William Henry Roberts - Hamilton, TX - Grave of a Famous Person on Waymarking.com

Billy the Kid was supposedly killed in Fort Sumner, New Mexico. But some believe he died in Hico, TX where he was a local legend. Judge Bob Hefner, justice of the peace in Hico, says he has proof the Billy the Kid died in 1950 of a heart attack, four days shy of his 91st birthday. Of course, the judge also runs the Billy the Kid museum in Hico and has written 3 books on the subject. The legend says that Billy the Kid’s real name was William Henry Roberts, and he was born in New York City. His father left the family to join the Civil War, and his mother died soon after. Young Billy drifted west. When Pat Garrett fired his six-shooter at Fort Sumner that July night in 1881, the legend maintains, he killed Billy Barlow, a friend of the Kid, but claimed it to be Billy in order to collect the $500 reward. By most accounts, Billy was tired of the violence and, at the urging of friends, high-tailed it out of town. Billy showed up in Comanche in the 1940’s, then Hamilton, and finally spent his last few years in Hico. He called himself Ollie Roberts (who knows why?), and was nicknamed Brushy Bill. It was not until 1948 that his past caught up with him. An old timer in New Mexico who had taken part in the Lincoln County War told an investigator that Billy the Kid was alive and living in Hico, Texas. When confronted, Brushy Bill at first denied, then admitted to being the famous outlaw. He agreed to tell his story if the investigator would help him get a pardon from the governor of New Mexico and there be no publicity. Politics being what they are, the governor made a circus out of the event, Billy died without a pardon and was buried in Hamilton. Was he really Billy the Kid? You be the judge, or visit the judge’s museum in Hico.

Description: He was a 19th-century gunman who participated in the Lincoln County War and became a frontier outlaw in the American Old West. Date of birth: 12/31/1859 Date of death: 12/27/1950 Area of notoriety: Crime Marker Type: Monument Setting: Outdoor Visiting Hours/Restrictions: Dawn to dusk daily Fee required?: No Web site: [Web Link]

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