From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ollie P. Roberts (presumably December 31, 1859 – December 27, 1950), has been mistaken for Ollie L. Roberts nicknamed Brushy Bill, who attracted attention by claiming to be the famous western outlaw Billy the Kid. Although his claim has been rejected by almost all historians (and even his own niece), it is still promoted by his hometown of Hico in Hamilton County, Texas, as well as Hollywood, most recently in the 1990 film Young Guns II, sequel to the 1988 film Young Guns.

'The Whole Truth'?

Allegedly, Ollie L. Roberts never confirmed or denied his identity as being William H. Bonney until a few years before his own death, when he agreed to tell the "whole truth." He had originally claimed to be a member of Jesse James' gang ^[1], before deciding to come out as the true Billy the Kid.

Brushy claimed to have been born on December 31, 1859, by the name of William Henry Roberts in Buffalo Gap near Abilene, Texas. Others claim that he was actually born in 1868, while United States Census records indicate that Roberts was born in 1879. Oliver P. Roberts' niece, Geneva Pittmon had the family Bible recording her uncle's birth, not that of Ollie L. Roberts. However, the problem with her statement regarding the birth date of Ollie L. Roberts is that Brushy Bill, allegedly Billy the Kid, stated that Oliver P. Roberts was a distant cousin. After Oliver P. Roberts died, Billy the Kid used his identity.

Because Billy the Kid was about twenty-one at the time of his death in 1881, if either of the later two birth dates are true, it would be impossible for Brushy to have been Billy. Brushy was living under the alias of Ollie L. Roberts, and from the time Geneva Pitmon was a little girl she was told that Brushy was her uncle Ollie. She never knew the truth of his identity because her father was helping to hide Brushy.^[2]

It should be noted that Ollie L. (P) Roberts, Brushy Bill Roberts, born December 31, 1859, who claimed to be Billy the Kid, could not convince his older half-sister, Martha V. Roberts that he was Billy the Kid. She was born September 3, 1873, and she always said that she knew the difference between a brother and a cousin, and she said that Ollie was not her cousin but her brother. Ollie, aka "Brushy Bill" used to come to her house in Jacksonville, Texas wearing his boots and cowboy hat and tell everyone that he had a secret, that he was Billy the Kid, but they did not believe him.

It is worth noting that if Brushy had been born in 1859, he would have been ninety-one at the time of his death from a massive heart attack in Hico. Had he been born in 1879, he would have been only seventy-one at the time of his death.^[3]

However it is also worth noting that a number of people who actually knew Billy the Kid, positively identified Brushy as The Kid, right down to the distinctive eye coloring. Brushy also had each and every scar Billy had (and more).^[4]

Governor Mabry's case

In 1948, William V. Morrison, a probate investigator working in St. Louis, Missouri, was sent to Florida to work on the case of an elderly man named Joe Hines. Hines was claiming that the land of his recently deceased brother now belonged entirely to him, since he was the only surviving heir. While Morrison and Hines talked, Hines admitted that he was Jessie Evans, who, after he had been released from prison in Texas in 1882, had by all accounts disappeared. Hines then told Morrison of his experiences in the Lincoln County War with Billy the Kid. This held a special interest for Morrison, since he was related to the Maxwell family of Fort Sumner, New Mexico. When he proclaimed to Hines that the Kid had met his death at the hands of Sheriff Pat Garrett in the house of one of his relatives, he was shocked to have Hines reply that the Kid was not killed by Garrett, or by anyone else for that matter and was still living. Hines went on to say that besides himself and Billy, there was only one other surviving veteran of the Lincoln County War, Jim McDaniels, a member of the Jessie Evans Gang. Further intrigued, Morrison probed Hines for “the Kid’s” name and address and the old man finally consented. He gave Billy’s current name as Ollie L. “Brushy Bill” Roberts and his address as Hamilton, Texas.

Several months later, after completing the Hines case (in which Hines was given his brother’s land), Morrison struck up a written correspondence with Brushy Bill. Throughout this early correspondence, Morrison was careful not to reveal what exactly Hines had told him about his true identity. At the same time, Morrison attempted to track down Jim McDaniels, yet this proved an impossible feat. He managed to track him as far as Round Rock, north of Austin, but townsfolk there said that he had moved in 1945 to live the rest of his days with his daughter in California. Morrison's friend, Bob Young, later met with McDaniels in Round Rock to confirm that he did exist and was still living. [1] Brushy acquiesced and in June 1949, Morrison visited the old man at his small shack in Hamilton, Texas. In his journal, Morrison noted Brushy as being about 5’8” tall and weighing about 165 pounds, with blue eyes, small hands, large wrists, heavy shoulders, thinning grey hair, high forehead, prominent nose, and large ears. Brushy invited the visitor inside and introduced him to his wife, Malinda. Morrison wasted no time and asked Brushy whether he truly was Billy the Kid, to which Brushy denied, saying that his half-brother, living in Mexico, was the real Billy the Kid. Somewhat disappointed, Morrison decided to leave, but asked Brushy if it might be possible to take a trip to Mexico some day soon to interview his brother. On the way out the door, Brushy stopped Morrison and told him to come back in the afternoon of the next day, when his wife would be out visiting a friend, and they would have the house to themselves.

Morrison did indeed return the following day and Brushy admitted to him that he truly was Billy the Kid, only he did not want to say so in front of his wife. Brushy then went on to say that he knew he did not have many years left in him and wanted to die with the full pardon he had been promised by Governor Lew Wallace in 1879. Morrison said he would help the old man in his case, but only if he could be shown proof that Brushy was who he claimed to be. At this request, Brushy took off his clothes, exposing twenty-six bullet and knife scars on his body, several matching known locations of wounds Billy the Kid allegedly had. Brushy also demonstrated the ability to, in a kind of double-jointed move, make his hands smaller than his wrists, which the real Billy was known to do in order to slide handcuffs off. Believing that Brushy could be the real deal, Morrison promised him he would do all he could to help obtain a pardon, provided Brushy would allow him to investigate further into his history to find more proof that he was authentic. Brushy agreed, and the two parted company for the day.

Over the next several months, Morrison met with Brushy several times and recorded his story in his journal and with a tape recorder. All the while, the pair were careful to make sure that Mrs. Roberts was kept in the dark over the entire proceedings, as Brushy did not want her to learn his true identity and be disgusted with him for his reputation. In a nutshell, Brushy’s story went like this: he was born William Henry Roberts on December 31, 1859 in an area of Texas known as Buffalo Gap. His parents were James H. and Mary Adeline Roberts. Mary Roberts died in 1862 while James was off fighting for the Confederate States of America with William Quantrill. He said that Catherine McCarty was not his mother, but his maternal half-aunt. After his mother died, Brushy went to live with Catherine and her son, Joe. Since Brushy was so young and Catherine moved around so much, everyone just assumed that Brushy was her son. Fearing that Brushy's father might try to take him back, she covered her tracks and gave the name Henry McCarty to Brushy as an alias.

When Brushy told of his days as Billy the Kid from 1877 to 1881, Morrison determined that Brushy knew way too much about the history of the Kid and the Lincoln County War to have read all about it. Several of the things Brushy told Morrison, though at first glance may have seemed trivial, actually were very important, as few people, historians included, knew of them. When it came to the events of the night of July 14, 1881, Brushy said that a man named Billy Barlow was killed by Pat Garrett. Barlow, he said, was partially Mexican, had a beard, looked like the Kid, was a little younger than the Kid, and was possibly related to the Clements family, the cousins of John Wesley Hardin. Brushy also said that he doubted that Billy Barlow was the man's real name. After Barlow was killed, Brushy continued, he fled Fort Sumner. After fleeing Sumner, his story went, he lived in Mexico with a tribe of Yaqui Indians for two years; returned to the U.S. and worked in Carlton, Texas; was arrested in Kansas City because he was recognized as the Kid, but was released; worked for Buffalo Bill Cody in his Wild West Show; worked for the Anti-Horse Thief Association from 1885–1889; worked for Judge Isaac Parker in Fort Smith, Arkansas; joined the Pinkerton Detective Agency; worked as a U.S. Marshal investigating train robberies; joined the Rough Riders and went to Cuba; briefly operated his own Wild West Show; fought for Pancho Villa and Venustiano Carranza in the Mexican Revolution of 1911; worked as a plainclothes policeman in Gladewater, Texas; married four times; and used a dozen aliases.

In the fall of 1949, Morrison took Brushy with him to New Mexico for the purpose of having Brushy meet with some surviving acquaintances of Billy the Kid, to see if they could verify or deny his claim. Earlier, Morrison had been given the names of Billy’s remaining acquaintances by other respected historians such as Maurice Fulton and William Keleher. While in New Mexico, the pair stopped at sites such as Fort Sumner and Lincoln. In the courthouse at Lincoln, Brushy detailed to Morrison how he, as Billy the Kid, made his famous escape and killed deputies Bob Olinger and James Bell. By the time they had completed their trip and returned to Brushy’s home in Hico, (He had moved from Hamilton in the summer of 1949), they had managed to meet with Severo Gallegos, Martile Able, Jose Montoya, and Bill and Sam Jones. The first three all signed legal affidavits attesting to the fact that Brushy Bill and Billy the Kid were one and the same and the Jones brothers, although they did not sign affidavits (claiming they didn’t want to get involved in the proceedings) also stated their agreement with this.^{[citation needed]}

In the summer of 1950, Morrison moved, along with his family, to El Paso, in order to be closer to anything he may need in his investigation. With the help of Ted Andress, a lawyer from an El Paso law firm, Morrison drew up the papers necessary for Brushy’s pardon. Afterwards, Morrison wrote a report entitled “A Statement of Facts,” which stated that Billy Bonney was promised a pardon in 1879 by Governor Wallace and that Billy was not killed in 1881 and still deserved his pardon. Included with the report were various documents related to Billy’s life and the affidavits from Gallegos, Able, and Montoya, along with affidavits from two of Brushy’s friends, DeWitt Travis and Robert Lee, detailing other aspects of his life. Again with the help of Andress, Morrison filed for the petition for the pardon on November 15, 1950. Thomas J. Mabry, governor of New Mexico, agreed to a private hearing with Morrison and Brushy, along with one or two historians of Mabry‘s choosing, to be held on November 29.

On the morning of the 29th, as Morrison and Brushy ate breakfast at a Santa Fe diner, Morrison read in a local newspaper that Mabry had publicly announced his meeting with a Billy the Kid claimant. Morrison immediately telephoned Mabry, who apologized for making the announcement, but reassured him that the meeting would still be kept private. A few hours later, Brushy and Morrison arrived at Mabry’s mansion. Upon entering the conference room, they were shocked at what they saw. Present in the room were several photographers and reporters, armed policemen, Oscar and Jarvis Garrett (Pat’s sons), Cliff McKinney (Kip McKinney’s son), Arcadio Brady (William Brady’s grandson), and historians William Keleher, E. B. Mann, and Will Robinson. In short, the private meeting had developed into a media circus. Badly frightened, Brushy apparently suffered a mild stroke, and when the questioning began, he failed miserably. However, the men asking the questions seemed to treat the affair as something as a joke, some ridiculed him and refused to ask questions while others primarily asked meaningless questions (i.e. how many girlfriends he had, did he enjoy stealing livestock, etc.). He completely forgot basic information about himself and, when asked a question regarding the past of Billy the Kid, he couldn't remember Pat Garrett's name. Stating he felt ill, he was eventually taken to another room to lie down. Shortly thereafter, Governor Mabry made an announcement that he was not going to pardon Brushy, because he did not believe him to be Billy the Kid. Disappointed, Morrison took Brushy to a local doctor, Stan Lloyd, and when he was well enough, he took him home to Hico.

In Hico, Brushy was reexamined by Dr. W. F. Hafer and told to get as much rest as possible. In the meantime, Morrison was to continue working on his case. On December 27, 1950, Brushy left his bed and told his wife he was feeling better. When his wife said she needed to mail a letter, Brushy said he would walk it down to the post-office. As he walked down the street, Brushy suffered a sudden heart attack. He fell to the ground and died instantly. Five years later, in 1955, noted historian C. L. Sonnichsen, with information supplied by Morrison, wrote a book entitled “Alias Billy the Kid,”.

Photograph

According to a study by Acton and Bovik (1990) using photo comparison equipment, photographs of "Brushy" Bill seem to match the well known tintype of "Billy The Kid." Another computer study by forensic anthropologist Clyde Snow resulted in Roberts photo ranking 42nd (ie: 40 other people more closely resembled the tintype than Roberts). Snow concluded that if the two were the same person Roberts would have ranked 2nd.

None of this evidence is to be consided as factual. Photographic evidence is determined by the person who viewed it, and cannot be considered factual without an uninterested party viewing all of the possible evidence and making an impartial decision.

DNA

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 it was in fact Billy the Kid buried in Fort Sumner through DNA. The initiative hit snags from the beginning. First, there is no confirmation as to where the remains are located. Second were the legalities, with both pro-Brushy Bill Roberts and anti-Brushy Bill Roberts experts protesting the exhumation. The exhumation of both sets of remains was blocked in court in September, 2004.

Problems with DNA testing.

• The Fort Sumner Cemetery where Billy the Kid was buried was washed out by the Great Pecos River Flood in 1904. The damage was so great that exposed remains had to be reburied with most being unidentified. Billy's headstone had been washed away and his grave remained unmarked for 28 years. Although a headstone was erected in 1932 it is unknown where the original grave was.
• The Silver city Cemetery where Catherine Antrim was buried was sold in 1882 with the new owner required to relocate the graves outside the city limits. There is no record to indicate whether the bodies were moved or just the headstones. It is possible that other people had been buried in the same grave. It is also possible that she had been originally buried in an unmarked grave with the headstone placed by guesswork later.
• Considering the length of time since burial it is likely any remains have decomposed completely and there is a negligible chance of positively identifying remains if any are found.
• Roberts claimed Catherine Antrim was not his mother but an aunt related by marriage so a DNA test would be meaningless in any scenario other than Catherine and Billy's remains both being identified, tested and shown to be mother and son.

Facts for and against Roberts

There were several questions that remained unanswered at the time of Roberts death. From a historical point of view, most historians discount his story all together. Without DNA, here are just a few of the facts that support Roberts claim and those that discount it;

Pros:

• Joe Hines proved to the satisfaction of a court, sufficient to gain the deceased brother to Jessie Evans' land, that he in fact was Jessie Evans. Why then would he direct Morrison to a man that Hines/Evans would have known to be Billy the Kid, if in fact Roberts was.

• Hines/Evans also claimed that former Jessie Evans Gang member Jim McDaniels was still living. Morrison in fact tracked down Jim McDaniels in Round Rock, Texas.

• Roberts had an old scarf in his possession, which he said was given to him by Deluvina Maxwell when he gave her his tintype photo. This was true, but in 1948 no one knew this. Only Maxwell, Billy the Kid, and Deputy Jim East was aware of this, short of a few historians who had thoroughly researched letters possessed by Charlie Siringo, to whom Deputy East had written about the incident.

• Roberts was able to describe in intricate detail how he killed Bob Olinger and his deputy, adding that when he shot the deputy, the first bullet ricocheted off the wall. That fact was little known at the time of his description.

• Bill and Sam Jones, both friends to Billy the Kid, both met Roberts, and stated that they did believe him to be Billy the Kid.

• Roberts had claimed that while on a cattle drive in the employ of John Chisum, he, Jim Jones, Bob Speaks and John Jones had a tintype photo made while in Dodge City, Kansas. When Roberts and Morrison visited Bill and Sam Jones, brothers to Jim Jones, they produced the tintype, claiming that Billy the Kid was the one on the far right. [2]

• One time friends to Billy the Kid, Severo Gallegos, Martile Able, and Jose Montoya all signed affidavits stating he and Roberts were the same.

• Accounts given about the night Billy the Kid was killed vary. Deputy McKinney stated that Garrett first killed a Mexican man by accident, then later killed the Kid with a shotgun. Several townspeople later stated that the account given by the lawmen were not the way things actually happened.

• There was no logical reason why the lawmen would not return the body of someone with the fame and status of Billy the Kid to Lincoln.

• Deputy John Poe, who at first backed Garrett's account of that night, later recanted. The statements given by Deputy John Poe and Sheriff Pat Garrett had numerous inconsistencies. Poe claimed Garrett shot his victim in the back, as he slowly backed into Maxwell's room, whereas Garrett claimed he sprang into the room with a gun.

• The editor of the Las Vegas Gazette, J.H. Koogler had interviewed Billy the Kid in April 1881 and described him as having light hair and complexion with a "silky fuzz on his upper lip". In July 1881, the body of Billy in his casket was described by newspaper reporter Ashenfelter as having a dark skin and beard.

• Garrett claimed that the body laid in state at Maxwell's house, and the following morning a coroner's inquest was presided over by Milner Rudulph. Deputy John Poe claimed that the body was removed immediately after the shooting, taken by friends of Billy the Kid, where it was dressed for burial and a wake was held.

• Garrett refused to display the body (which was common practice) and would not allow photographs. He was initially unable to claim the reward money as he was unable to prove the indentity of the man killed. Following a meeting with members of the New Mexico Legislature, during which Garret reportedly paid $500 for alcohol, on February 18, 1882 the legislature voted to pass a law allowing the payment of the reward "for the arrest of Billy the Kid on or about August 1881". One year later in 1882 Jesse James was assassinated and an offer of $50,000 was made for the body, the body was also photographed and copies were sold for $2 each.

• Deputy John Poe later claimed that Garrett had killed the wrong man, and that they buried the body quickly to avoid discovery of this.

• A. P. "Paco" Anaya claimed that the coroner's report was completely false, ordered by Pat Garrett and written by Pete Maxwell and Manuel Abreau.

• John Poe, Jesus Silva, "Paco" Anaya, and several residents in Fort Sumner claim that the Milner Rudulph inquiry never took place, and was a complete fabrication by Garrett.

• Justice Segura, said to have resided over the coroner's inquest, made no mention of it in his journals, odd in that Billy the Kid was one of the most famous outlaws in history.

• Mrs. J. H. Wood, of Seven Rivers, New Mexico, claimed she served Billy the Kid dinner on July 17, 1881, three days after Garrett was alleged to have killed him.

• Mrs. Syd Boykin, of Lincoln, claimed Billy the Kid, a friend to her family, visited with them after he was alleged to have been killed.

• Manuel Taylor, a boyhood friend to Billy the Kid, claimed he ran into the Kid in Guadalajara, Mexico at a bullfight in 1914.

• Ben Harbert, of Taos, New Mexico, an acquaintance of Billy the Kid, claimed to have met with him years after 1881.

• Jesse Cox, a wagon driver, who knew Billy the Kid during his time in Lincoln, claimed that he met with him several times over a number of years after 1881.

• Yginio Salazar, a member of the Lincoln County Regulators, claimed to have received a letter written by Billy the Kid years after the Fort Sumner shooting, detailing how he escaped.

• John Graham, alias John Collins, who had ridden with Billy the Kid years before, claimed to have helped dig the grave that night, and that the body placed in it was not Billy the Kid.

• In 1983, Elizabeth Garrett, daughter to Pat Garrett, claimed to interviewer Paul Cain that her father did not kill Billy the Kid.

• In 1990, the Billy the Kid tintype, a photo claimed to be of the Kid at age 12, a photo of Brushy at age 14, and a photo of Brushy at age 90 were analyzed by scientists using the most advanced photo comparison equipment of the day. The photo at age 12 was found to not be Billy. The Brushy aged 14 photo was a close match to the tintype and the Brushy aged 90 photo was a 93% match to the tintype. Dr. Bovik and Dr. Acton stated that age and dental work could easily account for the missing 7%.

Cons:

• Pat Garrett and his deputies all verify that Garrett killed Billy the Kid that night. Several townspeople that were present that night (It should be noted that all were friends of Billy) stated they did see the body, and that it was in fact Billy the Kid, who was known to them.

• Robert's claimed he swore an oath to avenge Tunstall at his funeral. In fact Billy and Fred Waite were in custody and is recorded Billy was angry with Sheriff Brady for making him miss the funeral. It was actually Dick Brewer who swore the oath, the first time the oath was attributed to Billy was in a best selling book written in the 1920s.

• Roberts claimed that the man killed that night was actually small-time outlaw Billy Barlow, a distant relation to the Clements clan and John Wesley Hardin, if Barlow was to be believed. Roberts claimed that he and Barlow resembled one another, and it was easy to see how Garrett mistook Barlow for Billy the Kid. However, no evidence that Billy Barlow ever existed has ever surfaced.

• The real Billy the Kid spoke Spanish fluently; in fact, his very last words were in Spanish. Roberts apparently could not speak Spanish. If he could, his family and acquaintances would certainly have known it in a small West Texas town like Hico. However, when Morrison took Brushy to visit with Severo Gallegos, Brushy spoke with Severo's Mexican neighbor, Josephine Sanchez, in perfect Spanish.

• Paulita Maxwell, daughter to Pete Maxwell, gave a statement that was never made public until decades later. Her statement discredited Pat Garrett's account completely. However, whether she was covering for Billy the Kid, or whether she was being truthful, she did claim that Billy the Kid was killed that night, albeit in a completely different manner to which Garrett claimed. [3]

• Roberts claimed that outlaw John Selman fought for the Murphy-Dolan faction. In fact, Selman did not arrive until after the range war ended.

• Roberts claimed that when Sheriff William J. Brady was killed, Regulator Fred Waite was shot by Deputy Billy Matthews, instead of Jim French. Most historians contend it in fact was French, but that has been disputed.

• Roberts was apparently illiterate and often had his wife write letters for him. The real Billy the Kid could read and write well; several of his letters to New Mexico Governor Lew Wallace, seeking a pardon, survive. This is disputed by existence of diaries found by Morrison, as well as affidavits indicating otherwise.

• Roberts claimed there was a shootout between he, Garrett, Deputy John Poe and Deputy Thomas McKinney following Garrett killing Billy Barlow. No evidence has surfaced to support this, nor did the lawmen mention it.

• Billy the Kid made no reappearance, as many believe he would have had he escaped.

• For Garrett to have lied, it is believed there would have had to have been some discussion between the two, as he would have certainly had no way in knowing as to whether Billy the Kid would resurface, which would be embarrassing for him.

• Roberts was an associate of J. Frank Dalton who falsely claimed he was Jesse James. This casts doubt on Roberts own credibility.

Hico

At the time of his death, Brushy lived on West 2nd Street in Hico. He was buried in the county seat of Hamilton some twenty miles south of Hico. Despite the discrepancies noted above, the Hico Chamber of Commerce has capitalized on his claim by opening the small Billy The Kid Museum in the historic Western section of Hico.

External links

• Billy the Kid Museum in Hico, Texas
• Billy the Kid the truth at AngelFire.com
• Facts, Fiction, Pro's and Con's of Brushy Bill Roberts
• The Real Kid
• Billy the Kid, Questions and Inconsistencies
• Who Was Brushy Bill Roberts?

References

1. ^ http://www.theoutlaws.com/outlaws5c.htm
2. ^ The Real Billy the Kid?, page 33
3. ^ The Real Billy the Kid?, page 97
4. ^ The Real Billy the Kid?, page 8