Interview of Yginio Salazar in 1933

[MissyS]

I stumbled upon an article looks to be published in the New Mexico magazine April, 1933, the interview was by Wilber Smith called “The Amigo of Billy the Kid”. It can be found re-submitted online. Without too much detail I will say it has a fun story about Billy told by Yginio in it, and it’s one seldom read maybe the only source of the story of Billy shooting snow off Yginio’s head with both guns, but  beside the story & questions to Yginio about Billy, the article revealed a possible witness of Billy the Kid alive after the shooting in Fort Sumner. Reading the way Yginio answered the question by the interviewer also made me feel as though he was more open to Billy having survived, it seemed to me anyway?  Interesting that ten years prior to the publishing of the article a man named Gardiner had believed the Kid was still alive, and possibly had saw him? and was told he was on a ranch 500 miles from El Paso & makes himself scarce when people he don’t know comes around. I believe Gardiner was referring to Brushy Bill. Looking at a map Hico TX is 568 miles distant  from El Paso, so if it was Brushy then why would he have hidden himself  when strangers came by his ranch if he wasn’t Billy the Kid? If It was Brushy that the man was referring to as  Billy the Kid then it means someone believed Brushy was Billy the Kid long before Brushy told his secret to Morrison. Maybe we can add Gardiner’s name to the list of witnesses that claimed they saw Billy the Kid after the shooting in Fort Sumner?, there were more than a few claimants that said they spotted him, served him dinner to seeing him at a bullfight after July 14, 1881 and as I’m reading more articles published about the Kid, it’s looking like there are more persons back in the day that believed he survived the Fort Sumner shooting than not. 

[RonBk]

Thanks Missy, I had not seen that interview. I agree with your conclusion, Salazar certainly seemed to be open to the possibility the kid survived. The story told by Gardiner was also interesting. Here is a link to the article: www.rdrnews.com/2021/01/18/historically-speaking-the-amigo-of-billy-the-kid/