Throughout the annals of American folklore, few stories capture the imagination of history enthusiasts and Wild West aficionados like the one about Billy the Kid. Feared as one of the most notorious outlaws and gunmen of his era, his life came to an abrupt end in 1881 at the age of just 21, when he was shot down by Sheriff Pat Garrett. But in a startling turn of events, a man named Brushy Bill Roberts appeared decades later, claiming to be none other than the legendary Billy the Kid, miraculously returned from the dead.
In this video, we dive into the mysterious story of Brushy Bill Roberts and the controversy surrounding his extraordinary claims. As we explore the evidence, the testimony, and the enduring fascination with the Wild West outlaw, we strive to unravel the truth behind his enigmatic tale. Stepping into a world where legends live on, the line between fact and fiction becomes blurred as we uncover the mystery of Brushy Bill Roberts, the man who once claimed to be the infamous Billy the Kid.
Brushy Bill Roberts, known variously as William Henry Roberts, Oli Partridge, William Roberts, Oli N. Roberts, or Oli L. Roberts, claimed his birthday as December 31st, 1859.
He gained great attention in the late 1940s and 1950s by making a bold statement that would challenge the accepted history of the American West. He asserted that he was none other than William H. Bonney, the notorious Western outlaw better known as Billy the Kid, who was presumed dead in 1881.
In 1950, Roberts’s claim was met with widespread skepticism and was dismissed by the then-Governor of New Mexico, Thomas J. Mabry. Despite this official rejection, Brushy Bill’s story has gained traction over the years, thanks in part to support from the Billy the Kid Museum located in his hometown of Hico, which sits in Hamilton County, Texas.
Over time, his story has come under both scrutiny and public attention, being featured in various media including a 2011 episode of Brad Meltzer’s Decoded and a segment by Robert Stack in 1989 about Unsolved Mysteries.
The saga began in earnest in 1948, when William V. Morrison, a probate investigator from St. Louis, made an interesting discovery.
He came across an elderly man named Joe Hines, who told Morrison about his experiences during the Lincoln County War. To Morrison’s surprise, Hines hinted that Billy the Kid was still alive, but he refused to reveal the exact name or whereabouts of the man. Intrigued by this revelation, Morrison embarked on a quest to track down the person who claimed to be Billy the Kid.
During his search, he met another elder in 1948, this time a man named J. Frank Dalton from Dalton, Oklahoma. Dalton, who was himself claiming to be Jesse James, amazingly claimed that Billy the Kid was living in Hamilton, Texas, under the name C.
V. Roberts. After starting a correspondence, Morrison established a relationship with Roberts, who eventually made a startling confession that he was none other than Billy the Kid.
Roberts went on to provide intricate details about his alleged outlaw life, sharing compelling anecdotes that had the potential to fill significant gaps in the historical story of Billy the Kid. Furthermore, he sought Morrison’s support for a full pardon, which he said had been promised to him by New Mexico Governor Lew Wallace in 1879, a promise that was later rescinded. To further support his claim, Roberts showed off his incredible ability to escape from handcuffs, a skill that would certainly befit a legendary outlaw.
Moreover, he asserted that Pat Garrett, the famous lawman, had actually shot another individual named Billy Barlow and had passed his body off as the Kid’s. This deception, Roberts claimed, allowed the Kid to disappear and escape to Mexico. The only three individuals present as witnesses to Pat Garrett’s alleged murder of Billy the Kid were Garrett himself, along with deputies John W.
Poe and Thomas McKinney.
While McKinney claimed to have some information about the Kid, Poe had never laid eyes on him before. Shortly after Garrett opened fire, Poe informed him that he had targeted the wrong person, since it was too dark in the room for a visual identification. But Garrett asserted that he recognized the Kid by his voice, although those present could only hear whispers.
In the end, both Poe and McKinney sided with Garrett’s assessment, but years later McKinney retracted his statement and repeated Poe’s earlier claim that Garrett had killed someone else.
Local residents of Sumner were quick to voice their disapproval over the Kid’s presumed death. Garrett quickly organized an investigation conducted by politically affiliated allies, cementing the murder claim and the accompanying reward. The next day, the body was hastily buried in a grave that disappeared in floods for many years.
Today, the grave is marked as likely to contain no remains, and requests for exhuming it have been officially denied.
In conversation with Morrison, Roberts expressed his willingness to reveal the whole truth on one condition: the complete pardon that Governor Wallace had promised Billy the Kid after the Lincoln County War. This sudden appearance of Roberts, along with his plea for pardon, had a profound impact on Pat Garrett’s descendants. Marshall Trimble, Arizona’s official historian, cites Frederick Nolan, an authority on the life and times of Billy the Kid.
Nolan was referring to a letter written by Geneva Pitman in 1987 to Joe Bolan, the founder of a history-loving group called the Billy the Kid Gang. In the letter, Pitman said that her uncle, known as Brushy Bill at the time, was named Oliver P. Roberts and was born on August 26th, 1879, as recorded in the family Bible.
This information directly contradicted Roberts’s own claims about his birth date and identity.
Brushy and his story were largely forgotten until the film Young Guns 2 portrayed him as the narrator of events surrounding the life and times of Billy the Kid and the Lincoln County War. The movie reignited public interest in the mystery, and many books were written about it. Researchers began to investigate whether Brushy’s claims were indeed true, including several failed attempts to obtain permission to excavate graves and take DNA tests.
In 1990, a significant investigation took place at the Advanced Imaging Research and Graphics Laboratory at the University of Texas. Image experts Scott Acton and Alan Bovik used image comparison tools to examine photos of Brushy Bill Roberts at the age of 14. Surprisingly, these images bore a striking resemblance to the Billy the Kid likeness widely recognized in the popular Dedric Upham newsletter.
Furthermore, when comparing a photo of Brushy Bill aged 71, Acton and Bovik determined that there was an impressive 93% similarity between the two individuals.
Both experts agreed that the results undeniably showed a striking similarity between Roberts and the iconic character of Billy the Kid. This scientific analysis added a new layer of intrigue to the already fascinating story, suggesting that there might be more to Roberts’s claims than mere fantasy.
On December 27th, 1950, Brushy Bill died of a massive heart attack in Hico, Texas. He is buried in Hamilton County, 20 miles south of Hico. Morrison confirmed that upon examining Roberts’s body, he found 26 bullet and knife scars, physical evidence that seemed to corroborate the violent life of a man who had lived through the lawless days of the Old West.
In 2003, a concerted effort was initiated by Lincoln County Sheriff Tom Sullivan, Captain Mayor Steve Cederwall, and DeBaca County Sheriff Gary Graves. Their goal was to go on a mission to exhume the remains of Billy the Kid and his mother, Katherine Antrim, with the intention of using DNA analysis to determine where Billy the Kid is buried in Fort Sumner. The effort, however, encountered many challenges, including uncertainty surrounding the exact location of the remains and subsequent legal obstacles.
The court eventually intervened, preventing the exhumation of both sets of remains in September of 2004. To this day, the mystery remains unsolved, and the question of whether Brushy Bill Roberts was truly Billy the Kid continues to fascinate historians, researchers, and Wild West enthusiasts alike. The story of Brushy Bill Roberts stands as one of the most enduring and controversial legends of the American West, a tale where the line between fact and fiction remains as blurred as ever.
