Oldest book to claim Garrett did not kill Billy ?

[jgaines]

      You hear a lot about  "  Provenance "   regarding books,  documents, artifacts,   etc.      Part of this is determining at what point in time did something first appear .    My question is what is the oldest published book that contained some research and interviews putting forth the idea that Billy wasn't killed in 1881 ?          My point being the whole idea of Brushy being Billy  would seem to lack  provenance if there's no researched information prior to 1950 putting forth the idea that Billy didn't die in 1881.      And I don't mean folks talking about it at the coffee shop,   I'm talking about research.  Interviews.        I'd love to see any references anyone may have to some older books.   

[mckinley412]

Otero's 1936 book mentions the rumors that he escaped to Mexico quite a bit. There other interviews that mentioned it long before Brushy but I'm not sure if they were spawned by the 1930 movie Billy the Kid in which the kid escapes.

[mckinley412]

The back of Helen Fairy's book has several newspaper articles from 1926 which predates the 1930 movie. Manuel Taylor says in one that he met the kid again in 1914,1916.

[jgaines]

Good info. thanks. I'll have to read those.

[mckinley412]

However, there was actually a Billy the Kid movie before the 1930 one. It no longer exist and I'm not sure how it ended. George Coe allegedly said the kid wasn't dead also.

[MissyS]

Jgaines,
The book called "Gamblin Man" by E B Mann 1934.
In this book Billy escapes, Garrett shoots a look alike and Billy and his sweetheart escape, however I don't know though if this book is one you want to concider because it is Fiction, E B Mann wrote several books about Billy the Kid, one entitled "Blue Eyed Kid" is also Fiction, E B Mann wrote many western adventures and some may be rare or a little hard to find?

[nmjames]

Edith Storey played Billy the Kid in a 1911 movie. Look her up.

[wildblue]

I found an interesting article on Chronicling America and would like to share it with all of you. It says "The fate of Billy the Kid", "Two versions Told. If you go to the website to read it, type in Maxwell's house and then click The Sun.,January 28 1894, 2, Page 8, Image 8. The Brushy Bill/Billy The Kid controversy is new to me, and I find it VERY interesting.  It is a long article, and ends with the "other version" which will be of interest to all the Brushy supporters out there.  Perhaps many of you have read it, but for those who haven't I recommend taking a look.

[Wayne Land]

Thanks so much Wildblue. I found the article and was very much intrigued by it. Here's an interview just 3 years after the alleged shooting by Garrett, with a man who was said to have been part of Billy's gang on a few occasions, telling a story very similar to what Brushy said happened. I have taken the opportunity to go ahead and just post a direct link to the article so everyone can find it more easily. Here's the link. Just click anywhere on it. The article begins at the upper left of the page:

chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030272/1894-01-28/ed-2/seq-8/#date1=1894&sort=date&date2=1894&words=BILLY+KID&searchType=basic&sequence=0&index=8&state=&rows=20&proxtext=Billy+The+Kid&y=11&x=11&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1

[mckinley412]

Here's something else. Edmund Fable Jr. came out with a book in September 1881. It's called The True Life of Billy the Kid. As far as I know it is still very rare. I have one of 350 copies that were printed in 1980. I'm not sure more have been printed since. The author says that July 14th 1881 Pat went into Fort Sumner and saw a Mexican dismount and go into a store, come out and leave. Pat asked the store keeper who the man was and the storekeeper said he did not know but that he was staying on the Maxwell ranch. Pat was sure it was the kid who had 'tanned his face to the copper hue of a Mexican' to elude officers. The book says he watched the man leave and then went after his "prey." It then goes on to say the kid walked in the room of Pete Maxwell asking in Spanish who was there. Again this was published in Sept. 1881. It does not mention the Kid wearing a beard.

[MissyS]

Thain,
You have quite an awesome collection of books, those rare books and rare news clippings, when found you can discover some awesome information, that material just didnt get circulated much, I was told many rare books had limited copy's back in the day due to the depression because publishers limited copy's due to the expense of making the books, and many didn't sell well due to the depression. It's sad because alot of that material was written by persons that lived back in the day and knew Billy. Anyway Im glad you own those rare books. I posted a thread a while back about a man that claimed he saw Billy The Kid in 1913, and again in 1922, he said Billy was working for a log cutting job, I had wondered if Brushy was there at that time? I went back and found that link, you have to skip down to read about it
www.gbcnv.edu/hickson/BillyTheKid.html

[mckinley412]

Hi Missy. I had to edit that post. I meant the book does NOT mention the kid wearing a beard. I thought it might be important. Because it might mean the author of the book and the author of the newspaper that reported the kid Dyed his skin and grew a beard may not be copying from each since their stories don't match perfect.