Mr. Roberts would seem to be the "Real Deal" as they say, a man of his time. Approaching the buildings of Blazer's Mills, he apparently fails to notice the numerous horses tied to the rail there, snorting and flicking their tails, dismounting and going forward, he does notice though, too late perhaps, in a room he is invited into, various guns and ammunition, lying clearly there on a table, for all to see. He also sees or feels a dangerous presence, backing off, he sits on the stoop of said building and passes away the time of day with someone that he must know by now is, at the very least, a danger to himself. After a protracted discussion, the shooting starts and he has the presence of mind to hit five of his assailants, six, if you include Charlie's belt buckle. Recieving a mortal wound, he backs into the building and has the self preservation to barracade the door with a matress and such, eventualy, sure as **** on the ass of a dog, Buckshot expires. Now is that not the tale of a true Western legend? The best bit of this chapter in the life of the Kid is that this vingette was witnessed and verified by some  of the particeapants. Now the strange thing to me is that, as we all know "to the Victors belong the spoils" and that  "history is written by the victor not the vanquished" To my mind, with Buckshot dead, why would the survivours not just trash his memory? Instead we get the tale of an authentic Man of the West, a man that stood up, feet firmly planted, for what he believed in, and yes, bounty money counts, no matter what the odds or the cost would be. I have taken most of the above from various websites, so don't blame me if I have erred in the details, factual books on the "Old West" are hard to come by in this part of the world. It just seems to me that one man against sixteen is uncommon odds, and to have that fellow still standing (nearly) at the end, says a lot about human grit, especially when it turns out that the opposition "hightail it outa there right quick" But on the bright side, here is what's said of the Kid : "Billy Bonney jumps up from behind a pile of logs and runs at Roberts at full speed, firing off his pistol as he goes. The startled Roberts quickly turns around and heads back to the adobe. Just as he gets to the doorway, the Kid comes within arms length of him and points his gun at him. Just as he gets ready to fire, Roberts jabs the end of his empty rifle into Billy's side, causing Billy to jerk and miss his mark. Billy then turns and retreats behind a pile of logs, while Roberts moves inside the adobe, finds a mattress, and gathering as much of his ebbing strength as he can, drags it to the door and uses it as a barricade"

Now, even if this tale is half true, imagine the courage, adrennalin, balls or whatever it takes to make a person run pell mell into the face of death, and Billy must have known that Roberts was leathal, but look at the above "runs at Roberts, full speed, firing his pistol as he goes" Hell's teeth! What a man he must have been! Witness "Achilles" in the movie "Troy", fiction? Yes, no doubt, but is the same courage not displayed in Billy's action? Is it not ultimatley all to do with a sense of history, an understanding of what the cost of immortality might be? Running full speed towards your destiny, how noble that sounds, yet the youngster was denied that heroic end, that blaze of glory, instead , he is butchered in the dark, what a poor end then for Billy the Kid,  it's all just too squalid. Even if his vanquishers had then went on to tell the honest truth about the events surrounding the boy's demise, we could now see it (so many years later) as a sad but true tale of a youth gone wrong, in reality though, we do not even have that, everyone there present at the death, seems to disagree with everyone else and that is the saddest part, "sleep well, beloved?" yes at the very least, why not?

quote:

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Originally posted by: Webmaster
"Buckshot Roberts was indeed a tough nut and underrated as a gunfighter. Even Billy the Kid was impressed and respected the fight Roberts gave. Billy said to a friend, "Yes sir, he licked our crowd to the finish."

Witness the above, whether the Kid did or did not actualy say those words, they have the ring of truth to them, why would the Kid say otherwise, he was awe inspired by Roberts and rightly so, I find it hard to get away from my first impression that, Roberts was a true legend!!