The Albuquerque Journal - Thursday, February 1, 2001

Rep. Begs Pardon for Billy the Kid

By Richard Benke
The Associated Press

Nearly 120 years after Billy the Kid was

sentenced to hang for murdering a sheriff and then escaped from jail by killing two deputies, New Mexico lawmakers are
considering a posthumous pardon for him. If approved, the non binding proposal offered by Rep. Ben Rios, D-Las Cruces, would ask Gov. Gary Johnson to pardon Henry McCarty, alias William H. Bonney, alias Billy the Kid.

Relatives of Sheriff William Brady, who was ambushed by Billy and others in Lincoln on April 1, 1878, aren't ready to forgive or forget. "Oh, boy," said Bennett Brady of Roswell. "Whoever said something like that has got to be crazy." "No, he doesn't deserve pardoning. As far as I'm concerned, that's wrong," said Brady, 70, the sheriff's great-grandson who said Wednesday
he is asking his legislative representatives to oppose the memorial. Sheriff Brady, he said, was shot in the back. "That was Billy the Kid's specialty. He shot him from behind."

The shooting happened as Brady was walking down the dusty main street of Lincoln, a little cattle town in southern New Mexico. The sheriff left eight children, including Bennett Brady's grandfather, Robert, who was 13 when his father died.

Assistant New Mexico Attorney General Joel Jacobsen, whose book "Such Men as Billy the Kid" was published in 1995, said while he may sympathize with "the oppressed" of Lincoln, victimized by corrupt 19th century politicians, "I don't really see that we should pardon people who kill sheriffs."

Rios' proposal suggests the Kid's "exploits to this day evoke emotions ranging from admiration to disdain" but says "the passing of more than one hundred years since that event should have healed many of the wounds left in his wake."

Many of Billy's crimes are exaggerated, Rios says, and Jacobsen said then-Territorial Gov. Lew Wallace had led Billy to expect a pardon. This pardon proposal suggests Billy "fathered several children in New Mexico and that his descendants still live in Santa Rosa, Fort Sumner and other areas" of the state.

Neither Bennett Brady nor Jacobsen knew of any Billy the Kid
descendants. But Rios said a Las Cruces-based "spokesman for the family" asked the lawmaker to seek the pardon. He did not identify the spokesman. "They just want to see if Billy could be pardoned," Rios said, "for the peace of mind of whoever is left who knew Billy or their family knew Billy."

Billy was sentenced to hang in April 1881, escaped the Lincoln jail weeks later, shooting two deputies and was himself shot to death by Sheriff Pat Garrett that July.

Asked if he acknowledges Billy killed Brady, Rios said: "I haven't made up my mind on that." "At that time, the gun was the law, you know," he said. "Really, I can't vouch for Mr. Bonney. I presented (the memorial) because I was asked by my constituency. My main thing is just to satisfy my constituents.
Whatever happens after that is up to the governor."

Rita Nunez, who filters the pardon requests for the Governor's Office, said a dozen such requests have come in during the past five years. The purpose of a pardon is to restore somebody's civil rights, she said.

Jacobsen's book described widespread local government corruption in Lincoln County in the 1870s. The problems began after Lawrence G. Murphy, James J. Dolan and Emil Fritz went into partnership in Lincoln. Among investors in their store
was U.S. Attorney Thomas B. Catron, head of the powerful "Santa Fe Ring" that ran the territory.

Their monopolistic Lincoln-based commodities brokerage, "the House," held government contracts to supply horses, cattle and grain to the Mescalero Apache reservation through the Indian agent and to the Army through the nearby Fort Stanton commander. And Murphy was also Lincoln County probate judge.

Englishman John Tunstall sought to challenge that monopoly. Billy worked for Tunstall. Brady, acting on behalf of Murphy and Dolan, attached Tunstall's assets in 1878.

On Feb. 18, Tunstall was murdered between his ranch and Lincoln as he sought to comply with Brady's attachment order by driving livestock into Lincoln.

Billy the Kid and his trailmates, "the Regulators," then staged
counterattacks, killing several Murphy-Dolan partisans, including Brady.

The Albuquerque Journal - Saturday, February 3, 2001

Outlaw's Descendants Push for Pardon

By Richard Benke
The Associated Press

New Mexicans who claim the outlaw Billy the Kid as an ancestor say they are the ones pushing a formal pardon request, contending there's no proof the teen-age ranch hand shot Sheriff William Brady in 1878.

But the governor said Thursday there's no way he would pardon Henry McCarty, alias William H. Bonney, alias Billy the Kid, who was sentenced to hang in 1881 for killing Brady. The Kid broke out of jail in April 1881, killing two deputies, and was himself killed that July by Sheriff Pat Garrett.

A Santa Rosa man who claims to be the Kid's great-grandson said Thursday his forefather got a bad rap — and is still getting a bad rap from Brady's descendants. "They're calling my great-grandfather a crook, and I'm calling their great-grandfather a crook," Elbert Garcia said. "He (Brady) was part of the Santa Fe Ring."

The Ring was a political clique that controlled New Mexico Territory in the late 19th century. In Lincoln County, the Ring was involved with a corrupt mercantile operation that used influence in the sheriff's office and local judiciary for its business advantage.

On Tuesday, state Rep. Ben Rios, a Las Cruces Democrat, asked the Legislature to approve a measure seeking a pardon for Billy the Kid from Gov. Gary Johnson. Johnson's spokeswoman, Diane Kinderwater, said her office has received calls from Brady's family asking Johnson not to pardon Billy.
"Don't worry, I won't be pardoning him," she quoted Johnson as
responding Thursday. "The point is he (Billy the Kid) killed at least three lawmen," Kinderwater said, adding the Kid was never rehabilitated and was not arrest-free, criteria for a pardon. Rios said Wednesday that the Kid's descendants "just want to see if Billy could be pardoned."

Brady's great-grandson, Bennett Brady, said Billy the Kid shot Sheriff Brady in the back. "Everybody thinks Billy shot him in the back. That's crap," Garcia said Thursday.

The Kid, then about 18, was among five cowboys in a corral along Lincoln's main road, where Brady was walking April 1, 1878, Garcia said. "We don't know that it was Billy that killed him," he said. "The only thing we do know is when these five cowboys left the corral, Billy was among them. So everyone goes around saying Billy shot him. "Everybody looks at him like Hannibal, the monster. He was just a kid who stood up for what he thought was right," said Garcia, 62, a retired
aerospace executive.

Some have considered Billy the Kid a cold-blooded killer. Others say he was a Robin Hood of the Old West who helped oppressed victims of a corrupted government. But to Garcia, Billy is family. Abrana Garcia had a child, Patricinio Garcia, in 1875, when Billy probably would have been 15 years old, he said. Patricinio was Elbert Garcia's grandfather. "We all knew that Patricinio was the son of Billy the Kid, but nobody ever talked about it outside the family." The connection was kept quiet, he said, "to hide the fact that he was a kid of Billy the Kid."

The Albuquerque Journal - Saturday, February 10, 2001

House Tables Billy the Kid Pardon Proposal

By Chaka Ferguson
The Associated Press

SANTA FE — A House committee on Friday tabled a nonbinding
proposal seeking a posthumous pardon of Billy the Kid despite a plea from a man claiming to be the outlaw's great-grandson that such an act would remove the "stigma" of being the Kid's descendant.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Ken Martinez, D-Grants, said the Legislature doesn't constitutionally have the power to grant such a pardon and that the resolution would be no more than "a letter with an official stamp." He said the resolution most likely is dead for the session unless the measure's sponsor, Rep. Ben Rios, seeks to get a majority of the
committee to revisit it. "I think we gave it a fair hearing and it was an interesting issue, but a memorial was not that important because the ability to pardon rests exclusively with the governor," Martinez said after the hearing. Rios said he has not decided whether to ask for another hearing of the bill.

The proposal offered by Rios, D-Las Cruces, would have asked Gov. Gary Johnson to pardon Henry McCarty, alias William H. Bonney, alias Billy the Kid. This pardon proposal suggests Billy "fathered several children in New Mexico and that his descendants still live in Santa Rosa, Fort Sumner and other areas" of the state.

Elbert Garcia of Santa Rosa, who said the Kid was his
great-grandfather, argued that Billy was fighting what he believed to be a corrupt territorial government in New Mexico in the late 19th century. He said many of the crimes were exaggerated. "I'm here to obtain the pardon of Billy the Kid for any crimes so we, the descendants of Billy the Kid, can consider our ancestor cleared," Garcia, 61, told the committee. "We feel the stigma of (the Kid) being called an outlaw is a violation of our civil rights."

Garcia, author of the book "Billy the Kid's Kid: The Hispanic
Connection," said he was pleased that the committee heard the proposal even though the measure was tabled. He said he will now take his appeal directly to Gov. Gary Johnson. "I think if enough discussion comes out to see how the governor will have
the opportunity to right the wrongs of past governors, . . . he might do it," he said.

The Kid was sentenced to hang for the April 1, 1878, assassination of Sheriff William Brady on Lincoln's dusty main street. The condemned man subsequently escaped from the Lincoln Courthouse lockup, killing two deputy sheriffs, and was himself killed by Sheriff Pat Garrett in Fort Sumner on July 14, 1881.

"I personally want to apologize to the sheriff and his descendants," said Garcia, who defended the Kid's actions, arguing that he was fighting widespread local government corruption in Lincoln County in the 1870s. He said then-Territorial Gov. Lew Wallace had led Billy to expect a
pardon.

The measure was opposed by the New Mexico Fraternal Order of Police. "We're opposed to any person killing a law enforcement officer receiving a pardon," David Heshley, executive director of the order's New Mexico lodge, told the committee.

Before the committee voted to table the resolution, Rep. Alfred Park, D-Bernalillo, said the pardon debate generated a lot of media attention for New Mexico. "I think this opportunity highlights the rich history that New Mexico has and why people come here to visit and celebrate what we have down here," Park said.