Brady's rifle?

[Wayne Land]

Those of you who've really studied Brushy Bill's story probably are aware that one of the details of the story history assumes Brushy got wrong involved the Sheriff Brady shooting. Brushy said after the shooting he ran out to the body to retrieve his pearl handled revolver but the historic record says The Kid ran out to retrieve his rifle from Brady. Well I've just come across an article regarding Steven Sederwall's investigation into the Kid's demise and found the following:

<<History records that the Kid took the rifle that Brady was carrying the day he was killed in the street of Lincoln.

"Not true," said Sederwall. "We have an inventory of everything Sheriff Brady had on him the day he was killed - spurs, keys, ring, money, and guns. His rifle is still out there. If someone thinks they might have Brady's Winchester, they could call me and I'll give them the serial number and add some value to the rifle. I'm in the book.">>

So, very interesting indeed. If Brady still had the rifle when he died which is what I am assuming this quote indicates, then Brushy was probably correct that the effort was to retrieve a pistol and not a rifle.

Could this be a "smoking gun?" (Sorry about the pun)

What do you think? The article also says Sederwall is preparing a website with all his findings revealed. Hallelujah for that and thank you Sheriff Sederwall. the site is still under construction but is to be at www.billythekidcase.com.

[mwb]

I wholeheartedly concur! Hallelujah is right. I've been waiting for this for a long time. Can't wait to look at the website.

[mwb]

Still no change on the website. It's under contruction. Wonder how long it will take to get up and running.

[mwb]

I see the web site is still under construction. I hope this doesn't turn out to be all build up and no payoff like the rest of this "investigation". Unfortunately, I'm thinking that's going to be the case.

[kidcanuck]

Very interesting. I would like to see the information that Sederwall has.

[Wayne Land]

Sederwall's website is up and running at www.billythekidcase.com I am a member (costs $25). The fee is well worth it in my opinion. He has much that is not revealed or available anywhere else.

[lacowboy]

Well damn are you sworn to secrecy once you become a member?

[Wayne Land]

No. Certainly not. But the site is very large. I was just suggesting for those who may be interested that I found it well worth the price of admission.

[Wayne Land]

As for Brady's rifle, being discussed above, Sederwall presents a photo of the actual inventory of items found on Brady after his death. They include both a winchester and a pistol. There is a photo of the pistol and scabbard Brady was wearing. There is also a very interesting discussion of how and when Brady was actually shot, whether he was walking or riding at the time, and the motivation for the shooting. He does a convincing job of explaining why the shooting was a spur of the moment act of rage due to Brady's decision to call off court that day. The Kid and friends were in town to testify in court.

Billy did not get Brady's rifle or pistol that day. That does not rule out the possibility he ran out to the body "thinking" he would find his pearl handled revolver (as Brushy said). There was no pearl handled revolver on Brady's body afterwards.

[nmjames]

On page 5 of Morrison's book, Morrison is looking at Brushy's scars. Morrison said, Tell me about that mark on your right hip. That scar was from the time I run into the street at Lincoln to take the guns off the body of Sheriff Bill Brady. Billy Matthews ran behind an adobe wall and fired. His shot went through the flesh of this hip and then hit Wayte. I was not hurt, but Wayte was laid up a few days. (Brushy people state he had all the scars Billy had and more.
I would like someone to tell me how they know all the scars Billy the Kid had)

Doctor Ealy keep a Diary that is in AZ. In Water in A Thristy Land about Ealy's dairy, on page 66 it states: One of the men in the corral, who ran out to pick up Hindman's or Brady's gun was shot as he stooped over, likely by Mathews. The report was that he was shot through the bowels but it was a mistake, as I dressed the wound when he came walking in our back door. The ball passed through his left thigh. I drew a slik handkerchief through the wound and bound it up. (Sam Corbet then took Billy and hid him under the floor in the Tunstall Store).

On page 67: They arrested five men. We were left unguarded while the innocent ones were taken to Fort Stanton. The guilty ones rode off leisurely to the hills. One of the men, John Middleton, while riding away. deliberately got off his horse, rested his gun on his knee and fired at the crowd, which were firing at him and his companions.

In the book Missionaries, Outlaws, and Indians on page 31 it states: Taylor Ealy did not name the wounded man who "came walking into our back door." However, the only one wounded at that time among those who ambushed Brady and Hindman was Henry McCarty, alias William Antrim, alias William Bonney.

In the book History Of The Lincoln County War by Fulton, page 158 and 159: Gregoris Wilson had witnessed the affair, describing to Fulton what had happen. He states: Billy the Kid received a wound on the inside of his left thigh, according to Gregorio, when he stooped to pick up his rifle which Brady had confiscated from him in February ........ This shot, from the Cisneros house, has been generally attributed to Billy Mathews, though Jack Long was later quoted as claiming the credit.

When the town quieted down after the fight and none of their enemies appeared in sight, Macnab and the others, except Billy the Kid, rode out of town. When they had passed the outskirts of the village four shots from John Long's rifle followed them, one shot seriously wounding Jim French: Long's fire was returnd and they withdrew. Bily was forced to remain at Lincoln for a day or so since his wound. though not serious, made horseback riding uncomfortable, if not impossible.

In Frontier Fighter by Coe; on page 87 note 3: It also talks about Long seriously wounding Jim French as they left town. It also states that Billy was forced to remain at Lincoln for a day and night.

It is also stated that French did receive a serious wound and held up in a house at Picacho and then was moved to Frank Coe's place. Frank took him back up into the hills to another house where he remained for serveral weeks due to his wound.

[Wayne Land]

I've never read either of these two books but it is stated in Brett Hall's book that "The Tragic Days of Billy the Kid (Hastings House 1956" by Frazier Hunt and "Sheriff William Brady: Tragic Hero of the Lincoln County War (Sunstone Press 1986" by Donald R. Lavash, both state that Fred Waite went into the street with Billy and was hit and these authors concluded this by interviewing witnesses who were there. Brett's theory is that Waite was in the street with Billy and was hit and French was hit by Long as they were leaving town, so actually both men were injured that day.

[nmjames]

Thanks Wayne,

Mr. Lavash is kin to me by marriage. He got this information from James D. Shinkle, Reminiscences of Roswell Pioneers, (Roswell, Hall Poorbough Press. Inc. 1966 P. 4)

I have the book you are talking about. It states someone fired at one of the men, possibly Bonney, wounding him slightly in the left thigh. He also states that Bonney quickly picked up Sheriff Brady's new rifle and disappeared .........

However to me, Dr. Ealy was there. I feel he would know more about it than others that were not.

[Wayne Land]

Thanks James, this is all very interesting to me. First of all, to try and sort all this out, if you trust those reports you sited above, and you probably should, Jim French was not injured running into the street with Billy but was shot trying to leave town. In fact, it makes it look like Billy ran into the street by himself. Aren't there other eyewitness accounts that say French ran into the street with Billy and isn't there an account that says Billy was not the one that was hidden in the Tunstall store? It makes me wonder, if French didn't run into the street with Billy then who did? Waite? But none of the quotes you sited say anything about a third regulator being shot. I'll see what else I can find.

[nmjames]

Where do I start on this one. We have three names said to have been the one's in the street.
Burns has Billy and Wayte, Utley has Billy and French, Nolan thinks it was Billy and French.
Mr. Utley and Mr. Nolan feel that it was French hid in the Tunstall Store. Drew Gomber feels it
was Billy hid in the Tunstall Store. (Funny thing about Drew. He is on the radio at 3:00 our time and was talking about this today.) There is a book on Fred Tecumseh Waite by Mike Tower and he does not think Fred Waite was hit.

Now here's where it get's tricky. In some of the notes at the end of the books, they use Ealy
and his daughters statements and say they name French. However, I have the books and that is not what is stated in the books. They also state a letter from Mary Ealy to Fulton, that
Mary named French as being the one hit and placed in the Tunstall store. However Fulton wrote in the History of the Lincoln County War that it was Billy and that French was hit going
out of town.

In Mr. Utley's book Billy The Kid, in his notes he states Ealy does not name the man treated. But in another of Ealy's three versions of this manuscript he does name French.

I have not read the letters from Mary or seen the manuscript where Dr. Ealy names French.