Hi Steve, good to see you on the board 

It was just reported that Carlyle had three bullets in him, I’ll have to double check if it was ever stated on where those bullets were on the body, but despite that there’s still evidence that clears Billy the Kid from this killing. During the shooting, two ranch workers for the Greathouse ranch were caught in the crossfire and said the posse was doing alot of shooting and hails of bullets came in the direction of the house.  I will point out that just seconds before the shooting started, Billy was by the door exchanging notes back and forth with the posse. One of the workers was acting as a messenger and had just stepped outside of the house to carry Billy’s note to the posse, when there was a crash sound as Carlyle leaped out the window and then the posse opened fired.  If Billy was by the door communicating with the posse by note exchange, how could he in a split second rush over to a window and hang his body outside to shoot Carlyle after he jumped out the window. From what the worker said, the shooting following the crash was instantaneous.  Billy the Kid was near the door and was probably ducking from stray bullets coming into the house, not running across the room and then hanging half his body out the window to take a shot at Carlyle running away.  I’m sure Billy had other things on his mind at that moment like avoiding getting shot himself.

As for those two ranch workers, they said that Billy and his gang killed Carlyle, but of course the posse may have influenced them to say that and of course they didn’t mind pinning the killing on a bunch of outlaws over their local townsmen.  Just like you, I certainly believe the posse shot Carlyle, why else did they leave so suddenly afterwards and then come back later when they got their wits back (of course Billy and his gang were long gone by then), and why else was Billy the Kid never charged with this killing since there were so many witnesses. The reason being was because the White Oaks posse didn't want to risk an investigation that would reveal how Carlyle "real"  got shot. So they decided to forget it.  No doubt all this odd behavior by the posse is quite suspicious and goes to show who really had the guilty conscious.