The posse and their prisoners spent the night at the Wilcox ranch, bout four miles west of Stinking Springs. Next day, December 24, they headed for Fort Sumner, where the prisoners were put in shackles, and from there to Puerto de Luna, arriving in time to eat Christmas dinner at Alexander Grzelachowski’s store. They reached Las Vegas the following day, December 26, and a day later the Kid was taken by train to the jail in Santa Fe.

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The Panhandle posse had done its job: They had captured Billy the Kid and put him in jail, where most cattlemen firmly believed the belonged. In March 1881, the Kid was taken to La Mesilla, New Mexico Territory, where he was tried for and found guilty of the murder of Sheriff William Brady almost exactly three years earlier during the Lincoln County War. The date for his execution was set as Friday, May 13, in Lincoln. But as the Kid was wont to observe, there’s many a slip ‘twixt the cup and the lip. He would write another bloody chapter in the history of the West before Pat Garrett wrote finis to his career. Ww

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English author Frederick Nolan is considered one of the foremost authorities on Billy the Kid, as well as many of the Kid’s friends and enemies. His books The West of Billy the Kid, The Lincoln County War: A Documentary History and The Life and Death of John Henry Tunstall are recommended for further reading, along with Leon C. Metz’s Pat Garrett: The Story of a Western Lawman.

This article originally appeared in the June 2003 issue of Wild West magazine. For more great articles be sure to subscribe to Wild West magazine today!

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