The Waxahachie daily light. [volume] (Waxahachie, Tex.) 1894-current, 1908-11-09
A NOTORIOUS OUTLAW
Fearless "BiIly 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 Pat Garrett.

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 ut its
height Billy 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 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 sheriffs.
Affairs in New Mexico finally came
to such 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 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 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 in
| October. 1880, and on Dec. 20 he sur
| rounded the Kid and his band in a
| deserted house near Sinking Springs.
! After a siege lasting most of the day
| the outlaws ammunition was exhaust
| ed. 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 sheer
| 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 revolver
shot down his guards, seized theiI
weapons and appeared at the window
| When another guard appeared the
prisoner riddled his body with buck
shot Then he called to an old man or
4 the plaza to bring him a file Filing
off one of his shackles, he called for c
horse. One was brought, and he es
capped.
For nearly three months after tina
Billy the Kid led fugitive life
Garrett logged him patiently and final
ly got wind Of his hiding place-tht
ranch of Peter Maxwell, near For
Sumner. 1t was nearly midnight whel
Garrett and two deputies quietly ap
preached tie Maxwell hacienda. Gar
rett crept into the room where Max
well was sleeping. Softly awakenin,
the sleeper. he questioned him concern
ing the whereabout of the Kid.
/ AT that moment the hunted you'll
sprang into the room. calling out II
Spanish, "Quien vaT' c'Who comes
there?') 1t was Billy. He was un
armed, and as he reached for his riff
Garrett shot him. The body Of Will
liam Bonney (Billy the Kid was bur
led In the military cemetery at For
Stanton July Is, 1881. His age at tn
time of his death was twenty-one year
seven months. There his body Is to
day, though in later years corpse wa
exhibited throughout the west as tina
Of the famous young outlaw.-Harper'
| Weekly