Kiss Mine Essay, Research Paper

In the late 1940’s a man named William V. Morrison, an attorney, heard from a man in Florida named Joe Hines (who later turned out to be none other than Jesse

Evans) that Billy the Kid was not killed by Pat Garrett, or by anyone else and that he was still alive. Morrison finally found this man that was supposed to be Billy the

Kid in the small town of Hico, Texas. The old man was going by the name Brushy Bill Roberts and/or Ollie Roberts. He was 5′8″ tall, 165 pounds, had protruding

ears, blue eyes with brown spots in them, unusally small hands and big wrists. All of his charecteristics matched the Kid’s. Brushy at first denied that he was Billy the

Kid and said that his brother was Billy the Kid and that he was living in Mexico. Morrison told Brushy he’d like to meet his brother in Mexico. Morrison began

putting plans together with Brushy as to when they’d go see his brother in Mexico. Brushy began getting more and more nervous during Morrison’s planning. Brushy

told Morrison he would have to talk to him later as he wasn’t feeling that well. As Morrison was leaving the Roberts home, Brushy whispered in his ear and told him

to come back tomorrow because Brushy’s wife would be gone and he wanted to tell him more. Morrison did come back and Brushy confessed that he was the Kid.

For hours, Morrison interviewed Brushy and Brushy answered every question correct. When Morrison asked for proof, Brushy took off his clothes and exposed

numerous bullet and knife wounds. All the wounds that the Kid was known to have were accounted for on Brushy. Brushy also did a double-jointed move with his

thumbs in order to make his hands narrower than his wrists, as the Kid did to get out of handcuffs. Brushy said that he was born William Henry Roberts on

December 31, 1859 in an area of Texas known as Buffalo Gap. His parents were James H. Roberts and Mary Adeline Roberts. Mary Roberts died in 1862 while

James was off fighting with Quantrill in the Civil War. He said that Catherine McCarty was not his mother, but his maternal half-aunt. After his mother died, Brushy

said he went to live with Catherine McCarty and he son, Joe. Since Brushy was so young and Catherine moved around so much, everyone just assumed that Brushy

was her son. Fearing that Brushy’s father might try to take him back, she covered her tracks and gave the name Henry McCarty to Brushy as an alias. If Brushy was

the Kid, then all the questions of his origins would be answered. Morrison continued to interview Brushy. It was determined that Brushy knew way too much about

the history of the Kid and the Lincoln County War to have read all about it, since some of the stuff he knew was only known to a few other people. Brushy said that

a man named Billy Barlow was killed by Pat Garrett on July 14, 1881. Barlow, he said, was partly Mexican, had a beard, looked like the Kid, was a little younger

than the Kid, and was possibly related to the Clements family, the cousins of John Wesley Hardin. Brushy also said that he doubted that Billy Barlow was the man’s

real name. Brushy said that after Barlow was killed, he fled Fort Sumner. After fleeing Sumner, Brushy said he lived in Mexico with some Indians for two years,

retutrned to the U.S. and worked in Carlton, Texas, was arrested in Kansas City because he recognized as the Kid, but was released, worked for Buffalo Bill Cody,

worked for the Anti-Horse Thief Association from 1885-1889, worked for Judge Isaac Parker in Fort Smith, Arkansas, joined the Pinkerton Detective Agency,

worked as a U.S. Marshal investigating train robberies, worked in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, joined the Rough Riders and went to Cuba, briefly operated his

own Wild West Show, fought for Villa and Carranza in the Mexican Revolution, worked as a plainclothes policeman in Gladewater, Texas, married four times, and

used a dozen aliases. Almost everything that he said he did after fleeing Fort Sumner has been proven with records, testimony of others, and/or possseions that

Brushy had. Brushy told Morrison that he wanted to go before the Governor of New Mexico and get his promised pardon. Morrison contacted Gov. Thomas

Mabry, and Mabry agreed to see them, in private. Morrison prepared 22 affidavits and pieces of evidence to prove that Brushy was the Kid. However, at the

meeting on Nov. 29, 1950, Mabry brought dozens of historians, relatives of people who knew the Kid, armed police, and the press. Brushy had a small stroke right

there and forgot everything, not just things about Billy the Kid, but EVERYTHING. He didn’t know his last name or his wife’s name. He was not pardoned. Brushy

was taken home to Hico and confessed to his wife, who had been kept in the dark about the entire thing, that he was the Kid. Brushy had a heart attack and died on

Dec. 27, 1950 at the age of 90.

There are only three pieces of evidence against Brushy: 1) that some of Billy’s friends said they saw the body 2) that there is no record of Billy Barlow and 3) that

one of Brushy’s relatives, Geneva Pitmon, says he wasn’t the Kid because he was too young. However, all of the people that viewed the body of the man killed by

Garrett were friends of Billy (except Garrett, Poe, and McKinney). These same people had been trying to get Billy to flee for years. Now Billy really could get away

and all they had to do is say the body was of Billy. They worshipped him and would do anything to help him with anything. Wouldn’t they do this in order to lket Billy

get away free? I think so. As for Barlow, there is no record of Barlow yet. However, Brushy said he was related to the Clements family. There are a lot of

candidates in the Clements family for who Barlow could have been. Just because there is no record of him, doesn’t mean he didn’t exist. Isn’t it a little absurd of us to

think that we can account for every, single person back in those days? As for Pitmon, she is the one relative who has stated for a fact that Brushy is not the Kid. She

has said that a cousin of Brushy’s, Oliver P. Roberts, born in Arkansas in 1879, was really Brushy. However, there is no evidence that Brushy and Oliver P. were

the same man. There are a few other websites and that give several false pieces of information on Brushy Bill. All of these false pieces have been thoroughly

discredited and proven to be false, yet these sites fail to say that. This site provides the true facts on Brushy Bill. If anything here is incorrect, e-mail me, tell me why,

and I’ll change it.