Searching For “The Kid”

The three above examples are some of the most compelling evidence in support of Brushy Bill’s claim he was Billy The Kid. These rarely documented descriptions of the events on that day from witnesses who heard it directly from Billy The Kid, are more similar to the story as told by Brushy than to any of the versions history has recorded. It is “extremely” unlikely Brushy would have known these things unless he had been there himself.

They agree with Brushy that Billy grabbed Bell’s own gun away from him. They agree that Billy shot Bell while lying on his stomach as Bell tried to run down the stairs after being cautioned against it. They agree Billy did not just shout “HELLO BOB” before shooting Ollinger. Remember, Meadows was repeating what he heard Billy say as he tried to restate his own words. Brushy was trying to retell it over 70 years later. Understandably, the exact quote varies a bit between the two versions but they have something very important in common that is not reported anywhere else as part of what was said to Ollinger. Billy wanted Ollinger to “see who was shooting him”. He didn’t just shout “Hello Bob” and then fire.

An eyewitness to the escape of Billy The Kid from the Lincoln County Courthouse quotes what he heard Billy himself say. Note particularly the bold text.

“He stood on the upper porch in front of the building and talked with the people who were in Wortley’s, but he would not let anyone come towards him. He told the people that he did not want to kill Bell, but as he ran, he had to. He said he grabbed Bell’s revolver and told him to hold up his hands and surrender and that Bell decided to run and he had to kill him." ~ reported by the Daily New Mexican & Las Vegas Daily Optic

The words of Brushy Bill Roberts from the book “Alias Billy The Kid” written by William V. Morrison.

“He tumbled over on the floor. When he come up, he was looking down the barrel of his own six-shooter. I told him that I would not hurt him if he would do as I said......... When he stepped into the hall, he ran for the stairway.

Man Claims He Knew Billy The Kid - In 1931

This unpublished article was written in 1960 by Samuel G. Pendergrast following interviews with Bob Young of Abilene, Texas and relates a story as told the author by Mr. Young. The original article begins with a brief description of Brushy’s meeting with Gov. Mabry in 1950. I have omitted that here for the sake of brevity. The following is Mr. Young’s story beginning with the second paragraph........

In 1930 I was living in the dusty little West Texas town of Comanche, where I operated a garage with my brother. In my younger days, I had been a considerable wanderer, and I’d seen a lot of Texas, New Mexico and Old Mexico. But one of the towns I knew best was the home-town of my youth, Round Rock, Texas - the hamlet in which Sam Bass was tracked down and killed by Texas Rangers many years before. I mention the little town because the story of my incident with Brushy Bill Roberts hinges on an acquaintance in Round Rock.

I first met Brushy Bill in Homer Thompson’s barber shop, a couple of doors up the street from our garage. There was something about the old man, a seeming loneliness, a distant, far-away look in his eyes, that immediately drew my sympathy.

It was nearing Thanksgiving at the time, and a turkey processing plant in Comanche was in full operation, picking and dressing birds for the oncoming holidays. A larger number of men and women was employed in that plant during the peak season, and it was there that Brushy Bill was working when I met him. He came into the barber shop while I was waiting for a haircut. He was dressed in old, blood-stained overalls, and he presented a strange gory sight in the cosy little shop. I think the general feeling around Comanche was that Brushy Bill didn’t have particularly good sense. This didn’t spring from any specific information about the old man, but merely from the fact that he stayed away from others a great deal, and spent most of his free time shuffling around in the distant pasture land ringing Comanche.

He was married to a heavy - set woman slightly younger than himself. I didn’t know her well, since she didn’t circulate much - was sick much of the time, I believe. She seemed rather insignificant. They lived in a portion of Comanche dubbed “Donkey Flat,” which suggests the character of the area. They were new-comers to Comanche, I know, because I have lived there twice before, and I hadn’t known them. I would say Brushy Bill was in his middle 70’s when I met him in 1930, but he seemed in excellent health and had the carriage of a much younger man. I never saw him slouch, always carrying his shoulders erect as if he were marching. He had funny-looking eyes that were sort of speckled gray, and the thing I remember most distinctly was his large left ear, of the type we use to call a “flop-ear.” It stood out from his head, and the top of it “flopped” down a bit making it seem bigger than it was.

For some reason - possibly because I was always courteous to him, a matter of my early training - the old man took a liking to me. He would spend hours in the garage on slack days, passing the time of day. But I realize now that Brushy Bill actually told me very little about himself. One day, though, I happened to mention that I’d lived in Round Rock as a child, and that my family still lived in Austin. Brushy Bill showed immediate interest, questioned me at length about my friends in Round Rock. Finally, he took me into his confidence saying he felt he could trust me. He fixed those strange speckled eyes on me and said, “Bob, I could lead you to a fortune in buried treasure near Round Rock.” “Yes,” he said, “I could...” His voice trailed off as he seemed buried in thought. “I wonder,” he said finally, “when you’ll be going to Round Rock again?” “Well, I don’t know,” I said. “I go through there every time I drive to Austin.” Then a thought occurred to me, and I asked, “Would you like to make the trip sometime?” His old eyes brightened, and he grinned happily, “I sure would,” he said. I said I’d let him know the next time I was making the trip. As it happened, not long after that, I was able to get away from the garage for a weekend, and I made plans to visit the family in Austin. The night before I left, I drove out to Brushy Bill’s shack.

He greeted me with a worried look on his face. “Mr. Roberts,” I said, “I thought you’d like to know; I’ll be driving to Round Rock tomorrow. Want to go along? He thought for a moment, then sighed heavily, “Sorry, Bob, but I can’t this time. Wife’s sick...awful sick, and I just can’t leave her now.” I said I was sorry, and that I hoped his wife got better, then I prepared to leave. “Uh, Bob,” he asked, hesitantly, with that look of longing creeping back into his wrinkled face. “Do y’know a man name of Jim McDaniel in Round Rock?” I’d known “Uncle Jimmy” McDaniel at Round Rock for years. He was an old man of about Brushy Bill’s age, somewhat past 70 in 1930. I’d say. A tall man, of maybe 6 foot two, weighed about 175 pounds. I think semi-retirement. He lived alone, but he had children somewhere else. “Why, yes,” I said, “I know Mr. McDaniel well,” “Ever see him?” “Why, yes, I make it a point to see him, when I’m in Round Rock.” Brushy Bill fixed those speckled eyes on me again - I’ve never seen eyes quite like those on any other man - and he looked at me cautiously. “Do something for me, Bob?” “Sure, Glad to.” “If you see Jimmy McDaniel, would you do this for me - just tell him you saw ‘THE KID’ last night, and the Kid said to tell him ‘hello’.” “Why, of course, I will,” I said, “And I’m sure he’ll be happy to hear from you.”

That was all there was to it, Brushy Bill didn’t explain the message, and, as a matter of fact, it needed no explanation. It seemed perfectly natural for an old man to send a message to a friend of his younger days. I drove out to Mr. McDaniel’s the first thing when I got to Round Rock. The old man was seated on the porch of the modest frame house in the edge of Round Rock. He rose to greet me. His hair was dark, thickly laced with gray, and now receding from his ample forehead. The long face was highlighted by a prominent chin, and he had large ears. “Mr. McDaniel,” I said, after the greetings were done, “I’ve got a message from an old friend of yours.” “Who’s that, boy?” he asked, eyes a-twinkle. “Well,” I said, “I saw the Kid last night, and he said for me to tell you ‘hello’.” I was completely unprepared for Mr. McDaniel’s reaction to the simple message. He blinked his watery eyes and looked as if I had brought some shocking news. “What..did...you say?” I repeated patiently, thinking he had misunderstood. “I saw the Kid last night, and he said to tell you ‘hello’.”

I’ve never seen such a transformation in a man’s face. His robust old face blanched to a whitewash hue, and his frame shook like a palsied child. “Why, sir,” I said, “are you all right?” He couldn’t even answer. I could do nothing but help him back into his chair on the porch, after a while, he calmed down, and I took my leave of him, puzzled. I remained puzzled until I picked up a copy of Alias Billy the Kid by Sonnichsen and Morrison. Its authors, a noted historian and a respected legal mind, include a great deal about Brushy Bill Roberts, including a portion of the old man’s autobiography, in which he claims to be Billy the Kid.

On page 21 of the book are these words from Roberts: “...rode back to Mesilla, that summer of ‘77. Met Jimmy McDaniel...” Then I began to recall little things about Brushy Bill. Those funny gray-speckled eyes, the small hands, the straight back, the “flop-ear,” and the effect of the words “the Kid said ‘hello’ “ on Jim McDaniel. Those who believe that Billy the Kid was shot down by Sheriff Pat Garrett in 1881 may say this was all a strange chain of coincidence. That the old man was lying, or that his mind was creating a fantasy...or his memory had slipped a notch within those 90 - odd years he lived, and had confused the story of his own life with tales he’d heard about the famous kid gunman long ago. I DON”T BELIEVE SO.

After reading the Sonnichsen - Morrison book, after recalling what I knew of Brushy Bill Roberts - and, particularly, after the reaction I got from Mr. McDaniel on hearing the message from “the kid,” I firmly believe that William Bonney alias William Antrim, alias Billy the Kid, did not die at Fort Sumner, New Mexico, in 1881. Because I’m sure I knew the ‘same’ man, under the name of “Brushy Bill” Roberts, in Comanche, Texas, in 1931.

As for Olinger, Meadows recalls the Kid saying: “I stuck the gun through the window and said, ‘Look up, old boy, and see what you’re getting,’ Bob looked up and I let him have both barrels right in the face and breast. I never felt so good in all my life as I did when I pulled the trigger and saw Olinger fall to the ground.”

Brushy’s words according to William V. Morrison.

“I leveled down on him saying, ‘Look up, Bob. I want to shoot you in the face with your own buckshot. I don’t want to shoot you in the back like you did other men, and the Jones boy......This was the happiest moment of my life.”

After Billy left Lincoln he went to John Meadow's house. Here is Meadow's recollection based on what Billy told him:

“Kid told me exactly how it was done. He said he was lying on the floor on his stomach, and shot Bell as he ran down the stairs. Kid said of this killing, ‘I did not want to kill Bell, but I had to do so in order to save my own life. It was a case of having to, not wanting to.’”

Brushy’s words according to William V. Morrison.

“With the fourteen-inch chain between my leg irons, I could not run, so I jumped and slid across the floor to the left toward the stairs........I pulled the trigger and the bullet struck the wall on that side.....Bell fell down the steps, dying as he fell.”

In 1950 Brushy and Morrison walked into the home of Martile Able in El Paso, TX. Mrs. Able’s husband John C. Able was an acquaintance of Billy The Kid and Mrs. Able herself had met Billy on several occasions. When they entered the room Brushy was asked “Do you know this lady?”. His answer, “Sure, that’s John Able’s wife!” Mrs. Able signed an affidavit swearing she recognized Brushy as the real Billy The Kid. She said he looked like Billy, talked like Billy, walked like Billy and laughed like Billy. She later gave an interview for the newspaper and reported that Billy The Kid had visited her home that day.