Billy the Kid |
Brushy Bill Roberts |
No sooner was Billy the Kid’s body laid to rest in Fort Sumner bogus
Billy the Kids began to pop up everywhere. Some were too ridiculous to take
notice and some convinced a few people, but were forgotten through the
passage of time. But one had caused quite a stir and gained nation wide attention and even to this day his claim is being talked
about and his name (unfortunately) has latch on to the legend of Billy the
Kid forever. Here's a brief summarization of Brushy Bill Roberts:
In the late year of 1949 William Morrison of a law firm heard that Billy the Kid was not killed in Fort Sumner
on July 14, 1881 by Pat Garrett, but was alive and well, living in Hico, Texas under the alias of
Ollie P. Bill Roberts, also known as Brushy Bill. After tracking him down,
the two met and went on a road trip to New Mexico. During their trip Brushy reminisced along
the way while Morrison ate up anything he said with a spoon. Morrison
admitted that Brushy got some facts wrong, but he believed Roberts was
indeed Billy the Kid just because Roberts knew a lot about the Lincoln County War and the life of Billy the Kid...but so did a lot
of people. By 1950, the story of Billy the Kid was well known and most facts
(or legend) was common knowledge, especially for those who lived in the area
and grew up with the stories. On November 29, 1950 Morrison arranged a
meeting with Governor Thomas Mabry of New Mexico to request a pardon for his
self titled Billy the Kid. During the meeting Brushy gave his weak and
inconsistent testimony (even though he was coached before hand by Morrison)
and became nervous when he learned the sons of Pat Garrett, Kip McKinney and
William Brady were in attendance. When Oscar Garrett was asked if he wanted
to question Roberts he replied, “I do not wish to dignify this claim with
any questions” When all was said and done Governor Mabry
gave his verdict, “I am taking no action, now or ever, on this application
for a pardon for Billy the Kid because I do not believe this man to be Billy
the Kid.” Disappointed Morrison and Brushy return to Texas. Four weeks later
on December 27th, while walking to the post office, Brushy suffered a massive
heart attack and died, but his claim to fame did not go with him; today some Billy the
Kid buffs
still strongly believe that Brushy Bill Roberts was indeed Billy the Kid.
Although I prefer not to give any attention to this controversial topic, I'm forced to discuss Brushy Bill Roberts who keeps
turning up like a bad rash. Despite my conclusion about Roberts on my
Fact vs. Myth page, I still get emails from visitors who want more proof
or debate. It's disappointing for me to
think that the only thing better to debate about on Billy the Kid is that
his death was the greatest hoax in Old West history. It also saddens me to
think that Billy the Kid enthusiasts that share the same admiration for this
famous outlaw are divided and argue so bitterly about Brushy being Billy the
Kid. I'm just as passionate that Billy the Kid IS NOT Brushy Bill Roberts as
those that believe he is, so I'm going to be blunt and shoot from the hip. Below
is some simple proof that Brushy Bill Roberts was NOT Billy the Kid.
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Brushy was born in 1859, which would make him the same age as Billy the
Kid.
Brushy's niece Geneva Pittman mentioned that Brushy’s birth is recorded in
the family bible as August 26, 1879. Pittman says, “I know for a fact my
uncle was born in 1879 in east Texas, and Billy the Kid was supposed to have
been shot by Pat Garrett in 1881 and that would have made him two years
old.” To support Pittman’s sources, Brushy Roberts a.k.a Oliver P. Roberts,
is found in several census records: age one in 1880, Arkansas; age twenty
in 1900 Hopkins County, Texas; age 30 in 1910 Van Zandt County, Texas; age
41 in 1920 again in Van Zandt. In the 1930 Van Zandt census Roberts turned
up again at the age of 52 with a wife named Lutcida. Now here’s where Brushy
supporters deny that Oliver P. Roberts, in the above census, is not their
Brushy Bill Roberts. They say it’s because Brushy wife’s name was Louticia,
not Lutcida, so therefore this Oliver P. Roberts is not Brushy. Come
now…hasn’t anyone else had their name spelled incorrectly? Are you going to
tell me that Lutcida and Louticia are not the same woman just over a
misspelling error? If only I got a dollar every time my name was misspelled
as Marcella or Marcel. So in other words, it’s purely coincidental that
Oliver P. Roberts and Brushy just happen to marry women with similar to
identical names -I don’t thinks so. Brushy supporters also say the Oliver
P. Roberts was dead and buried in 1939 at Alto, Texas, so again, he can't be
the same man, but yet his name is not listed in the cemetery records.
On another point to ponder, let's not forget that the birth date November
23, 1859 (the date that Ash Upson gave for the Kid's birth) is now highly
questionable. There is more evidence against it than supporting it. So Brushy was
simply following the historical trend at that time and claimed that 1859 was his
birth date.
In November of 1950 Morrison and Brushy went
before Governor Thomas Mabry to request a pardon for Brushy Bill Roberts
alias Billy the Kid for his past crimes, not only to clear the reputation of
Billy the Kid, but so that Brushy could die with a clear conscious.
Yes, that was their goal, but here's some food for
thought: In March of 1879 Billy the Kid secretly met and made a bargain with
Governor Lew Wallace to turn state evidence for a full pardon. The Kid stuck
to his end of the deal, but the governor didn't follow through on his. After
losing his trust for the governor and fearing conviction, the Kid escaped
from custody. Two years later while confined in Santa Fe, the Kid wrote a
few letters to
the governor reminding him of his promise and also talked openly about the
bargain he made with the governor to the news press. Billy the Kid always
and strongly felt that he was used, betrayed, and cheated out of a
pardon that he earned. So why didn't Morrison and Brushy mention the
Wallace pardon? Why didn't they mention that Billy had carried out an
agreement for a pardon back in 1879? If Brushy were Billy the Kid, he most
certainly would have brought that up.
During his testimony,
Brushy repeatedly contradicted
himself and couldn’t recall important events in Billy the Kid’s life. For
example, Brushy said James Dolan was one of those who gunned down John Tunstall
and that Susan McSween was present when
Dolan and Campbell killed her attorney, Huston Chapman and the most absurd
was he couldn’t even remember Pat Garrett's name. Supporters say, “he was an old
man, his memory was a little fuzzy.”
A little fuzzy! No matter
how old and senile Billy the Kid would not have forgotten Pat Garrett’s name
and other crucial moments in his life, such as the fact that Dolan did not
gun down Tunstall, because Dolan wasn’t even there. The Kid also would have
remembered that Susan McSween was not present when Chapman was killed.
Also during
Brushy's testimony, he would recall swearing revenge on John Tunstall's
killers at his funeral.
Of course this story of
the Kid swearing an oath to avenge Tunstall's murder at the funeral was made
up in Walter Noble Burns bestseller "The Saga of Billy the Kid" in
the late 1920s. Most likely Brushy was told about it and added this romantic
myth to his testimony. In reality, at the time of Tunstall's funeral Sheriff
Brady held the Kid and Fred Waite captive, so how could the Kid swear
vengeance over his employer’s grave during the funeral if he wasn’t even
there. The oath-swearing actually was Dick Brewer, not the Kid. Billy the
Kid was very bitter and angry towards the sheriff, not only for the
unjustified confinement and abuse he sustained, but causing him to miss Tunstall’s funeral. So if Brushy were
Billy the Kid he most certainly would not have forgotten something like
that.
After the
killing of Sheriff Brady, Brushy said that Fred Waite and he jumped over the
wall to reclaim his revolver.
Not exactly. It was Jim
French that accompanied Billy to Brady's body so the Kid could reclaim his
rifle and Alex McSween’s arrest warrant.
After capturing Billy
the Kid at Stinking Springs, Garrett took his prisoners to Fort Sumner,
where Brushy recalled how Mrs. Maxwell asked if he could be unchained from
Rudabaugh and go in the other room with an Indian girl.
Yes, Mrs. Maxwell asked if
the Kid could be unchained from Rudabaugh to go in the next room with a girl
for a farewell fling, but it wasn’t with an Indian girl it was with Paulita
Maxwell. Not only was she not Indian, but she wasn’t even all Hispanic, but
only one-quarter. Once again, the real Billy the Kid would have known that.
Brushy clearly stated
that he didn't kill Bob Olinger and James Bell during his escape from the
courthouse, but instead he just got on a horse and rode off.
Just got on his horse and
rode off, eh? If his testimony was correct then Olinger and Bell were never
killed but lived to see another day, but of course as we all know that’s not
so. In reality, the Kid gunned down both his guards, used a pick axe to free
himself from his leg irons, had a groundskeeper saddle a horse for him and
THEN he got on his horse and rode off.
On July 14, 1881
(the night the Kid was killed), Brushy recalled that he was warned that
Garrett was in the vicinity and not wanting to be seen he sent his partner Billy
Barlow to fetch some meat at Maxwell’s house. Moments later he heard shots
fired, Brushy then ran towards the house and after a brief shoot out with
Pat Garrett and his deputies he retreated in a Mexican’s house. Brushy was
shot in the jaw, left shoulder and across the top of the head. After
learning that Garret was passing Billy Barlow’s body off as him, Brushy
slipped away unseen with the help of Frank Lobato.
Now this doesn't sound logical at all. To have pulled
it off, Garrett and the Kid had to meet somewhere to plan this hoax, but
Garrett and the Kid were not the “good” friends that legend claims. If a
meeting was set, it would've been a trap and Garrett would've arrested or
killed the Kid on the spot, not concocted such a plan. Besides Garrett
couldn't depend on the entire population of Fort Sumner to go along with
this little scheme, someone would surely have blab. Fort Sumner wasn't
entirely filled with Billy the Kid supporters and friends, there were some
that didn't like him. If Garrett did
accidentally kill the wrong man, he would have faced the music and the
courts would have dropped the charges, it would've been declared a
misfortunate accident during the line of duty; after all, if some police officers
today get away with it, why not Garrett? Also how would Garrett know that
after passing another corpse off as the Kid, he wasn't going to turn up
again in Ft Sumner or New Mexico? Billy the Kid had a terrible habit of
returning to places where he shouldn't be. Think about it. If the Kid didn't
leave New Mexico after his jailbreak 2 1/2 months earlier, what makes people
think he would've left and stay gone? Even Garrett had to have realized
that, and he couldn't count on the Kid seizing the opportunity of having
his death conveniently faked and leave the territory for once and for all.
Let’s look at this in another view: If the real Billy
the Kid knew Garrett was in or around Fort Sumner and sent his comrade to
Maxwell's because he was suspicious, then upon hearing shots being fired, Billy the
Kid would not have been so foolish as
to run up to the house in the line of fire. The Kid was reckless but he wasn't stupid!
Furthermore, if Brushy was as badly
wounded as mentioned, he would not have been in any condition for immediate traveling.
This isn’t a Hollywood Western where men walk around with half their
shoulder blown off as if it were a paper cut; gunshots wounds as Brushy
supposedly received, would have immobilized him for days. Also, if Garrett
shot him in the jaw it would've left a very nasty disfiguring scar on his
face, but yet when you look at photos of Brushy, there's no scar at all. We also have Frank Lobato
helping the Kid escape, but Lobato wasn’t even at Fort Sumner at that
time.
Now let’s talk about the Kid's friends. Billy the Kid’s
death was mourned for years by his friends and one of his loyal admirers was Deluvina
Maxwell, who not only visited his grave regularly, but at the time of the
Kid's death, she was one of the first to find him lying on the floor of Pete
Maxwell’s bedroom and she also helped prepare his body for burial. Till her
dying day she was extremely bitter towards Garrett for killing Billy the Kid and
would later go on to say that she was glad to live long enough to see him
dead and buried. Now is this the right attitude for a woman who knew Garrett
didn’t really kill the real Billy the Kid, but allowed him to escape? Many years later Billy the Kid’s Fort Sumner
friends pitched in and bought a headstone for his unmarked grave in the
1930s. Now if they knew it wasn’t him, why would they waste their
money buying a headstone? After all, they supposedly looked the other way
when Garrett was passing Billy Barlow’s body off as the Kid...right? When
wannabe Billy the Kids began surfacing, the Kid's surviving friends from
Lincoln and Fort Sumner, including Lobato (who supposedly helped one wannabe
slip out of Fort Sumner), discredited all such claims and firmly stated that
it was Billy the Kid who was killed on July 14, 1881. Those that publicly identified Brushy
Bill Roberts as Billy the Kid, where not really friends of the Kid’s
(or even met him) but locals who had heard the stories of the famous outlaw
or only saw Billy the Kid as a child, so how can they identify Brushy as being
Billy the Kid almost 70 years later! Lastly, after intensive research nothing at all
has surfaced or proved that Billy Barlow ever existed in or around Fort
Sumner or New Mexico for that manner.
Pat Garrett's account of what happen on July 14, 1881 is sketchy, but
it's not because he faked Billy the Kid's death, but more likely that he
ambushed Billy the Kid in the dark. Brushy Bill Roberts on the other hand
has a heck of a lot more holes and discrepancies in his account than Pat
Garrett. All in all,
Billy the Kid was killed that night in Fort Sumner because all the facts,
including eyewitnesses accounts, said he was, while the Brushy Bill Roberts
claim is built purely on conspiracy theories and second and third hand
accounts.
Brushy was not
left-handed and illiterate, but like Billy the Kid, he was literate and
ambidextrous.
According to authors W.C.
Jameson and Fred Bean, who researched the Brushy Bill Roberts claim, they
stated that Brushy was almost entirely illiterate and had terrible chicken
scratch handwriting and his wife did all of his writing for him. In the
beginning when Brushy first came forward with his claim, it was pointed out
that Brushy was illiterate, but yet, he knew so much about the Lincoln
County War and Billy the Kid and since he couldn’t read about it, therefore
he must be Billy the Kid. But as we learned over the years, the real Billy
the Kid was not illiterate, contrary to legendary belief, but could read and
write and had beautiful, readable penmanship. So now
Brushy is literate! Here's another claim that flip flops: due to the reverse image of the Kid's authentic photo,
it was thought for years that he was left-handed,
so Brushy was said to be left-handed too. But then it was learned the Kid was really
right-handed, then suddenly Brushy is right-handed as well. Then historians/biographers
unveiled that the Kid was actually ambidextrous, so now it's said
that Brushy was ambidextrous too. It seems the character and testimony of Brushy keeps changing during the course of
time as we learn more about the real Billy the Kid.
By looking at
photos of Brushy Bill Roberts and Billy the Kid, one can clearly see the
resemblance.
I’m sorry but people who
think that must be blind. Look above at the photos...Brushy doesn't look anything at all like Billy the
Kid. Not only were Brushy and Billy the Kid's photos compared and analyzed
on a computer and the results were negative, but one can easily see for
themselves, without computer technology, the two are not the same man. First of all, Brushy appears to have had some Hispanic descent due to
his dark hair and complexion, but he did have gray eyes with yellow specks
around the pupil. While Billy the Kid was of Scot-Irish decent, had
light hair, was of fair complexion and had clear blue eyes. Brushy
had a square-shaped head, squared jaw line, large but long hanging ears and
average set shoulders. Billy the Kid on the other hand, had an oval-shaped
face, a narrow chin, small mouth, round ears and very narrow slopped shoulders.
The Kid also had thicker and longer eyebrows than Brushy (and as one
grows older, their eyebrows grow thicker). The two men couldn't look
more different. That alone is more than enough proof that Brushy and Billy
were not the same man.
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This is only a handful of the most obvious of proof
and I just skimmed the surface, there is
still other bits of evidence that squashes Brushy’s claim ( I would
recommend to visitors who wish to learn more, to click on the links at the
bottom of this page). Even so,
Brushy supporters disregard this evidence and their popular
lines of defense is: “Brushy wasn't illiterate” -but he wasn’t literate
either, he wrote like a child, or
“His
testimony was shaky because he was very nervous.”
-Billy the Kid nervous?! HA! Mr. Cool-headed! He laughed in the face of
danger and even if he lived to be an old man the Kid would've still been as
cocky as ever, and lastly: “He knew the history of Billy the Kid”
-Hell, who didn’t at that time! Billy the Kid fever had broken out 25 years
earlier and was still going strong. From what it sounds like Morrison used
Walter Nobles Burns The Sage of Billy the Kid as a reference to coach
his client. Supporters will center punch one sparse example such as the
left-hand theory, but ignore or beat around the bush on major issues.
Are
Brushy supporters that gullible and blind to the truth? Are they so closed-minded to the evidence that they can’t
rationalize it? I'm sure they feel the same way about me, but come on...the
evidence clearly speaks for its self.
If after
reading the above information and you still believe Brushy Bill Roberts was
Billy the Kid and/or his death was a hoax, then I shake my head, throw my hands up in the
air, and say, “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t
make it drink.” In closing, (just as Oscar Garrett had said) I do not wish
to dignify this claim any more than I have and I wash my hands of it. I’m a Billy the
Kid biographer and my goal is to educate people that Billy the Kid was
not a cold-blooded killer, because to me, that is what’s most important. I
didn't write this web page to argue or pick a fight with supporters, I know
they'll never change their opinion, the only reason I even wrote this page was for those who are undecided and just
need a little nudge in the right direction. If I have convinced
someone out there that Brushy Bill Roberts was not Billy the Kid
-then Hallelujah! Mission accomplished!
REFERENCES:
“The truth about Brushy
Bill Roberts” from Lucas Speer’s Billy the Kid Web Site. I
highly recommend visitors to
click
here for more information. (Lucas- thanks for providing me with the
photo of Brushy)
“Who was Brushy Bill Roberts”
from the Billy the Kid Outlaw Gang's web site
Click here
Metz, Leon Pat Garrett University
of Oklahoma Press: Norma, 1973
Bell
Boze, Bell
The Illustrated Life and Times of Billy the Kid Second
Edition,
Tri- Star-Boze Productions, Inc. 1996
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