Gun used to kill Billy the Kid 140 years ago is up for auction

July 23, 2021

Pat Garrett’s gun used to kill Billy the Kid 140 years ago after he’d been on the run for months is going under the hammer for $3million

Billy the Kid was gunned down by Sheriff Pat Garrett at his ranch hide out in Fort Summer, New Mexico, on July 14, 1881
Garrett’s single action revolver is up for auction and is expected to fetch $3m
Billy had committed at least eight murders and had been on the run for two months when he was shot and killed

The gun used to kill Wild West outlaw Billy the Kid 140 years ago after he’d been on the run for months is going under the hammer for a staggering $3million.

The notorious American fugitive was gunned down by Sheriff Pat Garrett at his ranch hideout in Fort Summer, New Mexico, on July 14, 1881.

Now, more than a century later, Garrett’s single action revolver is up for auction and is expected to fetch between $2 million and $3 million, Bonhams auction house in Los Angeles said.

Billy, aged 21, had been on the run for two months following a violent prison break-out during which he killed two of the sheriff’s deputies.

The fugitive, who committed at least eight murders, finally met his end after Garrett pulled the trigger of the 7.5ins barrel army revolver.

Garrett’s single action revolver is up for auction and is expected to fetch between $2 million and $3 million, Bonhams auction house in Los Angeles said

The notorious American fugitive was gunned down by Sheriff Pat Garrett at his ranch hideout in Fort Summer, New Mexico, on July 14, 1881. Pictured: The final shoot out between Garrett and Billy The Kid (left)

William Bonney, also known as Billy the Kid, is believed to be depicted in this undated ferrotype picture, circa 1880, provided by the Lincoln County, N.M. Heritage Trust Archive

Bonhams have described the gun as ‘the most iconic treasure of early Western history’ in the United States.

The revolver was passed to Garrett’s widow in the early 20th century before ending up in the hands of US collectors Jim and Theresa Earle in 1983 who amassed Western firearms and other artifacts for some 50 years.

Jim Earle died in 2019, and his family is now selling the collection, which also includes two shotguns used by Billy.

A gun he had with him when he was killed, a Winchester 1873, which was supposedly his ‘most trusted’ weapon, is valued at $495,000.

A double barrel shotgun he took from deputy sheriff Bob Olinger while escaping a New Mexico courthouse and used to murder him before chucking it on the ground as it was damaged is tipped to go for up to $300,000.

A gun he had with him when he was killed, a Winchester 1873, which was supposedly his ‘most trusted’ weapon, is valued at $495,000

The gun used to kill Wild West outlaw Billy the Kid 140 years ago has emerged for sale for a staggering £2.2million

A different angle showing the gun used to kill Billy the Kid

Garrett’s contract for the 1881 book he wrote about Billy the Kid is expected to fetch between $8,000 and $12,000.

The modified Springfield rifle that was buried alongside lawman and gunfighter Wild Bill Hickock in South Dakota in August 1876 is expected to fetch up to $200,000.

Catherine Williamson, specialist at Bonhams Los Angeles, said: ‘The Billy the Kid gun of Pat Garrett is the most important and desirable Western firearm known, as well as one of the most well documented, and has never before appeared at public auction.

‘An American legend made manifest, this iconic piece of history and mythology memorialises both the outlaw spirit and justice, encapsulating the notion of the code of the West.

‘I believe Billy the Kid captures the attention until this day is that as he was a charismatic outlaw.

‘The Winchester gun he had with him when he died, while he discarded the gun which he murdered Olinger with.

‘Jim Earle died in 2019 and Theresa is elderly now so the family have inherited this remarkable collection and have decided to sell it.’

Billy, born Henry McCarty, was orphaned aged 15 and first arrested for stealing food aged 16.

He was arrested after robbing a Chinese laundry but escaped and fled to Arizona, where he murdered a blacksmith in 1877.

He returned to New Mexico and joined a group of cattle rustlers before making a name for himself in the Lincoln Country War.

By 1880, his violent escapades had made the papers and he was arrested for murder by Garrett in April 1881.

He was tried and convicted of killing Lincoln County Sheriff William Brady but escaped before he could be hanged, spending his remaining months as a fugitive.

Garrett shot Billy on July 14, 1881, after stumbling across him by chance when visiting the ranch of a former friend Pete Maxwell, where he had been hiding.

Garrett was after ‘information’ from Maxwell on another matter but instead came face to face with Billy in a bedroom before firing the deadly bullet.

The story of Billy the Kid was featured in the 1988 movie Young Guns which starred Emilio Estevez, Kiefer Sutherland, Charlie Sheen, Terence Stamp and Jack Pallance.

The sale takes place on August 27.

The life and death of Billy the Kid

Billy the Kid was a notorious outlaw who lived in the American Wild West during the mid to late 19th century. The subject of more than 50 movies, the local legend, has achieved global notoriety as scriptwriters took the tale of the gun-toting outlaw to big screens around the world.

Bill the Kid can be seen, in a top hat (right) playing cards with his fellow gang members in a rare photo of the notorious American outlaw

So who is Billy the Kid and what led to his untimely death at the age of 21?

Billy the Kid is believed to have been born Henry McCarty in the Irish slums of New York City in September or November of 1859 – though his birth place, date of birth and even birth name is widely debated
He moved to Wichita, Kansas, as a boy with his single mother, before later migrating west to New Mexico in the early 1870s
The young Henry became an orphan in 1874 at the age of 14 after his mother died of tuberculosis
Left in the care of an absentee stepfather he is said to have quickly fallen into a life of poverty, mixed with a rough crowd and soon found himself on a path of crime
The young lad’s first arrest, and subsequent jailbreak, was said to be for stealing clothes from a local Chinese laundry in 1875. He faced a minor sentence but rather than sit it out behind bars the then 16-year-old escaped and fled town
In 1877 he arrived in Lincoln County, New Mexico, under the name William Bonney. In August of that year he is said to have killed his first man during a dispute in an Arizona saloon
He earned a reputation as a gunslinger, a man who was quick to pull the trigger, in 1878 when he participated in the Lincoln County War
The conflict was marked by revenge killings, including one that saw a gang Billy the Kid was affiliated with kill the Lincoln County Sheriff William Brady
In late 1880 Bill the Kid was found guilty of the murder of Sheriff William Brady and sentenced to be hanged. But on the evening of April 28, 1881 he slipped out of his handcuffs and ambushed and shot a couple of guards in his prison break
After his escape from death row the wanted man remained a fugitive from the law till the evening of July 14 1881. Sheriff Pat Garrett and two deputies rode into town where it was believed the fugitive was hiding out. He was taken by surprise, cornered and fatally shot with two bullets by the sheriff
Despite his reputation as an outlaw of the Wild West Billy the Kid did not live the life of a bandit. He had never robbed a bank, train or stagecoach. Outside of his early years and gun-fighting days in the Lincoln County War his main crime was said to be rustling cattle

Sources: Crime Museum, Britannica, and the History Channel

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