Miller was known to have a good rapport with cattle and horse thieves, which possibly stemmed from his time as Billy the Kid. [45], On the night of Sunday, July 14, McSween and the Regulators—now a group of fifty or sixty men—went to Lincoln and stationed themselves in the town among several buildings. John Miller closely resembled Billy the Kid physically, having similar sloping shoulders, buck-teeth, out-turned thumbs, heavy brow, small hands, big ears, blue eyes, and numerous bullet wounds on his body. "William Bonney was not shot and killed the way everyone thinks he was," Tunnell says. Marshals Service", Letter, 15 March 1879, Lew Wallace to W. H. Bonney, Letter, 20 March 1879, W. H. Bonney to Lew Wallace, Billy the Kid and the Green Baize Vampire, Dick Brewer, Billy the Kid and the Regulators, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Billy_the_Kid&oldid=1005731746#John_Miller, American people convicted of murdering police officers, People shot dead by law enforcement officers in the United States, Wikipedia pending changes protected pages, All Wikipedia articles written in American English, Articles with unsourced statements from March 2019, Articles containing potentially dated statements from 2012, All articles containing potentially dated statements, Articles containing potentially dated statements from 2020, Pages using Sister project links with wikidata namespace mismatch, Pages using Sister project links with hidden wikidata, Pages using Sister project links with default search, Wikipedia articles with SELIBR identifiers, Wikipedia articles with SNAC-ID identifiers, Wikipedia articles with SUDOC identifiers, Wikipedia articles with Trove identifiers, Wikipedia articles with WORLDCATID identifiers, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, William H. Bonney, Henry Antrim, Kid Antrim, This page was last edited on 9 February 2021, at 04:18. [49][50], A shooting war broke out on Friday, July 19. According to the canonical version, as he entered the room, McCarty failed to recognize Garrett due to the poor lighting. Also according to his friends, Miller was an honest and trustworthy individual, not the type to lie. All of the indictments, except McCarty's, were later quashed. A certain author made that claim for him long after his death. Peppin's men retreated when one of the snipers, Charles Crawford, was killed by Fernando Herrera. [47][48], On Tuesday, July 16, newly appointed sheriff George Peppin sent sharpshooters to kill the McSween defenders at the saloon. During the meeting and in subsequent correspondence, Wallace promised McCarty protection from his enemies and clemency if he would offer his testimony to a grand jury. At the quick wedding ceremony, Miller was reported be wearing a pistol on his hip and to have appeared weak with a relatively fresh bullet wound easily visible through his shirt. Along the way, the Millers met prominent cattleman and rancher Jesus Eriacho, who hired Miller to look after a section of his large herd for the next five years. During the ensuing scuffle, McCarty grabbed Bell's revolver and fatally shot him in the back as Bell tried to get away. [21] In 1876, he was hired as a ranch hand by well-known rancher Henry Hooker. However, all his friends and his son were too busy to reach him in time, and he died on Nov. 7, 1937. Furthermore, Miller's pistol had several notches on it, which he claimed were for the men he killed. On a few rare occasions though, Miller would confide in a few friends that he deeply trusted that he was the Kid. When the five years were over, Eriacho promised Miller he could have half of the new cattle that would be born over that span. After returning to New Mexico, McCarty worked as a cowboy for English businessman and rancher John Henry Tunstall (1853–1878), near the Rio Felix, a tributary of the Rio Grande, in Lincoln County. [68] The Santa Fe Weekly New Mexican reported, "Billy Bonney, more extensively known as 'the Kid,' shot and killed Joe Grant. In the middle, Miller's image is superimposed over the Kid's. The full title of the Garrett-Upson book was, sfn error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFNolan2009 (. "[113], In 2004, researchers sought to exhume the remains of Catherine Antrim, McCarty's mother, whose DNA would be tested and compared with that of the body buried in William Bonney's grave. McCarty and the other men fled the building when all rooms but one were burning. McCarty escaped from the Lincoln County jail on June 17, 1879. According to his friends, Miller knew a tremendous amount about the life of Billy the Kid and the events of the Lincoln County War. By 1918, the Millers' fortunes had turned for the worse. [141], In 1940, stone cutter James N. Warner of Salida, Colorado, made and donated to the cemetery a new marker for Bonney's grave. McCarty was detained and held in the Camp Grant guardhouse but escaped before law enforcement could arrive. Quote. However, he was unable to remember important events in Billy’s life such as the Lincoln prison escape, he didn’t really look like the outlaw, he was illiterate while the Kid wasn’t and finally, his birth date was recorded in his family Bible as 1879. Deciding it was time to move on, the Millers gathered their belongings, left their ranch, and headed towards Arizona. He lived out his life in northwest New Mexico, and south and central Arizona and died in Prescott, Arizona in 1937. His first arrest was for stealing food, at the age of 16, in late 1875. Tunstall and his business partner and lawyer Alexander McSween were opponents of an alliance formed by Irish-American businessmen Lawrence Murphy, James Dolan, and John Riley. Even his name is uncertain. [93] He obtained a horse and rode out of town; according to some stories he was singing as he left Lincoln. McSween's supporters gathered inside his house; when Buck Powell and Deputy Sheriff Jack Long set fire to the building, the occupants began shooting. [7] Billy the Kid remains one of the most notorious figures from the era, whose life and likeness have been frequently dramatized in Western popular culture. He became well-known in the region when he joined the Regulators and took part in the Lincoln County War of 1878. The origin of the difficulty was not learned. Skip to main content.sg. "[102] McCarty was given a wake by candlelight; he was buried the next day and his grave was denoted with a wooden marker. During the encounter, one member of the posse shot Tunstall in the chest, knocking him off his horse. On November 29, 1880, McCarty, Rudabaugh, and Billy Wilson ran from a posse led by sheriff's deputy James Carlysle. [121], As of 2020[update], only two photographs confirmed to show Bonney are known to exist; others thought to depict him are disputed. Here’s a little on John Miller found on Lucas Speer’s Billy the Kid Website. Found Photograph", "$2 Photo Found at Junk Store Has Billy The Kid in It, Could Be Worth $5M", "Man who discovered rare Billy the Kid photo: 'The hunt is a really grand thing, "Billy the Kid's Elusive Tombstone / Old Fort Sumner and Billy the Kid's Grave", https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FpaBZpvLMA, "Billy the Kid: The True Story of a Western 'Bad Man, "Billy the Kid and the U.S. A letter from an official of Saint Peter's Church in Manhattan states it is in possession of records showing McCarty was baptized there on September 28, 1859. A year and four days after McCarty's death, the New Mexico territorial legislature passed a special act to grant Garrett the $500 bounty reward promised by Governor Wallace. [90], McCarty, with his legs still shackled, broke into Garrett's office and took a loaded shotgun left behind by Olinger. He escaped from jail on April 28, killing two sheriff's deputies in the process and evading capture for more than two months. John Miller (Possibly Billy the Kid) John Miller (Possibly Billy the Kid) Another Billy the Kid. Over the next several years, Miller established himself as a talented horseman and prominent rancher and continually added to his house. Another version is that Miller was himself shot by Garrett in the Maxwell house, and played dead while Garrett quickly inspected him. [64] However, after McCarty's testimony, the local district attorney refused to set him free. In this latter scenario, Garrett never learned that Billy was not killed. During the following decades, legends grew that McCarty had survived, and a number of men claimed to be him. 3 people found this helpful. "[69] According to other contemporary sources, McCarty had been warned Grant intended to kill him. Unbeknownst to McCarty and his companions, a posse led by Pat Garrett was waiting for them. Severe drought and pestilence had ruined their ranch, Isadora was losing her eyesight and had a useless hand due to it being caught in a gopher trap, and Miller himself was suffering from rheumatism. In 1880 New Mexico, during a feud between cattle growers, former childhood friends Billy the Kid and Jim Sherwood end-up working for opposite sides. When Miller was then carried away by his Mexican friends to be prepared for burial, he showed signs of life and was hidden by Isadora. Although both markers are behind iron fencing, a group of vandals entered the enclosure at night in June 2012 and tipped the stone over.[144]. John Miller first comes into historical record on Aug. 8, 1881, when he was married to a Mexican girl named Isadora at Las Vegas, New Mexico Territory. [133] Whitny Braun, a professor and researcher, located an advertisement for croquet sets sold at Chapman's General Store in Las Vegas, New Mexico, dated to June 1878. [142] It was stolen on February 8, 1981, but recovered days later in Huntington Beach, California. The posse opened fire, killing O'Folliard; the rest of the outlaws escaped unharmed.[75][76]. William G. Ritch, the acting New Mexico governor, refused to pay the reward. McCarty shot and mortally wounded Cahill. zMiller was known to have a good rapport with cattle and horse thieves, which possibly stemmed from his time as Billy the Kid. McCarty was 15 years old when his mother died. ¿Quién es?" [b], On March 20, Wallace wrote to McCarty, "to remove all suspicion of understanding, I think it better to put the arresting party in charge of Sheriff Kimbrell [sic] who shall be instructed to see that no violence is used. Richardson's decision, citing "historical ambiguity," was announced on December 31, 2010, his last day in office. * As of December 2005, both Billy the Kid and his mother's graves have not been disturbed, but there is a DNA investigation in progress concerning the Billy the Kid imposter, John Miller. Grant handed it over. Bill Richardson announced the state was sanctioning the investigation. And, under the name of John Miller, he could have lived the rest of his life as a cattle rancher and horse breeder in the Zuni mountains of Western New Mexico, and as a farm worker in Buckeye, Arizona. few that he was truly Billy the Kid, he was believed without question. In 1877, McCarty began to refer to himself as "William H. Wilson. Apparently, Miller told different versions of this to different friends. He fled from New Mexico Territory into neighboring Arizona Territory, making him both an outlaw and a federal fugitive. On September 16, 1875, McCarty was caught stealing food. [98], Accounts vary as to the course of events. Following are the verified facts of the case. So do most of the Indians and the Mormon pioneers who knew John Miller. … Bonney".[5]. The pardon considered was to fulfill Governor Lew Wallace's 1879 promise to Bonney. All three of these dates would make Miller older than Billy the Kid. According to eyewitnesses, the pair were innocent bystanders forced at gunpoint by Jesse Evans to witness the murder. The McCarty family moved with Antrim to Wichita, Kansas, in 1870. In a 1910 report, he claimed he was born in 1852. Get real and accept the truth! [125] In 1954, western historians James D. Horan and Paul Sann wrote that McCarty was right-handed and carried his pistol on his right hip. [22][23] During this time, McCarty became acquainted with John R. Mackie, a Scottish-born criminal and former U.S. Cavalry private who, following his discharge, remained near the U.S. Army post at Camp Grant. [110] During the next 50 years, a number of men claimed they were Billy the Kid. The two men soon began stealing horses from local soldiers. The following day, an armed mob gathered at the train depot before the prisoners, who were already on board the train with Garrett, departed for Santa Fe. If authentic, it is the only known photo of Billy the Kid and the Regulators together and the only image to feature their wives and female companions. Isadora, however, who only spoke Spanish, was far more open in admitting that Miller and the Kid were one and the same. Friends also noted that the couple kept a large trunk with them that was seemingly their most important possesion, and that they always kept locked, leading many to believe that the trunk's contents were artifacts from Miller's life as the Kid. Garrett served as sheriff of Doña Ana County from 1896 to 1900. [79]Garrett refused to surrender the prisoner, and a tense confrontation ensued until he agreed to let the sheriff and two other men accompany the party to Santa Fe, where they would petition the governor to release Rudabaugh to them. Tunnell’s research led them to Pioneers’ Home, where Miller died on Nov. 7, 1937. Henry Newton Brown, Dick Smith, and George Coe defended a nearby adobe bunkhouse. Miller was also known to listen to a radio program about Billy the Kid and get furious when it would report historical inaccuracies over the Kid's life. Marshal Robert Widenmann, a friend of McCarty, and a detachment of soldiers captured Sheriff Brady's jail guards, put them behind bars, and released Bonney and Brewer. Who is it?"). "There was a cover-up." Hearing of the mineral springs in the town of Buckeye that may help his rheumatism, Miller and his wife moved there in 1920. [30], McCarty stole a horse and fled Arizona Territory for New Mexico Territory,[31] but Apaches took the horse from him, leaving him to walk many miles to the nearest settlement. [73][74], A few weeks after the Greathouse incident, McCarty, Rudabaugh, Wilson, O'Folliard, Charlie Bowdre, and Tom Pickett rode into Fort Sumner. Following the death of her husband Patrick, Catherine McCarty and her sons moved to Indianapolis, Indiana, where she met William Henry Harrison Antrim. She claimed she lived at Fort Sumner when her husband (as Billy the Kid) was allegedly killed by Garrett, but no record exists showing an Isadora living in Sumner in 1881. [122], One of the few remaining artifacts of McCarty's life is a 2-by-3-inch (5.1-by-7.6-centimeter) ferrotype photograph of McCarty by an unknown portrait photographer in late 1879 or early 1880. Garrett shot and killed McCarty, by then age 21, in Fort Sumner on July 14, 1881. [103][104], Five days after McCarty's killing, Garrett traveled to Santa Fe, New Mexico, to collect the $500 reward offered by Governor Lew Wallace for his capture, dead or alive. 300 South McCormick Street . Who was Isadora really? When they arrived on December 26, they were met by crowds of curious onlookers. However, Billy was known to use .44s with normal sized barrels, or the smaller .41s. [36][38], After Tunstall was killed, McCarty and Dick Brewer swore affidavits against Brady and those in his posse, and obtained murder warrants from Lincoln County justice of the peace John B. While interviewing Miller's old friends, the representative reportedly told them that the contents of the trunk proved Miller was the Kid. zSo far, no record of John Miller has been discovered before Aug. 8, 1881, less than a month after Billy the Kid was allegedly killed by Pat Garrett. Here are a few pictures from Cold West Investigations facebook page. "[81][82] The Las Vegas Gazette ran a story from a jailhouse interview following McCarty's capture; when the reporter said Bonney appeared relaxed, he replied, "What's the use of looking on the gloomy side of everything? [109] Although only a few copies sold following its release, in time, it became a reference for later historians who wrote about McCarty's life.[107]. Jim Johnson provides proof that is backed up with appropriate documentation. He escaped two days later and became a fugitive,[18] as reported in the Silver City Herald the next day, the first story published about him. Also, read the various discrepancies and questions surrounding all the accounts of the shooting by clicking here. [44] Warrants were issued for several participants on both sides, and McCarty and two others were charged with killing Brady, Hindman and Roberts. Soon after, Miller became engaged in a gunfight with a Mexican ranchhand. The jury certified the body as McCarty's and, according to a local newspaper, the jury foreman said, "It was the Kid's' body that we examined. Lies of John Miller Dec 3, 2013 12:48:51 GMT -5 . [112], John Miller, an Arizona man, also claimed he was McCarty. What were the contents of Miller's mysterious trunk that allegedly proved he was the Kid? [128][129][130][131], A 4-by-6-inch (100 mm × 150 mm) ferrotype purchased at a memorabilia shop in Fresno, California in 2010 has been claimed to show McCarty and members of the Regulators playing croquet. To cut to the chase, John Miller was not Billy the Kid, he was just one of the many old men that claimed to be Billy the Kid. (John Miller was not related to journalist Jay Miller.) McCarty's notoriety grew in December 1880 when the Las Vegas Gazette in Las Vegas, New Mexico, and The Sun in New York City carried stories about his crimes. [14] After moving again a few years later, Catherine married Antrim on March 1, 1873, at the First Presbyterian Church in Santa Fe, New Mexico Territory; McCarty and his brother Joseph were witnesses to the ceremony. To cap it all off, Max Miller, who had enlisted in the U.S. Army and was fighting in World War I, was reported missing-in-action in Germany. As a result of his efforts, a stone memorial marked with the names of the three men and their death dates beneath the word "Pals" was erected in the center of the burial area. Hello Select your address All Hello, Sign in. [116] According to a July 2015 article in The Washington Post, the lab results were "useless. "[83] During his short career as an outlaw, McCarty was the subject of numerous U.S. newspaper articles, some as far away as New York. [35][36], On February 18, 1878, Tunstall learned of the posse's presence on his land and rode out to intervene. [137][138], In 2010, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson turned down a request for a posthumous pardon of McCarty for the murder of Sheriff William Brady. Hico's Billy the Kid Museum speculates that Billy moved to Texasin 1883, two years after his supposed death in New Mexico. Miller's body was buried in the state-owned Arizona Pioneers' Home Cemetery in Prescott, Arizona; in May 2005, Miller's teeth and bones[113] were exhumed and examined,[114] without permission from the state. [42], On April 1, the Regulators ambushed Sheriff Brady and his deputies; McCarty was wounded in the thigh during the battle. To read about his claim, click here.