Ollie P. Roberts

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Ollie P. Roberts (1879? or 1859? – December 27, 1950), has been mistaken for Ollie L. Roberts nicknamed Brushy Bill, who attracted attention by claiming to be the famous western outlaw Billy the Kid. Although his claim has been discredited or at the least not believed by most historians (and even rejected by the niece of Oliver P Roberts), it is still promoted by his hometown of Hico, Texas, as well as Hollywood, most recently in Young Guns II, sequel to the movie Young Guns.

Contents

[edit] 'The Whole Truth'?

Allegedly, Ollie L. Roberts never confirmed or denied his identity as being William H. Bonney until a few years before his own death, when he agreed to tell the "whole truth." Some sources state he had originally claimed to be a member of Jesse James' gang, before deciding to come out as the true Billy the Kid. However, there are no documented accounts of Roberts ever making any claims to be anyone else, and he is sometimes confused with J. Frank Dalton.

Brushy claimed to have been born on December 31, 1859 by the name of William Henry Roberts in Buffalo Gap Texas. Others claim that he was actually born in 1868, whereas Oliver P. Roberts niece, Geneva Pittmon (who had the family bible recording her uncle's birth ,not Ollie L. Roberts), and U. S. Census records indicate that Roberts was born in 1879. However, the problems with her statement as to when Ollie L. Roberts was born, is that Brushy Bill, allegedly Billy the Kid, states that Ollie L. Roberts was a distant cousin, who after he died Billy resumed his identity, and pulled it off seeing as by the time he met with the family of Ollie Roberts, Ollie had long been gone from his home.

Since Billy the Kid was about 21 at the time of his death in 1881, if either of the later two birth dates are true, it would be impossible for Brushy to be Billy the Kid. This is where all of the identity mistakes occur. Brushy was living under the alias of Ollie L. Roberts, and from the time Geneva Pitmon was a little girl she was told that Brushy was her uncle Ollie. She never knew the truth of his identity because her father was helping to hide Brushy.[citation needed]

It is worth noting that if Brushy had been born in 1859, he would have been age 91 at the time of his death from a massive heart attack in Hico on December 27, 1950. Had he been born in 1879, he would have been only 71 at the time of his death.[citation needed]

However it is also worth noting that a number of people who actually knew Bill the Kid, positively identified Brushy as The Kid, right down to the distinctive eye coloring. Brushy also had each and every scar Billy had (and more).[citation needed]

[edit] Governor Mabry's case

In 1948, William V. Morrison, a probate investigator working in St. Louis, Missouri, was sent to Florida to work on the case of an elderly man named Joe Hines. Hines was claiming that the land of his recently deceased brother now belonged entirely to him, since he was the only surviving heir. While Morrison and Hines talked, Hines admitted that he was Jessie Evans, who, after he had been released from prison in Texas in 1882, had by all accounts disappeared. Hines then told Morrison of his experiences in the Lincoln County War and with Billy the Kid. This held a special interest for Morrison, since he was related to the Maxwell family of Fort Sumner. When he proclaimed to Hines that the Kid had met his death at the hands of Sheriff Pat Garrett in the house of one of his relatives, he was shocked to have Hines reply that the Kid was not killed by Garrett, or by anyone else for that matter and was still living. Hines went on to say that besides himself and Billy, there was only one other surviving veteran of the Lincoln County War, namely Jim McDaniels, a member of the Jessie Evans Gang. Further intrigued, Morrison probed Hines for “the Kid’s” name and address and the old man finally consented. He gave Billy’s current name as Ollie L. “Brushy Bill” Roberts and his address as Hamilton, Texas.

Several months later, after completing the Hines case (in which Hines was given his brother’s land), Morrison struck up a written correspondence with Brushy Bill. Throughout this early correspondence, Morrison was careful not to reveal what exactly Hines had told him about his true identity. At the same time, Morrison attempted to track down Jim McDaniels, yet this proved an impossible feat. He managed to track him as far as Round Rock, Texas, but townsfolk there said that he had moved in 1945 to live out the rest of his days with his daughter in California. A friend to Morrison, Bob Young, later met with McDaniels in Round Rock, confirming that he did exist and was still living. [1] Brushy acquiesced and in June 1949, Morrison visited the old man at his small shack in Hamilton, Texas. In his journal, Morrison noted Brushy as being about 5’8” tall and weighing about 165 pounds, with blue eyes, small hands, large wrists, heavy shoulders, thinning grey hair, high forehead, prominent nose, and large ears. Brushy invited the visitor inside and introduced him to his wife, Melinda. Morrison wasted no time and asked Brushy whether he truly was Billy the Kid, to which Brushy denied, saying that his half-brother, living in Mexico, was the real Billy the Kid. Somewhat disappointed, Morrison decided to leave, but asked Brushy if it might be possible to take a trip to Mexico some day soon to interview his brother. On the way out the door, Brushy stopped Morrison and told him to come back in the afternoon of the next day, when his wife would be out visiting a friend and they would have the house to themselves.

Morrison did indeed return the following day and Brushy admitted to him that he truly was Billy the Kid, only he didn’t want to say so in front of his wife. Brushy then went on to say that he knew he didn’t have many years left in him and wanted to die with the full pardon he had been promised by Gov. Lew Wallace back in 1879. Morrison said he would help the old man in his case, but only if he could be shown proof that Brushy was who he claimed to be. At this request, Brushy took off his clothes, exposing twenty-six bullet and knife scars on his body, several matching known locations of wounds Billy the Kid allegedly had. Brushy also demonstrated the ability to, in a kind of double-jointed move, make his hands smaller than his wrists, which the real Billy was known to do in order to slide handcuffs off. Believing that Brushy could be the real deal, Morrison promised him he would do all he could to help obtain a pardon, provided Brushy would allow him to investigate further into his history to find more proof that he was authentic. Brushy agreed, and the two parted company for the day.

Over the next several months, Morrison met with Brushy several times and recorded his story in his journal and with a tape recorder. All the while, the pair were careful to make sure that Mrs. Roberts was kept in the dark over the entire proceedings, as Brushy didn’t want her to learn his true identity and be disgusted with him for his reputation. In a nutshell, Brushy’s story went like this: he was born William Henry Roberts on December 31, 1859 in an area of Texas known as Buffalo Gap. His parents were James H. 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 went to live with Catherine and her 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. When Brushy told of his days as Billy the Kid from 1877 to 1881, Morrison determined that Brushy knew way too much about the history of the Kid and the Lincoln County War to have read all about it. Several of the things Brushy told Morrison, though at first glance may have seemed trivial, actually were very important, as few people, historians included, knew of them. When it came to the events of the night of July 14, 1881, Brushy said that a man named Billy Barlow was killed by Pat Garrett. Barlow, he said, was partially 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. After Barlow was killed, Brushy continued, he fled Fort Sumner. After fleeing Sumner, his story went, he lived in Mexico with a tribe of Yaqui Indians for two years; returned 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 in his Wild West Show; 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; 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.

In the fall of 1949, Morrison took Brushy with him to New Mexico for the purpose of having Brushy meet with some surviving acquaintances of Billy the Kid, to see if they could verify or deny his claim. Earlier, Morrison had been given the names Billy’s remaining acquaintances by other respected historians such as Maurice Fulton and William Keleher. While in New Mexico, the pair stopped at sites such as Fort Sumner and Lincoln. In the courthouse in Lincoln, Brushy detailed to Morrison how he, as Billy the Kid, made his famous escape and killed deputies Bob Olinger and James Bell. By the time they had completed their trip and returned to Brushy’s home in Hico, Texas (he had moved from Hamilton in the summer of ‘49), they had managed to meet with Severo Gallegos, Martile Able, Jose Montoya, and Bill and Sam Jones. The first three all signed legal affidavits attesting to the fact that Brushy Bill and Billy the Kid were one and the same and the Jones brothers, although they did not sign affidavits (claiming they didn’t want to get involved in the proceedings) also stated their agreement with this.[citation needed]

In the summer of 1950, Morrison moved, along with his family, to El Paso, Texas, in order to be closer to anything he may need in his investigation. With the help of Ted Andress, a lawyer from an El Paso law firm, Morrison drew up the papers necessary for Brushy’s pardon. Afterwards, Morrison wrote a report entitled “A Statement of Facts,” which stated that Billy Bonney was promised a pardon in 1879 by Gov. Wallace and that Billy was not killed in 1881 and still deserved his pardon. Included with the report were various documents related to Billy’s life and the affidavits from Gallegos, Able, and Montoya, along with affidavits from two of Brushy’s friends, DeWitt Travis and Robert Lee, detailing other aspects of his life. Again with the help of Andress, Morrison filed for the petition for the pardon on Nov. 15, 1950. Thomas J. Mabry, governor of New Mexico, agreed to a private hearing with Morrison and Brushy, along with one or two historians of Mabry‘s choosing, to be held on Nov. 29.

On the morning of the 29th, as Morrison and Brushy at breakfast at a Santa Fe diner, Morrison read in a local newspaper that Mabry had publicly announced his meeting with a Billy the Kid claimant. Morrison immediately telephoned Mabry, who apologized for making the announcement, but reassured him that the meeting would still be kept private. A few hours later, Brushy and Morrison arrived at Mabry’s mansion. Upon entering the conference room, they were shocked at what they saw. Present in the room were several photographers and reporters, armed policemen, Oscar and Jarvis Garrett (Pat’s sons), Cliff McKinney (Kip McKinney’s son), Arcadio Brady (William Brady’s grandson), and historians William Keleher, E. B. Mann, and Will Robinson. In short, the private meeting had developed into a media circus. Badly frightened, Brushy apparently suffered a small stroke, and when the questioning began, he failed miserably. However, the men asking the questions seemed to treat the affair as something as a joke, and asked primarily only meaningless questions (i.e. how many girlfriends he had, did he enjoy stealing livestock, etc.). He completely forgot basic information about himself , and, when he was asked a serious question regarding the past of Billy the Kid, he forgot that as well. Stating he felt ill, he was eventually taken to another room to lie down. Shortly thereafter, Gov. Mabry made an announcement that he was not going to pardon Brushy, because he did not believe him to be Billy the Kid. Disappointed, Morrison took Brushy to a local doctor, Stan Lloyd, and when he was well enough, he took him home to Hico.

In Hico, Brushy was reexamined by Dr. W. F. Hafer and told to get as much rest as possible. In the meantime, Morrison was to continue working on his case. On Dec. 27, 1950, Brushy left his bed and told his wife he was feeling better. When his wife said she needed to mail a letter, Brushy said he would walk it down to the post-office. As he walked down the street, Brushy suffered a sudden heart attack. He fell to the ground and died instantly. Five years later, in 1955, noted historian C. L. Sonnichsen, with information supplied by Morrison, wrote a book entitled “Alias Billy the Kid,”.

[edit] Photograph

According to a study by Acton and Bovik (1990), photographs of "Brushy" Bill seem to match the well known tintype of "Billy The Kid." However, another photo study by amateur photo expert Thomas Kyle concluded that they were two different people. [2]

[edit] Facts for and against Roberts

There were several questions that remained unanswered at the time of Roberts death. From a historical point of view, most historians discount his story all together. In 2003 Lincoln County, New Mexico Sheriff Tom Sullivan, Captian, New Mexico Mayor Steve Sederwall, and De Baca County, New Mexico Sheriff Gary Graves began a crusade to exhume the remains of Billy the Kid and his mother, Catherine Antrim, to prove it was in fact Billy the Kid buried in Fort Sumner through DNA. The crusade hit snags from the beginning. First, there is no confirmation as to where the outlaws remains are located, due to a flood decades ago. Second were the legalities, with both pro-Brushy Bill Roberts and anti-Brushy Bill Roberts experts protesting the exhumation. The exhumation of both sets of remains was blocked in court in September, 2004. Without DNA, here are just a few of the facts that both go against Roberts claim, and others that support it;

Pros:

  • Joe Hines proved to the satisfaction of a court, sufficient to gain the deceased brother to Jessie Evans' land, that he in fact was Jessie Evans. Why then would he direct Morrison to a man that Hines/Evans would have known to be Billy the Kid, if in fact Roberts was.
  • Hines/Evans also claimed that former Jessie Evans Gang member Jim McDaniels was still living. Morrison in fact tracked down Jim McDaniels in Round Rock, Texas.
  • Roberts had an old scarf in his possession, which he said was given to him by Deluvina Maxwell when he gave her his tintype photo. This was true, but in 1948 no one knew this. Only Maxwell, Billy the Kid, and Deputy Jim East was aware of this, short of a few historians who had thoroughly researched letters possessed by Charlie Siringo, to whom Deputy East had written about the incident.
  • Roberts was able to describe in intricate detail how he killed Bob Olinger and his deputy, adding that when he shot the deputy, the first bullet recocheted off the wall. That fact was little known at the time of his description.
  • Bill and Sam Jones, both friends to Billy the Kid, both met Roberts, and stated that they did believe him to be Billy the Kid.
  • Roberts had claimed that while on a cattle drive in the employ of John Chisum, he, Jim Jones, Bob Speaks and John Jones had a tintype photo made while in Dodge City, Kansas. When Roberts and Morrison visited Bill and Sam Jones, brothers to Jim Jones, they produced the tintype, claiming that Billy the Kid was the one on the far right. [3]
  • One time friends to Billy the Kid, Severo Gallegos, Martile Able, and Jose Montoya all signed affidavits stating he and Roberts were one in the same.
  • Accounts given about the night Billy the Kid was killed vary. Deputy McKinney stated that Garrett first killed a Mexican man by accident, then later killed the Kid with a shotgun. Several townspeople later stated that the account given by the lawmen were not the way things actually happened.
  • There was no logical reason why the lawmen would not return the body of someone with the fame and status of Billy the Kid to Lincoln.
  • Deputy John Poe, who at first backed Garrett's account of that night, later recanted. The statements given by Deputy John Poe and Sheriff Pat Garrett had numerous inconsistencies. Poe claimed Garrett shot his victim in the back, as he slowly backed into Maxwell's room, whereas Garrett claimed he sprang into the room with a gun.
  • While Garrett claimed Billy the Kid was armed with a pistol, most discredit this, with the common consensus being that he held only a butcher knife, having walked into the house to cut some meat.
  • Garrett claimed that the body laid in state at Maxwell's house, and the following morning a coroner's inquest was presided over by Milner Rudulph. Deputy John Poe claimed that the body was removed immediately after the shooting, taken by friends of Billy the Kid, where it was dressed for buriel and a wake was held.
  • Deputy John Poe later claimed that Garrett had killed the wrong man, and that they buried the body quickly to avoid discovery of this.
  • A. P. "Paco" Anaya claimed that the coroner's report was completely false, ordered by Pat Garrett and written by Pete Maxwell and Manuel Abreau.
  • John Poe, Jesus Silva, "Paco" Anaya, and several residents in Fort Sumner claim that the Milner Rudulph inquiry never took place, and was a complete fabrication by Garrett.
  • Justice Segura, said to have resided over the coroner's inquest, made no mention of it in his journals, odd in that Billy the Kid was one of the most famous outlaws in history.
  • Mrs. J. H. Wood, of Seven Rivers, New Mexico, claimed she served Billy the Kid dinner on July 17th, 1881, three days after Garrett was alleged to have killed him.
  • Mrs. Syd Boykin, of Lincoln, claimed Billy the Kid, a friend to her family, visited with them after he was alleged to have been killed.
  • Manuel Taylor, a boyhood friend to Billy the Kid, claimed he ran into the Kid in Guadalajara, Mexico at a bullfight in 1914.
  • Ben Harbert, of Taos, New Mexico, an acquaintance of Billy the Kid, claimed to have met with him years after 1881.
  • Jesse Cox, a wagon driver, who knew Billy the Kid during his time in Lincoln, claimed that he met with him several times over a number of years after 1881.
  • John Graham, alias John Collins, who had rode with Billy the Kid years before, claimed to have helped dig the grave that night, and that the body placed in it was not Billy the Kid.
  • In 1983, Elizabeth Garrett, daughter to Pat Garrett, claimed to interviewer Paul Cain that her father did not kill Billy the Kid.

Cons:

  • Pat Garrett and his deputies all varify that Garrett killed Billy the Kid that night. Several townspeople that were present that night stated they did see the body, and that it was in fact Billy the Kid, who was known to them.
  • Roberts claimed that the man killed that night was actually small-time outlaw Billy Barlow, a distant relation to the Clements clan and John Wesley Hardin, if Barlow was to be believed. Roberts claimed that he and Barlow ressembled one another, and it was easy to see how Garrett mistook Barlow for Billy the Kid. However, no evidence that Billy Barlow ever existed has ever surfaced.
  • Paulita Maxwell, daughter to Pete Maxwell, gave a statement that was never made public until decades later. Her statement discredited Pat Garrett's account completely. However, whether she was covering for Billy the Kid, or whether she was being truthful, she did claim that Billy the Kid was killed that night, albeit in a completely different manner to which Garrett claimed. [4]
  • Roberts claimed that outlaw John Selman fought for the Murphy-Dolan faction. In fact, Selman did not arrive until after the range war ended.
  • Roberts claimed there was a shootout between he, Garrett, Deputy John Poe and Deputy Thomas McKinney following Garrett killing Billy Barlow. No evidence has surfaced to support this, nor did the lawmen mention it.
  • Billy the Kid made no reappearance, as many believe he would have had he escaped.
  • For Garrett to have lied, it is believed there would have had to have been some discussion between the two, as he would have certainly had no way in knowing as to whether Billy the Kid would resurface, which would be embarrassing for him.

Myths:

  • The claim that Roberts was both illiterate and could not speak Spanish, whereas Billy the Kid was extremely articulate in writing as well as in the Spanish language are myths. In fact, Roberts spoke extremely good Spanish, and communicated in writing with Morrison on several instances. He also possessed several diaries.

[edit] Hico

Brushy was buried in the town of Hamilton, about 20 miles south of Hico. Despite the discrepancies noted above, the town of Hico has capitalized on his claim by opening the Billy The Kid Museum.

[edit] External links