There's no doubt in my mind that Garrett shot Billy the Kid, there's just doubt on "how" he did it. Did Billy really just walk in on Garrett by coincidence or did Garrett lay and wait for Billy and ambushed him in the dark? Was Pete Maxwell really at the wrong place at the wrong time or was he in cahoots with Garrett? There are some theories and possibilities of how Garrett may have done it, but until some strong evidence surfaces history has to go along with Garrett's version of the story. You can read more about this on my web page Last Days found in the Billy the Kid Biography section of my website and on Billy vs. Brushy web page. Well, that's my two cents  . 

(Note: If this topic turns into "Billy lived to be an old man," let's take it to the Billy vs. Brushy forum -thanks)

I'm curious about this. As I recall, some time ago, an old codger showed up somewhere in New Mexico and claimed that he was Billy The Kid.  His story was that he and Pat Garrett were in cahoots on the alleged death of the Kid.  They had shot a drunk and the body was covered and Garrett passed it off as the Kid.  He said that he high tailed it out of town and went to Mexico where he laid low for a number of years until the dust settled on the death of the Kid.  He allegedly had the marks and scars that the Kid had and a medical team examined him and stated that this man was the same age as the kid would have been at that time.

Now...is this for real, or was this just an old mans pipe dream and it was his attempt to gather attention? 

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Originally posted by:
"I'm curious about this. As I recall, some time ago, an old codger showed up somewhere in New Mexico and claimed that he was Billy The Kid.  His story was that he and Pat Garrett were in cahoots on the alleged death of the Kid.  They had shot a drunk and the body was covered and Garrett passed it off as the Kid.  He said that he high tailed it out of town and went to Mexico where he laid low for a number of years until the dust settled on the death of the Kid.  He allegedly had the marks and scars that the Kid had and a medical team examined him and stated that this man was the same age as the kid would have been at that time. Now...is this for real, or was this just an old mans pipe dream and it was his attempt to gather attention?  "

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That story came from an elderly man who claimed as a young boy that Pat Garrett’s wife told him her husband did not kill Billy the Kid, but instead shot a drunken man passed out in the street. After blowing the unfortunate man’s face off,  he was unidentifiable, so Garrett passed him off as Billy the Kid. Now I’m no fan of Pat Garrett, but even I don’t believe he was that ruthless and why on earth would his own wife tell such an outrageous  story about her husband. Furthermore, Fort Sumner residents wouldn't have been so easily fooled and story of this callous act would've spread like wildfire and Garrett would've been busted.  But what really puts the final nail in the coffin to discredit this story, is that the elderly man reported that Garrett’s wife told him this back in 1940, but she died in 1936, so that can’t be possible. The DNA investigators tried to use this story to give them cause to dig up Billy the Kid to prove or disprove that Garrett shot him, but the story was quickly denounced and the investigators dropped it. Here’s an archive MSNBC.com article by Alan Boyle:

 Jan. 15, 2004 | 11:45 p.m. ET
Old West tale in trouble: Did Billy the Kid hatch a plot with his nemesis, Sheriff Pat Garrett, to fake the outlaw's death (click on link for story) in 1881? That's exactly the story that 72-year-old Homer Overton claims he was told by Garrett's widow, according to a sworn affidavit.

It definitely makes for a good Western tale — but Trish Saunders, co-founder of the Billy the Kid Historic Preservation Society, says she just doesn't buy it.

"That is completely bogus," she told MSNBC.com today, "because the story says that Mrs. Garrett told him that in 1940. Well, she died in 1936, which would make that boy 5 years old, at the very oldest, at the time she was living.

"I find it really hard to believe that Mrs. Garrett would reveal such a stupendous, historic secret to a little child of 5."

The dispute over Overton's tale is the latest twist in a 21st-century Old West saga that just won't quit. It's hard to boil down the whole tale to one or two sentences — we've published five chapters so far. But basically, three New Mexico lawmen are citing Overton's story in their effort to exhume the purported remains of the Kid's mother, Catherine Antrim, for DNA sampling. The trio says genetic testing could show whether there's anything to claims that Garrett may have shot the wrong man.

Opponents of the exhumation — including the mayor of Silver City, N.M., where the late Mrs. Antrim is said to be buried — insist there's already ample proof that the outlaw was really shot and buried 123 years ago. Digging up the dead would merely turn the city's cemetery into grounds for a publicity circus, the opponents say.

A hearing on the matter is scheduled for Jan. 27, and Overton's affidavit will most likely be contested in court at that time. Today, Saunders provided a preview of what the lawmen might face.

"If this is the kind of evidence that's being presented as justification for exhuming Billy the Kid and his mother, we can only hope the presiding judge will reject this claim as complete nonsense," she wrote in a news release. "This would all be funny, but there's so much at stake here. We can't sit back and let priceless landmarks be ruined based on such flimsy 'secrets' that can only be solved by exhuming long-dead corpses of famous Westerners. Who will be next: Wild Bill Hickok?"

That could be a possibility.

To think that Pat Garrett just HAPPENED to be in the right place at the right time...

Plus, all Billy said was, "Quien es? Quien es?" (Who is it?) Pat Garrett said he immediately knew who it was. He only said FOUR words in the dark. If Pat and Billy didn't know each other that well how could he recognize his voice. I bring this up, 'cuz everyone says I sound like my mother.