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ItIBILLY THE KIDFINISHTru© Story of Hia Talk With Low Wallace—Pat Garrett’s Sudden Nerve.I lt;1Prom the Washington Star:I recently had a look at the room In the old palace in Santa Fe In which Gen. Lew Wallace, while governor of the territory of New Mexico, wrote a large part of 'Ben Hur/ ” observed a well-known government official who travels a great deal through the southwest “It was in this room that he spread out his maps and charts and elaborate topographical data and wrote his colorful and painstaking piece of fiction before be had ever had so much as a glimpse of the Holy Land.“To a good many folks in Santa Fe, however, that room in the old palace has an element of interest entirely separate from Its having been the birthplace of the 'Ben Hur' book.“It was In that same room that Gen. Wallace had his famous conference with William Bonney, better known as Billy the Kid. Shortly after taking up the reins as governor of New Mexico Gen. Wallace sent for the Kid, who was then living under cover in the territory. a fugitive from justice. Gen. Wallace had somehow or another gained the Impression that the young fellow was more sinned against than sinning, and, In the natural kindliness of his heart, he wanted to give the Kid another chance for hia taw marble.“So he got hold of a man known tobe one of Billy the Kid’s friends andtold him to bring the Kid to the palace for a little talk. The Kid made his appearance at the palace a couple of days later. Gen. Wallace gave him a kindly talking to. His fatherly words made a genuine impression on the Kid, who was really only a slender boy—he wasn't much tfast his majority when he met his finish—and I am told that there was something very much like a frog In the young fellow's throat throughout the Interview.Index Finger Shooting*The general told the kid that if he’d promise to behave and lead a decent life from then on he, the governor of the territory, would see to It that hewasn't molested. The kid promised, and It Is a matter of record that he did behave and cut out the gun business as long as General Wallace was In the territory. He kept his word faithfully, and didn’t jump the reservation until General Wallace had left New Mexico.“It was at this Interview In the old palace that General Wallace asked the kid where he had picked up his marvelous marksmanship. It was known to everybody that Billy the Kid never had a sight on any of his guns, and yet he had carried the reputation of being the most unerring shot In the southwest.“Billy, who was a quiet, shy sort of a chap In ordinary circumstances and without a trace Qf bluster or swagger,explained the thing curiously enough to General Wallace. .* ‘I Just point my finger at what Ishoot at, that’s all,’ he said to the general, and he illustrated his way ot pointing, using a pistol to do ft.“He simply permitted his forefinger to rest along the barrel of his pistol, and then, instead djj attempting to point the pistol at his mark, he pointed his forefinger at the target, pulling thetrigger with his middle finger. His theory was that when, a man points at anything with his finger he points unerringly, and with a 9ertainty of aim that is instinctive and quick as thought whereas in aiming with a gun he has to employ a trained system -of eye-measuring, holding his gun steady, get the approximate focus with the aid of foresight and hindsight and then take a swell chance of going wide from hurry or nervousness. So he just used the system of pointing with his forefinger, and, with his eye following his finger, blazing away at his mark. I don’t know how' sound this theory maybe as practiced by other people who | have tried it, but Billy the Kid certainly made it worjc like a charm. He was forked lightning with, a shooting tool, and a study of the .jnany close-hand gun fights in which he figured shows that no man ever succeeded in beating him to it on the draw and fire up to the hour that Pat Garrett got him.John Poe’s Account.“From a talk which I had on this same trip with one of the most prominent citizens of Roswell, New Mexico, I learned that the popular story as to the way Billy the Kid met his death Is wrong in most of its details. The accepted story is that Sheriff Pat Garrett tracked the Kid to his finish with an Infallible sleuthing Instinct. The truth of the matter is that (Barrett stumbled upon Billy Kid purely by accident, and that Pat was strangely lucky to get away with hisown life instead of getting the Kid’s.“The man with whom I had this talk Is John W. Poe. the president of the Citizens’ National bank of Roswell. He Is one of the solid men of New Mexico, and he ought to come pretty nigh to knowing what he is talking about, seeing that he was on the spot at the time Billy the Kid met his wind-up at Fort Stanton.“It will be recalled that Billy the Kid made a sudden getaway from the Lincoln county Jail In Lincoln, where he was under sentence of death. Pat Garrett was the sheriff of Lincoln county at that time. Pat, who Is now collector of customs at El Paso, had already made a record as a trimmer of bad men during the progress of the famous Lincoln county cattle war. Patua* th*n Ha In v#»t A fpM 7 InrhMpassed that way very recently. That way led toward Fort Stanton, thenabandoned, and toward Fort Stanton the three men continued to push.“It w'as past nine or ten at night andbright moonlight when they got to the outskirts of Fort Stanton. Tnejey madefor the old 'dobe, w'hich had been used for officers’ quarters when the post wras occupied, then tenanted by an old fellow* named Pete Maxwell. After the kid’s death a fairy tale went around that Billy had been in love with adaughter of Maxwell, and that's how he happened to make for Fort Stanton after making his break from Lincoln. But that was moonshine. Maxwell was living alone In the ’dobe. Sheriff Pat Garrett had not the slightest suspicion, w'hen he rode up to Maxwell’s ’dobe with his two companions, that the old man was harboring the Kid.orolxr tn niiPdtlrm thp rtlrlKid told the deputy, sheriff guarding him that he wished to go to the yard, and the deputy sheriff unlocked thewristlets and leg irons so that the hobbles only hung to his one wrist and one leg.Billy’s Break From Jail.“When the kid got to the Jail yard with the deputy sheriff he made his jump with the quickness of a cat. Across the Jail yard was a small two-story building, the second floor of which, as the kid. knew. contained arms and ammunition belonging to the county ,to be dished out to the posses which the sheriff frequently had to organize from among the oltlsens. A flight of outside steps led to the locked door of this second-story room.“The kid was at the top of those steps In three jumps, and he put his shoulder to the locked door and broke the door In almost before the deputy sheriff knew what was coming off.“The kid got his hands on a pair of loaded guns and was back at the door in time to And the deputy sheriff hopping up the steps, gun out. The kid got the deputy sheriff through the heart with the first shot. Then he stood at the top of the steps, waiting.“The deputy sheriff who was acrossthe street at the restaurant with the other prisoners heard the shot, and he came running over. He had Just poked his head out of the back door of the Jail, on his way to the yard to Investigate the cause of the shot, when the kid, from his position at the top of the steps of the small second-story building, got him through the brain.Then the Jail was In the possession of Billy the Kid, Its only guardians during the absence of Sheriff Pat Garrett having been the two deputies whom he had put away.“Going to the front door of the Jail, the kid put the first man he saw on the street under the gun and commanded him to enter the Jail and file the Irons from his wrist and leg. The man obeyed, and in a few minutes the kid was unshackled.Garrett Takes the Trail.“The town In the meantime had found out what was going on at the Jail, but the citizens were terrorized. Not a move was made to swoop on the evil young fellow who held the jail.He remained in possession of the jail for more than an hour before he got w'hat he was waiting for—a horse. Then a man who had Just ridden Into towrn on a fine horse passed by the-Jail. The kid, standing in the door of the Jatl, put the man under the gun, directing the horse’s ow'ner to mosey down the street and out of sight. When Billy mounted the horse the first time the spirited brute, rebelling against his new rider, bucked and threw him. The kid, having been a cattle puncher most of his days, was as well horseman, and they say down there that that was the first time he had ever been bucked off a horse. But he got on again, and although the horse tried to toss him once more, the kid knew* how to get him dow-n to business and he galloped out of Lincoln, heeled with two good guns and a couple of belts stuffed with ammunition.“Sheriff Pat Garrett didn’t get back to Lincoln until the next day. He didn’t say much, not being a loquacious man, but he oiled up his guns and looked as if he had a lot on his mind. As soon as he found out whathad happened at the Jail during his absence he sent a sudden rider to Roswell, sixty miles away, for John W. Poe, the man who Is now the bank president at Roswell. Poe had done some successful badman hunting with Garrett before, and Garrett wanted Poe along with him on the hunt he was about to undertake for Billy the Kid. ; Poe arrived at Lincoln the nextmorning. Sheriff Pat Garrett, Poe and another nervy friend of the sheriff’s, whose name I have forgotten, started out after the kid that night.Taward Old Fort Stanton.It was a random quest from the beginning. The three men hadn’t the slightest notion as to w'hich direction Billy the Kid had taken. They had been told, of. course, of the direction he had taken in riding out of town, but that meant nothing, for the kid had made several crafty and scientific detours in evading Justice in his day.“By sheer luck, however, the three men took the path which led toward Fort Stanton. They made a good many Inquiries along the route at ranch houses, but learned nothing. The kid had a lot of friends among the cattle punchers and cow men. He had mln* gled up with the Lincoln county cattle war, taking the John Chisholm end, and. in making his getaway from Lincoln, he knew' w'here to find these friends.“On the second or third day out from Lincoln, however, they came upon an old Justice of the peace, In an out-of-the-way settlement, whose replies to their questions were suspicious. He was too strong in his protestations that he hadn’t seen hide or hair of the kid. The sheriff didn’t pin the old justice to the stick at all, but he formed his owrn conclusions from the old man’s rattled and nervous talk, and one 01 those conclusions was that the kid hadCorsets are Jor women who know and want the best.Lake Ave, MichigStreets. Du/uANNUAL MARRUBIFor three days—Today, Frksell guaranteed high-grade rubThese are not odds and endsfresh stocks of the best makes on i to get these bargains—rubber li profit for us in these prices.WOMEN'S WALES GOlt; RUBBERS—sold everjrwhwWOMEN’S LOW RUfiBE—always 60c—her© now .Misses' 60c Boys’ 66cStorm RubberstJVC Rubbers...when Poe and the other man saw a slender, stealthy figure tiptoeing out of an outhouse at the back of the ’dobe toward the rear door of the ’dobe. The tiptoeing man had a gun in hia right hand.“Poe, w'ho told me the story, said that hadn’t an idea In life that this tiptoeing figure was the kid. He had never seen the kid, but he had a fixed Impression on his mind that Billy was a much larger man. and so when he saw this boyish figure slinking across the back yard toward the rear of the ’dobe he simply put It down in his mind as some young fellow who was guarding the shack against possible marauders. %“The man who was with Poe near the clump of bushes let out a cough that he couldn’t hold In Just as the slinking figure reached the rear of the ’dobe. The slender chap with the gun turned like a flash and covered Poe and the other man. •’ - *44 ‘Who Is it?’ he asked them In Spanish.“Poe called out 'Friends,* and the slender chap backed In the rear door, still keeping them covered, however. Poe aays that he has never been able to figure it out why the kid didn’t kill him and the other fellow where they sat. right then. He had the bulge on them, for they sat with their rifles across their knees, right in the blaze of the southern moon. silhouttedagainst the sand. If they had made the slightest move, Poe thinks, theywould undoubtedly both have beenkilled where they sat. But they kept still, and probably the kid might have feared that they really were friends.“In the meantime, Garrett had entered the ’dobe, and had found old Pete Maxwell in his bunk In the front room. Garrett roused the old man. and they were having a confab when the kid entered the room from the rear door.diiI:•lt;«IGarrett Almost Cornered.M.Garrett, with his customary caution, in entering the bed room, had moved around to the side of the bed nearest the wall. As he aat on the edge of old man Maxwell's bed he wasin a heavy shadow,, while .the rest ofthe room was brilliantly Illuminated by the moon rays that streamed through the open windows.“The Kid, still a-tlptoe, entered thte room. He was probably more or less blinded by the strong light of the moon, and he didn’t see Sheriff Garrett sitting In the deep shadow on the far side of the old man’s bed.44 ‘Pete,’ asked the Kid, In a sort of hoarse half-whisper, ‘who are these men outside?*“Garrett had silently got his gun out as he saw the Kid enter the door. He wanted to take Billy alive if he could, but when he saw the gun in the Kid’s right hand he knew that he couldn't take any chances.“Old man Maxwell was Just about to make some sort of a reply to the Kid's question, when the desperado, his eyes having become somewhat used to the darkness, suddenly caught sightof the dim figure of the sheriff on the other side of the bed.“His clutch on his gun was Justtightening and the gun was Just at the beginning of a lightning elevation for a bead upon the sheriff, when Patgot the Kid. Garrett's first bullettook him Just a little bit above the heart. Garrett’s next bullet took himplumb through the head. The gundropped out of the outlaw’s hand, and he fell with a groan and died In a short time. Then Garrett went to the rear of the ‘dobe and called Poe and the other man In.“That’s the way Billy and Kid met' his finish, according to the narrative of one of the most reliable men In ftie southwest, who was on the ground when it happened. Pat Garrett himself never claimed that he had got on the Kid’s trail at the beginning of his ride out of Lincoln and tracked him down to the end like a bloodhound, but that’s the way the story got Into type at the time.. The point Isn’t particularly-momentous ,so long as the career of the Kid was stopped somehow or another, but Inasmuch as there are few or none of Billy the Kid's kind left now, it’s worth while to get the manner of his wind-up right.”I!CHANCE TO SHOW IT.From the Houston Chronicle:*
Newspaper Details
The Labor World
Duluth, Minnesota, US
Sat, Mar 25, 1905
Page 5
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
CA 11 Nov 2022
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