Free The Top 5 Most Notorious Outlaws by Charles River Editors Page A

Kid was facing two murder indictments and was not eligible for amnesty. After a few hours, figuring they might have inadvertently placed themselves in a predicament, the Kid and O’Folliard walked out and fled.

    Lew Wallace

    It is not exactly clear what made the Kid decide to try and make peace with his enemies, but on February 18, 1879, a year to the day of Tunstall’s murder, the Kid and some of his friends went to Lincoln to meet James Dolan and his men. Upon the Kid’s arrival, Jesse Evans suggested to Dolan and his men that they should shoot the Kid, to which he allegedly responded, ‘’I don’t care to open negotiations with a fight, but if you’ll come at me three at a time, I’ll whip the whole damned bunch of you!’’

    Whether or not that’s true, it seemed the famous adversaries eventually reached a truce, and everyone except the Kid sealed the deal with several shots of whiskey. However, the Kid became alarmed when he witnessed the drunken group of men shoot and kill Huston Chapman. The man, who only had one arm, was a successful attorney and had taken Susan McSween’s case in the murder of her husband, making him a sworn enemy of Dolan’s crew. Even though there is nothing to suggest that he was involved, the Kid was now associated with another murder.

    Governor Wallace ordered that anyone involved in Chapman’s murder be arrested. On March 13, 1879, he received a letter from the Kid offering information about Chapman’s murder in exchange for amnesty. The governor agreed, but told the Kid that he had to be willing to be part of a “fake arrest.” Wallace said that if the Kid complied, “I will let you go scot free with a pardon in your pockets for all your misdeeds.” 2 After ensuring that O’Folliard was part of the deal, the Kid agreed.

    Thus, that March Billy the Kid met Governor Wallace in person, allegedly with his revolver in one hand and a Winchester rifle in the other. The deal called for the Kid to stay in the Lincoln County jail for a bit before testifying, and during his short stay, the Kid scrawled on one of the prison’s wooden doors, ‘’William Bonney was incarcerated here first time December 22, 1878; second time March 21st, 1879, and hope I never will be again.” Wallace was baffled when local minstrels serenaded the Kid as he and O’Folliard played cards with their guards, and he described the scene in a letter to Secretary of the Interior Carl Schurz, ‘’A precious specimen named ‘The Kid,’ whom the sheriff is holding here in the Plaza, as it is called, is an object of tender regard. I heard singing and music the other night; going to the door, I found the minstrels of the village actually serenading the fellow in his prison.”

    Billy the Kid’s testimony was used to indict John Dolan, but the District Attorney himself was affiliated with The House, and he refused to set the Kid free after his testimony. Eventually, the Kid was put under house arrest in Lincoln in the home of Juan Patron.

Chapter 5: Criminal Indictments against William H. Bonney

    Over 200 criminal indictments were filed against 50 men involved in the Lincoln County War. Most had the charges dropped or they just disappeared, but this was not the case for the Kid, who appeared to be the scapegoat that the men who were actually responsible for the war needed. District Attorney William Rynerson, a colleague of James Dolan, had no intention of letting the Kid get away unscathed, and it seems unlikely that Wallace ever intended to honor his deal with the Kid. Wallace later told a reporter that he was not sure why the Kid would expect clemency from him. The Kid would write a letter complaining to Wallace, ‘’I have done everything that I promised you I would and you have done nothing that you promised me.’’ Ultimately, the only man to ever be tried and convicted for crimes committed during the Lincoln County War was none other than William H. Bonney. While this no doubt annoyed the Kid,