Hysterical Journey To Historic Places

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JAILBREAK



billythe Kid, that little weasel, was fond of gambling and dancing and the Mexican girls adored him, but he didn’t like to work. To support himself and his vices he was a thief. In August of 1877, at age 17, he murdered a man named Windy Cahill at Fort Grant, AT and then skipped over the line to New Mexico and fell in with Jesse Evans and his merry band of rogues. Evans admired Billy’s spunk, but his boys were seasoned outlaws that had little use for nursemaiding such a lazy youngster and in fairly short order Billy found himself on the discard heap with them. After further hardening among the rough elements around Seven Rivers Billy found himself in the clutches of an Englishman in Lincoln County named John Tunstall. Tunstall was a smart, charismatic and ambitious man, but he was utterly ruthless in his quest for wealth and acclaim. Billy adored him. Tunstall treated Billy fondly because he would soon have need for a few hardened criminals and Billy was a tool. Standing squarely in Tunstall’s path was Lawrence G. Murphy and Company, the firm who had previously held a monopolistic control of mercantile interests in Lincoln County. Murphy was well connected politically to the corrupt Santa Fe Ring, who had an interest in Murphy’s property through outstanding loans. Tunstall and Murphy were bound to clash. When Tunstall was murdered on February 18, 1878 by the Murphy/Dolan side the Lincoln County War erupted. Billy the Kid was one of a group of Regulators who sought to bring the murderers to justice. One of those they held responsible was Sheriff Brady. The Regulators ambushed and killed the sheriff in the street in front of Tunstall’s store on April 1, 1878. Fighters on both sides were eventually offered amnesty by the Territorial Governor in hopes of restoring law and order, but Billy would not abide by the law. He was captured on December 23, 1880 at Stinking Springs by Sheriff Pat Garrett and brought to trial in Mesilla for the murder of Brady. It could not be proven that Billy had fired the fatal bullet, but he was convicted anyway, sentenced to hang on May 13, 1881, and brought back to Lincoln to await execution. When the opportunity presented itself on April 28, 1881 he overpowered his jailer, Deputy J. W. Bell, and murdered him with his own six-gun. When the other deputy, Bob Ollinger, approached from across the street to help Bell, Billy murdered him too with a shotgun blast from the window pictured. He then persuaded a friend to sever his ankle chains with an ax, stole a horse, and calmly rode out of town to further lawlessness.

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Photos

JAILBREAK
Go east on Hwy 70 from Ruidoso for about 20 miles to Hwy 380. Turn left and go about 12 miles up Hwy 380 to Lincoln.