decides here'll issue what he calls green notes the
customers against the future harvest of crops. In this way,
(09:24):
farmers can buy on credit, but they will then be
attached to Tunstall's store by debt. By the fall of
eighteen seventy seven, Tunstall's store is up and running. The
timing is propitious. Nearly fifty years old and drinking heavily,
Lawrence Murphy decides to retire. He sells his company to
(09:44):
his understudies, James Dolan and John Riley. To buy the business.
Dolan and Riley have to secure financing in Santa Fe,
and making payments on the loan will not be easy.
This plays right into Tunstall's hands, although Tunstall news it
(10:05):
will be some time before he starts turning a profit.
Unlike Dolan and Riley, he has his father's fortune behind
him and doesn't have to worry about paying off a loan.
Everybody in Lincoln County begins to take sides. Some think
Tunstall will liberate them from monopoly of the house. Others
(10:27):
hate Alex MacSween, Tunstall's partner and attorney. In his few
years in Lincoln, MacSween has become involved in a number
of controversial transactions and leo battles, and has made many
an enemy. Tensions mount and each side higher.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
A gunman.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Into all this walks an eighteen year old boy who
is using the alias William Bonnie. However, he's already known
popularly as the Kid, and now he's called not Bill
Bonnie but Billy the Kid. With a boyish face and
only a little peach fuzz on his upper lip to
(11:10):
occasionally shave, he still looks like a kid, but he
can ride a horse with the best of them, and
can shoot a revolver or a rifle with incredible speed
and accuracy. He has nerves of steel and is cool
and deliberate under fire. With tensions mounting in Lincoln County,
(11:32):
a spark that ignites a war comes. On an evening
in February eighteen seventy eight. Armed with a writ of attachment,
a Bossi sweeps down upon Tunstall, who is out on
the trail helping to drive a herd of horses. Several
of Tunstall's hired hands, including Billy the Kid, are with
(11:52):
the herd also, but are far from Tunstall and don't
see what happens between Tunstall and the bosse. The Bossi
members later say that Tunstall drew his gun first and
fired before they opened up. Perhaps so, but probably not.
Only two weeks earlier, Jimmy Dolan stomped up to Tunstall
(12:14):
and challenged him to shoot it out on the spot.
Speaker 3 (12:18):
Three times.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
Dolan issued the challenge three times, Tunstall refused to go
for his weapon. Dolan finally gave up in disgust. The
Lincoln County War rages for two years, and Billy the
Kid is not only in the thick of the fighting,
but he becomes the leader of the Regulators as the
Tunstall Masween faction of gunmen as called. Some say the
(12:43):
Kid kills as many as twenty one men, but one
third that number is probably closer to the truth. Nonetheless,
he is clearly the war's most deadly fighter. Some of
his exploits defy the imagination. The first target for Billy
the Kid and the Regulators are members of the posse
(13:05):
that had shot Tunstall in March eighteen seventy eight. The
Regulators catch up with two of them, Frank Baker and
William Morton. Both of them are shot dead, likely by
the Kid. The next target for the Kid is William Brady,
the Lincoln County sheriff. Brady is a fair and honest
(13:27):
sheriff and a longtime friend of Lawrence Murphy.
Speaker 3 (13:30):
The two have much in common. Brady was born.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
In Ireland and immigrates to the United States in eighteen
fifty one. He immediately enlists in the US Army and
serves for ten years before being discharged in New Mexico.
He then joins the New Mexico Volunteers and serves throughout
the Civil War with Murphy. Like Murphy, Brady rises to
the rank of major. Following the Civil War, Brady serves
(13:56):
as a member of the Territorial Legislature and then as Shared.
Speaker 3 (14:00):
Of Lincoln County.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
He lives on a farm where he and his Hispanic
wife were her several children. In all ways, he's well
respected because of his friendship with Murphy, he's aligned with
a house faction.
Speaker 3 (14:16):
On a day in.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
April eighteen seventy eight, as Sheriff Brady and four of
his deputies walk down Lincoln's main street, the kid and
several other regulators open fire from behind an adobe wall.
Brady and Deputy George Henman are killed, and Deputy Billy
Matthews is wounded. As Matthews and the other two deputies
(14:37):
run for cover, the kid bolts into the street and
rifles the pockets of Sheriff Brady. The kid is looking
for an arrest warrant that the sheriff supposedly has for
Alex Maxween from cover. The deputies now open fire and
the bullet goes clean through the kid's eigh He limps
away to his horse and gallops out of town. Another
(15:02):
one of the regulators, Big Jim French, is also wounded.
Unable to ride, he hides in town. That night, the
Kid returns and rescues Big Jim. Over the next three months,
the Kid is involved in a half dozen gun battles. Then,
in the middle of July, occurs a five day fight
(15:24):
in the town of Lincoln, which is known as the
Five Day Battle or the Battle of Lincoln. Leading up
to the battle, the regulators take positions in different locations
in Lincoln. The Kid in ten others set up in
mac sween's house on Main Street in the middle of town.
Another forty regulators are spread throughout the town. The Dolan
(15:47):
Riley Forces, led by the new County Sheriff George Peppin,
number about forty. Most residents of the town, mostly old
time Hispanic settlers, flee in terror. Others hunker down in
their homes fearing for their lives. The shooting starts when
(16:07):
the regulators open fire on some of the Peppin's deputies,
several are wounded. After that initial blast, there is intermittent
shooting both day and night. On the fourth day of
the battle, Colonel Nathan Deadley and several dozen troops from
nearby Fort Staff arrive not to stop the fighting, but
to evacuate non combatant citizens. Colonel Deadley says he has
(16:30):
no authority to intervene on one side or the other,
but he is there to escort Lincoln residents to safety.
Although Deadly says he is neutro The sight of the
troops cause half of the regulators to bend in their.
Speaker 3 (16:44):
Positions and ride for the hills.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
Most of the regulators reckon that should shooting erupt, the
army will naturally side with the sheriff Peppin forces. Not
only would the regulators then be facing federal forces, but
those forces have not only their rifles and sight arms,
but also a small howitzer and a gatling gun.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
And you're listening to Roger McGrath tell one heck of
a story, and remember the key fact that let off
this storytelling, eighty percent of the population was under thirty.
No good comes of that anywhere in the world, And
my goodness, what naturally happens is gang's form.
Speaker 4 (17:23):
You can call them what you want. This was gang warfare.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
Long before there were bloods and crips, and long before
the Five crime Families of New York, we had the
great Wars of Lincoln County. And what could the federal
government do? Empty Lincoln out and let these guys go
at it. When we come back, McGrath tells more of
the story of Billy the Kid, orphaned at the age
(17:47):
of fifteen and in the middle of one of the
great gunfights battles, gang battles in American history. The story
continues here on our American stories, and we continue with
(18:09):
our American stories and the story of Billy the Kid.
Businessman John Sunstall was the first to be killed in
what we now know is the Lincoln County War. This
battle was fought against the county's business monopoly run by
Lawrence Murphy James Dolan, and.
Speaker 4 (18:24):
Backed by Sheriff George Peppen.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
Constall's eighteen year old employee, Billy the Kid, along with
other men, vow revenge and take refuge in the home
of Alexander McSween, Constall's friend.
Speaker 4 (18:36):
And business partner.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
Let's return to Roger McGrath and the Story of Billy
the Kid.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
Sheriff Peppin takes advantage of the lull in fighting to
try to serve warrants for the rest of Maxween. A
deputy approaches Maxween's house and shots for Maxween to surrender.
Maxween replies he will not and says he has warrants
for the arrest of the Bosse members. The deputy demands
(19:06):
to see the warrants. Big Jim French shouts out, our
warrants are in our guns, you sucking sons of them. Well,
this will be a fight to the finish. Sheriff Peppin
decides to set the mac sween house on fire, but
that proves easier said than done. Gunfire drives torts wielding
(19:28):
deputies back several times before a small blaze is started.
Mac Sween's wife, Susan, leaves the house to plead with
Colonel Dudley, but Dudley says he has come only to
evacuate the women and children and that Sheriff Peppin is
doing his lawful duty and trying to serve the warrants.
(19:50):
Susan returns to the house, but leaves for a final
time in the early evening. By nightfall, the fire is
roaring and has consumed all all of the Maxween House
but the kitchen, where the regulators are huddled. They decide
to make a break for it through the rear door.
Led by Billy the Kid. Out the back door, they
(20:11):
go headed for a gate at the rear of the property.
Suddenly they're illuminated by the flames and Pepin's men open fire.
Half of the fleeing regulators are cut down by flying lead,
but the kid and four others race through the gate
and disappear into a dense stand timmer along a river.
(20:33):
The Kid has escaped once again. The next morning, daylight
reveals the carnage. Five bullet riddled bodies lie in the
yard behind the smoking ruins of the Maxween House. Alex
Maxween's corpse is there, along with the bodies of three
of the regulators and the body of a deputy. Chickens
(20:56):
peck at the corpses. All together, the Battle of lincol
And takes eight lives and leaves that many more seriously wounded.
By now, the Lincoln County War has caught the attention
of officials in Washington. The Territorial governor is removed from
office and a new one appointed. The new governor for
(21:17):
New Mexico Territory is Low Wallace, a lawyer from Indiana.
Wallace is very active in Republican Party politics. The appointment
as governor is his reward for faithful service through the party.
When Wallace arrives in New Mexico, he's a fifty one
year old veteran about the Mexican War and the Civil War,
(21:38):
having risen to the rank of Briadier General. He's tall
and thin, with a weather beaten face and dark hair
that is turned in gray. He's a true renaissance man,
a lawyer, politician, soldier, scholar, writer, and musician. Wallace declares
Lincoln County to be in the state of insurrection and
(22:01):
orders all factions to disband and return to their homes
by the middle of October. After that, he will allow
the army to assist civilian authorities against those failing to comply.
By November, everything seems to be going so smoothly that
Wallace issues what is called a general pardon to all
(22:24):
those involved in the Lincoln County War who have not
yet been indicted by a grand jury. Wallace draws severe
criticism for the amnesty. Many people think it's an open
invitation to those who have fled New Mexico to return
and renew their Outlawry Wallace thinks he's done with the problem,
(22:46):
and he resumes work on a novel he started some
time earlier. Each night he secludes himself.
Speaker 3 (22:53):
In the Governor's mansion and.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
Writes a few more pages of a manuscript that is
eventually published.
Speaker 3 (23:00):
Has been her.
Speaker 2 (23:05):
In February eighteen seventy nine, a peace conference is proposed
to be held in Lincoln between the old warring factions.
Billy the Kid endorses as the proposal. He tells other
regulators tired of fighting and tired of running from Sheriff
Peppin and his posses. Late in February, some two dozen
of the old antagonists gather in Lincoln, exactly one year
(23:28):
since the killing of John Dunstall. The conference has an
inauspicious beginning. One of Dolan's boys, Jesse Evans, says the
Kid can't be dealt with peaceably and should be killed
on the spot. A Kid says he has come to
make peace. Temper is cool, and a formal treaty is
drawn up. The treaty stipulates that no one on either
(23:50):
side will kill anyone without first withdrawing from the treaty.
It also says that no soldiers will be killed for
any past defense, that no one will give evidence in
a civil prosecution. Finally, it says anyone who fails to
live up to the agreement.
Speaker 3 (24:08):
Will be killed.
Speaker 2 (24:10):
After general handshaking, the boys go out and get drunk.
Speaker 3 (24:15):
In their revelry.
Speaker 2 (24:16):
While shooting their guns on Main Street, they kill Houston Chapman,
a lawyer who has worked with Maxween. The killing doesn't
seem to phase them in the least, They continue walking
down the street to the next saloon and another round
of drinks. The killing prompts Governor lou Wallace to finally
make a trip to Lincoln. He's afraid the killing might
(24:39):
signal a new round of fighting. While in Lincoln, a
messenger brings Wallace a note from a participant in the
peace conference. The writer of the note explains that he
came to Lincoln to make friends with old enemies so
as to be able to lay aside my arms and
go to work. I was present when mister Chapman was
(25:03):
murdered and know who did it, but I have indictments
against me for things that happened in the past in
the Lincoln County War, and am afraid to give up
because my enemies would kill me. I am called Kid Antrim,
but Antrim is my stepfather's name. Governor Wallace loses no
(25:24):
time in sending a reply and setting up a secret meeting.
On the night of Saint Patrick's Day, March seventeenth, eighteen
seventy nine, the governor and the outlaw rendezvous in a
small house. The kid, as instructed, knocked softly on the
side door. At nine pm, The doors open and the
(25:47):
kid enters wearily, a rifle in one hand and a
revolver in the other. A small room is illuminated only
by a flickering oil lamp. The fifty one year old governor,
a scholar, general, lawyer, and author, sits facing the nineteen
(26:07):
year old kid, a cowboy, catle wrestler, horse thief, gunfighter
and leader of the regulators. An agreement is reached. Wallace
will contrive and arrest of the kid and confine him
in Lincoln until the district court convenes. The kid will
identify the killers of Chapman for the grand jury, and
(26:28):
in return Wallace will protect him from prosecution for the
killing of Sheriff Brady and others. A few days later,
the kid is arrested and confined in a private home
in Lincoln. In a letter to the U S Secretary
of the Interior, Governor Wallace writes, a precious specimen nicknamed
the kid, whom the sheriff is holding here in the
(26:49):
plaza is an object of tender regard. I heard singing
in music the other night. Going to the door, I
found minstrels of the village actually nating the fellow in prison.
The Governor might also have mentioned the girls and young
women of Lincoln who bake pies and cookies for the
kid and pine for him. The teenage outlaw is a
(27:13):
babe magnet.
Speaker 1 (27:15):
And you've been listening to Roger McGrath do what he
does best. The story of Billy the Kid, as told
by Roger McGrath continues here on our American stories. And
(27:37):
we continue with our American stories and with the story
of Billy the Kid. Let's pick up where we last
left off. Here again is Roger McGrath.
Speaker 2 (27:47):
The Grand Jury of Lincoln County meets early in April.
The kid is one of those who testify. The grand
jury returns some two hundred indictments against fifty men. However,
none of the indicted men come to trial when the
district court convenes later in April, and most never do.
After testifying, Belly, the kid simply rides out of Lincoln.
(28:11):
He kept his end of the bargain. Now it's up
to Governor Wallace to protect the kid from many prosecution.
With the war ended, though Wallace loses interest in Lincoln
County and does nothing about earlier grand jury indictments of
the kid, Kidd writes letters to the governor but gets
no response.
Speaker 3 (28:30):
Accrourring.
Speaker 2 (28:31):
Desperate, the kid returns to al lawry. Only then does
the governor respond and announces a five hundred dollar reward
for capture of the kid, something like fifty thousand dollars today.
In eighteen eighty, Pat Garrett is elected the new sheriff
of Lincoln County.
Speaker 3 (28:50):
Garrett is a.
Speaker 2 (28:51):
Tall, lanky, thirty year old former cowboy and buffalo hunter.
He arrived in New Mexico a few years earlier from Texas.
Prior to becoming sheriff, Garrett knew the kid as a
casual friend. The two spent some time together drinking in saloons,
and Garrett is familiar with the kid's habits and his
favorite haunts. Now, Garrett sets out to capture it. The
(29:14):
notorious bill at a kid and click the five hundred
dollars reward. Late on a December night in eighteen eighty,
after many weeks of tracking, Sheriff Garrett and his posse
catch up with the kid and a few of his
gang members in an old stone cabin at Stinking Springs,
one hundred miles to the northeast of Lincoln. Garrett and
(29:35):
his deputies surround the cabin and wait for sunrise.
Speaker 3 (29:42):
Soon, one of.
Speaker 2 (29:43):
The kid's men, Charlie Bowdrey, walks out to feed their horses,
which are tethered just outside the cabin door. Garrett calls
out the Boudery to throw up his hands. Instead, Boudrey
reaches for his guns a dozen rifles. Instantly bark and
Boudery is with bullets. With Bowdery dead on the ground,
(30:04):
all is suddenly quiet. From inside the cabin, the kid
yells out, asking if that's Pat Garrett out there. The
following exchange occurs, Garrett, I'm here, the kid, Pat, Why
don't you come up like a man and give us
a fair fight. Garrett, I don't aim to the kid,
(30:30):
you old long legged son of a The kid decides
they should pull their horses inside the cabin, saddle them,
and make a dash for it by bolting through the
cabin door through a hail of gunfire.
Speaker 3 (30:47):
They get two of the.
Speaker 2 (30:48):
Horses inside, but a third one drops dead in the doorway.
They are now stuck inside the cabin. Desultory shooting continues.
During lulls in the action, the kid cracks, jokes, yells
back and forth with Garrett, and challenges Garrett to duel. Finally,
late in the afternoon, a stick with a white rag
(31:10):
on it is way from the cabin. One of the
kid's men comes out with his hands up. He says
the kid will surrender if Garrett will take him and
the others not to Lincoln, but to Santa Fe. If not,
they will stay in the cabin and fight to the death.
Garrett agrees to take them to Santa Fe. Once in
(31:32):
jail and Santa Fe, the kid again writes to Governor
Wallace for help. Says the kid, I have done everything
I promised you, and you have done nothing.
Speaker 3 (31:43):
That you promise me.
Speaker 2 (31:46):
Wallace ignores the kids please. In April eighteen eighty one,
the kid is transported to Messia for the spring term
of the District Court and has tried for the murder
of Sheriff Brady. The trial lasts for two days and
the jury returns a verdict of guilty. The judge sentences
(32:06):
the kid to be taken Lincoln and hanged. Two weeks later,
Governor Wallace takes time away from writing ben her to
sign the kid's death warrant. The kid is chained and
shackled and blowed it into a wagon for the journey
to Lincoln. Five armed guards ride alongside the wagon. Another
(32:27):
three guards ride in the wagon with the kid, including
Deputy U. S.
Speaker 3 (32:32):
Marshal Bob Ollinger.
Speaker 2 (32:34):
Ollinger is a tall, powerfully built bully who takes pleasure
in tormenting the kid. By late April, the kid is
lodged in a second floor room of the County Courthouse
in Lincoln.
Speaker 3 (32:48):
The kid is wearing leg.
Speaker 2 (32:49):
Shackles in his chain to the floor. Deputies Bob Ollinger
and James Bell guard him. Ollinger draws a chalk line
on the floor around the kid and says if he
crosses that.
Speaker 3 (33:02):
Line, he will be shot dead.
Speaker 2 (33:05):
Bill treats the kid decently, but Ollinger constantly taunts him
about his approaching hanging and regularly invites him to try
to make a break so that he Ollinger will have
the pleasure of blasting him in half with the shotgun
he carries. At noon on April twenty eight, Ollinger escorts
(33:29):
some other prisoners across the street to a hotel restaurant
for lunch and leaves Bell with the kid. Ollinger is
armed with a revolver but has left his shotgun behind.
The kid asks Bill to take him to the privy
behind the courthouse. Inside the privy, the kid finds a
hidden gun planted by a friend back in the courthouse.
(33:53):
While ascending the stairs to the second floor, the kid
whirls about gun in hand. Bill leaps the gun.
Speaker 3 (34:00):
But the kid shoots him.
Speaker 2 (34:02):
Bill staggers down the stairs and falls dead into the
arms of the courthouse janitor. The kid churns his shackled
legs up the stairs and grabs Ollinger's double barreled shotgun.
At the same time, Ollinger emerges from the hotel restaurant
and steps into the street. The janitor yells to him
(34:24):
the kid has killed Bill. The next thing the stunned
Ollinger ears comes from the kid, who is leaning out
of a second story window. Hello, Bob, look up and
see what you get. Ollinger looks up and sees the
(34:45):
kid leaning out the window with shotgun in hand. Ollinger says, yes,
and he's killed me too. At that moment, the kid
squeezes both triggers and a double load of buckshot more
than a quarter pound of lead tear into Ollinger's chest.
(35:05):
He drops to the ground dead. The kid then walks
out onto the second floor balcony of the courthouse and
greets the residence of Lincoln.
Speaker 3 (35:16):
The kid explains he.
Speaker 2 (35:17):
Didn't want to kill Bell and it's sorry about it,
but Ollinger got the killing he deserved. Still with shackles
on his legs, the kid then walks downstairs and into
the street with his booted foot. He turns Ollinger's body
over and says, you aren't gonna round me up again.
(35:38):
After more than two months of chasing the kid in Vain,
Sure if Pat Garrett receives a tip that the kid
is at Pete Maxwell's ranch on the night of July fourteenth,
eighteen eighty one, Garrett positions himself in a room used
by the kid. Garrett's deputies are hidden nearby. Where is
(35:58):
the kid. He's out in Maxwell's peach orchard making love
to a girlfriend. Meanwhile, Garrett waits in the dark room.
After a while, the kid, unarmed in barefoot, steps onto
the threshold of the doorway leading into the room, Sensing
someone is in the room. The kid stops suddenly and
(36:21):
calls out ke and s thinking it might be one
of Maxwell's workers. Garrett replies by shooting twice at the kid.
One bullet hits a kid in the chest, penetrating his heart.
He slumps to the floor dead. He's twenty one years
old and already legendary. He becomes an even greater legend
(36:43):
in death.
Speaker 4 (36:46):
And what a story you just heard?
Speaker 1 (36:48):
By none better on storytelling about the American West and
so many other things.
Speaker 4 (36:54):
And that's Roger McGrath. A special thanks to him for
all he does.
Speaker 1 (36:58):
He's the author of Gunfighters, how I mean in Vigilantes
Violence on the Frontier, a US Marine, A former history
professor at UCLA, Doctor McGrath has appeared a numerous History
Channel documentaries and we are grateful to have him as
a regular contributor here on our American Stories, and as always,
all of our history stories are brought to us by
(37:19):
the great folks at Hillsdale College, where you can go
to learn all the things that are beautiful in life,
all the things that matter in life, and they're terrific
and superbly crafted. Teaching series is available to all in
this country for free.
Speaker 4 (37:34):
Go to Hillsdale dot edu.
Speaker 1 (37:36):
I learned more from their constitution one oh one class
than I did it three years at the University of
Virginia School of Law. If you'd like to hear more
of doctor McGrath's storytelling on the West, Jedediah Smith, Kit
Carson bat Masterson, the story of the King's Ranch, and
the story of how the West shaped Teddy Roosevelt, and
so many more, go to our American Stories dot com
(37:58):
and search for the word grath and you will not
be disappointed. The story of Billie the Kid here on
our American Stories
This is Lee Habib and this is Our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American People.
To search for the Our American Stories podcast, go to
the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
In the eighteen seventies, the American West was a refuge
(00:31):
for outcasts as the nation recovered from the Civil War.
In fact, life was so hard that eighty percent of
the population was under thirty. It was in this harsh
and lawless place where legend was forged. Roger McGrath is
the author of Gunfighters, Hiowomen and Vigilantes Violence on the Frontier.
(00:51):
A US marine and former history professor at UCLA, doctor
McGrath has appeared on numerous History Channel documentaries and he's
a regular tributor to Hear for us at Our American Stories.
Here's McGrath with the story of Billy the Kid.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Billy the Ged is an American legend. He's been portrayed
as everything from a gallant young man fighting for justice
to a psychopathic killer. I think the truth lies much
closer to gallant young man.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
Billy the Ged is.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Born Henry McCarty in eighteen fifty nine to Irish immigrant
parents Patrick and Catherine in New York City. He is
an older brother named Joseph. The father dies when the
boys are still young, and mother takes them west to Indiana,
then to Kansas, then.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
To New Mexico.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
In Santa Fe, Katherine McCarty marries William Antrim in eighteen
seventy three. Shortly after the wedding, the new Antrim family
moves to Silver City, a booming mining town in southwestern
New Mexico. There in Silver City, Henry McCarty gets his
new nickname, Kid Antrim. He is described by a schoolmate
(02:12):
as being full of fun and mischief, but a school
teacher says he is no more of a problem than
any other. Boy. Is described as a handsome boy with
blue eyes, sandy blondehair, pale skin, and rosy cheeks. He
has a charming smile that is already melting girls' hearts.
(02:34):
Early in eighteen seventy four, the Kid's mother dies at
tuberculosis and he's taken in by another family. He works
at odd jobs, but within a year he's in trouble
for petty thefts. Deciding it's time for him in Silver
City's part company, he heads west for Arizona and finds work.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
As a cowboy.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
All of fifteen years old, he's on his own. While
working on Arizona ranches, the kid makes trips with his
cowboy buddies in New Mexico to russell cattle. As long
as his wrestling stays south of the border, Arizona.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
Lawman pay him no mind.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
However, in eighteen seventy seven, he starts stealing horses from
Arizona ranches and selling.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
Them at mining camps.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
He's soon arrested, shackled, and jailed. Within a day, he
makes a daring escape as a newspaper reports shackles in all.
Six months later, he's arrested again, but again he breaks free.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
The Kid is an escape artist.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
In August eighteen seventy seven, the kid rides into Bonita,
a small settlement next to Camp Grant in southeastern Arizona,
and runs into the old nemesis. Frank Cahill kl is
a browny thirty two year old irishman from County Galway
who pummeled the Kid in a recent fistfight. A second
(04:06):
fight erupts. This time the kid pulls a gun and
puts a bullet in Cayhill's belly. A day later, Cahill
dies from the womb. The kid doesn't wait around to
see if his shooting of Cahill will be declared self
defense and rides hard for New Mexico. By the fall
(04:27):
of eighteen seventy seven, the kid is working as a
cowboy on a ranch in Lincoln County owned by twenty
four year old Englishman John Dunstall.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
Dunstall arrived in.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
New Mexico in eighteen seventy six with a plan to
take control of Lincoln County through land acquisitions and business operations.
He's financed by his wealthy father working with Hunstall is
a lawyer, Alexander MacSween. MacSween is the son of Scottish
immigrants to Canada. He starts his adult life as a
(04:58):
Presbyterian minister, but after moving to the United States, he
attends law school and later establishes a practice in the
town of Lincoln, the county seat for Lincoln County. Business
in Lincoln County focuses on supplying the Fort Stanton Army
Post and the Mescalero Apache Reservation with beef, corn, and flour.
(05:20):
Tunstall reckons he can make a small fortune if he
monopolizes the trade. However, there is already someone in Lincoln
doing just that. That someone is Lawrence Murphy.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
Murphy is an.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
Irish immigrant in his middle forties with sandy blonde hair
and a red beard. Is a veteran of both the U.
S Army and the New Mexico Volunteers and served in
Indian Wars and in the Civil War. He is stationed
at Fort Stanton at the close of the Civil War
and has risen to the rank of major. When he
(05:54):
leaves the service, he develops a mercantile business, first located
at Fort Stanton and and then in the town of Lincoln.
In Lincoln, he builds a store two stories high and
three thousand square feet. The dwarfs every other building in town.
Murphy's business thrives. Residents of Lincoln County refer to L. G.
(06:16):
Murphy and Company as the House of Murphy, or simply
the House. Murphy has two young protegees. One is Irish
born James Dolan. The other even younger protege is John Riley.
John Tunstall thinks he can overthrow the House and establish
(06:36):
his own monopoly. As he writes to his father back.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
In England, everything in New.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
Mexico that pays it all is worked.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
By a ring.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
There is the Indian Ring, the Army Ring, the Political Ring,
the Leagal Ring, the Roman Catholic Ring, the Cattle Ring,
the horse thieves Ring, the land Ring, and half a
dozen other rings. Make things stick.
Speaker 3 (07:01):
To do any good, it is.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
Necessary to either get into a ring or to make
one for yourself.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
And you're listening to Roger McGrath tell the story of
Billy the Kid and who would think born in New
York City of all places? When we come back more
of the story of Billy the Kid with doctor Roger McGrath.
Here on our American Stories.
Speaker 4 (07:30):
Here are our American Stories.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
We bring you inspiring stories of history, sports, business, faith
and love. Stories from a great and beautiful country that
need to be told. But we can't do it without you.
Our stories are free to listen to, but they're not
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like we do, please go to our American Stories dot
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Speaker 4 (07:51):
Click the donate button.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
Give a little, give a lot, help us keep the
great American stories coming. That's our American Stories dot Com.
Speaker 4 (08:09):
And we continue with our American Stories.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
Billy the Kid is working as a cowboy on a
ranch in Lincoln County, New Mexico, in eighteen seventy seven,
and it's owned by a twenty four year old Englishman
named John Tunstall. Hunstall thinks he can overthrow the county's
business monopoly and its owner, Lawrence Murphy. Hunstall plans on
doing this by either becoming a part of a special
(08:32):
interest group or making one up himself. Let's return to
Roger McGrath.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
Dunstall makes ones for himself, and he has the money
to do it. He writes to his father. It is
his goal to get the half of every dollar that
is made in the county by anyone. To put this
into effect, Dunstall first needs a cattle ranch. Mac Sween
gets them a four thousand acre spread some thirty miles
(09:03):
south of Lincoln. Dunstall now thinks here will open a
store in Lincoln to compete with the house, but he
needs a hook to lure farmers away from Murphy's business.
Dunstall decides here'll issue what he calls green notes the
customers against the future harvest of crops. In this way,
(09:24):
farmers can buy on credit, but they will then be
attached to Tunstall's store by debt. By the fall of
eighteen seventy seven, Tunstall's store is up and running. The
timing is propitious. Nearly fifty years old and drinking heavily,
Lawrence Murphy decides to retire. He sells his company to
(09:44):
his understudies, James Dolan and John Riley. To buy the business.
Dolan and Riley have to secure financing in Santa Fe,
and making payments on the loan will not be easy.
This plays right into Tunstall's hands, although Tunstall news it
(10:05):
will be some time before he starts turning a profit.
Unlike Dolan and Riley, he has his father's fortune behind
him and doesn't have to worry about paying off a loan.
Everybody in Lincoln County begins to take sides. Some think
Tunstall will liberate them from monopoly of the house. Others
(10:27):
hate Alex MacSween, Tunstall's partner and attorney. In his few
years in Lincoln, MacSween has become involved in a number
of controversial transactions and leo battles, and has made many
an enemy. Tensions mount and each side higher.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
A gunman.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Into all this walks an eighteen year old boy who
is using the alias William Bonnie. However, he's already known
popularly as the Kid, and now he's called not Bill
Bonnie but Billy the Kid. With a boyish face and
only a little peach fuzz on his upper lip to
(11:10):
occasionally shave, he still looks like a kid, but he
can ride a horse with the best of them, and
can shoot a revolver or a rifle with incredible speed
and accuracy. He has nerves of steel and is cool
and deliberate under fire. With tensions mounting in Lincoln County,
(11:32):
a spark that ignites a war comes. On an evening
in February eighteen seventy eight. Armed with a writ of attachment,
a Bossi sweeps down upon Tunstall, who is out on
the trail helping to drive a herd of horses. Several
of Tunstall's hired hands, including Billy the Kid, are with
(11:52):
the herd also, but are far from Tunstall and don't
see what happens between Tunstall and the bosse. The Bossi
members later say that Tunstall drew his gun first and
fired before they opened up. Perhaps so, but probably not.
Only two weeks earlier, Jimmy Dolan stomped up to Tunstall
(12:14):
and challenged him to shoot it out on the spot.
Speaker 3 (12:18):
Three times.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
Dolan issued the challenge three times, Tunstall refused to go
for his weapon. Dolan finally gave up in disgust. The
Lincoln County War rages for two years, and Billy the
Kid is not only in the thick of the fighting,
but he becomes the leader of the Regulators as the
Tunstall Masween faction of gunmen as called. Some say the
(12:43):
Kid kills as many as twenty one men, but one
third that number is probably closer to the truth. Nonetheless,
he is clearly the war's most deadly fighter. Some of
his exploits defy the imagination. The first target for Billy
the Kid and the Regulators are members of the posse
(13:05):
that had shot Tunstall in March eighteen seventy eight. The
Regulators catch up with two of them, Frank Baker and
William Morton. Both of them are shot dead, likely by
the Kid. The next target for the Kid is William Brady,
the Lincoln County sheriff. Brady is a fair and honest
(13:27):
sheriff and a longtime friend of Lawrence Murphy.
Speaker 3 (13:30):
The two have much in common. Brady was born.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
In Ireland and immigrates to the United States in eighteen
fifty one. He immediately enlists in the US Army and
serves for ten years before being discharged in New Mexico.
He then joins the New Mexico Volunteers and serves throughout
the Civil War with Murphy. Like Murphy, Brady rises to
the rank of major. Following the Civil War, Brady serves
(13:56):
as a member of the Territorial Legislature and then as Shared.
Speaker 3 (14:00):
Of Lincoln County.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
He lives on a farm where he and his Hispanic
wife were her several children. In all ways, he's well
respected because of his friendship with Murphy, he's aligned with
a house faction.
Speaker 3 (14:16):
On a day in.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
April eighteen seventy eight, as Sheriff Brady and four of
his deputies walk down Lincoln's main street, the kid and
several other regulators open fire from behind an adobe wall.
Brady and Deputy George Henman are killed, and Deputy Billy
Matthews is wounded. As Matthews and the other two deputies
(14:37):
run for cover, the kid bolts into the street and
rifles the pockets of Sheriff Brady. The kid is looking
for an arrest warrant that the sheriff supposedly has for
Alex Maxween from cover. The deputies now open fire and
the bullet goes clean through the kid's eigh He limps
away to his horse and gallops out of town. Another
(15:02):
one of the regulators, Big Jim French, is also wounded.
Unable to ride, he hides in town. That night, the
Kid returns and rescues Big Jim. Over the next three months,
the Kid is involved in a half dozen gun battles. Then,
in the middle of July, occurs a five day fight
(15:24):
in the town of Lincoln, which is known as the
Five Day Battle or the Battle of Lincoln. Leading up
to the battle, the regulators take positions in different locations
in Lincoln. The Kid in ten others set up in
mac sween's house on Main Street in the middle of town.
Another forty regulators are spread throughout the town. The Dolan
(15:47):
Riley Forces, led by the new County Sheriff George Peppin,
number about forty. Most residents of the town, mostly old
time Hispanic settlers, flee in terror. Others hunker down in
their homes fearing for their lives. The shooting starts when
(16:07):
the regulators open fire on some of the Peppin's deputies,
several are wounded. After that initial blast, there is intermittent
shooting both day and night. On the fourth day of
the battle, Colonel Nathan Deadley and several dozen troops from
nearby Fort Staff arrive not to stop the fighting, but
to evacuate non combatant citizens. Colonel Deadley says he has
(16:30):
no authority to intervene on one side or the other,
but he is there to escort Lincoln residents to safety.
Although Deadly says he is neutro The sight of the
troops cause half of the regulators to bend in their.
Speaker 3 (16:44):
Positions and ride for the hills.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
Most of the regulators reckon that should shooting erupt, the
army will naturally side with the sheriff Peppin forces. Not
only would the regulators then be facing federal forces, but
those forces have not only their rifles and sight arms,
but also a small howitzer and a gatling gun.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
And you're listening to Roger McGrath tell one heck of
a story, and remember the key fact that let off
this storytelling, eighty percent of the population was under thirty.
No good comes of that anywhere in the world, And
my goodness, what naturally happens is gang's form.
Speaker 4 (17:23):
You can call them what you want. This was gang warfare.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
Long before there were bloods and crips, and long before
the Five crime Families of New York, we had the
great Wars of Lincoln County. And what could the federal
government do? Empty Lincoln out and let these guys go
at it. When we come back, McGrath tells more of
the story of Billy the Kid, orphaned at the age
(17:47):
of fifteen and in the middle of one of the
great gunfights battles, gang battles in American history. The story
continues here on our American stories, and we continue with
(18:09):
our American stories and the story of Billy the Kid.
Businessman John Sunstall was the first to be killed in
what we now know is the Lincoln County War. This
battle was fought against the county's business monopoly run by
Lawrence Murphy James Dolan, and.
Speaker 4 (18:24):
Backed by Sheriff George Peppen.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
Constall's eighteen year old employee, Billy the Kid, along with
other men, vow revenge and take refuge in the home
of Alexander McSween, Constall's friend.
Speaker 4 (18:36):
And business partner.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
Let's return to Roger McGrath and the Story of Billy
the Kid.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
Sheriff Peppin takes advantage of the lull in fighting to
try to serve warrants for the rest of Maxween. A
deputy approaches Maxween's house and shots for Maxween to surrender.
Maxween replies he will not and says he has warrants
for the arrest of the Bosse members. The deputy demands
(19:06):
to see the warrants. Big Jim French shouts out, our
warrants are in our guns, you sucking sons of them. Well,
this will be a fight to the finish. Sheriff Peppin
decides to set the mac sween house on fire, but
that proves easier said than done. Gunfire drives torts wielding
(19:28):
deputies back several times before a small blaze is started.
Mac Sween's wife, Susan, leaves the house to plead with
Colonel Dudley, but Dudley says he has come only to
evacuate the women and children and that Sheriff Peppin is
doing his lawful duty and trying to serve the warrants.
(19:50):
Susan returns to the house, but leaves for a final
time in the early evening. By nightfall, the fire is
roaring and has consumed all all of the Maxween House
but the kitchen, where the regulators are huddled. They decide
to make a break for it through the rear door.
Led by Billy the Kid. Out the back door, they
(20:11):
go headed for a gate at the rear of the property.
Suddenly they're illuminated by the flames and Pepin's men open fire.
Half of the fleeing regulators are cut down by flying lead,
but the kid and four others race through the gate
and disappear into a dense stand timmer along a river.
(20:33):
The Kid has escaped once again. The next morning, daylight
reveals the carnage. Five bullet riddled bodies lie in the
yard behind the smoking ruins of the Maxween House. Alex
Maxween's corpse is there, along with the bodies of three
of the regulators and the body of a deputy. Chickens
(20:56):
peck at the corpses. All together, the Battle of lincol
And takes eight lives and leaves that many more seriously wounded.
By now, the Lincoln County War has caught the attention
of officials in Washington. The Territorial governor is removed from
office and a new one appointed. The new governor for
(21:17):
New Mexico Territory is Low Wallace, a lawyer from Indiana.
Wallace is very active in Republican Party politics. The appointment
as governor is his reward for faithful service through the party.
When Wallace arrives in New Mexico, he's a fifty one
year old veteran about the Mexican War and the Civil War,
(21:38):
having risen to the rank of Briadier General. He's tall
and thin, with a weather beaten face and dark hair
that is turned in gray. He's a true renaissance man,
a lawyer, politician, soldier, scholar, writer, and musician. Wallace declares
Lincoln County to be in the state of insurrection and
(22:01):
orders all factions to disband and return to their homes
by the middle of October. After that, he will allow
the army to assist civilian authorities against those failing to comply.
By November, everything seems to be going so smoothly that
Wallace issues what is called a general pardon to all
(22:24):
those involved in the Lincoln County War who have not
yet been indicted by a grand jury. Wallace draws severe
criticism for the amnesty. Many people think it's an open
invitation to those who have fled New Mexico to return
and renew their Outlawry Wallace thinks he's done with the problem,
(22:46):
and he resumes work on a novel he started some
time earlier. Each night he secludes himself.
Speaker 3 (22:53):
In the Governor's mansion and.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
Writes a few more pages of a manuscript that is
eventually published.
Speaker 3 (23:00):
Has been her.
Speaker 2 (23:05):
In February eighteen seventy nine, a peace conference is proposed
to be held in Lincoln between the old warring factions.
Billy the Kid endorses as the proposal. He tells other
regulators tired of fighting and tired of running from Sheriff
Peppin and his posses. Late in February, some two dozen
of the old antagonists gather in Lincoln, exactly one year
(23:28):
since the killing of John Dunstall. The conference has an
inauspicious beginning. One of Dolan's boys, Jesse Evans, says the
Kid can't be dealt with peaceably and should be killed
on the spot. A Kid says he has come to
make peace. Temper is cool, and a formal treaty is
drawn up. The treaty stipulates that no one on either
(23:50):
side will kill anyone without first withdrawing from the treaty.
It also says that no soldiers will be killed for
any past defense, that no one will give evidence in
a civil prosecution. Finally, it says anyone who fails to
live up to the agreement.
Speaker 3 (24:08):
Will be killed.
Speaker 2 (24:10):
After general handshaking, the boys go out and get drunk.
Speaker 3 (24:15):
In their revelry.
Speaker 2 (24:16):
While shooting their guns on Main Street, they kill Houston Chapman,
a lawyer who has worked with Maxween. The killing doesn't
seem to phase them in the least, They continue walking
down the street to the next saloon and another round
of drinks. The killing prompts Governor lou Wallace to finally
make a trip to Lincoln. He's afraid the killing might
(24:39):
signal a new round of fighting. While in Lincoln, a
messenger brings Wallace a note from a participant in the
peace conference. The writer of the note explains that he
came to Lincoln to make friends with old enemies so
as to be able to lay aside my arms and
go to work. I was present when mister Chapman was
(25:03):
murdered and know who did it, but I have indictments
against me for things that happened in the past in
the Lincoln County War, and am afraid to give up
because my enemies would kill me. I am called Kid Antrim,
but Antrim is my stepfather's name. Governor Wallace loses no
(25:24):
time in sending a reply and setting up a secret meeting.
On the night of Saint Patrick's Day, March seventeenth, eighteen
seventy nine, the governor and the outlaw rendezvous in a
small house. The kid, as instructed, knocked softly on the
side door. At nine pm, The doors open and the
(25:47):
kid enters wearily, a rifle in one hand and a
revolver in the other. A small room is illuminated only
by a flickering oil lamp. The fifty one year old governor,
a scholar, general, lawyer, and author, sits facing the nineteen
(26:07):
year old kid, a cowboy, catle wrestler, horse thief, gunfighter
and leader of the regulators. An agreement is reached. Wallace
will contrive and arrest of the kid and confine him
in Lincoln until the district court convenes. The kid will
identify the killers of Chapman for the grand jury, and
(26:28):
in return Wallace will protect him from prosecution for the
killing of Sheriff Brady and others. A few days later,
the kid is arrested and confined in a private home
in Lincoln. In a letter to the U S Secretary
of the Interior, Governor Wallace writes, a precious specimen nicknamed
the kid, whom the sheriff is holding here in the
(26:49):
plaza is an object of tender regard. I heard singing
in music the other night. Going to the door, I
found minstrels of the village actually nating the fellow in prison.
The Governor might also have mentioned the girls and young
women of Lincoln who bake pies and cookies for the
kid and pine for him. The teenage outlaw is a
(27:13):
babe magnet.
Speaker 1 (27:15):
And you've been listening to Roger McGrath do what he
does best. The story of Billy the Kid, as told
by Roger McGrath continues here on our American stories. And
(27:37):
we continue with our American stories and with the story
of Billy the Kid. Let's pick up where we last
left off. Here again is Roger McGrath.
Speaker 2 (27:47):
The Grand Jury of Lincoln County meets early in April.
The kid is one of those who testify. The grand
jury returns some two hundred indictments against fifty men. However,
none of the indicted men come to trial when the
district court convenes later in April, and most never do.
After testifying, Belly, the kid simply rides out of Lincoln.
(28:11):
He kept his end of the bargain. Now it's up
to Governor Wallace to protect the kid from many prosecution.
With the war ended, though Wallace loses interest in Lincoln
County and does nothing about earlier grand jury indictments of
the kid, Kidd writes letters to the governor but gets
no response.
Speaker 3 (28:30):
Accrourring.
Speaker 2 (28:31):
Desperate, the kid returns to al lawry. Only then does
the governor respond and announces a five hundred dollar reward
for capture of the kid, something like fifty thousand dollars today.
In eighteen eighty, Pat Garrett is elected the new sheriff
of Lincoln County.
Speaker 3 (28:50):
Garrett is a.
Speaker 2 (28:51):
Tall, lanky, thirty year old former cowboy and buffalo hunter.
He arrived in New Mexico a few years earlier from Texas.
Prior to becoming sheriff, Garrett knew the kid as a
casual friend. The two spent some time together drinking in saloons,
and Garrett is familiar with the kid's habits and his
favorite haunts. Now, Garrett sets out to capture it. The
(29:14):
notorious bill at a kid and click the five hundred
dollars reward. Late on a December night in eighteen eighty,
after many weeks of tracking, Sheriff Garrett and his posse
catch up with the kid and a few of his
gang members in an old stone cabin at Stinking Springs,
one hundred miles to the northeast of Lincoln. Garrett and
(29:35):
his deputies surround the cabin and wait for sunrise.
Speaker 3 (29:42):
Soon, one of.
Speaker 2 (29:43):
The kid's men, Charlie Bowdrey, walks out to feed their horses,
which are tethered just outside the cabin door. Garrett calls
out the Boudery to throw up his hands. Instead, Boudrey
reaches for his guns a dozen rifles. Instantly bark and
Boudery is with bullets. With Bowdery dead on the ground,
(30:04):
all is suddenly quiet. From inside the cabin, the kid
yells out, asking if that's Pat Garrett out there. The
following exchange occurs, Garrett, I'm here, the kid, Pat, Why
don't you come up like a man and give us
a fair fight. Garrett, I don't aim to the kid,
(30:30):
you old long legged son of a The kid decides
they should pull their horses inside the cabin, saddle them,
and make a dash for it by bolting through the
cabin door through a hail of gunfire.
Speaker 3 (30:47):
They get two of the.
Speaker 2 (30:48):
Horses inside, but a third one drops dead in the doorway.
They are now stuck inside the cabin. Desultory shooting continues.
During lulls in the action, the kid cracks, jokes, yells
back and forth with Garrett, and challenges Garrett to duel. Finally,
late in the afternoon, a stick with a white rag
(31:10):
on it is way from the cabin. One of the
kid's men comes out with his hands up. He says
the kid will surrender if Garrett will take him and
the others not to Lincoln, but to Santa Fe. If not,
they will stay in the cabin and fight to the death.
Garrett agrees to take them to Santa Fe. Once in
(31:32):
jail and Santa Fe, the kid again writes to Governor
Wallace for help. Says the kid, I have done everything
I promised you, and you have done nothing.
Speaker 3 (31:43):
That you promise me.
Speaker 2 (31:46):
Wallace ignores the kids please. In April eighteen eighty one,
the kid is transported to Messia for the spring term
of the District Court and has tried for the murder
of Sheriff Brady. The trial lasts for two days and
the jury returns a verdict of guilty. The judge sentences
(32:06):
the kid to be taken Lincoln and hanged. Two weeks later,
Governor Wallace takes time away from writing ben her to
sign the kid's death warrant. The kid is chained and
shackled and blowed it into a wagon for the journey
to Lincoln. Five armed guards ride alongside the wagon. Another
(32:27):
three guards ride in the wagon with the kid, including
Deputy U. S.
Speaker 3 (32:32):
Marshal Bob Ollinger.
Speaker 2 (32:34):
Ollinger is a tall, powerfully built bully who takes pleasure
in tormenting the kid. By late April, the kid is
lodged in a second floor room of the County Courthouse
in Lincoln.
Speaker 3 (32:48):
The kid is wearing leg.
Speaker 2 (32:49):
Shackles in his chain to the floor. Deputies Bob Ollinger
and James Bell guard him. Ollinger draws a chalk line
on the floor around the kid and says if he
crosses that.
Speaker 3 (33:02):
Line, he will be shot dead.
Speaker 2 (33:05):
Bill treats the kid decently, but Ollinger constantly taunts him
about his approaching hanging and regularly invites him to try
to make a break so that he Ollinger will have
the pleasure of blasting him in half with the shotgun
he carries. At noon on April twenty eight, Ollinger escorts
(33:29):
some other prisoners across the street to a hotel restaurant
for lunch and leaves Bell with the kid. Ollinger is
armed with a revolver but has left his shotgun behind.
The kid asks Bill to take him to the privy
behind the courthouse. Inside the privy, the kid finds a
hidden gun planted by a friend back in the courthouse.
(33:53):
While ascending the stairs to the second floor, the kid
whirls about gun in hand. Bill leaps the gun.
Speaker 3 (34:00):
But the kid shoots him.
Speaker 2 (34:02):
Bill staggers down the stairs and falls dead into the
arms of the courthouse janitor. The kid churns his shackled
legs up the stairs and grabs Ollinger's double barreled shotgun.
At the same time, Ollinger emerges from the hotel restaurant
and steps into the street. The janitor yells to him
(34:24):
the kid has killed Bill. The next thing the stunned
Ollinger ears comes from the kid, who is leaning out
of a second story window. Hello, Bob, look up and
see what you get. Ollinger looks up and sees the
(34:45):
kid leaning out the window with shotgun in hand. Ollinger says, yes,
and he's killed me too. At that moment, the kid
squeezes both triggers and a double load of buckshot more
than a quarter pound of lead tear into Ollinger's chest.
(35:05):
He drops to the ground dead. The kid then walks
out onto the second floor balcony of the courthouse and
greets the residence of Lincoln.
Speaker 3 (35:16):
The kid explains he.
Speaker 2 (35:17):
Didn't want to kill Bell and it's sorry about it,
but Ollinger got the killing he deserved. Still with shackles
on his legs, the kid then walks downstairs and into
the street with his booted foot. He turns Ollinger's body
over and says, you aren't gonna round me up again.
(35:38):
After more than two months of chasing the kid in Vain,
Sure if Pat Garrett receives a tip that the kid
is at Pete Maxwell's ranch on the night of July fourteenth,
eighteen eighty one, Garrett positions himself in a room used
by the kid. Garrett's deputies are hidden nearby. Where is
(35:58):
the kid. He's out in Maxwell's peach orchard making love
to a girlfriend. Meanwhile, Garrett waits in the dark room.
After a while, the kid, unarmed in barefoot, steps onto
the threshold of the doorway leading into the room, Sensing
someone is in the room. The kid stops suddenly and
(36:21):
calls out ke and s thinking it might be one
of Maxwell's workers. Garrett replies by shooting twice at the kid.
One bullet hits a kid in the chest, penetrating his heart.
He slumps to the floor dead. He's twenty one years
old and already legendary. He becomes an even greater legend
(36:43):
in death.
Speaker 4 (36:46):
And what a story you just heard?
Speaker 1 (36:48):
By none better on storytelling about the American West and
so many other things.
Speaker 4 (36:54):
And that's Roger McGrath. A special thanks to him for
all he does.
Speaker 1 (36:58):
He's the author of Gunfighters, how I mean in Vigilantes
Violence on the Frontier, a US Marine, A former history
professor at UCLA, Doctor McGrath has appeared a numerous History
Channel documentaries and we are grateful to have him as
a regular contributor here on our American Stories, and as always,
all of our history stories are brought to us by
(37:19):
the great folks at Hillsdale College, where you can go
to learn all the things that are beautiful in life,
all the things that matter in life, and they're terrific
and superbly crafted. Teaching series is available to all in
this country for free.
Speaker 4 (37:34):
Go to Hillsdale dot edu.
Speaker 1 (37:36):
I learned more from their constitution one oh one class
than I did it three years at the University of
Virginia School of Law. If you'd like to hear more
of doctor McGrath's storytelling on the West, Jedediah Smith, Kit
Carson bat Masterson, the story of the King's Ranch, and
the story of how the West shaped Teddy Roosevelt, and
so many more, go to our American Stories dot com
(37:58):
and search for the word grath and you will not
be disappointed. The story of Billie the Kid here on
our American Stories
Host
Lee Habeeb
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