Another Billy the Kid plate?

**Stepmccarty** · 1-Oct-2015, 15:29

As many cowpokes know it is often more comfortable to move one's belt buckle aside when riding a horse. Here Brady has done just that. He is posed outdoors. Photo was taken ca. 1877. Sallie Chisum owned it. It is quite small maybe 2.5 inches high. Brady had been a soldier and one can see his "military bearing" in his pose.

**Pierre 2** · 1-Oct-2015, 21:09

I also find these stories and pictures fascinating, even though I am somewhat remote from that way of life (my closest encounters with the wild West were watching "the Grand Chaparral" and a visit a few years ago to the site where that TV series was filmed - The site didn't bring back so many memories but finding the complete series on youtube in spanish did !)

Thanks for sharing those pictures AND the product of you research. Looking forward to any upcoming picture and comments / observations you will provide.

**Andrew O'Neill** · 2-Oct-2015, 18:48

Very much enjoying this thread.

**Stepmccarty** · 3-Oct-2015, 16:43

This is a detail of the larger image. For over a century historians have been searching for a photograph of a living, breathing Dirty Dave Rudabaugh. He rode with Billy during the kids final escapades. The only other pictures of Dirty Dave are of his decapitated head, one with it on the end of a pole. Dave was one of the meanest killers in the Old West and here he is shortly after his capture, along with the kid. Both men were jailed and given new suits to be presentable for trial. I have already posted a picture of the kid in his and here we see Dave. When captured he had a full beard. He doesn't look too happy does he. I think he has a cut lip. A crowd tried to grab him and lynch the guy after he was captured. Sallie Chisum owned this photograph, a tintype.

**ImSoNegative** · 3-Oct-2015, 20:29

Originally Posted by Andrew O'Neill

Very much enjoying this thread.

++1

**Bob Salomon** · 4-Oct-2015, 04:27

Originally Posted by Stepmccarty

This is a detail of the larger image. For over a century historians have been searching for a photograph of a living, breathing Dirty Dave Rudabaugh. He rode with Billy during the kids final escapades. The only other pictures of Dirty Dave are of his decapitated head, one with it on the end of a pole. Dave was one of the meanest killers in the Old West and here he is shortly after his capture, along with the kid. Both men were jailed and given new suits to be presentable for trial. I have already posted a picture of the kid in his and here we see Dave. When captured he had a full beard. He doesn't look too happy does he. I think he has a cut lip. A crowd tried to grab him and lynch the guy after he was captured. Sallie Chisum owned this photograph, a tintype.

Then whose picture is on his Wikapedia page?

**goamules** · 4-Oct-2015, 08:53

Somehow I am having difficulty believing you are finding all these Billy the Kid photos. Why have I never heard of any of them, other than the 2013 find, since deemed not real? For 50 years the story has been there is only one or two known, authenticated photos. So far you have shown at least four, that you claim are Billy the Kid. Do you have any proof, besides "it looks kinda like him?"

Authentication is done all the time, there are no "liability issues". The only issue is to wrongly authenticate something, then have it proven false. That only hurts the authentication reputation, or anyone who buys false items.

Not trying to pick a fight, but when someone appears on a forum, with no real name or introduction, and starts providing a lot of "holy grail" photos that have been looked for for generations, it requires more proof.

**Stepmccarty** · 4-Oct-2015, 16:39

Thanks Goamules for responding to my posts of BTK pictures. I was surprised that so few of the experts would accept my photos as legit. While some of he great writers, Bob Utley and Leon Metz believe my photos are authentic...a few others too, but Nolan, MaCubbin and BBB do not....at least not officially. I picked up the pictures exactly as I said I did, in a stack and in bins in an antique store. I also traced the ownership back to Sallie Chisum's brother's family, who had forgotten the identities of the people and sold the collection in a yard sale. They ended up in a little store less than a mile from my home. I interviewed Sallie's brother's family. They still have all kinds of Chisum related artifacts and many photographs including some wonderful ones of the Long House at the South Springs Ranch. You have not seen or heard about these pictures because no magazine has agreed to publish them. They refuse to believe them. But I own an amazingly complete and clear set of Chisum and Billy the Kid related photographs!

I am going to attach Sallie's picture, that I own of Frank Coe. There is no mistaking Frank. If one of them is right then all are, since they came from the same place.

Frank Coe:

**Bob Salomon** · 4-Oct-2015, 16:44

Originally Posted by Stepmccarty

Thanks Goamules for responding to my posts of BTK pictures. I was surprised that so few of the experts would accept my photos as legit. While some of he great writers, Bob Utley and Leon Metz believe my photos are authentic...a few others too, but Nolan, MaCubbin and BBB do not....at least not officially. I picked up the pictures exactly as I said I did, in a stack and in bins in a antique store. I also traced the ownership back to Sallie Chisum's brother's family, who had forgotten the identities of the people and sold the collection in a yard sale. They ended up in a little store less than a mile from my home. I interviewed Sallie's brother's family. They still have all kinds of Chisum related artifacts and many photographs including some wonderful ones of the Long House at the South Springs Ranch. You have not seen or heard about these pictures because no magazine has agreed to publish them. They refuse to believe them. But I own an amazingly complete and clear set of Chisum and Billy the Kid related photographs!

You should go to Las Vegas (NV not NM) and go to the Gold and Silver pawn shop. They will get them authenticated and pay you a small fortune!

But you would not be the first!

**Stepmccarty** · 4-Oct-2015, 16:52

I took eight of the photos with me to Bob Boze Bell's offices in Cave Creek, AZ. He said to me that he gets requests to authenticate Billy pictures constantly. When I spoke to him I had not yet found the Chisum family here in Oregon, so I had no provenance. Today I do. I talk with BBB via his web site from time to time but he is not encouraging. But I have the pictures. Owning them is amazing, at least to me. Frankly, I don't know what to do about them. Book is writ. So is a smaller Costco book. I know what the kid and his pals looked like when he knew them. I have photos of some Regulators that no others have....hard to ID those...

Anyway, thanks for your interest and advice.