The story of Billy the Kid’s death has been tangled in rumor and speculation for nearly a century and a half. Much of what passes for common knowledge about the outlaw’s final hours is simply false. The record shows that Sheriff Pat Garrett did kill the Kid, and he was paid for it—twice.
Garrett first collected a reward after arresting Billy at Stinking Springs in December 1880. The Las Vegas Gazette reported on January 13, 1881, that Garrett received the official $500 bounty offered by Governor Lew Wallace, plus additional money from grateful citizens. He walked away with around $1,000 that time.
After the Kid escaped from jail in Lincoln, Garrett tracked him to Fort Sumner and killed him on the night of July 14, 1881. The second reward was delayed, but not because Garrett failed to prove the Kid was dead. The holdup was bureaucratic, rooted in two technicalities.
First, the reward notice called for the Kid to be captured and delivered to a sheriff. Garrett killed him instead. That was quickly accepted as unavoidable. Governor Lionel Sheldon later noted that when Garrett met the Kid in Maxwell’s room, one or the other would certainly be killed, and capture was out of the question.
The second issue was whether the reward was a personal offer from Wallace, who had resigned as governor in May 1881. Acting Governor William Ritch consulted District Attorney William Breeden, who determined the reward was a private offer. The legislature would need to approve payment from territorial funds.
In February 1882, the legislators unanimously voted to pay Garrett the $500. They stated the delay was caused by a technicality and affirmed that Garrett had indeed killed the Kid. With additional contributions from citizens, Garrett ultimately received several thousand dollars.
The claim that Garrett never got the reward is provably false. So is the idea that his deputies thought he killed the wrong man.
Deputy John W. Poe did say, “Pat, you shot the wrong man,” moments after the shooting. But that statement is almost always quoted out of context. Poe was expressing shock in the immediate aftermath. Two paragraphs later in his own book, he wrote that upon examining the body, they found it to be that of Billy the Kid. The title of his book is literally *The Death of Billy the Kid*.
Another common claim is that Garrett buried the body before anyone could see it. That did not happen. The Kid lay in Maxwell’s room through the night. The next day, Justice of the Peace Alejandro Segura formed a six-man coroner’s jury. They examined the body and issued a finding that William Bonney had been killed by a bullet fired from Garrett’s pistol.
The jury members knew Billy personally. So did many others. Pete Maxwell’s family, including Deluvina Maxwell, saw the body. A resident named Paco Anaya later wrote about the scene and named other eyewitnesses. Jesus Silva said he was chief pallbearer at the funeral and helped bury the Kid beside Charlie Bowdre and Tom O’Folliard.
Historians have identified more than two dozen named witnesses who agreed Garrett killed the Kid. These were people at Fort Sumner who helped carry the body, prepared it for burial, or dug the grave. Deluvina Maxwell said nearly everyone in town followed the body to the cemetery. None of them ever claimed the death was a hoax.
The coroner’s jury report was not faked. A copy was sent to Santa Fe and published in the July 23, 1881 edition of the *Las Cruces Rio Grande Republican*. The original was later compared to the copy and matched perfectly.
Private George Miller, who was passing through Fort Sumner, gave his account in the July 18, 1881 issue of the *Las Vegas Daily Optic*. Milner Rudolph, head of the coroner’s jury, also gave a personal account. His son Charles, who knew the Kid and had been part of the posse that arrested him at Stinking Springs, wrote about the killing in his journal.
Even Pat Garrett’s political enemies never claimed he failed to kill the Kid. When Garrett ran for office, the press smeared him as a drunk and an atheist. But no one, not even his most vocal opponents, tried to argue that he had killed the wrong man.
The lack of a photograph of the dead Kid is often cited as suspicious. But photographs of dead outlaws were not as common as popular memory suggests. Only a handful exist from the entire era. There was no photographer living at Fort Sumner in 1881. The only known photo of the Kid, the famous tintype, was taken by a traveling photographer in 1880.
Garrett had proof of the killing through the coroner’s jury report and numerous eyewitnesses. The authorities accepted that proof. They paid the reward. No one in government ever questioned that Garrett killed the Kid.
Some stories claim the Kid had darkened his skin and grown a beard to disguise himself as Mexican. These reports come from newspaper articles printed days after the death. The same articles contained other errors, including the Kid’s age and his last name. None of the eyewitnesses at Fort Sumner ever mentioned a beard or darkened skin.
The mysterious “Billy Barlo” figure comes from one source only: Brushy Bill Roberts. No resident of Fort Sumner ever mentioned anyone by that name. There is zero evidence Barlo existed outside Roberts’ imagination.
The idea that Garrett and the Kid were close friends who would never have turned on each other also falls apart. They were gambling buddies, not outlaw partners. Their friendship ended when Garrett decided to run for sheriff. Deluvina Maxwell said Garrett’s decision to take the job was seen as an act of betrayal.
The claim that the Kid was too clever to be caught by Garrett is also false. Garrett caught him before. In December 1880, Garrett set up an ambush at Fort Sumner and nearly got the Kid. Days later, he tracked him to Stinking Springs and arrested him. After the Kid escaped from jail, he returned to Fort Sumner, where everyone knew he could be found. Garrett simply showed up with a posse and waited.
For the death to have been a hoax, everyone at Fort Sumner would have had to go along with it for the rest of their lives. That includes people who worked with Garrett, people who disliked the Kid, and people who had no loyalty to either man. Not one of them ever came forward.
Brushy Bill Roberts, the most famous claimant to be the Kid, has a credibility problem of his own. Long before he claimed to be Billy the Kid, he was telling tall tales. In 1936, a Texas newspaper reported Roberts’ story about saving Texas Rangers from machine-gun-toting outlaws in 1932. The story is laughable on its face.
Roberts also claimed to have been a Pinkerton detective, a deputy U.S. marshal, a Rough Rider under Teddy Roosevelt, a fighter with Pancho Villa, a rodeo champion, a professional boxer, and a member of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show. There is no record of any of it.
William Morrison, author of *Alias Billy the Kid*, claimed Roberts had 26 knife and bullet scars. No photographs of these scars exist. The Kid was shot only once, in the leg, in 1878. There is no evidence Roberts had a matching scar.
Roberts claimed inside knowledge of the Lincoln County War. But much of what he said came from Walter Noble Burns’ 1926 book *The Saga of Billy the Kid*. Roberts did not meet with the governor of New Mexico until 1950, nearly seven decades after the Kid’s death. He was repeating stories he had heard or read.
The famous photo comparison study that supposedly matched Roberts to the Kid at 93 percent did not hold up. Professor Alan Bovik, one of the researchers who conducted the 1990 study, said the tools were crude and the conclusion was not positive. He said the results were misquoted by someone who wanted to support the claim that Roberts was the Kid. His colleague, Professor Scott Acton, said he believed Roberts and the Kid were not the same person.
Roberts was born in Arkansas in 1879. He was a toddler when the Kid was killed. Census records, marriage records, land records, and a World War I draft registration all document his life. His supporters claim he took the identity of a dead cousin, but there is no evidence for that either.
The affidavits obtained by Morrison in 1950 do not hold up. Three of the five signers admitted they never met the historical Billy the Kid. One was not even alive in 1881. The two who did claim to know the Kid were children at the time, and their accounts are riddled with inaccuracies.
The story that Pat Garrett’s daughter or widow said he killed the wrong man comes from a single anecdotal source in 2004. The person telling the story was not present at the killing. This is not evidence.
Every firsthand account from Fort Sumner agrees on one point: Pat Garrett killed Billy the Kid. Details differ. Some accounts conflict. But no one who was there ever said the Kid escaped.
The Kid made a fatal mistake by returning to Fort Sumner. He walked into Pete Maxwell’s room in the dark, not knowing Garrett was inside. Garrett fired. The Kid was dead before he could react.
There are legitimate questions about the exact circumstances of the shooting. But the identity of the dead man is not one of them. The evidence is overwhelming. The witnesses are numerous. The record is clear.
Billy the Kid was killed by Pat Garrett on July 14, 1881. The story that he survived is a myth.