No Old West picture collection could claim to be complete without these guys. If you are a lover of Western lore and legend, they need no introductions.
Billy Bonney was just a shrimpy dead-end kid raised on the streets and made mean by saloon bullies until he became a master at getting even. Many of his killings were nothing but the last say in a running battle with over-bearing drunks, pompous lawmen and ruthless range barons. Billy was a big believer in the Colt revolver as EQUALIZER. Known as likable and even lovable to New Mexicans, Billy had no trouble gathering a dangerous entourage which varied between a half dozen to dozens of rustlers and gunmen who raided and partied all over North Texas and New Mexico... leaving scores of angry victims, especially Panhandle cattlemen.
There were a score of lawmen tracking Billy when Pat Garrett and his posse finally caught up to him, and by that time, most of the fellows shown here were already dead. It is some kind of tribute to the Kid that so many misguided youths were willing to go down fighting with him, and so many senoritas risked their reputations to adore and comfort him.
There was something strangely attractive about him, something mystical, which inspired some ranchers to help him, protect and expedite his gang, and feed his mischief until he was dead. And then they made a folk hero out of him.
These images, mostly tintypes, all came down the pipeline just like the rest, one at a time, unnamed, but almost in a wave among thousands of images sold online by one dealer. The first face I recognized was Charley Bowdre's... when I ID'd the fellow next to him as Fred Waite, I sat up and took notice, because these images usually came in clusters of related individuals. What unfolded was next to extraordinary... all the main characters in the Saga of Billy the Kid.
Billy Bonney was just a shrimpy dead-end kid raised on the streets and made mean by saloon bullies until he became a master at getting even. Many of his killings were nothing but the last say in a running battle with over-bearing drunks, pompous lawmen and ruthless range barons. Billy was a big believer in the Colt revolver as EQUALIZER. Known as likable and even lovable to New Mexicans, Billy had no trouble gathering a dangerous entourage which varied between a half dozen to dozens of rustlers and gunmen who raided and partied all over North Texas and New Mexico... leaving scores of angry victims, especially Panhandle cattlemen.
There were a score of lawmen tracking Billy when Pat Garrett and his posse finally caught up to him, and by that time, most of the fellows shown here were already dead. It is some kind of tribute to the Kid that so many misguided youths were willing to go down fighting with him, and so many senoritas risked their reputations to adore and comfort him.
There was something strangely attractive about him, something mystical, which inspired some ranchers to help him, protect and expedite his gang, and feed his mischief until he was dead. And then they made a folk hero out of him.
These images, mostly tintypes, all came down the pipeline just like the rest, one at a time, unnamed, but almost in a wave among thousands of images sold online by one dealer. The first face I recognized was Charley Bowdre's... when I ID'd the fellow next to him as Fred Waite, I sat up and took notice, because these images usually came in clusters of related individuals. What unfolded was next to extraordinary... all the main characters in the Saga of Billy the Kid.
Ranch owner Tunstall was the British reformer who almost rehabilitated Billy, and then his murder was the straw that broke the camel's back. But Billy got his revenge. If this is him, it was obviously when just arriving in America.
A young, dapper Pat Garrett, whose legendary career was rife with frustrations after he assassinated Bonney. He was murdered during a buggy ride by hired assassins, probably led by "Killin'" Jim Miller.
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