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Billy The Kid rides again
An interesting article caught my eye tonight:
Billy the Kid gets a lawyer - 122 years after shootout, attorney to gather information for a pardon
Well, like any good Generation X’er, of COURSE I saw Young Guns I & II. They rocked! What was unknown to me, until this article, that there’s been this heated debate down in New Mexico since the summer to exhume his remains (as well as his mother’s) for DNA testing to determine if he was indeed William H. Bonney and gunned down by Pat Garrett as legend claims.
Among the many people vehemently opposed to this is the Billy The Kid Historic Preservation Society.
We all love a good “anti-hero”. We love it even more when they get away and thumb their nose at society and go to that la-la land where we sent Elvis, Bruce Lee, Jim Morrison and every other legend when we can’t accept their deaths.
You know, I love a good conspiracy theory as much as the next guy. And I have to admit I was originally curious about the findings myself… but the society makes a solid argument. It’s nothing more than a whole big publicity stunt by the governor, and several other elected officials… most likely to boost tourism in the same way people still come to Graceland to gawk at Elvis’ misspelled tombstone (couldn’t just be a brilliant marketing strategy… or even a simple fuck-up, could it?).
Certainly this isn’t necessary to issue him a pardon (one he was promised by then-governor Lew Wallace in 1879, which Wallace reneged on the deal), and I doubt Billy the Kid has much use for it now. So why dick the public around with a taxpayer’s-expense-sideshow-extravaganza?
A great site to learn more about Billy the Kid is About Billy the Kid by Ms. Marcelle Brothers. I was also unaware that the silly argument of Brushy Bill Roberts being the real Billy the Kid was still raging… (remember the old man, also played by Emilio Estevez, in Young Guns II?). It was debunked in the court hearings in 1950. His accounts were inconsistent, and leaning more toward the legends passed around than the facts. So, like duh… okay?
The site is a chock full of amazing and detailed info which separates the Hollywood legends from the historical accounts….
… to which I have to say, he is STILL one cool motherfucker in my books. :0)
I hope they let him rest in peace.
