Pat F Garrett S The Authentic Life Of Billy The Kid

When Lincoln County Sheriff Pat Garrett ended Billy the Kids life on the night of July 14, 1881, with a shot in the dark, he was catapulted at once into stardom in the annals of Western history. This edition is a facsimile of the 1927 text that Garrett wrote to counteract the negative image he gained after the shooting.

This edition, complete with the original text, provides an introduction that reappraises the last fatal meeting of Billy the Kid and Pat Garrett. Frederick Nolan shows how the Garrett's book is responsible for misconceptions about the Kid's early life and his short, violent career.

In 1882 a notorious outlaw and a childhood friend of Billy the Kid was released from prison where he had been serving time for killing a Texas Ranger. His freedom finally secured, the outlaw disappeared and was never heard from again. Never, that is, until 1948 when he came out of hiding after almost 70 years. In the course of proving his identity to a court of law the outlaw revealed that his friend Billy the Kid was not killed by Pat Garrett but was still alive even to that day. After a period of research and persistence the young lawyer was finally led to a destitute old man in Texas who was named not William H. Bonney but William H. Roberts, although Bonney had been an alias that he had used. Roberts agreed to reveal himself as Billy the Kid if the lawyer would help him obtain a pardon so he could die a free man. You see, the Kid was still wanted for murder so to come forward was to risk being sentenced and put to death, but this was a risk that William H. Roberts was willing to take. He told his story only one time, to one man. This is his story, now presented for the first time with new photographic evidence and research that supports his claim that he was the one true Billy the Kid of legend.

The sentiments involved in the sermon alluded to are as antedeluvian in monotonous argument, language and sense, as the Blue Laws of Connecticut. Sabbath-breaking was the sole and inevitable cause of "The Kid's" murders, robberies and bloody death(?). Immaculate mentor of the soul. "The Kid" never knew when Sunday came here on the frontier, except by accident, and yet, he knew as much about it as some hundreds of other young men who enjoy the reputation of model youth. And, suppose "The Kid" had knowingly violated the Sabbath? He had Christ and his disciples as holy examples-confining his depredations, however, to rounding up a bunch of cattle, not his own, instead of making a raid on his neighbor's corn field and purloining roasting ears. "The Kid" had a lurking devil in him; it was a good-humored, jovial imp, or a cruel and blood-thirsty fiend, as circumstances prompted. Circumstances favored the worser angel, and "The Kid" fell. A dozen affidavits have been proffered me for publication, in verification of the truth of my work. I have refused them all with thanks. Let those doubt who will. PAT. F. GARRETT