Affidavit Tells Far Different Story About The Slaying Of Billy The Kid

San Diego Union-Tribune ^ | January 13, 2004 | Richard Benke

[Scenic Sounds]

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – In a sworn statement, a 72-year-old man says Sheriff Pat Garrett's widow told him 63 years ago that her husband didn't kill Billy the Kid – Garrett's friend – but that Garrett and the Kid shot a drunk in his place.

The affidavit of Homer Overton was offered as evidence for exhuming the body of the Kid's mother, Catherine Antrim, to compare her DNA with that of a Texas man who claimed until his death in 1950 that he was William Bonney, known in Western lore as Billy the Kid.

A hearing on the exhumation petition is scheduled Jan. 27 in Silver City, where Antrim is buried. City officials oppose disturbing the grave.

Lincoln County Sheriff Tom Sullivan, Deputy Steve Sederwall and DeBaca County Sheriff Gary Graves are asking for the exhumation. They want to know if Antrim's DNA shows a relationship to Ollie "Brushy Bill" Roberts of Hico, Texas, who claimed to be the Kid.

A coroner's jury concluded in 1881 that Garrett killed Bonney with a gunshot to the left breast. But according to Overton's affidavit, Apolonaria Garrett – Pat Garrett's widow – told the 9-year-old Overton and his boyhood buddy Bobby Talbert that Garrett and Bonney shot a drunk lying in a Fort Sumner street, putting the bullet in his face to make him unrecognizable so his body could pass for Bonney's.

Overton lives in the San Bernardino County town of Alta Loma, where he gave the Dec. 27 affidavit that was filed in court in Silver City a week ago. The affidavit says the boys visited Apolonaria Garrett in the summer of 1940, about 32 years after her husband was shot to death in 1908 near Las Cruces.

"I believe what Mrs. Garrett told us that day was the absolute truth. . . . " Overton's affidavit says.

Sullivan, sheriff in Lincoln County, where Bonney was convicted of murdering one of Sullivan's predecessors in the 1870s, has said it's important to determine the truth of the stories.

[Scenic Sounds]

Garrett and Bonney shot a drunk lying in a Fort Sumner street, putting the bullet in his face to make him unrecognizable so his body could pass for Bonney's.

Would Billy the Kid shoot a drunk?

[cajungirl]

would Pat Garrett's widow tell this story to a 9 year old,,preposterous.

[theDentist]

I thought they'd already dug him up and done DNA test. Or perhaps that was Jesse James.

[JohnGalt]

I have read a decent amount of William H. Bonney and particularly his impact on American popular culture which created a myth around him that is very much apart of the American tradition.

This story would certainly undermine the legend, but according to Garrett, Bonney was capable of some down right cold blooded murder. I have a tough time believing this story.

[capt. norm]

"Would Billy the Kid shoot a drunk?"

Just as likely as Billy the Drunk would shoot a kid.

[Scenic Sounds]

This story would certainly undermine the legend, but according to Garrett, Bonney was capable of some down right cold blooded murder.

Yes, but he only killed people who really needed killing! He would never have shot a drunk!!

[JohnGalt]

21 men, not including Mexicans and Indians.

Still, Gov. Lew Wallace gave him a pardon and reneged. I remain an admirer of both Lew (author of Ben Hur) and the Bonney legend.

The PALS sign hung on Bonney's friend Charlie Boudry's grave, is epic.

[longfellow]

why can't they compare a picture of the old man to the one of the kids wanted posters? Hell i have seen where they take a skull and build it up to a face, or what about that guy who killed his whole family in jersey then moved to penn. and Americas most wanted caught him with a clay bust that a forensic artist made.

[Scenic Sounds]

why can't they compare a picture of the old man to the one of the kids wanted posters? Hell i have seen where they take a skull and build it up to a face, or what about that guy who killed his whole family in jersey then moved to penn. and Americas most wanted caught him with a clay bust that a forensic artist made.

Great idea!

Who do you think he looks like?

[Condor51]

'Billy the Kid' was a sociopath, so yes he sure as heck would shoot a drunk.
Anyway I find this theory ludicrous, as with this face (see below) which was plastered all over the southwest, it would be near impossible for him to hide out or blend in anywhere. That is unless he moved to Canada and pretended to be muslim terrorist - then he could've gotten away with it. (ok I'm slightly kidding there)

And NO he wasn't left-handed and YES this famous picture was printed with the 'negative' reversed. NOTE the loading gate on his Winchester is on the WRONG side.

[commish]

I thought they'd already dug him up and done DNA test. Or perhaps that was Jesse James.

It was Jesse James that had the DNA test conducted on him.

[longfellow]

ACTUALLY A TOY COMPANY HAS DONE A FIGURE BASED OFF A WANTED POSTER .

[Scenic Sounds]

And NO he wasn't left-handed

Oh? Didn't the movie "The Left-Handed Gun" prove that he was a lefty?

[r9etb]

Interesting story. I can see Apolonia Garrett telling this story to two young kids, and I can see Pat Garrett (who was certainly no angel) being pals with Billy the Kid. If we get the two drunk and wild, I can see them doing something like this, too.

[Condor51]

No. Unfortunately that movie and all other movies are wrong when they infer that 'The Kid' was left-handed.

It wasn't until a couple/few years ago that an astute gun aficionado had an 'epiphany' if you will while looking at that pic, and realized as I said that the pic of the 'Kid' with his Winchester has the loading gate on the wrong side(that's the slot where you put the bullets in). The gate is on the right side not the left as shown in the pic. Here's a pic of an actual 1866 Winchester showing the loading gate;

BTW, reversing photo negatives is quite common in publishing of newspapers and magazines. It's done for aesthetic purposes. However I'm sure "The Kid's pic" was done accidentally and just never caught.

Oh, and the 'gun mistakes' in the movie 'The Good, the Bad and The Ugly' are monumental. I could almost write a dissertation on those.

[gcruse]

Meet John Wesley Hardin

"I never killed anyone who didn't need killing."

This quote does more than just explain the personal mindset of John Wesley Hardin, perhaps the "baddest" of the notorious badmen and gunslingers of Texas "Wild West" legend. It also represents the public attitude of the times in which he lived, an attitude that kept him free and even made him something of a folk hero despite killing forty men.  It could also be said that it represents a kind of social code, the breaking of which led to the eventual downfall of the charismatic outlaw.

John Wesley Hardin (Was An Outlaw) In the 1870's John Wesley Hardin was considered the fastest gun in the West. In 1871 he backed down Wild Bill Hickok in Hickok's own town of Abilene. An excellent marksman by the age of 10, Wes Hardin had killed his first man by the time he was 15; and yet he was so likable that even the law referred to him as the Gentleman Outlaw or the Gentleman Killer. What could have made this Son-of- a-Methodist-Minister kill 40+ people? Many historians believe that Hardin was just another southern casualty of the Civil War and ultimately Reconstruction.  John Wesley Hardin's ability to 'fast draw' a revolver is legendary; even the Texas Rangers...marveled at his skill...the Rangers unchained Hardin so he could show his skill with a pair of empty Colts...'The quick draw, the spin, the rolls, pinwheeling, border shift...he did with magical precision'." "...Hardin constantly practiced with his revolvers, often for the benefit of the children, shooting at makeshift paper targets or playing cards which they kept as souvenirs." "...he carried his weapons in shoulder holsters, concealed under his coat...He drew his right pistol with his right hand, the left with his left, in a sort of curving overhand motion...the weapons appeared in his hands with what seemed a sleight "of" hand." ...from The Last Gunfighter: John Wesley Hardin by Richard C. Marohn

John Wesley Hardin , Age 18 Abilene, Kansas Photo courtesy of R.G. McCubbin Collection Special thanks to Kustom Quality, El Paso, Texas

[AppyPappy]

The idea that people in the West went around killing people wholesale is mostly just fiction.

[gcruse]

The idea that people in the West went around killing people wholesale is mostly just fiction.

LOL  Mostly?  You remind me of this.  It's worth a read.

The writerly journalist's dilemma: You are composing an article about presidential body language. You witness a scene in which a certain movement of the body would illustrate your point beautifully. Unfortunately that movement does not manifest itself. Or at least, you don't see it. But it's a small movement, the gentlest uptick of the shoulders. You could, plausibly, have missed it. (Or maybe you could swear you did see it but you forgot to put it in your notes and the fact-checkers are extra picky this week). Still, you don't want to put all your delicately restored credibility behind a potential fabrication, even a harmless one like this. Look what happened to that guy in Boston. What do you do?

The Clintonian solution from Joe Klein in this week's New Yorker [EMPHASIS MINE]:

"Neither President seemed to move...[Clinton and Yeltsin] were suddenly caught mute. They glanced at each other, AND MAY HAVE shrugged. It was a moment reminiscent of the old game show 'To Tell the Truth.'"

[Scenic Sounds]

LOL. Gary, I love this kind of stuff.

Did John Wesley Hardin really shoot a man for snoring?

[gcruse]

My grandfather had a fascination with Hardin. I never asked, but wouldn't be surprised if he had met him. As for mass murder in the Old West, AP assures me it is 'mostly' fiction. ROFL