A Colorado stonecutter named James Noah Warner (1892-1962) read about the Fort Sumner cemetery and decided that Billy the Kid needed his own gravestone. He carved one with two crossed pistols, 21 notches for the men Billy had supposedly killed, and the epitaphs "Truth and History" and "The Boy Bandit King.
"Billy's original grave marker was constructed from a wooden picket from the parade-ground fence. Pete Maxwell had his man saw off a foot or so, and nailed it in a crossbar to the longer piece. Then he printed in crude letters BILLY THE KID, JULY 14, 1881.
Billy the Kid's grave is caged to protect the gravestone, which was stolen multiple times. He's buried with his closest friends, and he has a shared headstone and an individual foot stone. Other graves in the cemetery also deserve a visit.
Abstract. Billy the Kid spoke his last words in Spanish. Calling out “¿Quién es? ¿Quién es?” before he was killed by Sheriff Pat Garrett, the young outlaw's final moments signal his diverse ethnic context.
Easy to find, good inscriptions of Billy and his friends and when he was shot. Cemetery interesting to walk through and read the headstones. Quick little stop near the Bosque Redondo memorial. Cemetery is open even when the museum is closed.
Outside is the gravesite, which contains the remains of Bonney and his pals Tom O'Folliard and Charlie Bowdre. The names of all three are on one marker. A second is dedicated just to Bonney, inscribed: "Billy the Kid.
The Kid's early wooden tombstones were subsequently stolen or destroyed, and the cemetery then flooded in 1889 and 1904, washing away all the headstones and probably redistributing all the bones.
The two men soon began stealing horses from local soldiers. McCarty became known as "Kid Antrim" because of his youth, slight build, clean-shaven appearance, and personality. At some point in 1877, McCarty began to refer to himself by the name "William H. Bonney".
The Kid was a charmer; he spoke fluent Spanish and easily befriended Hispanics, especially the señoritas. But the Kid's cheerful disposition only disguised a quick temper that sometimes drove him to commit audacious acts of crime. Contrary to popular folklore of the Old West, Billy the Kid never killed 21 men.
Billy the Kid, the notorious Old West outlaw, was buried in Fort Sumner, New Mexico, about 150 miles southeast of Santa Fe. That is, unless he was buried in the middle of Texas.
After his death, Josephine had Earp's body cremated secretly and his remains buried at her family plot at the Hills of Eternity Memorial Park. The first marble headstone was stolen. The recovered headstone is now on display in the Colma Historical museum. Earp's grave is the most visited place in Colma, California.
Whoever paid for the stone figured they would honor two other members of Billy's gang who were also killed by Pat Garrett and his posse: Charlie Bowdre and Tom O'Folliard. Perhaps wishing to explain why the three men were commemorated with one tombstone, the word “Pals” was engraved on the new stone.
Furthermore, it's mentioned that he had two siblings, but one disappeared from records, while the other did not maintain a connection with him beyond their childhood. It's safe to conclude that he did not have any offspring, and consequently, there are no living descendants.
As the story goes, Billy—just 21 years old, but already a murderer who had escaped from jail and killed two guards in the process—made the mistake of walking into a darkened bedroom, where Lincoln County Sheriff Pat Garrett was questioning Maxwell.
Although he claimed to have killed 21 men, the actual number is likely less than 10. At about age 21, Billy the Kid was gunned down by Sheriff Pat Garrett.
According to Pat Garrett, Billy was “quick as a flash.” While a good shot, he said, Billy “was no better than the majority of men who are constantly handling and using six-shooters. . . .”
He stood 5 foot 9 inches tall and weighed approximately 155 pounds. Billy had blue eyes, dirty blond hair, and had two front teeth that protruded. He wore a high-crowned sombrero with a green hatband and was right-handed. Billy also spoke fluent Spanish, was of above average intelligence, and was a born leader.
Bonney, later known as Billy the Kid. It is evident that the two were friends, but how close has not been determined. Some say that Billy the Kid was the closest friend Garrett had at that time. Billy the Kid and his gang went on to become the most feared outlaws in the Southwest.
Bottom line: Earp and Wayne never met. Anything Wayne knew about the real Earp came to him secondhand from Ford during their 25-year working relationship. Their encounter is only a charming Hollywood fable. Nonetheless, Earp and Wayne did share several qualities.
The general consensus seems to be that while Wyatt Earp was a man to be taken seriously, as evidenced by the O.K. Corral gunfight, he was a caring individual when it came to his friends and family - a complex man. While Wyatt had no direct descendants, several of his relatives' offspring still live in the Pella area.
Reporting on his death in 1881, The New York Times described Billy the Kid as slim, good-looking and mild-mannered. “His soft blue eyes were so attractive that those who saw him for the first time looked upon him as a victim of circumstances,” it reported.
After being confined to bed for months, Catherine McCarty Antrim dies of tuberculosis. Henry's stepfather expresses little interest in raising the teenage boy, and Henry will move in to a local boardinghouse run by Mrs. Sarah Brown.
Historians believe that his father (some say his name was William Bonney, others think it was Patrick Henry McCarty) died near the end of the Civil War, leaving his mother (variously identified as Catherine McCarty or Katherine McCarty Bonney) with two young sons.
