FACE to FACE III with "The Kid"... and his Indomitable Conundrum

Billy the Kid! For some reason, the story of this ill-fated youth still attracts interest today, so much so that I do not have to relate it again. But I contend there is a great deal unresolved about this enigmatic outlaw, which deserves a great deal more scholarship and study. We know very little about his youth, how he survived after he was orphaned as a boy. Few authors have explored the amount of bullying and injustice “the Kid” endured before he became the most infamous killer in American history. We only know that it was alleged that as a very young fellow, he led a large band of cattle rustlers all over Texas and New Mexico, and defied and frustrated authorities for years until he was finally assassinated... **************************************************************************************** Or was he?

Henry McCarty, alias William Bonney had several names and several possible deaths... many supposed lovers, and hundreds of enemies, including the territorial governor, prominent cattlemen, merchants, and several southwestern law enforcement agencies. No manhunt had ever employed so many men, backed by so many various interests, just to capture a young man who had become a phantom of the southern plains. It seemed no lawman could catch him, no confederates would betray him, and no jail could even hold him. And few other wanted outlaws would ever be able to claim the stellar network of faithful associates, which included ranchers, attorneys, cowboys and most of the Hispanic community in New Mexico, which Billy had under his spell. History has also revealed that no other outlaw ever had such a corrupt cabal organized to silence him and his allies, who, believe it or not, were a deputized posse themselves. The politicians, the merchants and ranchers, even the military pooled their great resources to ensure their demise, and hopefully the end of Billy the Kid. And still they failed. ***************************************************************************************** It has to be admitted that William Bonney was a charismatic leader, who had become the gladiator for the underdogs in New Mexican society; an avenger who had suffered all of his life from a dominant culture which had no room for upstarts- especially orphaned Irish immigrants who had no education, no pedigree, and no money, and who had discovered a path of survival which would have made Darwin proud. Many gunslinging outlaws were recruited in the so-called “Lincoln County War,” where big New Mexico ranchers such as John Chisum sought to keep a tight grip of control over land, water rights and commerce in this prime ranching region. Unjust and horrific things were done to William Bonney's side; assassinations of unarmed men, even setting them afire after they had been shot down in the streets, cruel deeds which followed after mercantile price wars, bribes, larcenies and threats failed to suppress the newcomers. When, late in the "war" Bonney and his buddies were finally deputized, it became a shooting war between law enforcement agencies.(just like the one in Tombstone). When Billy emerged as a crafty and unscrupulous avenger, in fact a hero among the lower classes, a huge reward was offered for his head, and a ruthless manhunter was given the task of his annihilation, making Billy the most famous Public Enemy Number One, forever. ********************************************************************************** Sheriff Pat Garrett claimed to have shot him from the darkness of a mutual friend's cabin, apparently too afraid to confront him in broad daylight. Billy was barefoot at the time, half-naked and armed only with a butcher knife which he brought to slice a chunk of meat... and was only asking for permission when he was blown away. Billy died asking and repeating, “Quien es?” (Who is is this?) The answer boomed into the night silence and the young outlaw, just twenty-one years old, slumped to generate a bloody pool, just as many of his enemies had, supposedly one for each year of his life. He was buried just outside of Ft. Sumner and that was the end of that. Or was it? ***************************************************************************************** Billy's most famous photograph, a tintype of him standing clown-like, with his head cocked, hat crushed, loosely holding a Winchester rifle, looking stoned out of his mind, is perhaps one of the most famous photographs in American history. He is the very epitome of the brazen western outlaw... Or was he?

When looking at Billy there, posing with an over-shirt, a vest and a sweater on top of that, it is obvious that he was not exactly fashion conscious... but giving him every benefit of the doubt, it still appears that he was a few bricks shy of a load... His eyes seem to be rolling into the back of his head, cadaver-like, as if he has just partaken of some peyote, or some other hallucinogenic. Or had he? ****************************************************************************************** I have often wondered if he was dead, when the tintype was made. Even if conscious, this Billy could never have outfoxed posses for years, broken out of jail, killed twenty men, and stolen and fenced thousands of head of cattle. This slump-shouldered, disheveled moron really looks more like an escapee from the State mental institution. It is not likely that this guy could get a band of cunning outlaws to follow him to a croquet match, as has been proposed. Unless of course, this loose-jawed tripper was actually dead. And that would explain the peculiar expression and body language of this notorious outlaw. Suffice to say, he was not at his best, in the famous photo. ****************************************************************************************** Which only adds to the Billy conundrum. How could such a goon manage to piss off so many powerful, vengeful people? How could he have led a notorious crime ring, which included cattle-rustling, counterfeiting and assassinations of lawmen? How could he have worked his way to the top of an organization which included the likes of cunning robbers like Henry Brown and Dave Rudabaugh? Both of whom went down in a blaze of outlaw glory later. The Mexicans who finally ended Rudabaugh's crime spree treated him like a bad rattlesnake, cutting off his head to make sure he was dead, dead, dead. Billy was a bad ass among the baddest.

This famous, curious tintype of Bonney, which I call “Mescal Billy” has also made identification of later images of him next to... well very difficult. He was cocking his head... it seems as if it was falling over and back. This put his head at an awkward angle, causing just enough foreshortening that any other photographs of him will not match exactly. And that is a very important fact in this blog... Since this is about seeing, meeting the real Billy “face to face.”

His mouth was not open because he was a slobbering fool- his jaw was dropping because he was either dead or so stoned that he was totally relaxed... but then how could he even stand? I have often mused that “Mescal Billy” was a photograph of a dead Billy- leaned against a post and posed for a frontier photographer. Just the kind of thing which was done all over the frontier when an outlaw was taken out. Billy was killed in the early hours of the morning... if a photographer was handy, he might have easily set it all up in less than seven or eight hours from the time of death. Of course, the clothes might have been put on his body to cover the blood and his gunshot wound. *************************************************************************************** There were rumors that lawmen cut off the ear of a bounty kill such as Bonney, to prove their success. Especially when so much money was at stake. Perhaps his ear had been prematurely removed, and that is why it looks like it has been STUCK BACK ON... and sticking out even farther than it normally would have. A frontier photographer would have paid serious money to have had the opportunity to capture such a person, dead or alive, and no doubt would have convinced the lawmen to put Billy back together, just for posterity. And maybe 50 bucks. And the well-distributed photo, now one of the most famous American images, no doubt helped to establish Billy's notoriety. It did not hurt Pat Garrett either. Their one-sided showdown became the event of the decade, and sprung several writing careers, and hundreds of books and scores of films. Very few of which were worth watching. Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid! Two westerners who found infamy at a single moment, one by ending a supposed crime spree. The other by being super-naturally notorious, in life and in death. **************************************************************************************** So notorious, that almost every week another person claims to have found another unpublished photograph of Billy the Kid, hopefully worth untold millions. And impressionable people fall for these epiphanies and throw good money at them. After all of this time, they still want a piece of Billy, an American icon. And yet almost all of them are just confusing illusions- like these below, and just like the original tintype of Mescal Billy. Usually routine application of simple geometry will betray them.

Well, I am sick of it. Most of these Billy-come-latelys are laughable. I have made some graphics here for illustration. There are some likenesses which could be Billy... almost, if you did not consider his small stature, or his long hair, or his jumbo ears, or his bulging buck teeth which caused him to stretch his lips to cover them. There have been so many new Billys come out that I am hesitant to share mine. But it is as convincing as any of them. People see an obscure tintype of a young fellow who might pass for a second or two as a Billy the Kid doppelganger, and they begin to see stars, excitement, and wealth. They see what they want to see. Others in their wake have no reason to argue... who knows? It makes good copy in the local newspaper...

But most of these “finds” could have been shot down in the third second of inspection... by educated eyes... And please understand, for many of these images, depending on the issue, just one of these criticisms can be the deal breaker. The biggest disqualifier was the ears. Very few people have ears so prominent as in William Bonney's photographs. They were no doubt a great source of cruel teasing as a child, and one reason he sported fairly long hair. His height had to be another sore spot... **************************************************************************************** Billy was short. Lore and legend said he was about the average woman's height- a mere five foot-three inches. He was slim, around 125 pounds, with light brown hair and blue eyes. This description immediately rules out most of the images offered on eBay claiming to be another unknown, unpublished antique image of the famous outlaw. But they are of tall guys, or black-eyed guys, and square-shouldered hunks... or strange-looking Down's syndrome individuals, and others who are definitely on the “Spectrum,” reflecting Mescal Billy's aura... and many of them are treated way too seriously. Because, as it turns out, when confronted with the Billy legend, people suspend their better judgment. Even the name Billy the Kid still has magic.

There is another, a good historic photograph of William Bonney, an authentic, accepted portrait which helps to establish what Billy the Kid really looked like, without the influence of mescal or a Colt .45 round in the heart. He was a nice looking fellow. Not exactly handsome, but the women loved him. He was not goofy, or ugly or repulsive. He was not, as some folks say, an “FLK” ( funny looking kid ). William Bonney was charming and fun. Not dangerous looking. Not even mean. I took one of the better digital reproductions of what I call “Preppy Billy” from the Internet and superimposed it Q-5 style over the “Mescal” Billy. Everyone will be relieved to know, they are the same person. But just barely. *************************************************************************************** As will become obvious, the tilting of Mescal Billy's head has caused a lot of consternation. It makes the other photograph of Billy, one younger and unquestionably CONSCIOUS... appear a little off. His nose is a little too long... his lips do not align right... his chin appears too short... because Mescal Billy's mouth is open... making his chin lower than it should be. The barely opened eyes, the open mouth, the tilted head... all contribute to an ID quagmire. *************************************************************************************** The only solution is to compare all Billy “Wanna-Be's” with the younger photo... even though it is at a slight angle. But that is still less distortion than the tintype. I have done both... *************************************************************************************** As can be seen, I applied my Q-5 technique to a bunch of “Wanna-Billy's,” which have stormed the Internet in the past years. Most of course were lacking, once computer science and math were consulted. A few were actually close, almost good for doppelgangers. Of special interest though was the one I call “Croquet Billy.”

This image surfaced a few years ago and caused quite a stir. But as interesting as the photograph was, it was never convincing. My Q-5 technique, using the whole body instead of just the face, easily shows its fallacy.

Billy was of short stature, slump shouldered, and at 125 pounds on that frame, a tiny bit on the pudgy side, whereas Croquet Billy was tall and very slender, perhaps 5ft-10 to 5ft-11 with square shoulders. When the face and especially the ears are matched up on the two, everything else is way off. The truth is the narrow face on Croquet would never have even attracted my attention as a devoted Billy hunter. But supposed computer techniques and “experts” gave the photo some credence. This was only the beginning of the ongoing “Facial Recognition” scam.

Today's average researcher is convinced that facial recognition technology is a trustworthy computer tool. Like the old Bertillon identification system, it is not. Another recent Billy appeared on the Internet for sale complete with “Face VERIFICATION,” offering a technological conclusion that it was a match with William Bonney. That conclusion was flawed as well...

AMAZINGLY, unexpectedly, the old "imposter," “Brushy Bill” Roberts fared very well, even in old age, with the best score of any of the Wanna-Billys! I had not anticipated that, and even hate to report it.

I have made fun of the folks in Hico, Texas all of my life, for claiming to be the final resting place of the “real Billy,” advertising this "fact" as if it is something to be proud of, something to promote tourism... when all they had was a lunatic who made the claim... albeit quite convincingly, which has been celebrated at local events and festivals like other towns celebrate their autumn harvest... You have your corn or cotton, or your rice, or your bluebonnets or watermelons... WE have a Victorian serial killer! *************************************************************************************** Yeah, sure... and here I am, touting my painful objectivity, adding fuel to their fire! *************************************************************************************** My assumptions have been rattled for sure. How could Brushy Bill Roberts, at best a central Texas ranch hand, and certainly no master of disguise, have been so confident, claiming to be William Bonney... even to the point of possessing Bonney's exact facial structure... down to the ears? *************************************************************************************** If he wasn't Billy, who was he? Who in the heck could do that? I doubt that he got plastic surgery... Might he have been Bonney's older brother? Or a cousin? And if Brushy Bill was indeed Billy the Kid, then what in the world was wrong with him when the “Mescal Billy” tintype was made? Too bad, we will never hear that story... something like Billy drinking tequila until he was unconscious... and his mischievous buddies propping him up and getting a photographer to capture the moment. Big joke... Which now inspires scores of goony look-alikes ad-infinitum. *************************************************************************************** But “Back to Maverick.” Some of the new Billys should definitely be considered, with the Q-5 process making them strong candidates. They are at the bottom of the graphic above. Even on a good day, Billy's face had several peculiar traits... huge ears, a very short nose, and a longish chin. These characteristics prevented him from being a classic lady-killer. But he overcame what he lacked in looks with personality... which was governed by his friendly eyes, which had died or gone AWOL in the notorious tintype. The light in his BLUE eyes are a special clue. After Q-5, or “face verification,” or facial recognition, or whatever, you still have to use your brain... Plain old sound judgment. ************************************************************************************* Billy had intelligent eyes. Perhaps a bit distrustful... but not cold eyes. Not bug eyes. Not surprised brows, or stern brows, just calm brows. He had eye-lids... which opened in a fairly average way. He did not have a blank, or poker face... he was personable, a real live con-man, and confidently looked into the camera. He was probably evaluating the photographer, as he was being captured for posterity. Was the guy just an innocent artist, or maybe a Pinkerton man? Billy was always calculating human dynamics... and jacking with those around him, even until his last breath. ************************************************************************************** To judge these newfound images, you must maintain cold objectivity. And there is the rub. I find that anyone who owns a photograph which he believes is Billy the Kid- is not endowed with this trait. Including me. **************************************************************************************

More tintypes of Billy were undoubtedly made when he was just an early teen, but already on his own, already robbing and stealing all over Arizona and New Mexico. My Wanna-Billy has a high score, and predictably scores better with the Preppy Billy rather than Mescal Billy. I think it is one of the most believable Wanna-Billys of any I have seen. And it compares well with Brushy Bill Roberts's score... as in 95% close. ***************************************************************************************** Anyway, here is my winner of the First Annual Billy the Kid Doppelganger Contest... which I am sure is no mere doppelganger, but an actual CDV (“carte de visite”) of William Bonney. So now, there are three... and two are in wonderful, useful, historic HARMONY. Something else to help wade through the Wanna Billys... which just keep coming and coming...

If you are the person trying to sell any of the previous "Wanna Billys" or these following images on eBay as Billy the Kid images, I apologize in advance for your disappointment and your loss in great fortune... But look at it this way: You had a little excitement, learned a ton in the process, and now join a long line of wishful “discoverers,” of which I am a lifelong member, who had to sharpen our minds some, but are still searching and researching the American West... and sometimes, a few of us are going to strike it rich!