In
1949, lawyer William Morrison was asked to help settle a dispute over ownership
of some land in Florida. An elderly man named Hines claimed that property
owned by a deceased brother was rightfully his, being that he was the brother's
only living relative.
In conversations with Morrison, however, the old man admitted his name was not Hines, but Evans, Jesse Evans, the Jesse Evans who rode with Billy the Kid prior to the infamous Lincoln County War in New Mexico.
No, Sheriff Pat Garrett did not kill Billy the Kid, he told Morrison. Billy was still alive and living in Hico, Texas, using the name Oliver Roberts.
Morrison contacted Roberts, a meeting was set up, and the
91-year-old did
claim to be The Kid. And to prove his claim showed Morrison scars from 26
bullet and knife wounds that matched the number of scars The Kid was known to
have carried.
Roberts had every single scar The Kid was ever known to have carried, Morrison would later testify.
Roberts also demonstrated how he was able to slip his hands free of his irons and kill Garrett's deputies Bell and Olinger. A bullet that ricocheted off a wall killed Bell, he said, a fact that only The Kid could have known, AND at the Lincoln County Courthouse led Morrison right to the mark the bullet left on the wall.
Three surviving friends of The Kid signed affidavits that Roberts was indeed who he claimed to be, and others, including a well-respected doctor, stepped forward to back his claim.
What was Roberts after? Morrison's help in obtaining the pardon promised him by Governor Lew Wallace back in 1879, he said. He wanted no money, no publicity, just the pardon.
Certainly not publicity. The meeting Morrison was able to set up with Governor Thomas Mabry turned into a media event and in the confusion the frail old man suffered a stroke that left him unable to present his case. On December, 27, 1950, he died of a heart attack.
Did Garrett kill the wrong man and cover it up?
The debate continues.