Shot in the heart

Another year has come and gone in "Billyland" and we still have zillions of unanswered questions pertaining to his life and how he actually met his untimely demise.I know we could go on forever debating the what-ifs but I guess in reality Pat caught Billy off guard and put one right in his heart.So this post will be my 5 minutes of silence in his memory.Rest in peace El Chivato.

Oh yeah, today is the 14th isn't it

I didn't get a chance to post on July 14th, but I was thinking of Billy and that it had been 128 years since our boy was killed. I still think how distressed he must've been to see a suspicious shadow and the sound of a gun cocking, followed by the bright flash of the gun going off and feeling the crushing burning pain in his chest. He was left to die struggling for life on the floor...alone in the dark, gasping for breath, and never knowing who killed him. What desperate thoughts must've been running through his head. He died exactly the way he didn't want to die "killed like a dog unarmed," but worse. in the dark without his boots on.

Rest in Peace Billy. You may have died a tragic death, but your name lives on.

I think it just happened so fast he never knew what hit him.

Maybe he was staggered to see a bloke with Pedro.....

Paul O'Brien aka paulo wrote:

Maybe he was staggered to see a bloke with Pedro.....

lol Paul you mean in like they were together, together?

Marcelle Brothers wrote:

I didn't get a chance to post on July 14th, but I was thinking of Billy and that it had been 128 years since our boy was killed. I still think how distressed he must've been to see a suspicious shadow and the sound of a gun cocking, followed by the bright flash of the gun going off and feeling the crushing burning pain in his chest. He was left to die struggling for life on the floor...alone in the dark, gasping for breath, and never knowing who killed him. What desperate thoughts must've been running through his head. He died exactly the way he didn't want to die "killed like a dog unarmed," but worse. in the dark without his boots on.

Rest in Peace Billy. You may have died a tragic death, but your name lives on.

Dear Marcelle:
That is a terrible way to die for sure but it is better than strangleing on the end of a rope I suppose. But, let's all try and remember that Billy was a crimiinal. Petty but still a criminal.

I find it hard to understand why people of today want to make a guy like that into a hero. Had Garrett really let him go, he would have just gone to Arizona, Texas Utah or...God forbid, here to Colorado and kept up his old games until he did get hung and, from the hanging accounts I have read from that day, they were, mostly a very poor executions. I read of one man whos hanging went bad and after about twenty mnutes, some on grabbed hold of his legs and pulled till the guy was deas, Then, there was Ketchum who got his head pulled off.

No! Thank you but I would take the bullet any time.

Russ

I agree with Russell. Billy was no monster, no Clay Allison or John Selman type of a-hole. But at the end he was a criminal unlike guys like Fred Waite who did choose the right way out after the LCW. Billy didn't. He liked his way of life too much. I can understand that - even more when seeing where he came from - but I can also understand the other side: He was a problem that had to be solved.

Scurlock ,Waite and George Coe at least were smart enough to get out while the getting was good. Too bad Bowdre, O'Folliard et al couldn't have done likewise

"May all your flies be cast to fiesty bluegill"

Dave

Pippen wrote:

I agree with Russell. Billy was no monster, no Clay Allison or John Selman type of a-hole. But at the end he was a criminal unlike guys like Fred Waite who did choose the right way out after the LCW. Billy didn't. He liked his way of life too much. I can understand that - even more when seeing where he came from - but I can also understand the other side: He was a problem that had to be solved.

Jimmy Dolan,judge Bristol and all the corrupt politicians who played such are major role in the Lincoln county war were also problems that needed to be solved what a shame jimmy didn,t met the same fate.

Pat Garrett has also practiced Rustling in his life time he was no saint either.

I totally agree with Steven on this one.

Cliff Caldwell wrote:

Not to be disagreeable, but you shouldn’t be quite so hard on James Dolan (or Lawrence Murphy for that matter). True enough, they resorted to murder. You need to consider the vast differences in the backgrounds of the opposing factions. The Lincoln County War was not a "good guy v/s bad guy" affair. Murphy and Dolan had come from Ireland during the peak of the potato famine. Both from very poor backgrounds. Both had been victimized by the British while in Ireland. Treated poorly, over taxed and their land taken from them. Both arrived with nothing and were persecuted when they got here (not unlike the Italian side of my ancestors). They learned the way of the west while in the military…"I will die before I will retreat". Tunstall came from an upper middle class British family and was raised in relative comfort. McSween was a devout pacifist and a Presbyterian ministry student (perhaps even a minister but that is yet to be verified). Small wonder the two groups clashed! Simply stated, all that Dolan and Murphy were trying to do was protect their business monopoly, which Tunstall and McSween were horning in on. Billy, on the other hand, was little more than petty thief who’s only claim to fame before coming to New Mexico was killing a bully in a bar room fight in Arizona in self defense. He emerged as an unlikely hero, and perhaps not even the most deserving of fame considering some of the other major players. I might have selected Dick Brewer, Andrew "Bill" Williams (alias Buckshot Roberts), Jessie Evans, Jose Chaves y Chavez, Charlie Bowdre, or perhaps even James Dolan given the whole of what he accomplished in his years (albeit significantly violent).
By the way…it’s "Folliard" not "O’Folliard". The "O’Folliard" thing is a historical error that has been perpetuated for a hundred and thirty years.

The kid did more than brewer and Bowdre over the course of his career that is why he is remembered more than them.