Pat Garrett And Billy The Kid Captured The American Public For Nearly 130 Years:Tension between Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid captured the American public for nearly 130 years since the classic, Old West theme hunting border law enforcement officer down the notorious gangster.As it turned out, revenge is not completely over.
The governor of New Mexico Bill Richardson is considering granting a posthumous pardon Billy the Kid, Garrett angry descendants, who call it insulting to the recognition of such violent outlaws.
Three grandchildren, the late marshal Richardson sent a letter this week that asked not to pardon illegal, saying such actions are "inexcusable slander" of Garrett.
"If Billy the Kid lived among us now, you would issue a pardon for those who earn their living as a thief, and, more glaringly, that killed four law enforcement officers and many others?" Garrett wrote the family.
The issue resurfaced because Richardson asked the columnist, New Mexico earlier this year to check with the historians to assess their support for the issue of forgiveness. The governor plans to meet with family members Garrett next week to discuss the issue.
Garrett shot Billy the Kid down on July 14, 1881. Garrett tracked him outside the law after escaped from prison Lincoln in a famous gunbattle, which left two deputies dead.
condition of the baby, as a national hero of the Old West grew, as countless books, films and songs were written about the shooter and his exploits. According to legend, he killed 21 people, one for each year of his life, but the New Mexico Tourism Department puts the total closer to 9.
Pardon the dispute is the latest in a long struggle over the fact Garrett shot the Kid real or something, and then lied about it. Some fans of the history of the claim Billy the Kid did not die in a shootout with Garrett and landed in Texas, where he passed the "Brushy Bill" Roberts and died of a heart attack at age 90 in 1950.
Richardson joined the fray in 2003, supporting a plan of then Lincoln Sheriff Tom Sullivan, to re-investigate the age-old case.
The governor declared that he would consider pardoning Kid - something prohibited hoped, but not received from the New Mexico territorial governor Lew Wallace.
"Governor Richardson has always said that he would take it fulfilled the promise of Governor Wallace's Billy the Kid a pardon", a spokesman for Richardson Alarie Ray-Garcia said Thursday. 'He knows the problems of families and Garrett will be meeting with them next week.
Susan Floyd Garrett's "Santa Fe is one of the grandsons, who signed a letter to Richardson. She said the family decided to speak because a pardon is "defamation" to his grandfather. She told how Kid "gangster".
"Everybody wants myths Billy Kid", she said.
Garrett and her brother, Patrick Jarvis Garrett, Thursday met with the descendants of another key figure in the history of children - John Henry Tunstall, ranch, whose murder in 1878 led to bloody feud known as the Lincoln of the war. Billy the Kid, also known as William Bonney, worked as a ranch hand Tunstall.
Hilary Tunstall-Behrens in London, great-nephew of Tunstall, said that he did not refuse to apologize for the modern Kid.
"I would not join the cause," said Tunstall-Behrens, 83. "There are so many strong feelings."
Gail Cooper, amateur historian who lives near Albuquerque, Richardson said a pardon would be "The culmination of a hoax, which claimed Pat Garrett was a vile murderer, Billy was not buried in the grave.
Cooper wrote a book "MegaHoax", to debunk claims that Garrett killed someone other than the Kid.
After serving as Lincoln County sheriff, Garrett's career soured. He ran unsuccessfully high political office, served as collector of customs, but ran into financial problems, as the ranch.
He was shot in 1908 in a dispute over their land.
