The small bar, which holds 70 people at fire code capacity, is tucked away near the Amtrak station in Williston, North Dakota.
One bullet struck the 21-year-old near his heart, killing him instantly.It’s Saturday night, and Heartbreakers is empty. As he entered Maxwell’s darkened bedroom, he spotted the shadowy outline of Garrett and once again asked, “Who’s that?” Upon recognizing the Kid’s voice, Sheriff Garrett drew his six-shooter and fired off two rounds in his direction. When he noticed the silhouette of one of Garrett’s deputies on the porch, the Kid drew his pistol and backed toward the door, shouting, “Who’s that?” in Spanish. No sooner had he woken Maxwell than the Kid also approached the house, having stopped nearby to get beef for a late dinner. On the night of July 14, 1881, Garrett went to the home of rancher Peter Maxwell to question him about the outlaw’s whereabouts. He neglected to keep a low profile, however, and it wasn’t long before Sheriff Pat Garrett and two deputies rode into town. He was just 21 years old at the time of his death.Īfter his escape from death row, the Kid spent several months hiding out on the frontier and taking refuge with sympathetic locals in Fort Sumner, New Mexico.
When it didn’t fire, the Kid drew his own gun and shot Grant dead.ħ. Later that evening, Grant pulled the same pistol on the Kid and tried to shoot him in the back. Sensing trouble, the Kid casually approached Grant and remarked, “That’s a mighty nice looking six-shooter you got.” He then slipped Grant’s gun out of its holster, spun its cylinder so that its next shot would be an empty chamber, and handed it back. As the story goes, a drunk named Joe Grant was terrorizing the bar’s patrons and threatening to kill someone before the night was out. One particularly legendary gunfight unfolded in January 1880 at a New Mexico saloon. In a four-year span between 18, the baby-faced outlaw was involved in the shooting deaths of some nine men, at least four of whom he killed singlehandedly. The Kid was known for his easygoing personality, but he wasn’t afraid to draw his six-shooter when provoked. He was involved in at least nine murders. Outside of his gunfighting days with the Regulators, his main criminal enterprise was rustling cattle on the New Mexico plains. The young gunslinger stole the occasional horse, but he never once held up a bank, train or even a stagecoach.
Unlike other Old West outlaws such as Jesse James, Cole Younger or Butch Cassidy, Billy the Kid didn’t make his living as a bandit. He would spend the rest of his life on the run from the authorities.īilly The Kid shooting down his foe who had taken refuge behind a saloon bar. The Kid left the war with a reputation as one of the West’s most skilled gunmen, but he remained wanted for the murder of Sheriff Brady. In July 1878, the feud reached its climax with a deadly, five-day firefight in the town of Lincoln, after which the Regulators disbanded and the two sides sealed a flimsy peace agreement. In what became known as the “Lincoln County War,” the Regulators assassinated Sheriff Brady and spent the next several months shooting it out with The House’s forces. The tensions finally boiled over in February 1878, when Tunstall was murdered by a posse organized by Sheriff William Brady, a supporter of The House.įollowing Tunstall’s death, the Kid and several other former employees organized themselves into a vigilante group called “The Regulators” and swore revenge. When they tried to intimidate Tunstall’s upstart operation, the Englishman enlisted the Kid and several other gunmen to protect his property. Dolan and Murphy’s outfit-known as “The House”-had long held a monopoly over the dry goods and cattle trades in Lincoln County. The conflict centered on a business rivalry between British-born rancher John Tunstall and a pair of Irish tycoons named James Dolan and Lawrence Murphy. He played a prominent role in a frontier feud.īilly the Kid first earned his reputation as a gunslinger in 1878, when he participated in a bloody frontier war in Lincoln County, New Mexico.