Billy the Kid: Lincoln County to Fort Sumner

On 1 April 1878 the Regulators, Billy among them, waited in the corral behind Tunstall's store, then attacked Sheriff Brady and his deputies on Lincoln's main street. Brady and Deputy George Hindman were killed, and Billy was wounded in the thigh. Today the Tunstall Store is one of the museum buildings of Lincoln Historic Site, and its original merchandise is still on display.

Para el visitante: The store's original 19th-century merchandise is on display.

In July 1878 the Regulators took up positions in Lincoln. McSween's supporters gathered inside his house, and the impasse continued until US Army troops under Colonel Nathan Dudley arrived. On 19 July the house was set on fire. Billy and the others fled when all but one room was burning. In the confusion McSween was shot dead by Robert Beckwith, who was in turn shot by Billy. Lincoln still looks much as it did during the war.

Precisión del lugar: The sources don't say where the McSween house stood; the pin marks the Lincoln Historic District.

Para el visitante: Lincoln looks much as it did in 1878; walk the single main street.

After the war Billy drifted to Fort Sumner. On 10 January 1880, at Hargrove's Saloon, he shot and killed Joe Grant, a newcomer to the area. In one account Billy turned the cylinder of Grant's revolver so the next hammer fall would land on an empty chamber. Grant then pulled the trigger, the gun did not fire, and Billy shot him.

Precisión del lugar: The saloon's exact site isn't given in the sources; the pin marks Fort Sumner.

Sheriff Pat Garrett had been hunting Billy for weeks. On 23 December 1880 his posse found Billy and his companions in a stone hut at Stinking Springs, a ranch and way station for cattle drivers and shepherds. A shoot-out followed. Charlie Bowdre was killed, and Billy, Dave Rudabaugh, Tom Pickett and Billy Wilson were captured. Shackled, the prisoners were taken to Fort Sumner. Only the foundation of the hut remains today.

Precisión del lugar: The hut stood near the present site of Taiban; the pin is a search result for that area, not a surveyed spot.

Billy's trial opened at Mesilla in April 1881. The jury found him guilty of the murder of Sheriff Brady, the only conviction secured against any combatant of the Lincoln County War. Judge Warren Bristol sentenced him to hang, with the execution set for 13 May 1881. Mesilla in its Wild West years drew such figures as Billy the Kid, Pat Garrett and Pancho Villa.

Precisión del lugar: The sources name the town but not the courtroom; the pin marks Old Mesilla.

Para el visitante: Old Mesilla is a preserved historic village with a central plaza.

Moved back to Lincoln, Billy was held on the top floor of the town courthouse. On the evening of 28 April 1881, he grabbed Bell's revolver and fatally shot him in the back as Bell tried to get away. He then took a shotgun from Garrett's office and called to Olinger, "Look up, old boy, and see what you get." About an hour later he freed his legs from the irons with an axe and rode out of town. Lincoln was the scene of his most famous escape.

Precisión del lugar: The pin marks the Lincoln Historic District, not the courthouse building itself.

Para el visitante: The Old Lincoln County Courthouse is a museum where Billy the Kid was held.

Garrett came to Fort Sumner on 14 July 1881 to question Pete Maxwell, a friend of Billy's, in what is now called the Maxwell House. Around midnight Billy walked into the dark bedroom. Garrett fired twice and the first bullet struck Billy in the chest. He was waked by candlelight and buried the next day under a wooden marker. A later stone memorial bears the names of three men and the word "Pals".

Precisión del lugar: The sources give the Fort Sumner site generally; the pin marks the fort, not the exact bedroom or grave.

Para el visitante: Fort Sumner Historic Site is a New Mexico state historic site.