Governor considers pardon for Billy the Kid

Pat Garrett shot and killed Billy the Kid in July 1881, according to most historical accounts.

Some people believe Garrett shot somebody else and that Bill the Kid, aka William Bonney, actually moved to Texas and died in 1950 under the name of "Brushy Bill" Roberts.

According to lore, Billy the Kid killed 21 people -- one for each year of his life -- but some historians believe the total was closer to nine victims.

And, now there's a new chapter in the controversy over whether Garrett killed the Kid.

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson is considering granting a pardon to the Kid, something that Bonney had hoped to receive from Gov. Lew Wallace in the 1800s, but never received.

Garrett's descendants are pretty upset by the idea, believing it defames their famous relative, and will meet with Richardson next week, the Associated Press reported.

What do you think? Should Billy the Kid be pardoned?

-- Lance Murray

Comments

[Ruthie]

No way.

[T Raif]

Even his supporters agree he was an outlw and a murderer. I haven't read anything that would cause me to believe he deserved a pardon.

[Don Higginbotham]

I had lunch last week in Las Vegas, NM where Billy use to hang out. Everyone there was in favor of pardoning Billy, however there was a biker gathering there that day so the vote may have been a little swayed.

Don H

[bill leonard]

He's dead isn't he?

[Esther Womack]

I was born in Ft.Sumner, N.M. and knew the family of the woman who helped prepare Billy's body for burial. This was long before so much hoopla and money was generated by making him a celebrity.

I've been to the Hico display of speculation, and facts are not present that Billy ever stepped foot in Hico. In fact one of the overlooked "facts" suggested he was somewhere other than where he was on the US CENSUS OF 1880.

My sister still owns the land where Tunstall was killed, in Tunstall Canyon where he was ambushed by the "appointed" sheriff's men who were never convicted for it.

Billy is certainly dead and buried in Ft. Sumner, NM, but as to whether or not Pat Garrett killed him is still in question, and became more of a folklore the longer Billy was dead and made out to be a villan instead of Billys' being someone Tunstall hired to protect him and his family from the murderous sheriff's gang.

[Jason]

Thank you Esther on behalf of Billy the Kids Kid the Hispanic Connection. Little did anyone know that good deed that Billy did and the son and friends and family he had waiting for him in Fort Sumner, except for Garrett his late friend and buddy who bushwacked him. Yes Billy's family suffered in silence and disgrace because of all the lies told about the KID and because of his absence as a father. Yes he did kill two lawmen and a bully and a bounty hunter and that was it. But if Wallace had given him his pardon for providing state evidence in a seperate murder that would have never happened. And as for Pat Garrett and his family's FAME give me a break. How pathetic.

[Bill]

Why would it matter one way or another? History is not the most accurate when it comes to actual accounts of what happened. No one will ever have all the facts surrounding this, so pardon him if you like, it will get good publicity.

[Larry Westmoreland, Ph.D]

Being at least part historian it seems that future folks just love to rewrite the proposed facts of any situation. They also love to draw conclusions where variance of time make such impossible. To the winner, they get to write the history and every generation finds a new set of winners.

[Billy Ray]

Leave it to a moonbat democrat like Richardson to waste taxpayers' time on such frivolous wastes of time.

Better crooked Bill try reading the Arizona 1070 and start protecting New Mexico from illegal immigration.