Historian plans to seek Billy the Kid's death certificate

Legend has it that Billy the Kid died on the floor of Pete Maxwell's house in Fort Sumner after being shot by Pat Garrett on the night of July 14, 1881. But the state of New Mexico has yet to issue a death certificate for him after more than 120 years.

A historian plans to change that and, in the process, quell any rumors the Kid lived to see daylight on July 15, 1881, or lived under any other name.

Robert Stahl, a historian and professor emeritus at Arizona State University, hopes the production of an official death certificate will silence imposters of the Kid and their supporters.

“Several imposters, including somebody called Brushy Bill Roberts, and all of their supporters have gone a long way in defending them based upon the fact that the state never issued a death certificate,” Stahl said.

Stahl began his quest to get a death certificate for the Kid, born William H. Bonney, last September when he contacted the New Mexico Office of Vital Records and Health Statistics to request a copy of the Kid's death certificate.

“I knew they didn't have it, but wanted to reconfirm,” Stahl said.

He then asked what somebody had to do to get a death certificate issued, and he was told to come into the office in Santa Fe and fill out a request form.

“This past Wednesday, that's exactly what I did,” Stahl said, who drove from Phoenix, Arizona. “What I discovered was, in their language, 'issue' means you can get a copy of an existing death certificate. One has to exist before they can issue copy.”

Since there isn't an existing death certificate for the Kid, Stahl had to give a petition to the 10th Judicial District Court in Tucumcari in hopes that they would issue an official death certificate.

District Judge Albert Mitchell was not available for comment. Officials at the judge’s office said this is the first time they've had a request to issue a death certificate to someone that died in the 1880s.

As of Tuesday afternoon, Stahl is still awaiting his next steps despite his belief all the information to issue a death certificate is accounted for in the coroner's inquest — a piece of paper containing signatures from witnesses stating what happened — from July 1881.

“The latest we've heard from the judge is that he wants more documentation before he issues a ruling,” said Stahl's assistant in Fort Sumner, Tim Sweet.

When the Kid was shot, Sweet said, the state didn't issue death certificates. Instead, a coroner's inquest would suffice as proof.

Stahl has studied the Kid for a decade, and his objective, he said, is to “cement in history that Garrett did kill the Kid in Fort Sumner.”

“The main thing that Dr. Stahl is trying to do is to get the state of New Mexico to back up Garrett's claim that he did kill the Kid,” Sweet said, “I don't know why they can't issue a death certificate.”

“A lot of these people deserve a death certificate to make it official,” Stahl said.

The only two men that saw Billy the Kid get shot in mid-July, according to legend, were Garrett and Maxwell, Sweet said. Others came by later until they buried the Kid the next day.

Since the Kid was shot and killed in mid-July, Garrett didn't exactly want to take his body all the way to Santa Fe — the coroner's inquest would have to do.

“When Garrett went to Santa Fe to get the $5,000 reward (for killing the Kid), he felt the inquest would suffice,” Sweet said. “Dead bodies, typically, don't keep too well in the heat.”

A death certificate for the Kid, said Lula Sweet of the Billy the Kid Museum in Fort Sumner, would be a benefit to the museum, which sees about 16,000 to 20,000 visitors each month.

Just like with Elvis, Sweet said, there are always going to be doubters and imposters with any famous person that's died.

“Of course there's those that want to believe that he wasn't killed,” she said. “Most people, you know, if they've really looked into it and into the story and get a true account of it, they know he's buried (in Fort Sumner). Some people want to say it was somebody else (shot that night) or that he wasn't killed and all that.”

According to Sweet, there are currently no living imposters.

“They'd be old, old!” he said, laughing. “The last one, Brushy Bill Roberts, died in 1950. There's been a new book come out written by his relatives with the genealogy that proves he wasn't Billy the Kid.”