Billy the Kid #2

Comment by Steve McCarty on April 21, 2012 at 4:55pm

Great picture, but the trouble with it is the kid was never a cowboy a day in his life.  I'll bet he never wore a pair of chaps. The kid rustled cattle quite often but he never "worked" cattle a day in  his life. Except for when he was a youngster working tables in a hotel the kid never held a "real job" in his life, unless you call the two or three months that he worked for Tunstall, a real job, which it wasn't, he was a hired gun.

Comment by Wolfgang on April 21, 2012 at 6:31pm

I read that he once had a job washing dishes for a couple of months.   I think it was in Las Vegas N.Mexico. 

Comment by Mundo Osterberg on April 21, 2012 at 7:29pm

This is my Grandfather's side of the family...........before they became miners.

Comment by Polly Gulley on April 22, 2012 at 7:45am

Steve, I don't know how you can say that Billy was never a "cowboy". What did he have to do to rustled cattle? He had to be able to make the cattle go where he wanted them to go. Also, I have read several accounts of Billy and the gang "rearranging" the brands on Chism's cattle. If that's not what cowboys do I don't know what is. Can't remember which historian said it but on a program on TV about Billy it was said that he was probably the most "cowboy" of any of the old west cowboys. 

Comment by Steve McCarty on April 22, 2012 at 8:30am

Hi Polly:  "Working" cattle and rustling them are two very different pursuits.  I do agree that Billy and his boys probably "adjusted" brands, but the people who were famous for it were the Seven River's cowboys. They also removed the "jinglebob" - the ear flap.  I have never read that the kid's bunch did that.

Driving cattle is no big deal.  While it is cowboy like, I guess; it's not what working cattle is all about.  I have read that real cowpokes were angered that the kid was sometimes called one of them, when he was never a true cowboy in his life.  He was a cattel rustler.  He did round up cattle on the open range, probably no more than a hundred head and sell them.  The people who bought them probably didn't care where they came from. He sold them cheap.  There is a story that he scored $750 once after selling stolen cattle.  At, say, $10 a head that's 75 critters.  That's about right.

However, Polly your points are well taken

Comment by Polly Gulley on April 22, 2012 at 9:54am

Yours too Steve.

Comment by Oklahombre on April 24, 2012 at 8:41am

So, I guess being a bank robber doesn't make someone a banker.

Comment by Steve McCarty on April 27, 2012 at 9:15pm

LOL, yeah Oklahombre, next time you happen to be in a bank that's being robbed, ask the robber for a loan!

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