Late pardon for Wild West legend Billy The Kid?

By Peter Astashenko Aug 8, 2010, 12:40 GMT

Washington - Wild West legend Billy The Kid was an outlaw, a murderer and a myth, but he now appears set to be for a pardon, 129 years after his death.

In 1881, in a dusty, dark hut in Fort Sumner, New Mexico, just before midnight, William F Bonney entered the room with a knife in his hand, headed for the kitchen. 'Who is there?' he asked in Spanish. He never heard the answer. Bonney got shot in return, and the lead hit his heart to end his life.

Such is the account of the death of the man known as Billy the Kid, a revolver whizz kid and a killer.

Beyond this, there are many myths around this man who was born in New York in 1859. More than a dozen films have been made about Bonney, and countless stories have turned him into a hero for fans of the Wild West. His life was extraordinary and became a symbol of his troubled times, even though it ended when he was just 21.

Billy the Kid apparently died on the night of July 14, 1881, shot by Sheriff Pat Garrett. Billy had escaped from prison as he awaited his execution, and Garrett had hunted him after that.

And yet this, like so many stories about the legend, is only one of many vague accounts. There is even one that says that Garrett shot the wrong man and that the real Billy died at age 91, in 1950, in Texas.

In 2003, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson attempted to finally shed light on the legend. The death of the myth in particular was to be subjected to a criminal investigation, as was the issue of whether it had been appropriate to impose the death penalty on Bonney.

Indeed, Lew Wallace, who was the state's governor in 1881, had promised to grant Billy a pardon if he testified in another murder case. The Kid did testify, but Wallace never fulfilled his promise.

After 27 days in jail, Bonney managed to escape. But his flight ended a few weeks later in Fort Sumner, where the legendary figure is buried. Many tourists go to the area to follow in the outlaw's footsteps, and this is a thriving business for the town.

Now, rumours are rife in the US media: is the Wild West hero about to be rehabilitated?

'If there is evidence, I will consider pardoning Billy the Kid,' Governor Richardson told the TV network ABC.

He wants to make good on Wallace's broken promise, said Richardson's spokeswoman Alarie Ray-Garcia.

   Historian Drew Gomber interprets the move differently, as 'a publicity stunt' to attract tourists.

'There is no point in restoring the civil rights of a dead man,' Gomber told the El Paso Times.

With the move, Richardson has also upset the descendants of Sheriff Garrett.

'From the beginning, we feel that, as many other historians have, that the governor has created his own version of the facts, and those have nothing to do with the real history of New Mexico,' Susan Floyd Garrett, a granddaughter of the law-enforcement officer, told the daily Las Cruces Sun-News.

The Garrett family fears that a pardon will tarnish their grandfather's reputation. It could look as if the sheriff had killed an innocent man, they note.

And Billy the Kid was certainly not innocent. The legend says he killed 21 men, while history has found evidence of four murders. For this reason, Bernie Sargent, chairman of the El Paso County Historical Commission, told the El Paso Times he opposes a pardon.

'It's more of a news grabber than anything else,' Sargent said. '(Billy the Kid) did some bad things. He is somewhat a false hero.'

Richardson has said no more on the issue. Ray-Garcia noted, however, that discussions would be broad, so the final showdown could take a while.

If Billy the Kid lived in this day and age, Richardson would likely already have saved his life: last year the governor repealed the death penalty in New Mexico.