The Controversy About W. H. Bonney During the mid-1800’s, the Southwest was a land full of adventure and legends. Cowboys led cattle drives to towns like Dodge City, and brazen gunmen such as Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday and the Clantons walked the streets in Tombstone, Arizona. But no one ranked as one of the most notorious figures of the Western frontier as did William H. Bonney, alias Billy the Kid. Depending on whom you spoke with, the identity of Billy the Kid was sometimes questioned. Billy the Kid was born as William Henry McCarty on November 23, 1859. But during his short lifetime of twenty-one years, he would be known as William H. Bonney, William Henry McCarty and historically as Billy the Kid. There has been much controversy, speculation, …show more content…
Jameson presents evidence contrary to what has been presented throughout history that suggests and poses the real possibility that a man named William Henry Roberts could have been the real Billy the Kid. There is much evidence presented that has been analyzed including the use of new technology to produce a compelling case for Billy the Kid’s survival. Metz, Leon C. “Pat Garrett: Another Look at a Western Gunman.” Montana: The Magazine of Western History 21.4 (1971): 70-78. Print. Metz provides an analysis of notorious gunmen of the West including Wyatt Earp, James Gillett and Pat Garrett. Pat Garrett’s character is critiqued as well as his accomplishments and undertakings to allow his readers an inside view of the man who was reported to have killed Billy the Kid. This source outlines Garrett’s ambition for office before the Kid and after the Kid was supposedly killed as well as his political journey as Sheriff and various political offices. Mullin, Robert N., Charles E. Welch Jr. “Billy the Kid: The Making of a Hero.” Western Folklore 32.2 (1973): 104-111. …show more content…
Bonney in his letter confirms his intention to surrender but is concerned with his safety after his arrest. Wallace gives detailed instructions for Bonney to surrender in safety, and he will assure that he will be exempted from prosecution in exchange for his testimony. These correspondences leads to the honesty of the governor and his genuine intentions to stand behind his word to Bonney. We know from further reading that the prosecutor approached Bonney after his arrest, while the Governor was out of town, and told him that the Governor’s pardon was not an option. That Bonney would be found guilty and hanged for his
Ellsworth was mean, and it was ugly. The stench of the its streets fell second to the odor of the unbathed saddle tramps who had just delivered 150,000 cattle from San Antonio to its freight yards. Adding to these smells were the blends of whisky, tanning leather, kerosene and carved carcasses, a revolting combination. Gunfights were spontaneous, either over a woman or a card game. When Wyatt crossed the Smoky Hill River into Ellsworth in 1873, he may have remembered the "rules of the gunman," but had no intention of employing them. The two main “rules of a gunman” were to take his time and always be armed. Although many people had warned him that it would be naive to go westward without being properly armed, Wyatt didn’t own a gun. All he hoped for was to find a peaceable job. But, only hours after hitching his horse in town he began to wonder if perhaps everyone was right. The most boisterous spot in town was Brennan’s Saloon, off Ellsworth Square; its faro and poker tables buzzed 24 hours, bartenders tapped beer and ...
McMurtry, Larry. 2005. Oh What a Slaughter: Massacres in the American West: 1846-1890. 10th Ed. New York, NY: Simon and Schuster.
Throughout the ages, men and women have been the center of myths and legends, becoming tragic heroes in large part due to the embellishment bestowed upon them over the ages. Perhaps, though, truth can be stranger than fiction. Pat Tillman was a man of many talents and virtues, never satisfied by the mediocre, striving for more excitement, more meaning, in his tragically short time on Earth, and lived out the phrase carpe diem to the letter. Even Pat Tillman had tragic flaws; his unwillingness to be average, his undying loyalty to family and country, and his unusually concrete set of morals all eventually led to his death. These, whatever the outcome might have been, are not, by any means, archetypical tragic flaws. They are, as Jon Krakauer later described, “tragic virtues.” Where Men Win Glory is not solely a tribute to Pat Tillman. What makes it truly unique is its exhaustively comprehensive history leading up to Pat’s death, and just as important, the events that took place after his death, including the cover-ups, scandals, corruption, falsified documents, and lies that helped, also, to emphasize the themes, of which Pat was the epitome. Pat’s loyalty and devotion to the things that he loved, the use of misinformation surrounding his death, and others’ reactions to what Pat considered paramount in his life all played a key role in the tragedy of a man that won glory.
The Taming of the West: Age of the Gunfighter: Men and Weapons of the Frontier 1840-1900.
Somewhere out in the Old West wind kicks up dust off a lone road through a lawless town, a road once dominated by men with gun belts attached at the hip, boots upon their feet and spurs that clanged as they traversed the dusty road. The gunslinger hero, a man with a violent past and present, a man who eventually would succumb to the progress of the frontier, he is the embodiment of the values of freedom and the land the he defends with his gun. Inseparable is the iconography of the West in the imagination of Americans, the figure of the gunslinger is part of this iconography, his law was through the gun and his boots with spurs signaled his arrival, commanding order by way of violent intentions. The Western also had other iconic figures that populated the Old West, the lawman, in contrast to the gunslinger, had a different weapon to yield, the law. In the frontier, his belief in law and order as well as knowledge and education, brought civility to the untamed frontier. The Western was and still is the “essential American film genre, the cornerstone of American identity.” (Holtz p. 111) There is a strong link between America’s past and the Western film genre, documenting and reflecting the nations changes through conflict in the construction of an expanding nation. Taking the genres classical conventions, such as the gunslinger, and interpret them into the ideology of America. Thus The Western’s classical gunslinger, the personification of America’s violent past to protect the freedoms of a nation, the Modernist takes the familiar convention and buries him to signify that societies attitude has change towards the use of diplomacy, by way of outmoding the gunslinger in favor of the lawman, taming the frontier with civility.
Lee, Robert W. "Gun Report: The Buford Furrow Tragedy." The New American 15 (1999): 33
The image of the cowboy as Jennifer Moskowitz notes in her article “The Cultural Myth of the Cowboy, or, How the West was Won” is “uniquely
Alex Vernon. "Staging Violence in West's "The Day of the Locust" and Shepard's "True West"." South Atlantic Review 65.1 (2000): 132-151. Print.
Over the years, the idea of the western frontier of American history has been unjustly and falsely romanticized by the movie, novel, and television industries. People now believe the west to have been populated by gun-slinging cowboys wearing ten gallon hats who rode off on capricious, idealistic adventures. Not only is this perception of the west far from the truth, but no mention of the atrocities of Indian massacre, avarice, and ill-advised, often deceptive, government programs is even present in the average citizen’s understanding of the frontier. This misunderstanding of the west is epitomized by the statement, “Frederick Jackson Turner’s frontier thesis was as real as the myth of the west. The development of the west was, in fact, A Century of Dishonor.” The frontier thesis, which Turner proposed in 1893 at the World’s Columbian Exposition, viewed the frontier as the sole preserver of the American psyche of democracy and republicanism by compelling Americans to conquer and to settle new areas. This thesis gives a somewhat quixotic explanation of expansion, as opposed to Helen Hunt Jackson’s book, A Century of Dishonor, which truly portrays the settlement of the west as a pattern of cruelty and conceit. Thus, the frontier thesis, offered first in The Significance of the Frontier in American History, is, in fact, false, like the myth of the west. Many historians, however, have attempted to debunk the mythology of the west. Specifically, these historians have refuted the common beliefs that cattle ranging was accepted as legal by the government, that the said business was profitable, that cattle herders were completely independent from any outside influence, and that anyone could become a cattle herder.
Ring, Ray. “Guns R Us.” High Country News (Paonia, Co) Vol. 39, No. 14 Aug. 6 2007:10-17. Sirs Issues Researcher. Web. 6 Oct. 2015.
When Harvey was 21 years old he left to Colorado for the mining and later joined the Union army at Fort Union, New Mexico. Not long after leaving Ohio, Harvey Howard Whitehill married Harriet Stevens. Harvey Howard Whitehill was one of the founders of Silver City and he was later elected Sheriff. As the Sheriff, Harvey Whitehill was the first to arrest Billy the Kid. Not many know the story but those that do find it amusing. Billy the Kid was arrested by Sheriff Harvey Whitehill for stealing the China-man’s laundry. Billy the kid then escaped the county jail by shimmying up the county jail chimney. Sheriff Harvey Whitehill was attempting to help get Billy back on the right path in life and did not want to keep him in jail long because he had a long life ahead of him but Billy the Kid was destined to be an outlaw and Sheriff Harvey Whitehill’s attempt to get Billy the Kid back on the right track had failed. After being the Sheriff of Silver City for many years, he was elected into the New Mexico Territory Assembly and the Council of the 26th
Few Hollywood film makers have captured America’s Wild West history as depicted in the movies, Rio Bravo and El Dorado. Most Western movies had fairly simple but very similar plots, including personal conflicts, land rights, crimes and of course, failed romances that typically led to drinking more alcoholic beverages than could respectfully be consumed by any one person, as they attempted to drown their sorrows away. The 1958 Rio Bravo and 1967 El Dorado Western movies directed by Howard Hawks, and starring John Wayne have a similar theme and plot. They tell the story of a sheriff and three of his deputies, as they stand alone against adversity in the name of the law. Western movies like these two have forever left a memorable and lasting impressions in the memory of every viewer, with its gunfighters, action filled saloons and sardonic showdowns all in the name of masculinity, revenge and unlawful aggressive behavior. Featuring some of the most famous backdrops in the world ranging from the rustic Red Rock Mountains of Monument Valley in Utah, to the jagged snow capped Mountain tops of the Teton Range in Wyoming, gun-slinging cowboys out in search of mischief and most often at their own misfortune traveled far and wide, seeking one dangerous encounter after another, and unfortunately, ending in their own demise.
Because of the outlaw hero’s definitive elements, society more so identifies with this myth. Ray said, “…the scarcity of mature heroes in American...
While the western frontier was still new and untamed, the western hero often took on the role of a vigilante. The vigilante’s role in the frontier was that of extralegal verve which was used to restrain criminal threats to the civil peace and opulence of a local community. Vigilantism was typical to the settler-state societies of the western frontier where the structures and powers of government were at first very feeble and weak. The typical cowboy hero had a willingness to use this extralegal verve. The Virginian demonstrated this throughout with his interactions with Trampas, most notably in the interactions leading up to the shoot out and during the shoot-out itself. “Others struggled with Trampas, and his bullet smashed the ceiling before they could drag the pistol from him… Yet the Virginian stood quiet by the...
Silva, Lee A. “Sam Colt’s Big Business Was a Boon to Other Gunmakers.” Wild West 25.5