Last Podcast On The Left - Episode 464: Billy the Kid Part III - Juan Largo

Episode Date: August 27, 2021

On part three: After the events of the Lincoln County War, Billy the Kid wants to clear his name with an official pardon. And then we meet Pat Garrett, the man who would eventually take down The Kid.Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0

There's no place to escape to this is the last We're gonna have to start serious today why oh, you know why yeah, it's hard to be a cowboy in modern America, isn't it? I guess look through the look at this cowboys. They don't have the same cache. They're not allowed to wear no underwear underneath the chaps That's not fun. Honestly a buttless chap is actually really difficult to be on a horse I can't imagine what it does lucky owner size. I mean Let's talk about the lucky guy. Yeah Rub up against that spine your balls completely exposed also just like there's not a lot of room for rustlers anymore Yeah, that is I mean, they're still around. They're definitely still around and the cowboy is I mean, it's still a very real job

And it is truly I think it was named one of the top five or bottom five worst jobs in America It is an absolutely fucking awful job. It's long. It's long hours. It's very very dangerous It's low pay and most ranchers don't offer health insurance. I would about the lassos All right about collected milk from women in a little house and then you have sex with her and leave her alone and then What about all the you and the pageantry of all the cattle? Try being the cattle my friend. It is not good. Hey, what's up everyone? Welcome to the last podcast of the left. I am Ben hanging out with Henry and

Marcus Henry, I think you would have been a fantastic cowboy. Yeah, I was As Christ, yeah, hey there. Hey, hey, mr. Cow. You let me get up there. Let me get my steps, dude Hey, hey, hey, I'm just the littlest cowboy. You know Oh, all of these men are fucking murdering me No, because the cowboy hat looks so big on your little head I do have a big cowboy hat and that's just to show you how good of a thinker I am But I it is kind of fun. We're doing this old school. I'm in a hotel room Um, I'm not wearing any clothes. No, I'm wrapped in a comforter. So I'm sweating balls. Yes, it's great

I'm so excited to be back here mobile All right, everyone. Well today's episode we are on to Billy the Kid part three And it's only gonna get stinkier and stinkier from here on out Actually, there is a whole thing that takes place in stinky Gulch It's stinking spring and that's next episode because we are making Billy the Kid a four part series There's just too much here and just too good of a story to tell We did the same thing as we did in the black plague series where instead of ending on a three hour episode We're just gonna make a two one and a half hour episodes

But that's how we really get down into the the pockets Billy the Kid and the stinky stinky boots. All right Let's get into the mud and play around with Billy the Kid part three. Oh and Henry I'd say you'd last at least until lunch with the Cowboys. Oh, you don't think I wouldn't be a good old tiny First of all, like the guy who plays the piano in the saloon Like an actual work in cowboy you might make it you have like you have like a jc pennies Model idea of a cowboy Hey there boys. Let's toss the ball around. Oh look at that row. Oh look at my fun belt

All right So when we last left Billy the Kid his war to avenge the death of his former boss John Tunstall had ended in utter defeat in the new Mexican town of Lincoln with the retreat of the regulators and the shooting death of Attorney Alexander McSween and then he died in flame. No Yeah, now ultimately no one came out on top in the lincoln county war The violence and chaos that came as a result of this old west feud toppled everyone involved Including instigator James Dolan whose cattle monopoly fell soon after the war Now as we said, Billy the Kid's side was known as the regulators and by the war's end

Billy was more or less in charge But once the war was over the regulators became a looser collection of folk and Billy became particularly close with two members Because Billy really was a natural leader and people looked up to him because he had like let's say this dnd world He had very high charisma roles like the man is like people were very attracted to him Because one thing he didn't give up ever like he was one of those guys that was ultra dangerous When you thought he was like when you got him, right? And in number two, he was the last one to live Oh, that helps so if all the other guys up top die eventually you find yourself to be the boss

Well, the first of these two companions was charlie bowdry Who had narrowly survived the first bullet fired at blazers mills from buckshot roberts? Remember he was the guy the shot ricocheted off of his belt buckle And it allegedly blew off the trigger finger of another regulator. All right, which heart drop is he? Uh, actually, he's the one he's the one guy, uh, that didn't really work after young guns Uh, yeah, yeah, he probably died of a drug overdose or like no like just pulled a gun off a cop's belt or something One of those actors zero charisma. That was the problem the greatest crime of all Yeah, if you uh want to die and you take a series of drugs, is it an overdose or is it the proper dose?

I would say it's suicide Overdose suicide by overdose. Yeah, we're exactly what it took just like billy the kid. Jesus christ. Wow. Wow What the fuck is wrong with you so dark? No, that wasn't dark That was insanely dark I said it took it Whatever it takes just like billy the kid get he did whatever it takes. No, I'm talking about the pontification on Is it suicide or is it just the right amount? I want to say that about ten the pontification kissled it before we recorded about

How great it was to drink alone We're in the danger zone No, I was on instagram. Hmm. Oh, oh wow It's so great Well 11 years older than billy bowdry was a well known lincoln county scoff law and was locally notorious for a night In which he and two companions terrorized the town of lincoln in a drunken rampage the previous year Ooh, billy's other close companion was tom. Oh foliard who basically followed billy the kid around like a puppy dog And did whatever he said

This man was billy's inseparable companion The guy who would hold billy's horse while the kid visited a seniorita or had a drink Whether it be for 30 minutes or half the night He is a very funny side character because tom foliard. It really is really weird. He is like foliard Oh foliard. He is the um, like, you know in tenacious d They had the one superfan like the one guy who kept showing up It's it's this guy. He was a billy the kid superfan carl pilkington Like this is idea that billy the kid go do whatever he wants and he's like, oh my horse and tom foliard's like

Can I watch you fuck? He's so excited To be the cock in this. Oh, that's nice No, I I kind of hate the term butt boy, but he was billy the kid's butt boy. Oh, okay Everyone needs a wipe Renfield Yes, his renfield definitely You know, it's also I like about the regulators and now what we'll go into what will coalesce into billy the kid's gang

Is that they are all like minor huge bullies to other small towns Where they were like the main villain of like one saloon For like a while and then like how like, you know, like women that are like a wisconsin 10 go to la and it's like All of a sudden it's all the models or all the people who believe that they were the hottest people in their own small towns It's like that but for old west villains. Oh my goodness and a wisconsin 10 comes out to la and they're in la 12 Nice, that's how beautiful the wisconsin people are But oh foliard bowdry and the kid were only three of the 20 or so regulators who participated in a deadly robbery Soon after the lincoln county war and this death would turn public opinion against the regulators for good

See during the entire lincoln county war the regulators had survived on the small fortune of alexander mc sween for day-to-day provisions They had a big daddy Mm-hmm, but since mc sween had been cut down by both the dolin gang and the army at the end of the five-day battle Funds were running low Furthermore the regulators couldn't very well get hired as cowboys on a local ranch. What with all the murder warrants and such So they fell back on horse theven and those murder warrants made them even more reckless than they'd been before I mean horse theven is what they knew Yeah, it was your number one skill. Yeah, I mean but they were already about to get killed it warrants all over the place for them

They technically murdered a sheriff so now like they're out there But honestly it must be nice to come like it could sit there and really focus on horse theven They're like this is our time honestly. This is our strength guys. Why are we denying this? I think it's important for us to get together look at the charts and see what our skill sets are Absolutely in different techniques. Some kiss the horse to steal their heart And then they can ride on talked about this. This is coming from a lonelier perspective now Okay, very interesting. Are we talking sardines and crackers here as far as provisions go? What are they eating? They're eating hard tax hard tack. Yeah, I mean they're eating bacon sometimes if they're lucky hard tack is

hard It's like it's brand Essentially hard tack is a type of like I want to say like you'd call it like a nutrient shit Like we're loving it. Okay. I don't I don't exactly know what's in hard tack, but you know, they're eating beans You know, yeah, they're eating a lot of beans. It's a ton of beans like the homeless man in denis the menace Mm-hmm. Yes, or in a more appropriate reference blazing saddles the fart scene. Yes where they are only Or how I like to eat beans. Yeah, and all these scenarios farts are involved though and every single one of these. Yes, absolutely So one night 20 regulators rode into the mescalero indian agency with the goal of riding away with a few horses

Now indian agencies were kind of like armed embassies that facilitated communication between the united states government and the various indian nations That still lived independently at this point in history Agencies oversaw trade settled disputes between tribes and settlers usually unfairly and sometimes murderously sure Ah, and they were in charge of quote-unquote a culturating indians into american society Which basically meant cultural genocide. All right. All y'all gather round. All y'all gather round This is what we like to call a big gulp Now you got 40 ounces. That's 40 ounces of pure sugar in this. Okay. Now. You're gonna want to try that and you're going What a culture what a culture indeed must be preserved

In other words indian agencies were the thumbs of oppression on the ground for the united states government in the late 19th century And the regulators figured that the mescalero indian agency was easy pickings for some horse even why would you Why would you do that? It's filled with soldiers and like kind of I imagine they resent full native americans No, well the indian agencies weren't necessarily filled with soldiers. They weren't necessarily Like surrounded it wasn't a fort, but it was I mean there were definitely guys with guns there Um, but it was more of a like think of it like an armed Embassy like an armed embassy or like an armed like dmv or something like that. It's a government building Man, can you fucking imagine what would be like if all the people were dmv had guns now? No, I don't want to think about it

That's a massacre waiting to happen But in the process of this thievin an agency clerk named morris bernstein was shot four times Had his pockets turned out and emptied and his rifle pistol and cartridge belt had all been taken This brazen murder and robbery made the regulators look like straight-up bandits And since billy the kid had already earned himself a reputation as a cold-blooded killer in the lincoln county war And since he was a name He was indicted for the murder of morris bernstein That ain't right. That ain't right. No, I mean it's what he kind of wanted this

Kind of sorda. I mean he I think he wanted it at first and then as we'll get into here in a little bit Once he kind of sees the opportunity for an out. He says oh, no, no, no, no I don't want this. I die. Why can't I have something else? Let me have something else He's very much the takashi six nine On the old west. Oh, no, don't say that about him. That's a it's a high insult. Mr. Zabrowski. Also, um hard tax a biscuit Oh Yeah, but shitty biscuits I love that limp biscuit cover band shitty biscuits

But also remember billy the kid is a fucking kid. He's like 19 at this point Wow, so he doesn't really know what the fuck he wants But concerning the murder of morris bernstein billy by multiple accounts wasn't even at the indian agency when the murder occurred He was several hundred yards away drinking water at a spring But since the public opinion train concerning billy had already left the station He got stuck with the rap. Oh my goodness. And that's when billy the kid Unbeknownst to anyone else turns into a little cat and he goes down and he licks the water out of the pond Isn't that sweet? It seems nice and old-timing humans need water too

Oh, I know I just don't think about them going on all fours drinking it out of a pond with their tongue Wait, he's not going on all This is your imagination This is how humans drank water before you could buy it at a store or get it from a tap in wisconsin They call it a bubbler Oh, that's true. I actually just watched back to the future part three and I do they do have that bit where I imagine the water Must have been pretty gross. Yeah at the time and they show up and he gets water and they all laugh at him They all it's it's fun. It's the whole thing about how time travel makes you awkward

I love it Now in this murder the blame was shared between billy and a regulator named george co And after the indictment came down george and his brother frank decided to finally leave lincoln county To start over somewhere else as anonymous legitimate men Oh And while the co's did indeed leave after the murder of morris burnstein Billy told them that they could do as they pleased but as for billy He was going to stay right there in lincoln county steal himself a living and plant every goddamn one of the mob who murdered

tonsil into the ground. That is if they didn't get to him first Okay, he definitely it does show there there was a freedom in the old west Where you really could just go and be like i'm out. Yeah, i'm not gonna be in the criminal life anymore I'm gonna go start my homestead. I'm gonna do whatever i'm just gonna leave i'm gonna leave the life But billy the kid again because he's done this now twice because after the lincoln county war He had an opportunity to leave and he's like I'm straight and then this time it's the same thing where it again It feels like

He There's like a purpose here murdering all of tonsil's men is it's not a real goal It's not you're not gonna find all of these men. It's a thing that you you create for yourself He's created this like thing. This is this is my purpose And i'm just gonna live this out because i'm also 18 Then he has no fucking clue that he has a whole life to live Right, it's like wanting to go to all the guy fiatty restaurants from triple d not realizing they're on countless seasons And the number just keeps going up

He's moving the goalpost. He's moving the goalpost. Yes the goalpost indeed Well, I mean there's also the idea that you know, even though you can leave Anywhere at any time it's hard to leave home, you know, and it's hard to leave what and billy the kid You know, we'll get into it here in a bit, but he has built a community here and going off and starting somewhere else brand new Was even harder then than it is now because now if you fail, you can just go back home But back then if you failed you died. Yeah, is he getting his ego stroked Do people like him in the town like does he have a group of people where he's like he's billy the kid It's not even necessarily an ego stroke. It's they're just his friends. Okay. Yeah, people like billy the kid

They'll love it. Yeah, he just was you know, he's just 18 years old. So he wakes up different every day One day he wakes up feeling like a fucking psychopath and one day he wakes up wanting to like There's instances that you'll see as we cover where he's just like he gives money to people and helps people and does all the Shit, it's just whatever his childlike whims are. Okay But after a few more horse thefts the remaining regulators drifted apart Such a large group was easy to track and chase and the arguments over what to do next were constant So the group shrank once more and billy's need for revenge seemed to somewhat shrink with it I mean, if you don't have a whole bunch of guys egging you on then, you know, your piss goes down just a bit

by december of By december of 1878 billy had returned to the town of lincoln with a vague notion Of squaring himself with the law so he could make a second attempt to go straight. I'm gonna be a graffiti artist Wow Billy reckon that since nobody else had been punished for their roles in the lincoln county war He might skate on all his charges as well And in this he was almost right So the violence in lincoln county had gotten so bad and so publicized that the president of the united states

rutherford b. Hayes one of our favorite presidents, right? He's the old west president like it's always anytime you watch an old west thing So i'm gonna get the attention of president hayes and he ain't gonna have but no choice to come down here Meanwhile, he's just like I hate to take the carriage. I just bounce all around inside of it But Hayes had stepped in and appointed a new territorial governor to replace samuel axl Because axl had rightly been pegged as a man who'd fanned the flames of the lincoln county war Axl was the guy who told the army. Yeah, it's all right head on down there Axl was also the guy who had voided the warrants for tunstall's murder and who avoided the deputization of

The regulators oh, so he liked to stir the pot and he was also one of us be like Yeah, let's use it because you know an army that just sits around gets really restless You have to use them as we'll see in the next five years when we start the next forever war Yeah, yeah, yeah, who where will it be next? I don't know It might be here Look at you canada I've said it before and i'll say it again. We need a wall on the northern border. These canadiens are taking our comedy jobs Get out of here

No, I don't actually I don't know if axl had a hand in sending the the army to lincoln county But I would imagine he did nothing to stop it. Okay And then to hopefully put an end to the whole affair which was still producing sporadic murders between men looking to settle scores The new governor henry wallis issued a general pardon to anyone involved in the lincoln county war But this pardon came with a caveat It only covered people who hadn't already been indicted by a grand jury And billy the kid had indeed been indicted in the murders of sheriff william brady in lincoln And buckshot roberts at blazers mill all before the five days battle

I only kind of sort of contributed to all of them murders I mean really doesn't the bullet do most of the damage and why aren't why isn't the bullet on trial and put the gun Had this conversation before and chris rocked at the bit. It's hard to blame the bullets technically bullets are innocent But even so billy tried to make inroads with the law to earn that pardon To everyone's surprise in february of 1879 billy brokered a peace treaty between the remaining regulators and their enemies in the lincoln county war the dolin gang I think he was just running out of people to drink with Yeah, maybe as part of the truth

They agreed that no one on either side would kill anyone on the other or testify against them in court ever And the penalty for violating this agreement was a swift execution And i'm gonna hold all y'all to that using the most ancient native american tradition possible The pinky swear Whoa, it's the pinky swear But the truce was to be short-lived as these things often are for one reason or another It's not a good idea to have the bandits fucking negotiate their own treaties. I mean, I think it's kind of adorable Bandit, I can't that's the thing. That's why I consider myself a bandit

I can't even agree with the rules I set for myself, right? I set up a certain little like degree of stuff I'm supposed to do you're not disciplined enough Yeah Well on the night that the treaty was brokered the dolin men drunken exuberant at war's end Spilled out into the streets of lincoln singing and firing their guns into the air This is the celebration of them signing their peace treaty They were shooting into the air that's so much better than aiming at someone. No, it's collective. It's fun. It's like an afghani wedding They're having a good time

But in a terrible stroke of luck a one armed lawyer named houston chatman Happened to be walking by the saloon at that very moment as he found himself in the middle of a bunch of drunken cowboys He very predictably got into a confrontation with a dolin man named billy cambell Seen as how drunken cowboys are among the most unpredictable creatures on earth I mean, I saw some at your bachelor party and man, they can really lift their knees You guys really surprisingly know how to dance and some and then all of a sudden But if the problem is that all your shit is stomping around in hard boots And if somebody steps on one of your boots, then it's like now a fight now

Well, we have to have a skirmish. We have to sit here We have to spin a gun and then it lands on somebody who have to kiss that guy and do the kiss good enough You can shoot him. It's not that much. It's not a bit that not that big of a boot culture Now I mostly say like, you know, I've had these experiences, you know hanging out cowboys You bump into one and they're either gonna threaten to beat you within half an inch of your life or they're gonna put an arm Around you and say, hey, come on have another beer. Come on over here. Let's go have a beer And you have no fucking clue which one sir. I'm with my family sir. I need to judge I can't live the cowboy life with you sir. I am a traveling comedian

I'm just so happy that you bumped into me today Mr. What was that little henry? Um, my name is mr. Ben kissle No, no, I'm actually Ben kissle. That's where you chose that thing I've been touching a while Oh god, oh no, it's vodka Would you take a seat by me at the bar? Oh, no, he got beat by radioactive vodka. It's vodka, man I will say though some of those nights that I had drinking with cowboys

Some of the most fun nights I've ever had in my entire fucking life. They know how to party, man Uh-huh When true old west fashion Campbell when houston Chapman bumped into him. He pulled his pistol shoved it in the houston Chapman's chest And told him to dance. Oh my god Is that real? Did they really do that? And then he starts voguing they're like this is fucking incredible and you'd have to break it Maybe a little right said fred. Maybe a little I'm too sexy. What kind of dance did he want also? Did they want him to dance for their own entertainment or was it like what's the what is the motivation to be like dance like?

It's a humiliation. It's a human. It's retort. It's rhetorical. Yeah. Yeah. It's just wants to shoot you. Yeah Yeah, it's just it's a full-on humility. It's like when the kids made Henry do the chris farley impersonation before they'd let him on the train. It's all about humiliation It was a threat and I crushed it For while Chapman tried talking his way out of the situation James Dolan who was out there celebrating with everyone else Bired his pistol into the air and the loud sound spooked Campbell so much that his finger Jerked the trigger and houston Campbell fell to the ground with a fatal chest wound

He soon died and the party continued in the middle of the street around houston's corpse I could just see the moment of silence like he just shoots the guy and he falls and they're all like Now this killing seemed to be more of the same lawlessness Even though it had occurred during a party celebrating the end of violence I mean it was only one murder so it's decreasing the violence It wasn't on purpose. No So the new governor Henry Wallace made it his personal mission to convict and execute the men responsible for houston

Chapman's death, which was all the more tragic because he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time Now billy got roped into this indictment as well Even though billy the kid had only been there to broker peace. This is what happens when you're the face Yeah, I mean, it's like the executive producer. You get all the blame you get none of the credit Uh-huh, but instead of reacting violently billy wrote a letter to governor Wallace offering to testify Against the dolin gang in the murder of houston Chapman in exchange for the same pardon That had been extended to everyone else involved in the lincoln county war This is where everybody got billy the kid wrong that was around him in a circle that like he was charming and he was fun

But he was not trustworthy. He was a sneaky guy like he would take your shit He I mean no, he was he was trustworthy and he was loyal, but he would flip on your ass to save his own So perhaps not trustworthy then marcus Well, I mean, I would say I actually think that you are grossly underestimating the term trustworthy Hmm. Well, I guess in a criminal sense if he would flip on you at the moment Well, he wouldn't flip on him, but he wouldn't flip on his friends. That's the thing He would not just be friends with his they weren't friends. These were the men who had just fucking

Three months ago. He was trying to get not even three months three weeks ago. He was trying to kill He was very loyal to his friends But to people like this who had been his enemies 10 minutes ago. Yeah, fuck him. Who cares they're murderers They just fucking they just shot a guy in the chest. They don't deserve loyalty Like they shot a guy in the chest for nothing. It's the same thing It's like if you're cheating on your wife with somebody you shoot with you Don't expect to get with that person expect that person to like, you know, stay with you and be be legit You know, I mean, you know a liar liar

Joe brown. What are you doing? I call him straight. I'm calling straight. I'm downtown Joe brown Well in part the letter that billy wrote to houston chatman red I have no wish to fight anymore Indeed, I have not raised an arm since your proclamation as to my character I refer to any of the citizens for the majority of them are my friends And have been helping me all they could I can't wait to say the same exact thing to a judge This letter eventually resulted in a secret meeting between billy the kid and governor walis

And by meeting's end they had agreed that billy would testify against the dolin gang in exchange for a pardon Concerning billy's two murders. Okay But in doing this billy was breaking the treaty that he'd agreed to on the very night of chatman's murder So governor walis promised billy that he'd be put into protective confinement disguised as an arrest that second Horset, you think you could trust the fucking government? No, no, no, this is just a show arrest. We're playing a game or this is all fun and it's theater And by safety confinement, he means this trusty coffin right here I never want the government to put me in a safety confinement

Yes Well soon after billy sang like a bird about everything he knew concerning the dolin gang from outlaw trails to hiding places To billy's own criminal techniques Which put all of his former enemies in the jackpot without a single shot being fired Based on this testimony the grand jury laid out 200 indictments against 50 men for the murder of houston chatman And for a whole bunch of other crimes. Yeah, that's a long freaking stay on jury duty 200 indictments That's well, that's an entire three weeks away from your family and maybe back then it might have been nice Yeah, but you also think yeah, maybe three weeks, but you also the trials used to also be a lot shorter than they are now

Much shorter. Yeah, you'd have a whole a full fucking murder trial in like an afternoon Okay, but billy he had done what he promised to do and more and he'd done it all legitimately But the pardon was not meant to be See governor wallace didn't really give a shit about billy All he wanted to do was end the war and as soon as those indictments were handed down Wallace lit out of town and left the pardon in the hands of local officials And this being the old west these officials had no interest whatsoever and letting the notorious desperado walk free And so in june of 1879 after trying to do the right fucking thing

Billy the kid rode out of lincoln and returned to a life of crime This is man. Who do you think the desperado's learned this shit from man? The government was the first step sporados bro We just stole all the native americans land you think they give a fuck about your little ass They just came in they're building a country here. You're a roadkill billy the kid Whoa, wow, so the law made him into the desperado. He never wanted to be but was forced to become He wanted to be one. It was it's complicated I mean, I was being more. I was trying to just kind of set the stage and kind of a romantic

Yeah, I heard the wagon wheels We do can we need some of that especially when you read the letter we knew need a little bit of atmosphere some old west atmosphere really helps Yeah, just a little bit. Oh, I got some for you Ah, oh my god life is miserable. Where are the crops? Becky god damn it. There we go Oh, does that look infected to you? It was a lot of that. No, no, that looks That looks great He's got 20 minutes to live Take his stuff

Take his shit man Give my boots to my son That's a thing man people only have one pair of boots for like an entire generation. That's why I named my son boots Billy then showed up in Las Vegas, New Mexico where he was charged with operating an illegal three card monti game And he was also allegedly seen having a big drunk with notorious outlaw jesse james Although that encounter is rumor at best. I mean now we're into the old west extended universe Which we will get to like because jesse james is probably gonna be the next one we cover when we come back around to this time period But he really is like just the idea of them all meeting together. It's kind of fun because I just it comes totally

It's like it could happen. Yeah. No, it's like we don't win like pretty boy. Floyd hung out with Bonnie and Clyde Fucking hated him. It's just I just love a night to fucking sitting there with Billy the kid and jesse james fucking trading stories and being honest It's insane. It's insane. Of course, if you actually saw it, it would just be them drooling piss hammered looking at each other every now and again We'll keep a romantic Well afterward Billy the kid returned to Lincoln and provoked the new sheriff into arresting him After who's arrested Billy the kid just escaped from jail by climbing up the chimney again He done the whole thing pretty much just to prove a point like even if you do arrest me

You can't hold me have they thought about getting rid of the fireplace It's hard. That's how they kept it hot. It's your only means of war man. New mexico. Does it get cold? Yeah, dude, it gets fucking freezing in the wintertime. It snows. It's fucking awful. Did not know that. Especially like this area of new mexico Where they're at like this is full of like ski resorts now like rea dosa This is where like west texans go to vacation is uh this area like rea dosa. Lincoln cloudcroft all that shit Yeah, this is a resort country another idea. Keep the fire on never turn it off because Yeah, man, it's fucking awful way to live too hot in the summer too cold in the winter This is where we're at in like the legend building part of Billy the kid

Like this is why we extended to four episodes to really show how we get to the end of Billy the kid's life Because I do think he did do things with the long view of how people would perceive him and that he'd like like people that become Big names in history like the quote-unquote capital g great people like dan carlin talks about where he did shit like that We would purposely get arrested just to escape just because he wanted to like have people buy him drinks When they saw him at the bar so everybody was like it's like calling your shot in sports games Some people just get into stand-up comedy for two free drinks other people get arrested and climb through a chimney Yeah From lincoln billy rode a little over a hundred miles away to fort summoner

Now if there was anywhere in new mexico that billy the kid would call his home in his short 21 years It would be fort summoner this place sounded fucking wild. Yeah, man. It's not so cool This was a it was a former fort. It was no longer a fort But it now it when billy the kid was there It was a town that had been founded by mexican and indian families about 10 years before the lincoln county war And in fort summoner the bilingual kid with a foot in both mexican and anglo cultures He'd found close friends a community that accepted him and most importantly a girlfriend named paulita maxwell Sweet sweet paulita. She he loves paulita paulita and him. Whoo, man. Just the idea of her bouncing up and down in disney

Everybody's spilling booze all over her man. It must have been great to be a woman I'm sure she was beautiful There were definitely women in the old west who held positions of power You know again by virtue of being the only fucking one who stayed alive. Hmm. Well as such This place was a true safe haven for billy the kid a town where no lawman was brave enough or stupid enough to try and approach him But that piece was eventually shattered by a man named pat garret Is a man a true grit? This is a real this guy's a fucking character out of a western movie again

It's like I was talking about with marcus right before the show like I know that Western movie tropes Came from places for a reason like they did come from history and you're really going to see it here like pat garret Is the fucking complicated? Anti-hero cop dude that is going to be Identify with billy the kid, but also be his ultimate enemy. It's fun. Yeah Now even though pat garret is famous for being the man who took down the kid He was in reality kind of a fuck-up

A native of alabama descended from slave owners garret arrived in post civil war texas broke in 1869 Owning nothing more than a rifle a saddle a bridle and a horse simple times. I mean, that's a pretty good That's that's something at least he owns something. He does own a couple things After failing at farming for a few years garret briefly became a cowboy and rode north with a trail herd There he met a man named willis Skelton glenn that's an old west name right there Skelton is a very like it's not skeleton. It's skelton. I love it Yeah, and the two of them joined thousands of other westerners in the business of killing buffalo and selling the hides

About garret his partner glenn wrote quote. He seemed the tallest most long-legged specimen. I ever saw There was something very attractive and impressive about his personality even on a first meeting Gee golly. I wish I could be that saddle Yeah, it sounds like you're real horny for the dude And garret was indeed a tall individual although not quite as tall as our very own ben kissle Garret was six foot four inches and since he couldn't find pants in his size in the old west mercantiles He usually sewed two buffalo hides to the bottom of his trousers to make up the difference. Oh my god Body shaving is 200 years old

Yes, no it is it is unfortunate that nobody makes pants for the larger person because we're people too And you know what if we don't wear pants, that's just as illegal as if you don't wear pants I'm not wearing pants right now. I know Look I don't I know you or he just sees my knee more 95 nude Now by 1876 the glenn garret buffalo hunting party was joined by an irishman named joe briscoe Who would become the first man to die at the hand of pat garret? Allegedly briscoe was trying to wash his handkerchief in dirty water

And garret remarked that only a damned irishman was stupid enough to try such a thing It seems to me there's a way to get things going, huh? briscoe responded by saying that you americans all think you're so goddamn smart Now this back talk was too much for garret and garret threw the first punch in the eventually deadly confrontation And after taking the hit briscoe swung back and missed then ran for the camp's axe So he could bury it deep into garret skull Seeing briscoe's intentions garret drew his 45 and fired Sended a bullet ripping through briscoe's left side, which then exited the other end

briscoe collapsed and actually asked garret's forgiveness In escalating the fight so quickly and 20 minutes later briscoe died Oh, it's a funny. I mean, that's the funny thing about the the old west is that this understanding of like yeah Yeah, I made you kill me like if you didn't kill me I would have killed you and I'm sorry for making you kill me because I know killing someone sucks I mean, it's just I guess that is a a code of honor It's this idea of a warrior mentality if you're out there like honestly A lot of these guys just came from fighting in the war

And then just like had to do the thing where you had to kill a dude that like two weeks ago was your cousin And now you have to like you've got to do so you can kind of see how that makes a lot of sense But also pat garret was a good ass shot Sounds like a great shot him and Billy the kid. It's good. We'll get into their comparisons. It's interesting. Okay Well garret then buried briscoe's body in an unmarked grave and garret acting in self-defense received no charges And after that garret decided to switch careers He rode out for the new mexican territory in 1878 looking for adventure And he found a home amongst the mexican people of fort sumner

There he earned the nickname one largo, which very simply means Long john. Oh my god. I could be one largo. You could be one binyamin. Oh, that'd be great Yeah, yeah, that's kind of cute. It is cute. It was the one thing because he was just tall And yeah, but comes down to it pat garret was a lot more than tall. He was also cranky On fort sumner garret raised hogs and partnered in a saloon and grocery business But he wasn't on the straight and narrow He also opened a butcher shop where he and his friend barney mason were caught processing stolen beef Which tells you exactly how wobbly morality was when it comes to these old west figures

Do you think it's not even just wobbly morality or it's just how business got done that like their businesses had like Fy every business that was legit in the old west was like 20% crime Also, how the fudge did they know it was stolen beef because they stole it. They stole it. Yeah They stole it themselves and then processed it. So they got but they busted themselves No, they were caught processing stolen meat. I don't know how the investigation went. I have no idea. We don't have these police records That beef looks like my cow They well a lot of times they're branded That was what they talked about the horse rustlers

So what you kind of have to do half the time is that you have to fudge the branding On a horse so that nobody knows who it belongs to okay Now pat garret was not involved in the lincoln county war at all He had no history with tonstol McSween or dolin But being a shopkeeper and saloon owner He did know a lot of the people involved and one of those people was billy the kid In fact, billy the kid actually attended pat garret's wedding in 1879 garret married a woman named Juanita Martinez and this being a community function many of garret's customers attended including the kid

Reportedly billy attended the wedding and danced to his favorite tune turkey in the straw and a good time was had by all do we Have turkey in the straw to play I mean, it's the it's the f**king. It's the ice cream man song that did Yeah, that's turkey in the straw. Isn't that nice? What a fun time to be a turkey Now contrary to how the legend is sometimes portrayed billy the kid and pat garret weren't good friends But neither were they enemies Instead, they were more frequent acquaintances marked with mutual respect.

Ben, this is like if Rocco from Carmine's hunted, shot, and killed you. Oh my goodness, we're not that close. But no, that's what it is, acquaintances, like your frequent acquaintances, you know? Okay. Yeah. Because also like this was a rough town. So was this mixture, like you had like these desparados

and outlaws all over the place and those were your constituents. Those were his customers, these people. And you're watching this, and it was kind of interesting that like if a person had a wedding, the whole town went and everyone was crazy and people got shot and fight each other and shit, but it's just like nowadays weddings are all like, ah, they're all stodgy.

This is when it was fun, when anybody could come. Yeah, no charger plates at that wedding. I'll tell you that much. Now perhaps respect played into how hard Garrett would hunt the kid once he became sheriff of Lincoln County. And it certainly played a role into how much Pat Garrett enjoyed the fame that came after Billy's death.

Uh-oh. But Garrett was not the first man to try and take down Billy the kid so he could dine out on the murder. That designation belonged to a man named Joe Grant. On January 10th, 1880, Joe Grant arrived in Fort Sumner and after he got good and drunk, he found Billy in a saloon and started harassing him.

Just poking at him and poking at him and poking at him. Don't poke at him. The idea of being a bounty hunter is like so much fun or like the idea that you're going into one town to kill one notorious outlaw because then you get put over. It's like being on the old tonight show. Sure.

But this isn't even, this is before Billy really had a bounty. Like this is just some dude going to kill another dude because he wants to kill him. And because he knows that if he's the man who killed Billy the kid, he's gonna get to dine out on that for the rest of his fucking life.

We're talking blooming onions for years. Now after bullying Billy for a good long while, Joe Grant changed the game to one of murder and he bet Billy $25 that he could kill a man that day before Billy did because Grant was operating under the assumption that pretty common assumption that Billy killed men constantly.

That's gotta help though in situations because he's a tiny guy. So people kind of automatically while it does cause people to fight you all the time, it must also kind of be a deterrent where if you're a little guy who has to kill to get out of certain situations, now you're kind of in a situation

where people kind of start kind of afraid of you. Yeah, but as we know, Billy the kid was not a psychopathic murderer, but he had no qualms in killing for self-defense. And with Joe Grant, Billy decided to have a little murderous fun. See, Grant had just stolen an impressive ivory handled revolver.

So Billy asked if he could see it. That's classic. No, you don't hand your gun over. He was already charmed by Billy the kid. Billy, this is his secret. This is superpower. Yeah. It's like a bank teller being like,

with the robber being like, give me all your money, the bank teller's just been like, can I see that gun? And then when he keeps like, oh no, I shouldn't have done, oh man, I shouldn't have done the gun thing. I'm just gonna go, oh man.

But I mean, it wasn't as simple as like, Billy really was having fun with this guy. But he also, this shows you Billy the kid wasn't a psychopathic murderer. He knew where this was going, but he also knew that he had to kill this man with cause. Otherwise they're gonna come after him again. So after Grant arrogantly handed over his gun,

Billy spun the cylinder of Grant's gun and made sure that the next time the trigger would be pulled, it would fall on an empty chamber. Smart. Yeah. He then handed the gun back to Grant and waited for his moment. And before long,

Grant declared that he'd chosen his victim, a man named John Chisholm. And Grant said that as soon as Chisholm walked through those saloon doors, Chisholm would fall dead to the ground by Grant's gun. Now this isn't the same Chisholm as the cattle Chisholm from the Lincoln County War, or the same family.

I think it's the same fam, I think it's the same guys. It's a long line of Chisholm. Oh yeah, Chisholm, that's just a, that's a cattle man name. Piles of Chisholm. And soon enough, a Chisholm did enter, but it was the wrong one.

It's always bad when the wrong Chisholm gets in the car. Oh my goodness, where did they come from? Jim Chisholm had shown up, not John Chisholm. Oh, God damn it. I hate Jim Chisholm. Jim Chisholm, I thought it was gonna be John Chisholm. But Joe Grant didn't know the difference between Jim Chisholm and John Chisholm.

So when he declared his murderous attention to Billy, Billy said, that's not John Chisholm, that's Jim Chisholm. I'm gonna tell you right now, I don't think you know your Chisholms. But this seems like it was the justifiable homicide opening that Joe Grant had been looking for. It's the honor angle. He declared that Billy the Kid had called him a liar,

which in those days, depending on who the fucking law enforcement official was, you could shoot someone for calling you a liar if you were in fact not lying. And I do love that they would just let you go. If you go into a bar, there are certain circumstances where a sheriff, you could walk in, this is true,

like through all of, to hell on a fast horse, they talk about this type of circumstance, where you could walk in, you get into a bar fight, you kill a guy, and if you told the sheriff, and like, he called me a liar, he'd be like, well, that's just drunk rules. I mean, aren't they all liars? I mean, but if you're specifically calling someone a liar,

then that's a big deal. Like, if you're saying you're lying about that lie, because that's a man's honor, man's honor is a big fucking deal. Don't step on my fucking bit, dude. Don't step on my shea here, brother. We all storytellers here. Brings the come off.

But when he declared Billy the Kid a liar, and then quickly pulled his gun and pulled the trigger, but all Grant got was the big fat click of an empty chamber. You can see the rack focus of this shot, of him like, click, and then Billy just smiling. Like, I did it. And at that point, Billy had the justification. So he slapped leather and fired three bullets into Grant,

killing him on the spot. And if you want any more proof that slew murders happened almost constantly, the papers didn't even pick up on this actual Billy the Kid murder at a time when Billy the Kid was the hottest fucking goss in the whole Old West. Wow.

It's so funny, yeah. It's just so like, well, that wasn't a real murder. That was a bar murder. I mean, it was written off by the community in the press as just another saloon dispute. It was no more newsworthy than if Billy the Kid had shot a coyote. Damn. Wow.

The law barely investigated either. And when someone asked Billy why he killed Grant, Billy shrugged it off and said that his gun wouldn't fire, but mine would. You got him again, Billy. And he honestly, of all of the characters, too, of history, we'll get into more next episode, even more next episode.

Billy the Kid was funny as fuck. Yeah. And very clever, very quick. Like he knew, again, it's that weird thing that you'll just see, like, when we covered Bonnie and Clyde and when we covered these other guys, he had media savvy. Like he somehow knew, like, people love me.

Okay. But not everyone saw this murder as no big deal. I mean, this is essentially a prankster murder. And the murder of Joe Grant at the hand of Billy the Kid sort of stuck in the craw of Pat Garrett, who was growing tired of the criminal element in Fort Sumner. And even outside of that, Garrett was looking for a more stable job.

So he decided to run for sheriff of Lincoln County. This is like a movie, because also remember, Juanita died the night they got married. Do you remember that story? She died that night. Pat Garrett and his wife died. What happened? Something happened. I forget what happened.

I forget, too. But like, but she died the night that they got married. And then he immediately got married to another woman two weeks later. But everybody said that his first wife was the love of his life, the one that he wanted to be with. And then he just got married,

I guess because he felt like he had to. But he was heartbroken. So we got that where he started, he's houseboat cop. Like, from the lethal weapon, right? He's already heartbroken. He's strung out, he's looking around this town and it's just madness, right?

And it's like, Williamsburg in 2010, after all the hipsters started having babies and then they wanted to change everything and they fucking took all the bars out and took all the venues out. It's the same thing. All these people are establishing this Wild West town. They're like, I think it's time we got legitimate,

but we need a sheriff. And it's only one long man that can do it. Okay. Meanwhile, Billy the Kid was forming a new gang. Now he kept Tom O. Folgierd and Charlie Bodrie from the regulators, but he added Thomas Pickett, William Wilson and dastardly Dave Rudabaugh.

Much older than Billy at the age of 40, Rudabaugh had plagued Las Vegas, New Mexico for years as a thief and a con artist. But the baddest part of his reputation came from a double murder he committed in 1880 when he murdered a jailer and an Hispanic lawman. But as Billy's gang grew, so too did his reputation,

which was mostly invented by the popular press. They began calling Billy the boy devil. He referred to him as a desperate cuss, hell bent on anarchy. And there was scarcely a violent crime in New Mexico that wasn't blamed on Billy the Kid, who at this point was still known as William H. Bonnie. In reality though, Billy and his gang

mostly just stole livestock from rich cattlemen. See, there were plenty of large ranches to steal from and sell to. And cattle rustling was easy pickings because there weren't enough cowhands to keep track of all the cattle. But that's not to say that Billy the Kid wasn't armed and ready to throw down at all times.

By this point, Billy was outfitted with the brand new lightning revolver. Whoa. Unlike a single action revolver, which required manually cocking the gun's hammer before firing, the double action lightning could be fired simply by pulling the trigger. Cool.

And instead of, you know, boom, boom, boom. It's boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. And just got more booms. Yes. Also, this story of how he got that gun was kind of funny because the guy who owned the store in town, he got this, this is a brand new invention. He's got this new gun, shiny new gun.

And Billy the Kid came in and him and his boy, and they look at the guns, these shiny guns sitting there. And the shop keep was like an older man being like, can you believe we got these brand new lightning bolt action guns, and you wouldn't even believe the kind of action they can give you. And then Billy Kid's like, can I just see it? And they like, he gives him the gun.

And then because they're all excited, they're all excited and stuff. And then Billy Kid like, points the gun at him, just be like, all right, see it sound. And then they leave with it. They leave, they just leave with the guns. But the man was so indignant. He was old and sick because he had tuberculosis.

So he was this frail old man. He tracked down Billy the Kid. And he was just like, how dare you? How dare you come into my shop and steal these guns from me? I'm trying to make an honest living. And Billy the Kid and his other dudes look at him. And they're like, all right, we'll give you the guns back. So they give them the guns back.

And they're like, but how about this? What if we wrote an IOU for the money for these guns? And the other guys was like, that's in range. I mean, I can get behind. And so he wrote an IOU literally. Billy the Kid owed like $34 to him to buy the guns. And he gave it to it. And then obviously never paid that money.

But that guy went forever on, like forever, like after the death of Billy the Kid with his whole campaign of Billy the Kid owes me $50. He's got to get that money somehow. Well, I think with that, was that the one where Billy told him? He's like, well, there's this other guy that owes me $50. So you can just, I just translate. Yeah, he said like this.

I'll transmit. I'll call him the money. Another guy had an IOU on Billy the Kid. And that was actually very common in the Wild West days. That was like an early form of like credit where he'd say like, well, I don't got 50 bucks, but this guy owes me 50 bucks. So if you give me this, then he'll just owe you 50 bucks. And he's good for it.

So he'll give you the money. He's supposed to pay me next week, so he'll pay you next week. I'll just go tell him and then he'll give you the $50. But then when the shop owner went and talked to the guy that Billy said owed him $50, he said, what the fuck? Billy owes me $50. Yeah, it's Billy the Kid. He's like, maybe he was a criminal.

There is some confusion there. Yeah. But the lightning, I mean, this gun was also light and it was therefore very fast. It weighed about a pound and a half. That meant that the lightning only made killing that much faster and that much easier in the Old West. But Billy and the gang didn't use the revolvers

for killing all that much. Instead, they mostly used them to hold up mailmen. See, at nearby Fort Stanton, which was an actual fort, there was no money order office. So soldiers sent cash back home in registered letters. And since a male stagecoach wasn't as well guarded as all the other stagecoaches, all the gang needed to do was stop the coach, rifle through the bags of mail,

and pick out all the registered letters. Might as well have stamped cash inside. Honestly, and this is kind of a weird, safe, like, scheme here, right? Because you don't have to kill anybody for the most part. You just got to get the one guy who's probably a lot of times being like, I just drive this fucking coach, dude.

Yeah, man's not going to throw down. Now, all those stealing cattle and robbing mailmen weren't huge crimes. They still caught the attention of law enforcement. And in November of 1880, another posse of lawmen formed to chase down Billy the Kid's gang. And this one, again, with deadly results. Once the posse got a bead on Billy's gang,

they cornered Billy and the rest at a ranch belonging to a man named Jim Greathouse. As Billy's gang hid inside the ranch house, a letter was sent inside from the posse, asking them to surrender. I love posse. Very nice. I know that we've covered these back when we did

serial killers in the Old West. But posse's are so funny because they had a distinct order to them. They would gather together, and they would choose hierarchies of who's doing what, all this kind of shit. And just the idea of everybody like, all right, who's got pen? Who's got pen? All right, now we're going to write a certainly lettered note.

We're going to send it in there, and we're going to see once he responds, and then we send our response back. We'll see what happens. Remember Billy the Kid could read and write, and do both fairly well. And in classic fashion, he responded with a note saying they'd only take them as a corpse. Now, I'm a little fuzzy on the details.

But I think that at some point, the posse and the gang agreed to a hostage exchange. The posse sent in a member named Jimmy Carlyle, a blacksmith, while the gang sent out the owner of the ranch, Jim Greathouse. Jimmy Carlyle and Billy the Kid had been getting drunk together for like two weeks. So they were like, they were all like, Jimmy, you know Billy. You go in there and you suss him out.

And so he was just like, OK. And so the blacksmith went in because this is posse. He's also like kind of technically half Billy's like acquaintances. They've just been hanging out with him for days. But what I do know is that when Carlyle entered the house, the gang was raiding Greathouse's liquor cabinet. And so Carlyle just can join them in drinking.

Because he's a hostage. It's so funny. Now, eventually, the posse got impatient and told the gang that they'd kill Jim Greathouse if the gang didn't surrender. And that must have been such a thing for that guy, where he's been like, that's my house, my house hostage. Why are you going to kill me? Why are you guys all turning on me?

And they're like, that's how we get it. Because they're all sitting outside for two hours. While they're listening to them get drunk and laughing inside the house. What is killing me have to do with any of this? Why would that help the situation? This is creating advantage. Recreating advantage is a bluff.

Oh, man. Now, we don't know how or why it happened. But at that moment, someone in the posse fired a shot. Thinking that Greathouse had been killed, Carlyle then tried jumping out the window. Because if Greathouse was dead, Billy was going to kill Carlyle too. Fucking friend or a drink and buddy or not.

This arrangement sucks for that. It really does. It's really badly done. But also, this is a hammered decision. To just jump through a window, like you cook a brand for the door, like he just, because you know he's all covered in cunts and shit too immediately. Like, oh, fuck, would I just do.

But what neither Carlyle nor Billy's gang knew was that the shot was most likely an accidental discharge. Greathouse was alive and well. But according to the story, Billy wasn't about to let his hostage escape, nor was he going to let a murder go unanswered. So allegedly, he and two other gang members

pulled their lightning revolvers and filled Carlyle with lead, killing him before he was even able to get out the window. The gang then fled, and another murder was added to their ever-growing rap sheet. Or so that's what the posse said. According to the gang, Carlyle tried escaping, and it was the posse who shot him,

thinking that Carlyle was the infamous Billy the Kid. Same hats, because they're always looking for the hat. That's what, that's the one thing with Billy the Kid. It keeps coming up, because they said he wore a distinctive hat, but then I think that he just kept changing his distinctive hat. And then they would just give the hat to people, because Billy the Kid also had a habit of shit like this.

Like, with Carlyle, like, one second he's patting you on the back, and you guys are fucking laughing your asses off and having a great time. And then next, he's like, but I can still kill you. Like, it's really intense. Now, it wasn't really the death of Jimmy Carlyle that escalated the manhunt for Billy the Kid and his gang. Instead, it was the business community

complaining to the Treasury Department that Desperados were hurting their bottom line. I'm just like, it's so maddening how business does this. Like, it is still the only thing that moved the needle was the money. Well, to be fair, they are killing a lot of people. Sure, but it wasn't the people. It was the businesses that were like,

it's hurting our bottom line. Yeah, and no one was really doing that. No one, like, the federal government wasn't doing anything about it. The only time the federal government got involved and sent anybody was when the businessmen started complaining, you know, and calling up their contacts in Washington. So the government sent a special operative named

Azaria Wild to Lincoln County. Yeah, that's a great fucking wild. Azaria Wild, that's such a great, it's like a, it sounds like somebody, it's a steampunk name, pretty much. It is, and it's also totally different from the names like Chisholm that we've been covering. Yeah.

So it definitely sounds like a special agent going to rough people up. You sound a lot cooler than Dave Roodebaugh, that's for sure. Hey, Marcus, maybe you know this or maybe you don't. Where do the Pinkerton's fit in with all of this? With the feds, special ops, and like, where do they fit in?

Cause they are private, right? They are a private organization. Yes, the Pinkerton's, they're ostensibly private investigators. The Blackwater. Yeah, they are exactly, that's exactly what they are. Blackwater. So they were contracted with the government?

They could be contracted with the government. A lot of times they were contracted with business people or contracted with whoever. Like, say like, you know, Deadwood, season one. You know, the reason why I swear engine's so afraid of the dude contacting his people back in New York City is cause he's afraid that his people back in New York City are gonna contact the Pinkerton's

and fuck up swear engine's entire outfit. Because the Pinkerton's were, by criminals, the Pinkerton's were as feared as the FBI, if not more so. Well, it's cause they didn't have to follow any laws. They were private. They could do whatever they want. Damn. Well, when Nazaria Weld arrived in Lincoln County,

he soon surmised that Billy the Kid was the outlaw to capture. And around the same time, Pat Garrett was elected sheriff of Lincoln County. And at the top of his list of priorities was the capture of Billy the Kid. It was kind of interesting, Billy the Kid specifically campaigned against Garrett.

Like, he was telling people, he was driving around being like, he doesn't, he don't got a shot. He ain't gonna win this county, he ain't gonna win. I mean, Billy was now the target, very suddenly, the target of two separate man hunts, one local and one federal. Damn.

But as far as Billy's crimes went, he was nowhere near the worst of the thieves who were causing chaos in southeastern New Mexico and the Texas Panhandle. Billy never held up a bank, never burglarized a store, never robbed a traveler on the road, and never, quote unquote, outraged women, as it was called at the time.

See, that's good, he can bring that up in court. Yes, you've talked about what I have done, but listen to the list of things I have not done. I mean, he murdered people. Kissler reminded me of that. He did murder a lot of people. So yeah, that's the main crime. Okay, murder, that's one for you.

One for me, never robbed a bank. You see how this is gonna work, guys? But by Wild West standards, at this point, Billy, well, the only person that Billy has murdered where he couldn't prove self-defense was Sheriff William Brady. Everyone else, he murdered before they murdered him or while they were in the process of trying to murder him.

Also, Carlisle, we don't know for sure exactly what happened with Carlisle. But Sheriff William Brady, yeah, that's definitely, that's murdering a cop, without a doubt. That's murdering an elected official, big fuckin' deal. That's big, I honestly, I am on the side of the fence that he murdered Carlisle.

That he did murder Carlisle and that I think he was hammered. I think it was an impulse. I think that he thought that he was doing this, but, because you'll see that later on too, where he does have an impulsive side to him. That's very dangerous. Oh yes, the brain isn't stopped developing until the late 20s, he's still a baby.

He's still a baby. But the newspapers had a different story to tell about Billy the Kid, other than the guy that was just doing all this shit for self-defense. In an article published in December of 1880 in the Las Vegas Gazette, a claim was made that between 40 and 50 men were imposing a reign of thievery and terror on New Mexico.

Their leader, the article claimed, was Billy the Kid. Shit, I'm the leader. I can see the news people are like, oh wow, that's amazing. What a surprise to him. Now this report was partly true. There were indeed between 40 and 50 men terrorizing New Mexico and the Texas Panhandle, but they were many different groups of thieves

with no central leader, and they certainly weren't taking orders from a 21-year-old kid such as Billy. But it was in this article that William Bonny became American legend. Rightfully seeing a hook, the reporter from the Las Vegas Gazette took the simple name of William H. Bonny and made William a character instead of a man.

And so, Doug Bonny, Billy the Kid for the first time. Damn. I wonder why it took so long for it to boil down the nickname. Doug, Billy the Kid. They've been calling him the kid. They've been calling all this stuff, and I guess finally they're like, I guess that's,

Jonah Jameson, he's the blame. Well, it just takes one report. Everyone's called it like William, because William the Kid doesn't sound good. William the Kid. No, that William the Kid sounds like somebody who's trying to pretend to be a kid to meet kids to have sex with them.

Ha ha ha ha ha ha. My name is, my name is, William the Kid. Ha ha ha ha. Well, I would imagine, you know, newspaper men, they're mostly seeing William H. Bonny or the Kid, and, but then eventually, maybe this reporter interviewed somebody that knew William H. Bonny, who was called Billy

by his friends, and so all of a sudden, this reporter sees, oh, Billy the Kid. Billy the Kid, oh, shit, that's good. Damn. Yeah, that's good. Bro, they're all high-pitched under a kid. The reporter further called Billy a desperate cuss who was eligible for the post of captain for any crowd,

no matter how mean or lawless. Then the whole thing ended with a dramatic plea to the community where these crimes were mostly occurring. Shall we suffer this horde of outcasts in the scum of society who are outlawed by a multitude of crimes to continue their way on the very border of our county? We believe our citizens of San Miguel County

to be order-loving people and call upon them to unite and forever wiping out this ban to the east of us. And we're doing this so we can make y'all pay taxes. Woo-hoo, yay! Now by this time, the living legend that was Billy the Kid had spread far beyond New Mexico, and on the same day that he was officially dubbed Billy the Kid by the Las Vegas Gazette,

the New York Sun was giving him the same name and the same reputation. He's fucking nationwide now. Wow. So basically what these newspapers were doing was crafting Billy the Kid as the representation of the frontier outlaw, a stand-in for every bad man

who broke the law west of Oklahoma. By this point, had there already been nationally known criminals of this status? Like where does he fall within the other outlaws? Was this all happening at the same time? You know what, I could not in good conscience tell you that one way or another. I don't know.

Yeah, because I wonder if whether or not, because yeah, James, I mean, James suggested James same time period. So I wonder how they go and when they hit the big time and what does that do? Because this is the first time America's really starting to fall in love with criminals. Well, I mean, but it's also the old west,

it doesn't just have criminal celebrities. I mean, you've got Wyatt Earp, you've got Wild Bill Hickok, you know, like they're the old west at this point is just a fascination of the rest of the country. Now, despite how it's been portrayed, Billy the Kid was at first pretty fucking freaked out by all this media attention.

Yeah, I bet. Because even though he continued his life of crime and had killed at least one more man, maybe two since the pardon fell through, he still had a hope of going straight. And then you had the one picture of you taken out there, right? Like you have all of these people like,

because at the time I bet you then. I mean, couldn't he just change his hat and then everybody be like, I have no idea who that is. He had the buck teeth, man. He had like a distinctive face. Like he looked like somebody and he also, that's the problem too is that, as you'll see in the next episode,

he loved the reputation conversely as well because he'd use it. Like he'd still kind of lean in because at this point, well, if I'm Billy the Kid, I might as well fucking act like it. Sure. It's like when Jeffrey Dahmer went to prison and was like, I'll eat you next.

And they really wasn't even his character. So Billy the Kid wrote another letter to Governor Wallace, perhaps truthfully claiming that Jimmy Carlyle, the victim at the Great House Ranch, had been accidentally shot and killed by the posse. And he falsely claimed that he'd been living in Fort Sumner since leaving Lincoln, where he made a living gambling.

An honest living, where I steal money through cards. The Governor Wallace did receive this letter and he read it. But instead of making good on his promise, he handed the letter over to the Las Vegas Gazette for the sole purpose of ridiculing Billy's plea for clemency. I don't know why he trusts the government. It's his own, I mean, it's really his only shot because I mean, Billy the Kid does not,

I think his number one thing is he does not want to leave New Mexico. He loves New Mexico, you know? And he loves Fort Sumner and he's got a girlfriend there. He's in love with his girlfriend. He loves this woman and she doesn't want to leave her family. He doesn't want to leave her family. He loves it there.

And the only way he's staying in New Mexico is if Governor Wallace finally hands down that pardon. Or if he kills every single man that comes looking for him. Okay. But that's gonna start to be hard. That sounds very difficult. Yeah. And so after a long fuse,

the press finally detonated the Billy the Kid bomb. And almost overnight, Billy became a national celebrity. And while some people loved him, most just called for his head. Soon, wanted posters began appearing all over the Southwest that read, Billy the Kid, wanted, dead or alive. Cause I'm wanting, gonna stay a whole side right. Preferably alive.

And that's where we'll pick back up for the actual conclusion to our series on Billy the Kid. Oh my God. This whole story is so dense in the whole, the whole world that we're playing in right now is just crazy. It's a good thing to visit, but I'm very happy to be alive now.

Honestly, next week we're gonna cover how the end of his life is one two year long blur of action, running from the law. The man escapes from so many places that he shouldn't escape. The boy escapes from so many places he shouldn't escape. And he also, he lives by the sword and he dies by the sword and says that so much

to his own captor, Pat Garrett. And we're also gonna get into a little bit of the world of, which is why we're separating the episodes of, did Pat Garrett really kill Billy the Kid? Okay. Did Billy the Kid get to ride off into the sunset with sweet, sweet Paulita down to Santa Fe? I don't know.

That would be a nice conclusion. There is proof behind it. We'll get to that proof next episode. We will, and I also, so we got this. We are also know after Billy the Kid episodes, we're coming back to modern times. We're gonna be down to the hover cars that we have right now.

According to Back to the Future 2, the hover boards, we have it all coming for you. We're very, very excited to get into a fall that will be, would you say soaked in blood? Soaked in blood. I would say it is so soaked in blood you're gonna have to throw out the whole goddamn mattress. Whoa, mama.

All right, everyone. Well, thank you all so much for listening. We can't wait to see you on the road this weekend. We're gonna be in Detroit, Cincinnati, and Columbus. Come on out to the show. And yeah, we just can't wait to see you and make you laugh a little bit. And yeah, of course, pay attention

to all the protocols and stuff like that. Yeah, pay attention to the emails that will be sent to you by the venues. They're gonna tell you how to handle all of the bullshit. We're just going out there, trying to be as safe as possible so we can continue to go out there and spread a little joy and some laughter.

And dare I say, show you a few disgusting things you don't want to see. You'll like it. That's our goal. And also, you know, Sprinkle Jack, he's out there. He's roasting them fucking beans. They're so fucking brown and dark. He's doing so good, he's crisping them off.

Any other description, other than brown and dark, brown and dark beans. They're beans, you can't wait. These beans, can't even, oh. Is there an aroma that goes with it? Beans. Beans, okay. I'm vape carts all over LA.

Check out our humble offerings to the weed community and Last Prisoner Project. Give them a check out. They were trying to get people out of jail for a smoke and that fucking sweet, sweet yearb. Last Prisoner Project doing some great work. Also, I was just informed, we're in my favorite little weed dispensary store, Roots.

Oh, Roots. So that's gonna be happening really soon as well. So if you're in the Sherman Oakish area, North Hollywood, Roots is there for you. And keep on supporting all the shows here on the Last Podcast Network. Thank you all so much for all of everything. So we'll see y'all real soon.

Okay, everyone, hail yourselves. Hail Satan. Hail King. Magus Dalasians. I'll tell you what, you see me out on the trail. You hail me, because I'm out there, you wouldn't believe me. You know, a man can, according to your man,

you'll be hailing a cab because you won't survive four seconds. I won't, in order for me to arrive on a horse, I will need some form of balm or cream for my inner purposes. I can just, the level of sunscreen you would have as a cowboy would be mythical. You would be like the ghost cowboy

where they don't know if you were alive or if he's dead. My goal is I would dress like a mysterious widow until I got out of the carriage. They think that I was like a well-to-do woman with my parasol and my glasses and my covered cart. And they'd be like, oh, is that the new school teach on time? We'll be able to meet this new fresh woman. And then I'll get out and be like,

ready for beer, guys. School Marm, Henry. That's me. That's the next teacher. This show is made possible by listeners like you. Thanks to our ad sponsors, you can support our shows by supporting them. For more shows like the one you just listened to,

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