The Marion daily mirror. (Marion, Ohio) 1892-1912, 1908-11-11
A AkO.TOR|OUS OUTLAW
Fearless "Billy the Kid" Who
ReveIed In Carnage.
ONLY A BOY, YET A TERROR.
This Youthful Desperate Of the South
western Territories Was but Twen-
ty-one When He. Met Death at the
Hands of Sheriff k'st Garrett.

western Territories Was but Twen-
ty-one When He, Met Death at the
Hands of Sheriff Fat Garrett.
When General Lew Wallace was
governor of New Mexicq and the war
that ragged for several years between
tho rival cattle companies was at its
height HBilly the Kid" had reached
the food Of his murderous career He
arrived In Lincoln county TO take sides
in the cattle warfare, known and
feared in every range town and min
ing camp in the southwestern terri
tories.
Pure wanton love of carnage was all
that attracted him to Lincoln county.
With the band of desperadoes he led
he raided ranches, "shot up" towns,
killed, burned houses ana committed
outrage after outrage with the blind
recklessness of maniac. Fear was
extinct within him. lie cared no more
for detachments of cavalry than he
did for covering sheriffs.
Affairs in New Mexico finally came
to such pass that half the cattlemen
paid the youthful dcsperado tribute.
Il was only after Pat Il. Garrett was
made sheriff OF Lincoln county and the
author of "Ben-Hur' General Wal
lace) urged that fearless gun fighter
and gambler to capture Billy the Kid
that determined effort was made to
end his reign of terror.
The Obstacles that Garrett had to EN-.
counter called for all his headlong en-
ergy and nerve. Billy had the entire
countryside In state of abject terror;
friends We're ready to give him timely
warning OF pursuit; ranchmen dared
not deny him lodgment or conceal
ment.
Pat Garrett undertook the capture in
October. $780, and on Dec. 20 he sur
rounded the Kid and his band in Il
deserted house near Sinking Springs
After a siege lasting most of the day
the outlaws ammunition was exhaust
ell. Billy the Kid surrendered. He
and his four followers, surrounded by
a great force of armed men, were taken
TO Las Vegas and thence to Santa Fe
for safe keeping.
An array of indictments charging
murder confronted him. He was tried
on one indictment and acquitted, then
tried on another and convicted. He
carried himself throughout with sneer-
ing defiance. After he had been SEN
fenced TO hang Garrett took him to
Fort Stanton. near Lincoln. Two depu.
ties armed with Winchesters were as.
signed to guard him In the temporary
Jail in the Murphy & Dolan store build
ing.
In some mysterious fashion the
Kid possessed himself of a revolver
shot down his guards. seized their
weapons and appeared Mt the window
When another guard appeared the
prisoner riddled his body with buck.
shot. Then he called TO an old man on
the plaza ., bring him file. Filing
or one OF his shackles. he called for Il
horse, One wns brought, and he os-
capped.
For nearly three months after that
Billy the Kid led fugitive life
Garrett dogged him patiently and final.
ly got wind of his hiding place-the
ranch of Peter Maxwell. near Fort
Sumner 1t was nearly midnight when
Garrett and two deputies quietly ap-
preached the Maxwell hacienda. Gar
rett crept into the room where Max
well was sleeping Softly awakening
the sleeper. he questioned him concern.
Ing the whereabouts of the kid. roaa,G
At that moment the hunted youth
sprang into the room. calling cut 4 In
Spanish, "Quien vaf' ('Wbo comes
thereTC 1t was Billy. He was un-
armed, aud Us be reached, for his rifle
Garrett shot him. The body OF VIII
liam Bonney Bllly the Kid was bur-
led In the military cemetery at For'
stanton July 10, 1881 His age at the
time of his death was twenty-one years
seven months. There his body is to-
day, though In later years corpse was
exhibited throughout the west as that
of the famous young outlaw.-Harper's
nv 80