Did Billy the Kid Fake His Death? What the Forensic Evidence Shows

The record says Pat Garrett shot Billy the Kid in a dark bedroom at Fort Sumner on July 14, 1881. Seventy years later an old man from Hico, Texas, called Brushy Bill Roberts said Garrett shot somebody else, and in 1950 he went to Santa Fe to ask the governor of New Mexico for the pardon Lew Wallace had promised the Kid. This video checks his story against the records. It starts with the only proven photograph of the Kid and follows Henry McCarty from New York to the night at Pete Maxwell's house. Then it looks at what went wrong after the shooting: an inquest report that never reached the county books, a grave the Pecos River flooded, a hearing in the governor's mansion that fell apart, two studies of the old man's face and a 2003 investigation that dug up a grave in Arizona looking for DNA. Chapters 0:00 An old man at the Kid's grave 2:10 The only proven photograph 5:29 Henry McCarty 8:28 The Lincoln County War 10:04 The governor's promise 11:58 Pat Garrett closes in 13:05 The trial and the escape 14:32 July 14, 1881 16:54 The missing report 19:16 How the legend grew 20:28 Brushy Bill Roberts 24:10 The hearing in Santa Fe 26:10 Death in Hico 27:17 Checking the old man's story 29:25 The face 30:10 Digging for DNA 32:40 Two graves #billythekid #wildwest #oldwesthistory