One Hundred Thirty years ago.

[bensmith20]

take a look at the web link above, they have done a photo comaparison and its quite interesting, the part about the leg bandage is very interesting too.
See what you think

[Wayne Land]

I think that photo is the most likely to actually be Billy of any. I've placed my tracing over the face. The slight differences you see could easily be accounted for by a different vertical shooting angle of the camera. The original comparisons at the website do not show the images flipped horizontally as they should be, so I've done that step as well. Here's my traced version. I think it's pretty convincing considering how well the other two match up too. I have to compare this photo directly with Brushy!

[Wayne Land]

Take a look at the 3 candidates side by side. I scaled and rotated the 3 photos so that the pupils were all on a horizontal line and the same distance apart. Part of me wants to say Brushy looks more like Billy than this new image but part of me says the new image is more like him. Based on "recognition" factor alone, the new picture and Brushy don't jump out at me as the same person. What do you think?

[Wayne Land]

I'm still bothered by the dark spot on the chin of this new photo. Also, the eyebrows are not as angular and prominent as Billy's. And look at the lower eyelids. Brushy's are flat like Billy's. This new photo shows thicker lower eyelids. I'm still not sure what to think about this new photo.

[bensmith20]

I think the new photo could be explained as his face looks a lot more relaxed where as the original tintype he is almost squinting his eyes with his eyebrows raised purposely and un-naturaly (the sort of dirty look you'd give someone to intimidate them).
They said when he was arrested, the most facial hair he could grow was a fair fuzz, as does the candidate in the new photo.
They also often say he was very handsome and of smooth complexion which could be more obvious in the new photo. They even said the tintype was a bad photo of billy back then.
In the original tintype, Billy does have a dark patch below his bottom lip and the top of his chin, which in different lighting or exposure to the film could easily explain the darker patch in the new image. The part about his leg dressing seems to tie up with his injury sustained in the killing of Brady.
I also think with Billy's head being slightly tilted back in the tintype could be the reason his lower eyelid is less apparent as is in the new photo as more light will be there causing less of a shadow.
The part on that website where they analyse his mouth I also find quite convincing.
The two other characters seem to match up quite closely as well don't you think? I think the guy also said the photo came from the Maxwell family didn't he?

[Wayne Land]

Yes and I agree with everything you're saying. I'm not totally convinced but I'm very intrigued by this photo.

[nmjames]

Ben,

I called Steve today and visted with him. I gave him your email address and he should make contact with you. I will let him tell you what he is doing. If for some reason he does't email you, let me know and I will give you his email address.

nmjames

[bensmith20]

James,

Thanks for passing my details over, he emailed me right away so hopefully now I can understand a little bit more of whats going on.
Thanks again.

Wayne,
Glad you're intrigued by the photo, even if it has maybe thrown a spanner in the works.

[Wayne Land]

There's something else that gets my attention about that picture. The fella has wavy if not "curly" hair as Billy appears to have in the tintype. None of Brushy's photos show that. Of course Brushy's hair is cut much shorter than the tintype and that could account for it. But!!! I'm just sayin! If that "is" Billy and the shorter hair still looks wavy then why doesn't Brushy's look that way?

[bensmith20]

Thats a good question Wayne, I think in a lot of the Brushy photo's, his hair often looks wet like its been styled with some kind of grease, something perhaps Billy didn't have the time to do back in his outlaw days when he'd often find himself sleeping in the brush. They often said he was a snappy dresser maybe even vain, so if Brushy was Billy that could maybe explain his smarter appearance in his later Brushy days.

Or there is the other option that Billy and Brushy were two different people...who knows

[bensmith20]

Wayne, I read on here you heard that Bill Allison's descendant, claiming to be Allison's nephew and claiming he had the tapes, photo's, family bibles etc that belonged to Brushy.
Have you had any look in finding any more about this?

[Wayne Land]

No I haven't. This was a poster on another message board who promised a forthcoming screenplay or book and then nothing ever came of it and even though I tried messaging this person, he never responded and I don't have a real name, email, etc. It's entirely possible if not likely, that he was not being truthful.

[bensmith20]

Wayne, thought you might like this photo, I can't remember which site I got it from but i'll post the web link when I do.
It's a cleaned up version of the tintype.

[Wayne Land]

Thanks for sharing. That's certainly well done. I think Billy's right earlobe is incorrect though. It is my strong opinion that the tintype has a distortion or "black spot" that makes it appear the earlobe is of the "detached" type when actually it is an "attached" earlobe. It's obvious the left earlobe is attached and if you look close you'll see that the black spot I'm referring to is also causing an indentation into the neck right below the earlobe, further proving that it is a spot of distortion. He wouldn't have had one attached earlobe and one unattached and a notch in his neck right below the ear.

My opinion, but in this case I'm pretty confident I'm right.

[brianthedude]

Sorry, but I really don't see how the guy with the Van Dyke beard looks anything like Billy the Kid. I took a look at the other photos on the website where that photo comes from; they have newly "identified" photos of all kinds of historical people. So many of them don't look anything like the people they're claimed to be, and the clothing is often obviously inappropriate. It appears to be another one in a slew of such websites that have popped up recently, claiming (and often selling) random garage sale and eBay photos that sort of resemble historical figures. Check it out, and judge for yourself.