/https://public-media.smithsonianmag.com/filer/b7/d8/b7d8bcef-32c8-4839-a742-c24b07ea5204/billythekid.jpg)
I guess Par Garrett wasn't the only one who shot him.
Posted on 11/18/2017 10:32:29 PM PST by nickcarraway
It looks like a North Carolina man is holding a priceless piece of New Mexico history.
Experts have verified a tintype picture bought for just dollars is that of Billy the Kid and the man who killed him, Sheriff Pat Garrett. It’s a find that could be worth millions.
A cool old picture of five men in the Old West went up for sale at a flea market in Ashville, North Carolina in 2011. It caught the attention of history buff Frank Abrams, who decided to spend the $10 to buy it. The picture sat up on a wall as a decoration for years.
Then in 2015, news broke of a newly verified photo of Billy the Kid playing croquet. It was one of only two of the famous outlaw known to exist, and it was worth $5 million. That’s when Abrams started researching Billy the Kid, and noticed a familiar character in his picture.
“I said, ‘Oh my gosh, he looks like Pat Garrett,'” Abrams said.
If that was Pat Garrett, the Lincoln County Sheriff famous for killing Billy the Kid, who was that young man sitting to his right who looked eerily similar to Billy? Could it really be the famous outlaw who has spawned countless stories and become a New Mexico legend?
After months of analysis, facial recognition and other examination, experts say it is.
“It’s incredible… Five trips across the country, forensic experts, professors have looked at it, others have looked at it… It’s… I’m ecstatic. I feel like one of the luckiest people in the world. To find this is a privilege,” Abrams said.
“In the picture is Billy and Dirty Dave Rudabaugh captured with Billy, holding a revolver and one of the most notorious outlaws of the West,” Abrams explained.
Experts say further analysis of the picture revealed some writing that helped identify the characters, including Pat Garrett’s signature on his lapel and a date of Aug. 2, 1880.
That would have been before Billy’s arrest, and before his escape from the Lincoln County Courthouse when he murdered a deputy, urging the question: What was Pat Garrett doing posing with Billy and another outlaw, months before he would hunt him down and kill him?
It’s a mystery Abrams is determined to solve. In the meantime, what will become of the picture?
“People ask me all the time, what do you think it’s worth, what do you think it’s worth. I won’t put a price on it, quite frankly it’s priceless,” Abrams said.
Since the tintype is the only known picture of Billy the Kid and Pat Garrett together, many experts expect it to be worth far more than the other picture of Billy.
I guess Par Garrett wasn't the only one who shot him.
The Ballad of Billy the Kid - Billy Joel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-7RX64gnn8
Sweet said he’s 95-percent convinced the man with the mustache in Abrams’ tintype is Pat Garrett. I'm assuming that he is referring to the man to the far right in the picture, though it looks to me like all 3 men in the right part of the picture could have mustaches. But no one ever says which one they believe is Billy the Kid.
I know, right? And the story says the pic was 1880, so it's too soon for it to be the Gay 90's.
(runs for exit, ducking for cover...)
My guess is Billy is the tall one in back, and Pat is front and center.
IIRC in one of the movies, Pat and Billy were cordial to each other, so this photo from before the arrest and killing would seem to make sense. I don’t recall the names, but it seemed like back then a lot of the lawmen may have had questionable histories.
Back when the NFL was still alive, you could say it was the Redskins who looked like that, not the Cowboys. (But not anymore.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1URUdKuUhY
Oops. I had Billy right, but Pat is the guy on the right (as viewed by us).
That guy at the back on the left doesn’t resemble any picture of The Kid that I’ve ever seen.
I always liked that song, the album and that early period of Billy Joel’s songwriting. After “The Stranger”, his music became stale and uninteresting...
Because journalism is dead. It so fluffy it is almost airheaded. Journalists think everyone has the attention span of a gnat. So they write like we are third graders.
See what a great and expensive college education gets you from J-School?
Yep, bupkis.
The young do have short attention spans. You would think they would want to write so well the young would stay attentive.
Billy is second on the left, Pat is far right, according to another article I read.
They look like typical guys I cross the street to get away from. Creeps never change! But I’m not seeing buck-toothed Billy. I did see him in that recent photo where he was playing baseball or some type of sport.
My folks retired to Las Cruces, over 30-years ago. Their home, which is now my sister’s, is on the East Mesa, about a mile or two from where Pat Garrett was murdered.
Garrett was not a very popular fellow, around those parts and Billy was a hero. Back then, Las Cruces didn’t exist and the town was Mesilla.
Old Mesilla is an interesting place.
LOL.
It looks like Ted Turner tried to colorize it.
So I was correct. The one they think is Billy the Kid doen’t look anything like the man identified as him playing crochet, to me at least. But then I would really need to see side by side photos of the two. Also the one they identified as probably being Billy the Kid is the only one who clearly does not have a mustache. All the rest look as though they could have some degree of a mustache. I say could because it may be blemishes or some other reason that make them appear to have mustaches., but Billy the Kid is clearly clean shaven under his nose. 8>) Interesting photo though for sure, and if I had bought that tintype it would be guaranteed that they could not substantiate it being Billy the Kid. 8>)
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