David Thomas: Zeroing in on Southern New Mexico History

(Wild West) ... After launching a software company and writing computer programming manuals, he went on to author well-received books about New Mexico history, including several about the notorious outlaw Billy the Kid and the Lincoln County War. Thomas, 75, recently spoke with Wild West about his writing and some of the more interesting figures from the Mesilla Valley. Continued

James Bell

James Bell, the good cop, forever shackled in legend to Bob Olinger's bad, 
both shot and killed by Billy the Kid in 1881. Cedarvale Cemetery, White Oaks, New Mexico.

John Tunstall

(Wikipedia) John Henry Tunstall (6 March 1853 – 18 February 1878), born in London, England, became a rancher and merchant in Lincoln County, New Mexico, where he competed with ethnic Irish merchants and politicians who ran the town of Lincoln and the county.
He was the first man killed in what developed as the Lincoln County War, an economic and political conflict that resulted in armed warfare, perhaps compounded by ethnic rivalries between an Irish group and others of English descent. Continued

Billy the Kid's Big Escape

 

(Library of Congress) Billy the Kid escaped from the Lincoln County, New Mexico jail house on April 28, 1881, killing two deputies on guard. He avoided capture until July 14, when he was ambushed and killed by Sheriff Pat Garrett at the ranch home of Pete Maxwell. Billy the Kid is buried in Fort Sumner, New Mexico.
Although he has become synonymous with the legendary Wild West, Billy the Kid was probably born on New York City’s East Side, in 1859 or 1860. By the time he was a young teenager, he had moved with his family to New Mexico, by way of Kansas and Colorado. Continued

Jesse Evans

(Wikipedia) Jesse Evans (1853 – ????) was an outlaw and gunman of the Old West, and leader of the Jesse Evans Gang. He has received some attention due to his disappearance in 1882, after which he was never seen or heard from again.
... Evans began working as a cowboy, employed by several ranches, to include that of John Chisum. After he ended his employment with Chisum, Evans ventured to both Las Cruces and La Mesilla, New Mexico, where he became associated with John Kinney. At the time, Kinney was leading one of the more well known gangs of the New Mexico Territory, called the John Kinney Gang. Evans joined the gang, and over time he and Kinney became close. Continued

John Tunstall

(Wikipedia) John Henry Tunstall (6 March 1853 – 18 February 1878), born in London, England, became a rancher and merchant in Lincoln County, New Mexico, where he competed with ethnic Irish merchants and politicians who ran the town of Lincoln and the county.
He was the first man killed in what developed as the Lincoln County War, an economic and political conflict that resulted in armed warfare, perhaps compounded by ethnic rivalries between an Irish group and others of English descent. Continued

Tom Pickett

(Wikipedia) Tom Pickett (1858 – May 14, 1934) was a 19th-century American cowboy, professional gambler and, as both a lawman and outlaw at various points in his life, was an associate of Dave Rudabaugh and later Billy the Kid.
Born in Camp Throckmorton, Wise County, Texas, Pickett began rustling cattle as a teenager growing up in Decatur and was eventually arrested for stealing cattle at age 17. His father, then a member of the state legislature and ex-Confederate officer, was forced to mortgage the family home in order to pay his son's fine.
While in Kansas City, he would meet outlaw Dave Rudabaugh and traveled with him to the New Mexico Territory after being indicted in Cooke County for cattle rustling in 1879. He served as a peace officer for the Dodge City Gang in Las Vegas until the two were run out of town after Rudabaugh killed a deputy sheriff.
He later had a brief stint as town marshal of Golden, New Mexico. However, he was later run out of town by a lynch mob in 1882. Continued

George Coe

(Wikipedia) George Washington Coe (1856–1941) was an Old West cowboy and for a time gunman alongside Billy the Kid during the Lincoln County War.
Coe was born in Missouri, and ventured to New Mexico Territory in his youth, around 1871, alongside his cousin, Frank, to work on a ranch near Fort Stanton belonging to a cousin, and for a time during this period they lived near Raton, New Mexico.
... George Coe found himself dragged into the Lincoln County War by way of his own unjust arrest by county Sheriff William J. Brady. Coe and his cousin would join the Lincoln County Regulators, riding with Billy the Kid, and facing off against the "Murphy-Dolan Faction" and their supporters, to include members of the Jesse Evans Gang and the John Kinney Gang. Coe figured prominently into the events of the final Battle of Lincoln between the two factions, and was eventually arrested for the murder of Buckshot Roberts, a shootout which became known as the Gunfight of Blazer's Mills, and in which he lost a finger. Continued

A Glimpse of Grzelachowski's Store

Puerto de Luna, New Mexico

(National Register of Historic Places) … Billy the Kid frequented the Grzelachowski store. A.J. Padilla, who was married to Grzelachowski's daughter, was the source of many stories told to him by his mother-in-law. Billy, she said, was fascinated by Grzelachowski's learning and by his tales. He would listen intently and beg Grzelachowski to speak Latin, Polish, or Greek.
Billy would stand in front of the store and shoot at tin cans, shifting his gun from hand to hand and shooting as well with either. Grzelachowski instructed his clerks not to argue with Billy and to give him anything he wanted. Once when Grzelachowski was away, the clerks saw Billy riding into town with a few of his companions and immediately ran out the back door. Finding the store deserted, Billy and his friends took what they needed and rode on.
Several days later when he returned through town, the Kid asked Grzelachowski what he owed. Grzelachowski replied that he didn't think that the Kid owed anything. Another time a clerk noticed the Kid taking ammunition and accused him of trying to steal from a friend. Whereupon Billy put the boxes back. Continued

Fred Waite

(Wikipedia) Fred Waite, born Frederick Tecumseh Waite (occasionally spelled Fred Wayte) (September 23, 1853 – September 24, 1895), was a Chickasaw cowboy who joined Billy the Kid's gang. He left the gang to return to his people.
With the Chickasaw Nation, Waite served as a leading politician before his death at the age 42. Continued

Battle of Lincoln

Alexander McSween

(Wikipedia) The Battle of Lincoln, New Mexico, was a five-day-long firefight between civilians that took place from July 15–19, 1878 in Lincoln, New Mexico.
It was the largest armed battle of the Lincoln County War and the climax of that civilian conflict in the New Mexico Territory.
The firefight was interrupted and suppressed by United States Cavalry led by Lt. Col. Nathan Dudley from Fort Stanton. Continued

Pat Garrett

(Wikipedia) Patrick Floyd Jarvis "Pat" Garrett (June 5, 1850 – February 29, 1908) was an American Old West lawman, bartender and customs agent who became renowned for killing Billy the Kid.
He was the sheriff of Lincoln County, New Mexico as well as Doña Ana County, New Mexico.
He co-authored a book about Billy the Kid which, for a generation after the Kid's death, was deemed authoritative; however, historians have since found many embellishments and inconsistencies with other accounts of the outlaw's life.
Garrett was murdered under unclear circumstances. Continued

Billy the Kid's Big Escape

 

(Library of Congress) Billy the Kid escaped from the Lincoln County, New Mexico jail house on April 28, 1881, killing two deputies on guard. He avoided capture until July 14, when he was ambushed and killed by Sheriff Pat Garrett at the ranch home of Pete Maxwell. Billy the Kid is buried in Fort Sumner, New Mexico.
Although he has become synonymous with the legendary Wild West, Billy the Kid was probably born on New York City’s East Side, in 1859 or 1860. By the time he was a young teenager, he had moved with his family to New Mexico, by way of Kansas and Colorado. Continued

John Tunstall is murdered by outlaw Jesse Evans, sparking the Lincoln County War

Jesse Evans

(Wikipedia) The Lincoln County War was an Old West conflict between rival factions, which began in 1878, in New Mexico Territory, the predecessor to the modern state of New Mexico, and dragged on until 1881.
The feud became famous because of the participation of Billy the Kid. Other notable figures included Sheriff William Brady, cattle rancher John Chisum, lawyer and businessman Alexander McSween, James Dolan, and the man who started the problem, Lawrence Murphy. Continued

John Kinney Gang

John Kinney (center)

(Wikipedia) The John Kinney Gang, also known as the Rio Grande Posse, was an outlaw gang of the old West, which operated during the mid-1870s into the mid-1880s.
The gang was organized by outlaw John Kinney, in Doña Ana County, New Mexico. From its beginning, the gang primarily committed acts of robbery and cattle rustling. However, they became best known when they were enlisted by the "Murphy-Dolan Faction" during the Lincoln County War, to counter Billy the Kid and his "Regulators".
Former gang member Jesse Evans and his gang also were enlisted by "Murphy-Dolan". Lincoln County Sheriff George Peppin deputized the gang members to make them "official" during this time. Continued

The town Billy the Kid built

 

(Albuquerque Journal) The legend of Billy the Kid – William H. Bonney – runs deeps through many areas of New Mexico.
But perhaps nowhere is the Kid’s legacy remembered as much as in Fort Sumner, where he is said to have been shot and killed by Lincoln County Sheriff Pat Garrett. Continued

Pat Garrett

(Wikipedia) Patrick Floyd Jarvis "Pat" Garrett (June 5, 1850 – February 29, 1908) was an American Old West lawman, bartender and customs agent who became renowned for killing Billy the Kid.
He was the sheriff of Lincoln County, New Mexico as well as Doña Ana County, New Mexico.
He co-authored a book about Billy the Kid which, for a generation after the Kid's death, was deemed authoritative; however, historians have since found many embellishments and inconsistencies with other accounts of the outlaw's life.
Garrett was murdered under unclear circumstances. Continued