Billy and three other men were captured on 22 December 1880 while they were hiding out in an old stone hut by Pat Garrett and a small posse. The men had been on the run for some weeks and were pretty filthy. They were cleaned up and given new suits. Here we see Billy sporting his new duds. He was proud of that watch. It was probably the only thing of any value that he ever owned. A young doctor named Hoyt went west to have some adventure. He met the kid and they became friends. Hoyt wrote a book about his experiences. He described Billy's eyes as being blue with brown rings around the cornea and little dark specs in them. If you can enlarge this image and look at his eyes, they look just as Dr. Hoyt described them.
I own the original of this tintype. Here I have reversed it, so that Billy is oriented as in life. He parted his hair on the left. Sallie Chisum owned this photo. It went to her brother's daughter who stored it in her attic in Baker, Oregon. After her death her home was opened and its contents sold. Sallie's collection of tintypes was in that lot. I found them in a local antique store. I drove to Baker and met Sallie's family.....several generations down. They recalled her collection and wanted to know how I had acquired it. I told them I found it in an antique store and then they recalled the yard sale years ago. Sallie's collection was considered of little import. The photographs, mostly tintypes were dropped into old pink donut boxes and sold with old wrapping paper, ribbons, etc... I walked into that store and recognized the subjects of many of the photographs! Some took a lot of study to ID.
As you view this photo of the Kid, you can see that his hair was quite dark brown and wavy. It fell in ringlets around his neck and ears. If he had time to think about it, he closed his lips over his buck teeth. It looks to me that he has shifted his head back a little to rest against the wall to help him steady himself. His suit looks at least one size too large. Stuck to the back of this tintype is another photograph, but the top has been torn away. That might have been Billy too. Billy Bonney, aka William Henry McCarty, aka Henry Antrim, aka Billy the Kid, liked to have his picture taken. He was a "ham" and enjoyed being the center of attention.
Along with the kid, Garrett captured three others. Before they surrendered he shot and killed one of Billy's best friends, a fellow named Charlie Bowdre. Early in the morning Charlie had stepped from the hut to feed the horses, who were tied to the rafters and standing outside. Garrett, who knew Charlie well, shot him square in the middle of his chest with a high powered rifle and from close range. Here is Charlie. The tintype was probably taken a few years earlier and obviously before he grew his mustache.
Here Charlie is about 30 years old. He was married. He and Billy planned to partner in a ranch. The men who fought in the Lincoln County War were young men. Not unlike soldiers of today.
I do know own the original of this tintype. The original is a 5x7. This I photographed from the internet. I called its owner and asked him if he knew who these people were. He did not. I told them they are Deluvina Maxwell, the Kid and Paulita Maxwell. Then he told me he had sold the picture! So this wonderful photo is in the wind once again. He looks like he does in my mug shot of him doesn't he.
Note the tinted watch chain. Billy may be wearing the same vest that he is wearing in his mug shot. I think he is standing along the banks of the Pecos River. As the story goes he and Paulita were planning to elope to Old Mexico. Billy spoke perfect Spanish. Deluvina on the left, was a former Navajo slave who was now a servant in the Maxwell household. She was also crazy about the Kid. Paulita was 3/4 French. Here she is 16. She lived well into the 20th Century. A few months after the Kid's death she gave birth to a boy, who looked suspiciously like the kid. Right after the Kid was killed she immediately married....it was not a happy union.
It is funny how the trio picture came to light. A young women in Germany found it! She called someone who put her in touch with me. She told me how to find the photo on the Web and I looked it up. It was found in the town where the photographer lived...that is the man who took this picture. His name was George W. Morgan. I drove to that town and in the Historical Society there found his personal photo album and scores more of his photographs! Like, how neat is that! Morgan ran his photo studio from a wagon between the years 1871 and 1882 when he modernized his technique and stopped making tintypes. He retired in 1890 and died in 1904. He was raised in the same county as John S. Chisum and I wonder if they knew one another. During the brutal winters in Wisconsin he must have traveled south to work his trade in the warmer climes. I found photos in mats in both locations with his name embossed along the bottom.
Billy the Kid, who is the subject of the above tintype was never close to Viroqua, Wisconsin. So the photographer must have gone to him!
I found the attached tintype in Viroqua. Hmmm; do you see the connection?
BTW: this is John Middleton once again. He was never in Wisconsin either, but his photograph ended up there. I found it in what must be Morgan's personal album. Here is the photo stuck in that album. I found these two photographs about 1500 miles apart.
Photographs that illustrate a story are my favorite. The story Sallie Chisum's photographs tell is one of the most famous in our Old West. I feel honored to own her collection. Oh, when I found that picture of the kid in its mat, I took it to the owner of the shop and said, "I think this is a picture of Billy the Kid". She replied, "That's nice, he is six dollars and fifty cents." I paid cash.
Nede, since you have registered some interest I'll show you some more photographs....again almost all are tintypes and tiny. Billy the Kid may not have been pure as the driven snow, but he did have a sense of justice and the murder of his employer, the Englishmen John H. Tunstall peaked his sense of injustice. He plotted to and then killed, along with five others one of the men responsible for the injustice in the town of Lincoln. His name was William Brady, called by locals "Major" Brady. Sallie Chisum somehow got hold of his picture and I found it. Here is, and by far, the best photograph of William Brady. The kid was finally arrested and tried for Brady's murder. Billy was sentence to hang, but he killed his two guards and escaped only to be killed himself by Sheriff Pat Garrett four months later.
I have reversed this copy of the original so Brady appears as he looked in life. He has an elaborate haircut. He liked wearing loud ties. If one looks closely one can see his Masonic Emblem dangling from his belt. The Angelo's in Lincoln formed a Masonic Temple to keep the Spanish speaking people out. Masons were not Catholic and the Spanish speakers were, of course.
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