BILLY THE KID & SANTA FEBILLY THE KID, is considered one of Santa Fe's forgoten sons. The Kid lived in Santa Fe, as a young teen with his mother, step father and half brother, in the early 1870's. This was years before the kid gained the moniker of "THE FASTEST GUN IN THE WEST". The Kid's name depending on the source was Henry McCarty or William Henry Bonney. The Kid was born in a Brooklyn, New York, slum to a Irish imigrant, Katherine (maiden name disputed), on Allen street. The Kid's mother was said to have turned to prostituion when she first came to the USA. Some sources have it, the Kid was born out of wedlock, from her work as a prostitue. Katherine, according to lore landed in the USA, a victim of the potato famine. Her family dead in Ireland, she got passage to America to live with her realtives in Brooklyn. Upon landing in New York she learned they had died from waterborne disease. Katherine was pennyless and preyed upon, she did what she had to, in order to survive. Katherine, fell in love with William Atrim and traveled with him around the USA. The Kid and his extended family traveled to where ever there was work. The Kid was smart, charming, educated, and a leader. The kid was described as having a slight build, blue eyed, and had lightening reflexes and eventually became a fantastic shot. The Kid's family moved to Santa Fe where they ran a boarding house, washed laundry, and worked in businesses conected to the Santa Fe Trail. The Kid's mother and step father were married at the Presbyterian Church at 208 Grant Avenue on March 1, 1873. The Kid fell in love with Santa Fe, according to lore, it is in Santa Fe, where the Kid learned to speak Spanish fluently. As a teen he went to school and worked odd jobs. Singing for tips in a plaza bar-resteraunt and washing dishes at the La Fonda hotel. The Kid became friends with many people in Santa Fe. Eventually, the Kid moved with his family to Silver City, where his mother died of TB. Orphaned, with his half brother and step father working a grub stake-out of town, the Kid was jailed for hiding stolen clothes in his room from a Chinese laundry. The crime was said to either be a joke, or he was pressured into it by an adult named Sombrero Jack. This event backfired, The Kid was thrown into jail as a lesson. The Kid escaped, from then on his life is the stuff of a Greek tragedy. Prior to his escape, The Kid had worked at a hotel-resteraunt while going to high school. The Kid drifted throught the Southwest. The Kid became involved in the Lincoln County War, and became an outlaw. The Kid for the most part was loved by New Mexicans, and was hidden by the territory's Spanish population. On July 14, 1881, The Kid was killed in Fort Sumner, New Mexico, by sheriff Pat Garret. There is dispute in how the Kid was killed, be it unarmed, in the dark, shot in the back, etc. It's ironic that Garret killed the Kid, for at one time they had been good friends. The Kid was burried in a graveyard in Fort Sumner, that contained the remains of American soldiers, who had died while on duty at the fort. Years later the Pecos River over flowed and washed through the graveyard. Grave markers, borders, vanished. After the waters recieded, the graveyard was recharted. Records were sketchy, the new grave markers were labeled as unkown but to God or unknown. Controversy followed, it was claimed the Kid's grave was not remarked correctly. The gravestone over his grave today, is supposedly twenty to thirty feet from where it should be, according to some, the old grave is empty. In 1906, forty five graves in the genereral area of where the Kid was burried, were dug up and reburried at the National Cemetary in Santa Fe. (ROSARIO). The remains were burried under markers that were labeled-unknown. Lore has it, the Kid's remains were amongst the group that was reburried in Santa Fe. Billy the Kid loved Santa Fe, it is likely he is burried in the town that he thought of as his home. 
This area of the Rosario graveyard is where Billy The Kid could be burried. (UNKNOWN) 
A soldier's grave at Rosario Cemetary.
The Presbyterian church in Santa Fe where Billy The Kid's mother and stepfather were married. In the record book, the kid signed in as a witness to is mother's marriage on March 1, 1873. The church is located on Grant Avenue. The church has changed little since WILD WEST DAYS.
The Kid's grave in Fort Sumner. Note the iron cage, this is because the grave stone keeps getting stolen. Also the Kid's plot is a shrine of sorts. People leave coins, flowers, bullets, you name it. Even in death, The Kid's legend, THE ROBIN HOOD OF THE WEST, THE PRINCE OF PISTOLEERS continues to grow. On a trans-Pacific flight to Japan, I noticed a Japanese man in a seat by me, pull out a stack of books. The man looked at his books, then picked one, put the rest away and started reading the one that he chose. All the books were about BILLY THE KID. 
THe area where supposedly the real grave site was, in 1906 The Kid along with the remains of 45 other cavalry soldiers and a few civilians were unearthed and reburried in Santa Fe. Yes, lore has it the graveyard has a strange pull and is haunted. By whom, I have not done a investigation at this place, yet. Note the indentation in the ground! INFO ON BILLY THE KID WANTED-E MAIL ME. CLICK FOR PREVIEW OF THE BOOK "GHOSTS MURDER MAYHEM: A CHRONICLE OF SANTA FE" |