"Spring is in the Air"
Examining the events of April 28, 1881 ... on Billy the Kid
Spring is in the air ...
Ah, spring. When a young man’s thoughts turn to… murder? Actually, it wasn’t so much homicide as escape that was in this particular young man’s mind in April of 1881.
His name was Henry McCarty, aka Henry Antrim, aka Kid Antrim, aka Kid, aka Billy the Kid. Of course, it is that last moniker that usually identifies one of the world’s mightiest legends. In a way, his story is curious, and like many other Old West figures remembered today, what kind of a person Billy really was depends on who you ask. I myself have studied the Kid for more years than I care to discuss. Initially, like so many others, I judged him by the only known photograph of him, which makes him look like some sort of brain-dead moron. But the Kid’s real personality was a long way from that dopey image that stares back at us from the mists of time and history. The fact is, those who actually knew the Kid all agreed that the picture of him was a terrible one. Therefore, as I’ve been telling people for years, if we judge Billy by that photo, we are doing the equivalent of judging him by his driver’s license photo, an image that I daresay none of us would care to be remembered by.
But regardless of what you think of Billy personally, today we are going to examine the events of April 28, 1881. As I write this in Lincoln, I look at the clock and realize that the 125th anniversary of this event is today – about 6 p.m., to be precise.
"Beginnings"
The confines of this column are far too small to attempt to tell Billy’s entire story, even in two parts, but to fully understand the events of April 28, 1881, one needs a little background knowledge.
The Kid had been a very prominent member of a group known as “The Regulators” during the legendary Lincoln County War, and after the hostilities ended (well, nominally, anyway) in 1878, Billy, along with any of the other Regulators who elected to remain in the area, were declared outlaws. The Kid announced to his friends that he intended to “steal myself a living,” and asked if anyone wanted to come along. A few did, and almost all of them paid for this mistake with their lives.
By 1880, Billy was being blamed for any missing horse or cow within 500 miles of Lincoln County. There is no doubt that he had a rustling operation that was a “going concern,” but for him to steal all of the stock that they claimed he did he would have had to be in at least three different places at the same time on a regular basis.
In December of that year, after two ambushes that left two of Billy’s gang members dead, the Kid and the rest of his gang surrendered to Pat Garrett’s posse at a place called Stinking Springs (modern Taiban), following a siege.
The Kid was ultimately taken to Mesilla, N.M., where he was tried for the killing of Sheriff Brady in Lincoln during the War. Interestingly, the Kid was one of six men shooting at Brady that day, but he was the only one ever tried for the crime. In fact, with one exception, Billy was the only one ever tried for ANY crime committed during the Lincoln County War. A truly amazing statistic!
Billy was found guilty and sentenced to death. In April of 1881, he was transported to Lincoln for a scheduled May 13 execution, which, as we now know, was never going to take place.
"The Situation"
The Kid was in the courthouse in Lincoln for about a week when April 28th rolled around. On that day, Pat Garrett went to White Oaks for a two-fold purpose. He intended to get some lumber to construct the gallows from which he would hang the Kid and at the same time, he intended to spend a little time there collecting taxes. He wasn’t expected back until late in the day.
Garrett had cautioned his two deputies, Bob Olinger and James W. Bell, not to be taken in by Billy’s charm and winning ways. He told them that if the Kid got the slightest chance, he would kill them both. This was no problem for Bob Olinger, as he and the Kid had some unpleasant history together. Bell, on the other hand, had never met the Kid before. It has become popular to portray Billy and Bell as being friends, or at least friendly. This is highly unlikely for one simple reason. Bell had been close friends with a man named Jim Carlyle, for whose murder Billy had been blamed. The Kid did not do it, but Bell could not have known that. At best, they were probably neutral to each other, but Bell was a decent man and never abused his youthful charge.
The same could not be said for Bob Olinger, or “Pecos Bob” as he liked to be called. He and the Kid hated each other. John Jones, along with the rest of Carlsbad’s Jones family, was close to the Kid and they had been great friends. Not long before, however, Olinger had killed young Jones. He had accomplished this by getting another man to grasp John’s gun hand in greeting, and then not let go. Olinger walked up behind the helpless Jones and fatally shot him in the back. Ironically, the bullet went through Jones and struck the other man, who died of the wound later.
Billy hated Olinger for this, but as though it were not enough, Olinger had compounded it. On the trip back to Lincoln after his conviction in Mesilla, Olinger had been one of the guards and had taunted the Kid mercilessly. Even after they had arrived in Lincoln, Olinger took great pleasure in waving his very heavily loaded shotgun (NOT with dimes!) in Billy’s face. Holding the shotgun under the Kid’s nose, Pecos Bob had announced, “Whoever gets this will feel it!” The Kid’s reported response, in light of later events, is most interesting. He said, “Make sure it's not you, Bob.”
Well……….. guess what?
(Note: Several years ago I worked on a Discovery Channel project about Billy, during the course of which we loaded an 1878 shotgun with 1878 dimes – 18 to be exact. We then fired the shotgun into a side of pork that had a shirt buttoned onto it. What happened? The dimes BOUNCED OFF! Besides, it is a matter of historical record that Olinger was hit by 18 good ole’ reliable buckshot).
There were five other prisoners in the courthouse, all of whom were in for murder, but none of whom were considered to be as dangerous as the Kid. Therefore, the deputies were in the habit of taking the others across the street to the Wortley Hotel for their meals, while Billy took his in the courthouse. Contrary to the movies, there never was a jail cell in the courthouse, which had been built as a store. Billy was manacled hand and foot and then, just for good measure, they chained him to the floor – for all the good it did.
SOURCES: DOCUMENTARY HISTORY OF THE LINCOLN COUNTY WAR and THE WEST OF BILLY THE KID, both by Frederick Nolan; THE ILLUSTRATED LIFE AND TIMES OF BILLY THE KID by Bob Boze Bell and PAT GARRETT, THE STORY OF A WESTERN LAWMAN by Leon Metz.
Drew Gomber is available for history tours of Old Lincoln town and Lincoln County, as well as speaking engagements. For more information about booking a tour or presentation, or to order Drew’s books or CDs, call 575-653-4056 or email Drew at drew@pvtnetworks.net
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