Browning chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1941-1953, 1941-10-31
EARLY BAD MAN
NO GLAMOUR BOY,
WRITER ASSERTS
ROBERT TAYLOR'S PORTRAYAL
OF BILLY THE KID FAR CRY
FROM REAL THING

The bad actors of yesteryear-the
Hollywood version has it-were all
good men and true. Dashing and ro-
mantle souls. they were, who loved
women and children and their fellow
man in general. At bottom, they had
hearts Of pure gold and only because
the marsh hand of circumstance had
pushed them there. were they engulfed
In the cesspools of iniquity. Someone
had done them or their families a
devillsh wrong and they couldn't gain
justice by means of the statutes made
and provided. They had to go outside
the law and have at their oppressors
with six-gun or rifle.
All this, says Elmer c. Peterson,
writing recently in a church publica-
ton. is the rankest brand of twaddle.
Basing his statements on an intimacy
with the west and southwest which
goes back more than 80 years, together
with an investigation among old
timers who actually knew many of the
better known bandits, he asserts that
they were bunch Of heels and hyenas.
boasting no more dash and glamor
than so many polecats.
What especially causes Mr.. Peter
sons temperature to mount is Robert
Taylor's portrayal Of Billy the Kid.
Accompanying the article is picture
of the Kid as he actually looked, and
to find in him any semblance of hand
some Bob Taylor calls for generous
gulps OF imagination and a side-dish
of delirium tremens. The Kid, whose
real name was William Bonney, is
seen as dumpy youth inclined to
portliness, wearing floppy and ragged
pants tucked into a pair of weather.
beaten boots. His battered hat is
jammed down on his ears and there
is a suggestion of breakfast eggs on
the stubble of his chin. He also is in
dire need of a haircut and, far from
appearing romantic, would scare any
woman not entirely blind out of a
fourthfloor window
Deploring the tendency of the
movies to make heroes out of des-
peradoes like Bonney, the James
brothers. the Daltons and their ilk,
Peterson declares that if these char
acters were truly depicted on the
screen only perverts would go to see
them.
In the picture, Billy the Kid says
peterson, "he avenges the death of a
United States marshal amid scenery
of bewitching beauty. Glorified by
technicolor and invested with all the
glamor that could be packed into such
a picture. AS matter Of fact he was
cynical killer without scruple, and
an enemy of every law enforcement
officer he met. Similar pictures have
been built up about the James BROTH
ers and other notorious gangs of kill
ers and thieves. Almost invariably the
spectator is 'herded' into a position
where he is compelled to admire the
leading character by reason of the
cunning arts of stagecraft and scenario
writing
Continuing, the author writes, Il am
prepared to prove that Billy the Kid
in real life was a poor excuse of a
man who was respected by no one
who knew him. In modern language,
he was heel
Dave Leahy. an old-timer of
Wichita, Kan, knew William Bonney
personally. Buck Mcconnell Of Okla
homa City, a former cowboy on the
KIT ranch near Dalhart, was a per-
sonal friend of the sheriff, Pat Gar
rett, who finally ran Billy to earth.
Alonzo Polling, an old-time deputy
marshal in the Indian territory, was
personally familiar with the facts
about Bonney
These three men, of unimpeachable
character and testimony, have told me
that he was always Sinking muir
derer-a loafer who chung to the out
skirts of worthwhile industrious COM
munities, like a jackal of the plains.
He never fought in the open if he
could help it. He had no semblance
of real courage, but crept up on his
victims and shot them in the back.
GAS a rule these outlaws were a
pretty scummy lot says Polling. They
didn't like work like the rest of us