The Governor Promised Billy the Kid a Pardon. Then He Signed His Death Warrant.

The Governor Promised Billy the Kid a Pardon. Then He Signed His Death Warrant. On 15 March 1879 Lew Wallace, governor of New Mexico Territory, wrote to a wanted man. He told him to come alone to a house in Lincoln on Monday night, and wrote that he had "the authority to exempt you from prosecution if you will testify to what you know." The young man who called himself William Bonney came, surrendered as arranged, and testified before the grand jury. On 13 December 1880 the same governor offered $500 for his capture. On 30 April 1881 he signed the warrant for his hanging. The official version is a simple Western: an outlaw called Billy the Kid, a sheriff named Pat Garrett, and a dark room at Fort Sumner. This film follows the documents: the boy from New York and Silver City, the Lincoln County War and the store called the House, the Regulators and the killing of Sheriff Brady, the governor who was finishing Ben-Hur in the Palace of the Governors, the letters, the meeting, the testimony, the district attorney who would not drop the charge, the reward, the letters from the Santa Fe jail that went unanswered, the trial at Mesilla, the escape, the death warrant, the coroner's jury at Fort Sumner, and the pardon that New Mexico's governor declined to grant in 2010. A note on accuracy: what Wallace wrote was an offer to "exempt you from prosecution", not the word pardon; the "pardon in your pocket" line comes from later accounts and is attributed as such. Only one photograph of the Kid is generally accepted; the croquet tintype is disputed and named as disputed. No image of his body is shown. CHAPTERS 0:00 The letter 1:01 New York 1:27 Silver City 1:47 The laundry 2:05 Arizona 2:38 The House 3:10 The Englishman 3:46 The eighteenth of February 4:06 The Regulators 4:45 Five days in July 5:08 The new governor 5:22 Lew Wallace 6:11 The palace 6:31 The proclamation 6:49 Chapman 7:12 The letters 7:46 The meeting 8:30 The testimony 9:10 The district attorney 9:36 Fort Sumner 9:53 The photograph 10:31 The name 10:44 Garrett 10:57 The reward 11:17 Stinking Springs 11:41 Ben-Hur 11:56 Letters from jail 12:22 Mesilla 12:46 The courthouse 12:55 The escape 13:17 The warrant 13:43 The departure 14:29 The fourteenth of July 15:05 The jury 15:31 Garrett's reward 15:52 The book 16:19 A century later 17:18 What the record says 18:03 Close Thirty-sixth film in a series on Gilded Age America. Same method as the rest: the official version, then the documents. SOURCES William Bonney to Lew Wallace and Wallace to Bonney, March 1879 and January-March 1881 (Lew Wallace papers, Indiana Historical Society). Wallace's reward authorisation, 13 December 1880, and the death warrant, 30 April 1881 (Territorial Archives of New Mexico, New Mexico State Records Center and Archives). Coroner's jury report, Fort Sumner, 15 July 1881. Pat F. Garrett, The Authentic Life of Billy, the Kid (1882). Statement of Governor Bill Richardson, 31 December 2010. IMAGE CREDITS Library of Congress; National Archives; Pat F. Garrett, The Authentic Life of Billy, the Kid (1882); Mathew Brady studio; Rijksmuseum; DPLA; California Historical Society. All public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. #BillyTheKid #LewWallace #WildWest #PatGarrett #History