Brushy Billy

"What people choose to believe is a fact in itself." -Leon Metz

- BY BOB BOZE BELL

A GRAVE MISTAKE?

Brushy Bill poses in front of Billy the Kid's alleged grave. He told bystanders, "They think they've got me there, buried like an outlaw with my feet to the west, but that won't get it. They didn't get me yet, they didn't!" According to Brushy Bill's niece, Geneva Pittman, birth records in the family Bible indicate Roberts was born in 1879 in east Texas. Mrs. Pittman says, "I know for a fact my uncle was born in 1879, and Billy the Kid was supposed to have been shot by Pat Garrett in 1881. That would have made him 2 years old. He really would have been a kid!'

1948

William V. Morrison is working as an investigator for a law firm in Florida (although he has a law degree he is not a bar member). Morrison is currently working on an estate case involving an old man named Joe Hines, who claims he fought against Billy the Kid and doesn't believe the official history of the outlaw's demise: “Garrett did not kill the Kid on July 14, 1881, or any other time.”

Morrison then contacts a fellow Missourian named J. Frank Dalton who has recently been written up in the papers because of his startling declaration that he is Jesse James. Through this dubious character ( few believe Dalton's claim), Morrison learns the address of the man in Texas who claims to be Billy the Kid.

August 1949

After some correspondence and an initial meeting, Morrison picks up Brushy Bill Roberts in Hico, Texas, and they set off on a road trip to New Mexico. Brushy Bill reminisces along the way, making numerous mistakes and contradicting himself, but Morrison rationalizes that the Kid is “still running” and is dodging questions that might compromise him with the authorities.

July 1950