Thread: Billy the Kid may be riding again

Just got this out of tonight's NY Times here. This has been going on awhile with some wanting to exhume the remains of Billy and his mom to check DNA. There is a school of thought that Pat Garret let the kid get away and someone else is in the grave. Then there is the quest to fulfill the then Governor Lew Wallace's promise to give Billy a pardon. Wallace was famed for being the author of the novel Ben Hur.

The current governor of NM is Bill Richardson, the unsuccessful presidential candidate who still has ambitions to sit in the white house. Why he would want to give a pardon to a guy who escaped from jail by killing a couple of lawmen is beyond me but the world is more like the Twilight Zone the longer I live.

Despite my vote (who cares) it's an interesting story.

I know the guys a folk hero (a bit like Ned Kelly in Australia and Dick Turpin in the UK), but government shouldnt pardon convicted criminals years down the line unless they were found to be innocent. For example, the Derek Bentley case here in England.

Pardoning a known criminal years later just because they are seen as a bit of a scallywag is just political point scoring and trying to be trendy.

New Mexico has way too many problems for the Gov to waste time on this.

People in this country seem to romanticize certain types of behavior from certain eras forgeting most of these people were just cold blooded killers.

Its like Jesse James around here, a folk hero now, thief and murderer in reality.

good people are good
bad people are bad

I never knew Billy the Kid

Originally Posted by hoglahoo

yeah like Robin Hood, the original liberal

not that I mean to equate political ideologies with theft and murder... great. now I'll have to delete this post too

For posterity and truth.

If he wasn't pardoned while he was alive why should he be pardoned so far away from his time of life? Do we know something now that wasn't know then? It's possible but I don't think so. The people of his time knew more about his crimes than we do now and their ruling should stand. The only thing that would change my thoughts is if some evidence emerges that proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that he was innocent of all he is accused of doing. Gees, goo to see the NM has nothing more important to amuse themselves with.

Lee, the best part of being a mod is being able to see your posts that you delete, they are invariably the best ones.

Being an American, I love these stories about Billy the Kid, and Jesse James. I feel it's a long dead American story that just keeps living. Like the movies, I can route for the Bad Guy or AntiHero, This guy has been dead for a hundred years. But the fact is he is a scumbag, and right now, America is rewarding bad behavior.