Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1908-11-07

western Territories Was but Twen-
ty-one When He Met Death at the
Hands of Sheriff Pat Garrett.
When General Lew Wallace was
governor Of New Mexico and the war
that ragged for several years between
the rival cattle companies was at It's
height BILLY the Kid" had reached
the flood Of his murderous career. lie
arrived in Lincoln county 10 take sides
in the cattle warfare, known ana
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 and committed
outrage after outrage with the blind
recklessness of a maniac. Fear was
extinct within him. He cared no more
for detachments Of cavalry than he
did for covering sheriifs.
Affairs in New Mexico finally came
to such Il pass that half the cattlemen
! paid the youthful desperate tribute.
! 1t was only after Pat +. 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 lid
that a determined effort was made to
end his reign of terror.
The obstacles that Garrett had to en-
counter called for all his headlong en-
ergv and nerve. Billy had the entire
countryside in a state Of abject terror;
friends were ready to give him timely
warning of pursuit; ranchmen dared
not deny him Judgment or conceal
ment.
Pat Garrett undertook the capture Ill
October. $780, and on Dec. 20 he sur
rounded the Kid and his band in a
deserted house near Sinking Springs
After Il siege lasting most Of the day
the outlaws ammunition was exhaust
ed. Billy the Kid surrendered. lie
and his four followers, surrounded by
a great force Of armed men, were taker
TO Las Vegas and thence to Santa F'
for safe keeping.
An array of indictments charging
murder confronted him. lie was trle'
on one indictment and acquitted, thel
tried on another and convicted. H'
carried himself throughout with sheer
ing defiance. After he had been sen
fenced to hang Garrett took him t
Fort Stanton. near Lincoln. Two depu
ties armed with Winchesters were as
signed to guard him in the temporar.
I iail in the Murphy & DOlan store build
ing.
In some mysterious fashion III
Kid possessed himself of a revolver
, shot down his guards, seized thei
o weapons and appeared at the window
. When another guard appeared th
q prisoner riddled his body with BUCK
= shot. Then he called to an old man o
= the plaza to bring him file. Film
off one Of his shackles, he called for
horse. One was brought, and he e'
capped.
For nearly three months after tina
Billy the Kid Led fugitive i'fi
g Garrett logged him patiently and fina
" got wind of his hiding place-th
l. ranch of Peter Maxwell, near Fol
:. Sumner. 1t was nearly midnight whe
= Garrett and two deputies quietly al
: proached the Maxwell hacienda. Ga
rett crept into the room where Ma
l. well was sleeping. Softly awakenm
7. the sleeper. he questioned him concerl
8 ing the whereabouts Of the Kid.
At that moment the hunted youl
|. sDrang into the room, calling out
ii Spanish. "Quien yaY c'Who CONF
there?O 1t was Billy He was u
!, armed. and as he reached for his ri
- Garrett shot him. The body OF w
liam Bonney BILLY the Kid was bu
J" led in the military cemetery at Fo
= Stanton July -, 1881. His age at Il
I time Of his death was twenty-one yea
{ seven months. There his body is
Z day. though in later years a corpse WI
J. exhibited throughout the west as tn
ie Of the famous young outlaw.-Harpel
} Xfvooi,1x-