There is that possibility that his belief is the result of some mental state. Besides his family saying that, there is the testimony of a woman who lived in Hamilton who recalled that Brushy was claiming to be Billy The Kid even then--- which goes against the story William Morrison was told that Brushy kept quiet about being The Kid.
The woman's name was Elreeta Weathers, and she gave her testimony in 1998 for the "People and Places: Gazetteer of Hamilton County Texas", which was later put on a genealogy website:
"I don't know anything about the validity of Brushy Bill's claims to be Billy The Kid, because I have not studied them.
I do remember that he was a wiry little man, whom I thought was crazy. Mother and I would do anything we could to avoid being trapped by Brushy Bill, as we knew him.
In retrospect, I would now classify his behavior as a form of dementia. We did not believe most of his claims and did not like to be the audience for his rantings and ravings. We pitied the other poor souls whom he did trap.
Roberts would "trap" people between himself and one of the light posts around the square. Once someone was "trapped," Brushy Bill would begin his tirade about being Billy The Kid, displaying his small wrists* and explaining how he had once slipped out of a pair of handcuffs to escape.
He also told us that he made his own shirt... and either he or Mrs. Roberts obviously did. His shirts were always constructed of brightly colored and patterned fabric. At the time it was not possible to buy shirts made with such designs. The shirts were likely made from quadrica, a broadcloth type of fabric available at the time.
The diminutive, mustached Mr. Roberts always wore a western hat and tied a red kerchief around his neck. Mr. Roberts died while I was still in highschool."
Mind you, Roberts went from Gladewater to Hamilton later to move to Hico. So Mrs Weathers recollections of Brushy are from the time he married Malinda to August of 1949 when he moved to Hico.
Census records show that she was indeed a resident of Hamilton in the timeframe in question. Now I did mark something in her testimony with a "*" because it must be noted that Morrison described Brushy as having large wrists and small hands, so clearly the woman made a mistake in recounting events.
However, the details of his clothing style is so precise and accurate that the whole substance of her testimony shows that she is giving a genuine statement of the facts.
The reason why I say that is because it is a fact of nature that women give far better, accurate testimonies than men because women pay attention to far greater details than men do. Cold case homicide detective J. Warner Wallace talks about this all the time in his Christian apologetic work.
Now, could it be that residents assumed Brushy Bill Roberts was mentally ill on the basis of his claims? Probably. Even if he was Billy The Kid, you wouldn't blame people for thinking you were crazy because it was common knowledge Billy The Kid was dead.
But what gives the mental illness argument credibility is that Brushy told Morrison he never told anyone the truth, not even his wife--- yet he was telling people he was Billy The Kid for years, and there's no way his wife wouldn't have heard townspeople talking about her husband being crazy believing himself to be Billy The Kid.
Furthermore, if one looks up Brushy Bill Roberts and his time in Gladewater Texas, there exists at least one newspaper article that says Brushy Bill Roberts was "an Indian fighter who worked for Pawnee Bill," and noted he was giving shooting demonstrations.
So it seems apparent that one thing advanced psychologically from one thing to the next and the next. Now that doesn't mean Roberts wasn't an Indian fighter or wasn't an employee of Pawnee Bill--- but within a few short years he goes from one extreme to another, or so it seems.
Now, if you do a comparative timeline between J. Frank Dalton and Brushy Bill Roberts, you will see where Dalton "comes out" as Jesse James in April or May of 1948. Could it be the two men simultaneously "came out" as the men they claimed to be coincidentally or purposely?
I lean towards the latter, only because Brushy Bill and Dalton were friends as far back as Gladewater. So that would be evidence against the mental illness argument, because it's clear that the "coming out" was orchestrated between the two men.
After all, it was "Joe Hines" who told Morrison to go to Missouri to talk to J. Frank Dalton to tell him where Billy The Kid lived. A fact of history that men like WC Jameson and others refuse to admit happened.
That being said, I think some people tell a story long enough they start to believe it themselves and it becomes a delusion brought on by themselves. In Brushy's case, I think it became that over time, but I also believe somewhere down deep he always knew it wasn't true.
I know the Brushy-Was-Billy people will get mad about me saying that but there are far too many flags up about the whole thing.
Jesus Christ Almighty God bless you all 😊