SantaFe.com

In 1878, Billy the Kid was capturing headlines across the American West. Three years later he was dead, shot down by lawman Pat Garrett. Even before his brief life played out, the Kid had become legendary, as either brutish murderer or daring avenger. To this day, the controversy continues. Was Billy the Kid simply living up to the code of the frontier? Or was he a lethal hot-head embellishing his own legend?

Visitors from all over the world come to New Mexico to follow his trail, and perhaps to search for clues to the truth about the young man turned outlaw.

Tuesday, January 15, 2008
by Joann Mazzio • SouthernNewMexico.com

On March 1, 1908, while on his way to Las Cruces, New Mexico's most famous lawman was shot and killed near Alameda Arroyo on the Mail-Scott Road. Garrett was riding in a buggy with Carl Adamson, one of two partners who were prospective buyers for Bear Canyon Ranch, property Garrett had been trying to sell. About four miles east of Las Cruces, they met Wayne Brazel, a cowboy who had leased Garrett's ranch for a goat-raising venture. Garrett, angered at the presence of goats on his property, had tried unsuccessfully to break the lease with Brazel. The only way Brazel would agree to cancel...

Tuesday, January 15, 2008
by James W. Hurst • SouthernNewMexico.com

Hero-worshiping gunslingers of the 1880s were on both sides of the law. John Wesley Hardin was the undisputed killer of the West, but most towns had their own monarchs; Wild Bill Hickok ruled over Deadwood, Wyatt Earp controlled Tombstone, Dallas Stoudenmire tamed El Paso, Long-haired Jim Courtright dominated Fort Worth, and in California Joaquin Murietta killed anybody that looked at him crossways.

Bob Olinger's place in New Mexico history roughly parallels Billy the Kid's, as overblown as that statement may seem. His own mother remembered him with the following unique phraseology,...

Tuesday, January 15, 2008
by Bill Kelly • SouthernNewMexico.com