A Letter to Billy the Kid

by Josh Slatten

A letter to Billy?

Always on the lookout for any kind of new information on my favorite outlaw Billy the Kid, you can imagine my delight when a good friend of mine called me up one day and told me that he had something that he wanted to show me. When I arrived at his house he pulled out an old dog eared letter and I use the word letter loosely. The letter was actually divided into two pieces and then sealed together: the top portion was headed

Fort Lyon, Arkansas

Nov 3, 1880

Mr William H. Bonney

I hope these few (lines?)

On the second piece of paper was the name Fort Lyon written in the top left hand corner.

When I asked my friend to explain, he told me that he had befriended an older man named Abellino Pino who lived in Anton Chico, and he not only owned the letter but also claimed to have a rifle that once belonged to none other than Billy the Kid himself.

About 1970, as the story goes, Mr. Pino was walking through the ruins of an old adobe in the now deserted village of Tecolotito, near Anton Chico when he came across a rifle leaning in the corner of one of the rooms of a deserted house. Its breech was broken. Which would more than likely explain why it had been discarded. He took it home and was cleaning it a few days later when he discovered the letter in the butt of the rifle.

Being the eternal pessimist that I am I decided to do a little research. I contacted noted historian and author Frederick Nolan, and asked for his take on this new find. Much to my surprise, he had heard the story of the rifle and letter some twenty years back but had heard nothing more of it till I contacted him about it. He gave me the same basic story that had been told to me, however he did have some discouraging news. Come to find out, on examination, the Winchester turned out to be a model 1892, patented in June of that year. Our Billy had been dead for over a decade before the rifle had even been designed. The news of the rifle was disheartening, but that still left the letter to be dealt with.