The "Half Brother" Question
Nov 20, 2019 4:00:50 GMT -5
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Post by Deleted on Nov 20, 2019 4:00:50 GMT -5
Some have speculated about whether Brushy was telling lies or really did have a half-brother from Kentucky living in Mexico, or whether this half-brother was already dead when Brushy Bill Roberts started talking to Morrison.
It's easy to dismiss it all as the tales of a fool, but, if one thinks about it there was a man living in Mexico who also claimed to be Billy The Kid. That man, of course, was the mysterious John Miller.
Photo comparisons between Miller and the tintype are similar, though NOWHERE near as accurate as Brushy's photo comparisons to the tintype.
THAT would make sense IF... John Miller was in fact Brushy Bill Roberts half-brother! After all, half-siblings are similar but not entirely. I can speak from experience, as my own half-brother and myself are similar but not in all respects (different mother's).
Consider this... John Miller claimed a birthdate of 1850, which would make him older than Billy The Kid... Brushy's half-brother was older than he was, from his father's first marriage... Brushy claimed a birth of 1859.
The first notation of "John Miller" in existence was August 8, 1881 in Las Vegas, New Mexico one month after the alleged death of The Kid. NOTHING has been found of him prior to this date.
Over the years many unknown men came to see Miller, and were "outlaws", hiding out at his residence. At one point Miller and these men allegedly left to go to Montana in around 1902 and pulled off a robbery
Now, memories fade and are often blurred. Dates are not always correct, nor are exact locations. Besides most of the information we have on Miller is second hand or third hand information, so we're basically finding our way through the dark here, but...
In around 1902, Brushy Bill Roberts claimed he was a deputy stopping train robbers, when the Dalton gang robbed the train he was on. They recognized him as The Kid, and let him go with his life. Where did this incident take place?
He never specified, however, many people have wondered out loud if "Billy Barlow" wasn't related somehow to John Wesley Hardin, but perhaps maybe John Miller was apart of the Dalton gang--- oddly enough, Brushy Bill Roberts claimed to be apart of the Dalton gang too. Maybe the kernel of truth is that Brushy Bill Roberts ran with different people from the Dalton gang, primarily because of John Miller's association with the Dalton's.
Miller, at times, claimed to be The Kid, and at other times claimed that he only knew The Kid while working as a ranch hand for the Chisum Brothers. Could there be the kernel of truth in both claims, that he was related to The Kid and worked together with the Chisum's and just so happened to be in Fort Sumner the night Garrett rode into town?
I find it plausible BECAUSE ironically he and Brushy Bill tell virtually the same story--- that Garrett shot a Mexican, and that individual was passed off as The Kid.
Now, it's true, Miller also said (at times) that he was shot, pretended to be dead, and then escaped--- and the body of some Mexican who died the day before was buried instead. Brushy Bill claimed that both he and "Billy Barlow" was shot, and it was Barlow who is buried in the grave.
Maybe it could be that "Billy Barlow" was in fact "John Miller", let's be honest both names are clearly aliases that were likened to the John Doe of our time. The fact that it's noted Miller was suffering a gunshot wound on August 8 1881, makes one think this is possible--- however, I think it is not worth pursuing because the one factor between the two stories is that a Mexican died in their place.
The kernel of truth, then, would be John Miller merely relayed the story of what happened to The Kid and left as soon as he could--- the fact that Brushy and Miller both claim to have remained in Fort Sumner or around Fort Sumner for weeks afterwards, correlates each other's story in a way. Only a brother, or some close confidante, would know what they did basically.
Furthermore, it's ironic that Brushy said around 1895-1898 he was part of a group of men who put up a ranch in Mexico, and Miller claimed in that same time frame to have acted as the "go-between" in disputes between outlaws and his neighbors in Mexico. Sounds like the two men had to of known each other, the stories keep overlapping at different points.
On November 7, 1937 Miller died in a nursing home in Prescott, Arizona. Brushy Bill Roberts died December 27, 1950... So it corroborates something Roberts said before, that his half-brother was already dead by the time Morrison talked to him... Then again, maybe a more intriguing theory is that Roberts wasn't Ollie Roberts cousin, but rather Ollie's half-brother which is probably easier to imagine Brushy fooling Ollie's mother into believing him to be her son.
It's easy to dismiss it all as the tales of a fool, but, if one thinks about it there was a man living in Mexico who also claimed to be Billy The Kid. That man, of course, was the mysterious John Miller.
Photo comparisons between Miller and the tintype are similar, though NOWHERE near as accurate as Brushy's photo comparisons to the tintype.
THAT would make sense IF... John Miller was in fact Brushy Bill Roberts half-brother! After all, half-siblings are similar but not entirely. I can speak from experience, as my own half-brother and myself are similar but not in all respects (different mother's).
Consider this... John Miller claimed a birthdate of 1850, which would make him older than Billy The Kid... Brushy's half-brother was older than he was, from his father's first marriage... Brushy claimed a birth of 1859.
The first notation of "John Miller" in existence was August 8, 1881 in Las Vegas, New Mexico one month after the alleged death of The Kid. NOTHING has been found of him prior to this date.
Over the years many unknown men came to see Miller, and were "outlaws", hiding out at his residence. At one point Miller and these men allegedly left to go to Montana in around 1902 and pulled off a robbery
Now, memories fade and are often blurred. Dates are not always correct, nor are exact locations. Besides most of the information we have on Miller is second hand or third hand information, so we're basically finding our way through the dark here, but...
In around 1902, Brushy Bill Roberts claimed he was a deputy stopping train robbers, when the Dalton gang robbed the train he was on. They recognized him as The Kid, and let him go with his life. Where did this incident take place?
He never specified, however, many people have wondered out loud if "Billy Barlow" wasn't related somehow to John Wesley Hardin, but perhaps maybe John Miller was apart of the Dalton gang--- oddly enough, Brushy Bill Roberts claimed to be apart of the Dalton gang too. Maybe the kernel of truth is that Brushy Bill Roberts ran with different people from the Dalton gang, primarily because of John Miller's association with the Dalton's.
Miller, at times, claimed to be The Kid, and at other times claimed that he only knew The Kid while working as a ranch hand for the Chisum Brothers. Could there be the kernel of truth in both claims, that he was related to The Kid and worked together with the Chisum's and just so happened to be in Fort Sumner the night Garrett rode into town?
I find it plausible BECAUSE ironically he and Brushy Bill tell virtually the same story--- that Garrett shot a Mexican, and that individual was passed off as The Kid.
Now, it's true, Miller also said (at times) that he was shot, pretended to be dead, and then escaped--- and the body of some Mexican who died the day before was buried instead. Brushy Bill claimed that both he and "Billy Barlow" was shot, and it was Barlow who is buried in the grave.
Maybe it could be that "Billy Barlow" was in fact "John Miller", let's be honest both names are clearly aliases that were likened to the John Doe of our time. The fact that it's noted Miller was suffering a gunshot wound on August 8 1881, makes one think this is possible--- however, I think it is not worth pursuing because the one factor between the two stories is that a Mexican died in their place.
The kernel of truth, then, would be John Miller merely relayed the story of what happened to The Kid and left as soon as he could--- the fact that Brushy and Miller both claim to have remained in Fort Sumner or around Fort Sumner for weeks afterwards, correlates each other's story in a way. Only a brother, or some close confidante, would know what they did basically.
Furthermore, it's ironic that Brushy said around 1895-1898 he was part of a group of men who put up a ranch in Mexico, and Miller claimed in that same time frame to have acted as the "go-between" in disputes between outlaws and his neighbors in Mexico. Sounds like the two men had to of known each other, the stories keep overlapping at different points.
On November 7, 1937 Miller died in a nursing home in Prescott, Arizona. Brushy Bill Roberts died December 27, 1950... So it corroborates something Roberts said before, that his half-brother was already dead by the time Morrison talked to him... Then again, maybe a more intriguing theory is that Roberts wasn't Ollie Roberts cousin, but rather Ollie's half-brother which is probably easier to imagine Brushy fooling Ollie's mother into believing him to be her son.
