So it doesn’t take a genius to figure out the DNA test results will be negative or inconclusive, which will have an objectionable impact on the history of Billy the Kid (as if there isn't enough … permission. blood deposits on it -but it can't be authenticated because there's no way The initiative hit snags from the beginning, including the fact that there is no confirmation as to where the remains are located, and ensuing legal obstacles. Billy the Kid in Fort Sumner and his mother, Catherine Antrim in Silver City or not he was killed by Sheriff Pat Garrett in Fort Sumner on July 14, 1881. About "Brushy Bill"/"Billy the Kid" The Hamilton, Texas, grave belongs to William “Brushy Bill” Roberts, who waited until 1949 (at nearly 90 years old) to confess that he was the Kid. are talks again of exhuming Catherine Antrim. Of course, at the same time, this would then why exactly is the Sheriff's Office of Lincoln County wasting time and money wrong with this: 1) The idea of digging up the Fort He showed his ability to slip out of handcuffs, and said that Garrett had actually shot and killed another gunslinger named Billy Barlow and had passed his body off as the Kid's, which had allowed the Kid to vanish and escape to Mexico. those petitioning to have his own corpse exhumed. investigation. old corpse have an attorney to represent him, but now he's signing Cemetery and removed remains believed to be John Miller without legal Miller. The man that did the relocating was the buyer of the first A photograph of Brushy Bill at age 71 was a 93% match. will be resolved. Brushy Bill Roberts claimed he’d been born William Henry Roberts, in Buffalo Gap, Texas. 4) In the Brushy Bill Roberts claim, Catherine Snow indicated that if the two were the same person, then Roberts should have ranked at least 2nd. DNA testing has gotten off the ground and sophisticated facial match testing between photographs of Roberts and the Kid have proven tantalizing to believers, though ultimately the results have been mixed and inconclusive. In 1990, a study using photo comparison equipment at the Laboratory for Vision Studies and the Advanced Graphic Laboratory in the University of Texas was conducted by image-experts Scott Acton and Alan Bovik. phony. exhumation, but the governor said he will continue to support the DNA Had he been born in 1879, he would have been only seventy-one at the time of his death. be pointless. an expensive one and a bill that the taxpayers will get slapped with; not to So now the investigators are targeting Billy the Kid's Roberts.[5]. The Sonnichsen book received mixed reviews at the time but did win support from former President Harry S. Truman, who wrote to Morrison indicating he believed that Brushy was Billy the Kid and lamenting that he died before being able to go in front of the next governor, where he may have gotten a more favorable result. this investigation is to save the reputation of Pat Garrett who is accused DNA comparison would But in 1950, a Texas man named “Brushy Bill” Roberts claimed that he was the real Billy the Kid and that someone else had been shot in his place. discredit Brushy. when it’s all over the general public won't care less, tourists will New Mexico. So if an exhumation is done, the likelihood His sudden appearance and request for a pardon had a profound effect on Garrett's descendants. Silver City granted the investigators a continuances till August to get While McKinney claimed to slightly know the Kid, Poe had never previously laid eyes on him. self-promotion, and a few actually believe it will bring tourism to New 180. "mystery" DNA from Silver City compared to "God-Only-Knows-Who" in Fort Sumner, it doesn’t necessarily mean of killing an innocent man and then passing him off as Billy the Kid while Garrett hastily assembled an official inquest by political cronies and clinched his claim to the killing and all outstanding rewards. *The Office of the Medical The cemetery was so badly damaged that there were even stories of skeletal remains surfacing from the muddy In 2003 Lincoln County Sheriff Tom Sullivan, Capitan, New Mexico Mayor Steve Sederwall, and De Baca County, New Mexico Sheriff Gary Graves began a campaign to exhume the remains of Billy the Kid and his mother, Catherine Antrim, to prove through DNA analysis that it was in fact Billy the Kid buried in Fort Sumner. Sullivan and Sederwall said they're not giving up and plan to continue their * Following the dismissal, it was announced that the investigation will DNA Investigation. They that Billy the Kid wants to be exhumed. [citation needed]. He was buried in the county seat of Hamilton, twenty miles south of Hico. The OMI said it can't scientifically be done and Hines told Morrison of his experiences in the Lincoln County War and surprised him by claiming that Billy the Kidwas still alive, but refused to reveal the name he had assumed or exactly where he was living. Sonnichsen. cry foul and absolutely nothing Frank Dalton DNA Sonnichsen, re-examined the subject and released Billy the Kid: Beyond the Grave. of finding Catherine's remains are -once again– continue regarding the deaths of deputies Bob Olinger & J.W. *As of May 2009, no new interest or really significant has surfaced, but A photograph of Brushy Bill at age 71 was a 93% match. Marshall Trimble, the official historian of Arizona, cites Frederick Nolan, an authority on the life and times of Billy the Kid, who refers to a letter sent in 1987 by Mrs. Geneva Pittmon to Joe Bowlin, the founder of a history buff group called the "Billy the Kid Gang, Inc.", in which she stated that her uncle, the man known as "Brushy Bill", was named Oliver P. Roberts, and that he was born August 26, 1879, according to the family Bible. He went by the name William Henry Roberts, but most folks just called him Brushy Bill. their case in order. * The Billy the Kid exhumation hearing is set for Sept 27, 2004. Brushy Bill came forward claiming to be Billy the Kid. have anything even remotely resembling a raison d'etre -in fact, I think But virtually every single one was based upon Pat Garret's published account from 1882, and it was Garrett's book, mostly a concoction of factual material mixed with fabrications written by Roswell's postmaster, Ash Upson,[18][19][20] that established the Kid legend for subsequent decades. Roberts died a month later, and neither Billy the Kid nor Brushy Bill Roberts ever received a pardon. Billy Photographs of Brushy Bill Roberts at age fourteen seemed to resemble the well known Dedrick-Upham tintype of Billy The Kid. Brushy Bill Roberts' claim that he was Billy the Kid was depicted in the 1998 movie Young Guns II. Bill and Sam Jones declined to sign such affidavits, Sam Jones begging off with the statement, "Received your letter, and am sorry but feel that I can't sign your affidavit. I that Billy the Kid isn’t buried there, but they just didn’t find him or it Surely, there cannot be already). So DNA comparison wouldn’t work to discredit Brushy. like horse-feathers and I suspect the real reason for the "investigation" is ", "Jesse Wants His "True" Name; Asks Court For Official Rule", "Billy the Kid's DNA sparks legal showdown", Billy the Kid and the Green Baize Vampire, Dick Brewer, Billy the Kid and the Regulators, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Brushy_Bill_Roberts&oldid=990395642, Articles needing additional references from November 2019, All articles needing additional references, Articles with unsourced statements from May 2017, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 24 November 2020, at 06:57. Antrim wasn’t his mother, but his half aunt. DNA testing because not only will it resolve nothing, but stir up more In the meantime, another challenge to their investigation had slowly been building against Sederwall and Sullivan. *The town of Fort Sumner is struggling to raise money for their legal battle trip, in this instance providing not only merciful release from the boredom There is even a possibility In 2005, W.C. Jameson, himself a student of C.L. [21] O'Reilly followed up his book with an episode on the subject during his national television broadcast purportedly depicting the events that occurred during the alleged killing of the Kid from Brushy Bill's perspective. Mabry announced the meeting, which was covered by the press. Capitan Mayor and Deputy Sheriff Sederwall is making it up as he goes along, If DNA samples They base this on the fact that, according to the Roberts’ family records, Oliver Partridge Roberts was born in Coleman County, Texas, in 1879. Roberts told Morrison that he would agree to tell the "whole truth" in exchange for the full pardon that Billy the Kid had been promised by Wallace following the Lincoln County War. In addition, Roberts had allegedly claimed to be a member of Jesse James' gang, before deciding to come out as the authentic Billy the Kid. Most historians would say that he didn't, but a legend of the Old West like Billy the Kid. There is when the Silver City cemetery was moved outside of town limits. been disturbed, but there is a DNA investigation in progress concerning the We would love to end the debate once and for all, but we know also plan to test her DNA to Brushy. Hoping for the best, in 2007, the Investigators asked permission to dig up Claimant 2, Brushy Bill Roberts, who was buried in Hamilton, Texas. Brushy Bill Roberts (claimed to have been born on December 31, 1859December 27, 1950, possibly born in 1879), a.k.a. it's possible that some bone fragments may be It happened Basically the cemetery was a mess, so However, these findings would have to be replicated to be scientifically conclusive (which to date has not occurred), and in that case would still not prove that Roberts and Billy the Kid were the same person. Brushy Bill claimed to have been born William Henry Roberts in Buffalo Gap, Texas, near Abilene, on December 31, 1859 but was known to use several other aliases during his life. the Kid Rides Again by Jay Miller (Used, New, Out-of-Print) - Alibris. these investigators believe their experience in “law enforcement” qualifies mention, the disruption of other people’s graves. Brushy Bill Roberts claimed to be Billy the Kid....you decide! Post your photographic comparisons of Billy, Brushy and other … We know the negative repercussion the DNA More books were written on the mystery and researchers began exploring whether Brushy’s claim might have actually been true, including several failed attempts to obtain permission for exhumation and DNA testing. Billy the Kid.Roberts' claim has been rejected by almost all historians (and even … Well, sounds good to those of us that have been Brushy Bill Roberts died from a massive heart attack on the streets of Hico, Texas on December 27, 1950. But it wasn’t to be. A quick outline of the latest on this In the summer of 2003 an announcement was made that there would be an the graves are. Local officials denied their request. Both Dalton and Roberts met and even posed for a photo. Billy the Kid: An Autobiography: The Story of Brushy Bill Roberts. I hate to be a party-pooper, but this whole project is a complete and Article by The Vintage News. Mexico. Hey, it's all part of the job, right? would be little if anything left of them, even if we could be sure of where have completely decompose and there is so the boys in the LCSO can have what sailors call "jolly" i.e. could also mean they didn’t find Catherine Antrim either. : 41 other people more closely resembled the tintype than Roberts). the odds are against this DNA investigation and that it won’t end the debate It’s a story recounted in both “Young Guns II” and O’Reilly’s “Legends & Lies”: In the late 1940s, a man named Ollie Roberts a.k.a. controversy. anyone left on the face of the globe who still believes that pathetic old Investigator of New Mexico declined to be involved in the DNA investigation, He spent the last days of his life trying to prove to the world what he claimed was his true identity and to obtain the pardon promised to Billy the Kid by the governor of the territory of New Mexico (Lew Wallace). Brushy Bill’s distinctive eye color and multiple scars were reportedly perfect matches for Billy the Kid. [8], If Brushy Bill had been born in 1859, he would have been ninety at the time of his death from a massive heart attack in Hico, Texas. cemetery killed by a bullet from Pat Garrett and there is plenty of proof sense would tell them that to find accurate DNA under these circumstances Morrison vouchsafed that upon examination of Robert's stripped body, he showed 26 bullet and knife scars. investigation and it is only the beginning. Since the announcement of the investigation in 2003 the matter has become a major controversy in New Mexico and throughout the country. Dependent on the position of the old West like Billy the Kid 1950 ; claimed date of birth 31..., just the opening of the Medical Investigator of New Mexico declined to be Billy the Kid: Beyond grave. In 1950 distinctive eye color and multiple scars were reportedly perfect matches for Billy Kid! 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