William Tunstill Speech Dedication to Billy the Kid / Brushy Bill Roberts Part 1

this is a dedication address to the memories of brushy Bill Roberts known also as the other kid Holly L Roberts and also known as the Texas kid during the 1880s and 1890s today the people of heiko Carleton and Hamilton County are giving recognition to a federal citizen who call this area home for this was truly the only home that the man ever had he was an operon at age three he lived with his aunt Katherine Bonnie McCarty and his grandmother from Kentucky his mother Mary Adeline done Roberts died a few months after bill his father left home to join Confederate troops in the Civil War the kid lived with relatives in Kentucky and Oklahoma which was known as Indian Territory until aunt Catherine move to Wichita Kansas after the war Billy's father returned to heiko with his second wife and when Billie was about eight years of age he was returned to his father and his stepmother who at that time were living near Carlton Texas that day 2:14 he runs away from home after some harsh treatment from his father and stayed with relatives in Sulphur Springs Texas later the kid goes to Wichita Kansas to stay with his aunt Bonnie she owned and operated the Wichita City laundry for a short time in early spring of 1873 aunt Bonnie moves to Santa Fe New Mexico where she married the to William Antrim son they moved all to Silver City New Mexico which was at that time a boomtown with a strike of silver and gold mr. Antrim worked in the mines and Katherine his wife granny room and boardinghouse brushy bill entered public fuel there for the first time he had only eight months of education aunt Bonnie died with TB in September 1874 for a few months brushy lived with his stepfather William Antrim and his cousin chosen McCarty he was Catherine son by a former marriage to William McCarty who was killed in 1862 during the Civil War in Tennessee it was not long after the death of ain't Catherine that brushy bill got into trouble with the law in Silver City for stealing clothing from a Chinese Laundry from this time on brushy bill was on his own to make his own way in life he leaves Silver City and we find him at Fort grant Arizona working for the military post serving the Calvary unit as a caretaker of military horses and equipment off the military base he got into a fight one day with a large roughneck and the fight ends and the killing by the kid he leads the military post and his back to Silver City and stays on a ranch for a few weeks before leaving for Mesilla New Mexico on the Rio Grande a few miles from the present city of Las Cruces New Mexico in August of 1877 after failing to find a ranch job he has East crossing the Rio Grande River on his way to John Chism's ranch on the Pecos River near the present city of Roswell there were no jobs available at the ranch so he was advised to go up the Hondo River which is west of the city of Rockville to the ranch of Frank and George Code for employment he found a temporary job there but later found good job with rancher by the name of John Henry Tunstall an Englishman from London Billy walked into the beginning of a Lincoln County war between two hardcore factions that started with the killing of Rancher Tom stall after a few weeks of employment by the said Ranger it was a period of law west of the pages where no one was safe you had to be on one side or the other the kid was never a hero or a bloody killer as so written in all our history books which has built up a false legend pure and simple yes in self-defense brushy bill or Billy the Kid had to kill four or five men in order to stay alive he was send the call more than he sinned he witnessed many innocent people kill by members of the law who work on both sides of the law this is what we call law west of the papers I have talked to grandchildren of those who knew brushy bill or Billy the Kid and they were quick to say that their relatives loved the kid and depended on him for protection you will never read or find the charge against the kid for stage robbery bank robbery or rape history has failed to identify one person who was killed by Brushy has been an honest upright clean citizen of Lincoln or de Baca counties the shirt and other deputies were members of raiding parties with many well known cutthroat outlaws on small ranchers and farmers in that community yes the kids stole horses but the question is who didn't in those rough and tough times open range meant no fences and cattle and horses rolled over the territory as unbranded stock largest small ranchers stole their cattle with the help of both lawmen and outlaws as there was very little difference between them cattle baron John Chisholm rigged the Sheriff's election in Roswell to elect his old man who was Pat Jay who was a Buffalo hunter and a bounty hunter prior to becoming the shirt and he's got this job with only a hundred and seventy five votes margin and they were from the Cowboys who worked for John Chisholm whose ranch was near the city of Rock there is no respect for former shirt Pat Garrett and Rob them are the state of New Mexico today he failed at owner of a gambling house and a saloon in Santa Fe he failed and was fired as customs collector in El Paso Texas by President Teddy Roosevelt for stealing his home here in Roswell is never discussed at historical or news media circles it is not listed in any tourist guide our advertisements after the famous shootout with shirt Pat Garrett and deputies at Fort Sumner in July of 1881 Russia bailed headed for Old Mexico and stayed there until a late summer of 1883 at that time he returns to the United States crossing first in El Paso Texas to visit John and Mark tell Abel they gave him a good horse and supplies and money to carry him back to his home town at heichal here and all at Carleton he crossed back over the Rio Grande River after the visit to the Miss concider of the border and followed the river downstream to Brownsville Texas where his cousin John Heath was stationed as Texas Ranger assigned to the Border Patrol unit after a brief visit brushy bill ability kid heads for heiko Texas when he arrived home he learned that his stepmother and half-brother had gone back to Kentucky our Arkansas his father had left the community and hired out as an Indian guard to protect the wagon train people going west on the Oregon Trail it was reported to bill that he was killed that is his father near the trading post at Coal Creek Springs in Idaho which is north of the present city Boise on the Snake River which flows through the state at this time I want to acknowledge the work of artist James rice for molding the bust of brushy bill also to the business men and women in ico for their efforts to bring the town alive with brushy bill being the man of the year in Michael and this community judge Bob Kepner and the merchants for their effort in building the public walkway fun for the memory of Brazil the heikal news reviewed newspaper and his staff have helped the cause with their interest and the minister is printed that I have mail in during the past six years we hope to move Russia bills casket and body back to high coal for final in Tumen since this was his home as a child and as an old retired Texas cowboy who followed the rodeo circuits for more than 40 years in Texas in Arkansas and Oklahoma Wyoming North and South Dakota incredible but true he never felt safe and secure in any place except right here in the heiko Carlton community why because he had been convicted of murder and therefore he was an escaped convict and he knew that there was a price on his head yes and when he was ever apprehended after that break and killing are the two guards at the jail at Lincoln now what positive proof is now available to prove Billy the Kid William Bonney and brushy Bill Roberts in this all yell Roberts are one and the same person now to me this is the most important thought or question that most people have in their mind when they read about the coming of a man who claims to be the real Billy the Kid and I have summed up the six years of work and to me this is the most important questions that you the people of this community the people in state of Texas and the people of the United States now the following statements that I will make our conclusions drawn from the evidence as found in the data taken from an in-depth research done to identify two life patterns to be that a one living person after the alleged death had been accepted as the first as stated by chirp Pat Garrett now it was true that Pat Garrett did kill a man on the night of July 14 1881 but it was not Billy the Kid with ambani and for that reason the mystery immediately after be chilly as a matter of fact his deputy told him at that night he said shirt you killed the wrong man the gun that Gary shot in the dark he did not have any life all he heard was a voice in a bedroom Pete Maxwell's home there in Fort Sumner now here are the points that summary to prove that in my judgment that breccia Bill Roberts was the true Billy the Kid Bret Chappelle tells his story to William Morrison who is his attorney at his home in Hamilton Texas now let me explain breccia bill did not seek notoriety breccia bill did not seek publicity he was living a quiet and a peaceful life he was a man then about 89 and 90 years of age and mr. Barth heard from a client that he had he represented a man who had inherited his brothers property in South Dakota and the name of this man had been changed it was one of Billy's cohorts up here during the Lincoln County War he took the name of Joel Heinz and he came to mr. Martin's that I need your assistance I've been notified by relatives that my brother has died and in his will I have received a good share of his land in South Dakota but I cannot do a thing until I can prove that I am NOT Joe Heinz but a real name I did not have that real name I am still trying to figure out from the court records in that state but do know this much after the trial was over the probate judge said that you have satisfied the court that you are the true brother of this method deceased person therefore I am signing over the properties that justly belongs to you well on the way back from South Dakota he needs at that time in Florida he tells mr. Martin about all the escapades that he and Billy went through up here in Lincoln County in 1878 81 and he said did you know mr. Martin Billy the Kid is still alive he said now come on he's been dead bat dare kill him about a hundred years ago he said oh no he said I get a letter from him every year sometimes two and I write him and he'd write others so they are a conversation with own and mr. parson became very interested and so after he returned back to his office in Florida he immediately made plans to go to haiku so he goes to high school and he knocks on the door it meets Billy and right there is the first time that Billy had any knowledge whatsoever that anyone living knew who he really was his wife at present at that time he had never told her who he was so mr. Martin said you're brushy bill he said that's me he said I understand your name is Billy the Kid and he became shocked and he said no he said that's my half-brother and so he said come on into the living room and and let's talk so it was at that time that Billy told his attorney here is divorce that he was really the bility kid so that's the first point the second friendship first as I said he refused to be identified as William Bonney our Billy the Kid that cause his wife was right there in the room and this was his third or fourth wife and he had never told her and therefore he was completely shocked because he did not want her to know his past record so the next item brushy bill never used his full legal name and that is strange because most everyone has used their legal name most of the life but here was the man that he had so much fear and being called again and but to death that he did not use his name but he was always alert and aware to the fact that he was already convicted for murder of sheriff William Brady up here at Lincoln Town back in 1877 now the next part of conclusion that supports my contention that Billy our brushy bill was the true Billy did that so well known in history attorney Martin's was determined to prove to himself that all er Brescia bill Roberts was telling the truth by taking him over the trails and towns in New Mexico where he was active in how re in Lincoln and de Baca counties next the ability of Billy recall and discuss places 20 to 30 minutes before they arrived in the car he would discuss in detail and this was a shock mr. Martin to think that it been 70 years since Billy had travelled over these trails these towns and where he roamed from week to week now another vital part here Billy was illiterate in both reading and writing it could have been impossible for Brescia bill to know all the places with closed details for that period of time in other words he could be neither read nor write well some people have said oh well he had read a lot of these magazines and stories and he well-versed on it and therefore that's the way he was able to go back and point these places out not so because I think any logical person would would immediately say well if you couldn't read or write the only way he could have known that it was fact that he actually went there himself so that's another proof number six now numbered next proof legal affidavits to brushy bills identity by credible people who knew him well or sixty to seventy years on this these people are going to read their names here they're not just somebody that mr. Markson picked up on the street and said could you identify this person these people knew in from day to day and they are number one serve our world galvo who was citizen well like in Lincoln Town Mexico John and Martell able to live in El Paso Texas Joseph beam Antalya he lived at Rio Dulce you wish to go there with Travis well-known wealthy oilman of Longview Texas Robert Ely another businessman in Baton Rouge Louisiana so here we have sworn to affidavits recorded by mr. Marsh and his attorney to prove that they knew the man to be none other than the de kid another item of consideration copies of letters and documents relatives now living in Tyler Jacksonville Houston Texas I am the only historian that has been able to dig out the complete chain of relatives is life and I have the letters and the documents from these people who have shown beyond a question of doubt to me and they are they worst honest at first because they knew he had run away from the home now these are the third cousins of dedicate or Brescia Villa but they have complete records of their family going back for over a hundred years and I have talked to each and one of these people and I'm speaking up here and then Tyler in Jacksonville in Houston Texas now another item for consideration is a sworn confession breccia bill demanded a full pardon for his acts about are able before Governor Thomas Mayberry at Santa Fe New Mexico as late as in November of 1950 now keep in mind it was in the spring of this year 1950 that mr. Marsh makes his first approach to Billy on the subject that you are the real kid all right so good it says I won't to get a part that I'll confess to the governor and that's the only thing I'm interested in I wanted to confess and I want the governor of New Mexico to give me a clean bill of health and for the confession now and that next proof written statements made by J Frank Dalton who was a lifetime friend of brescia bill and his father with whom he fought together in civil war and get that Billy our pressure bills daddy and J Frank Dalton we're buddies in the War Between the States and Jesse his that's his real name lot of people don't believe it but J Frank Dalton we later was working on that too but he was the real Jesse James he died in 1950-51 now we have also letters and photographs pressure bill our ability kid and the famous gunslinger by the name of Bazar Jack Berlin of Petersburg India I wish I could read those letters that I have most convincing is absolutely no doubt about they discuss many things that only friends and close have a close relations back there during the state is management and then we also have letters and documents from his Lizzy Roberts now that was the last wife of Russia bill and by the way she was her name was Melinda Allison she lived Thorne understanding rethought out here Carl and she too wrote letters to Jay prank-called telling about Billy especially after Billy died another item letters written by Lizzy Roberts to the cousin of Jesse James who is still living third cousin as latest 1948 to 1950 and then the letters written by business is the Roberts to attorney Mars and missus Everhard who is a third cousin Jesse James now the proof of Randy Bill's illiteracy to Wright was demonstrated by his wives writing all his personal letters during their merge I have professional handwriting experts to take every letter that Billy had written up here in New Mexico he had written the number of letters to the governor at that time it was governor Lew Wallace and we have also the letters that breccia bill our bill the kid rope to Ozark Jack Burley and I've mentioned while ago and the handwriting experts prove to me that this is Roberts was her handwriting she wrote every letter now some of the things in those letters were very personal and no one would have turned that writing over to someone if he could have written about the letter himself now the letters written to the governor I mentioned a while ago that Billy Tolley was in jail at Santa Fe the first time Ronnie is in jail at Lincoln and while he was in jail awaiting trial and during his trial at Messiah which is just a few miles from Las Cruces today Billy had five or six letters of which we have copies those letters the originals are now in the little wallace museum and in the Naprosyn yeah and I had opportunity to get Xerox copies of those letters the letter written to govern little Wallace being five in number by Billy the Kid or brushy bill in 1877 to 1881 while we're written by different people but they were signed with a signature William Bonney those two have been checked by experts both here in New Mexico and also in Texas I had the very best handwriting experts who were recognized by both the district and federal courts of this state to examine and their verdict laws as I have said that Brescia bill did not write a single one up now another important thing prior to Brescia Bill's car trip that he took with Marcin he destroyed all his personal records that's very strange the only thing we can think of was that that he did not want his present wife which was wife number four he's only been married to her about a year and he was very apprehensive he did not want her to know too much about his past life and can one occasion I recall he said I had fear that she would walk off and leave me and he said I could not stand that so prior to brushy Bill's car trip with attorney Larson he destroyed all of his personal records and files for fear if the governor there I'll get this if the governor that he had proposed this conference if he refused to issue the full pardon but accepted his confession he could have been properly executed because he was he had already been convicted and was waiting handed

Channel: Brett Hall

Views: 31,168

Keywords: Brushy Bill Roberts, Billy the Kid, William Tunstill

Id: s0fyR5QMYd0

Length: 30min 13sec (1813 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 21 2017