A FITTING FUNERAL FOR BILLY THE KID

WHAT REALLY HAPPENED TO EL CHIVATO?

- JAMES B. MILLS

Billy arrived at the home of Celsa and Saval Gutiérrez, where he sometimes had a siesta, instead of the Maxwell house. He was carrying a hock of beef leg and headed into the kitchen before returning to the room where Celsa and her husband were situated.

"Celsa, I brought some meat for you to make my supper," the Kid said.

Although Billy presumed Señora Gutiérrez could manage something with it, upon seeing the hock of a leg in the kitchen, the güero beauty knew it was pointless to even try.

"Beely, this meat that you brought is no more than a bone, Celsa called out. "It doesn't have any meat." "Give me a knife to go get some good meat," Billy answered from the other room in Spanish. "And tell Don Pedro that I took the meat so that he doesn't think that another stole the meat"

EL CHIVATO

Henry McCarty, aka Billy the Kid, spoke flawless Spanish which endeared him to the local Hispano community. The mutual respect earned him the nickname El Chivato-the Little Goat.

All Illustrations by Bob Boze Bell and All Images Courtesy True West Archives Unless Otherwise Noted

Celsa's seven-year-old illegitimate son Candido watched as Billy took the butcher knife that his mother loaned him. The Kid headed outside and made his way down inside the white pickett fence parallel with the western end of the parade ground. A full moon shone down upon him; he was in his stocking feet, dark pants and a white dress-shirt with a silk handkerchief around his neck. He briskly walked past the dance hall and flower garden to his left and was fastening his trousers as he approached the Maxwell house. It was almost 12:30 in the morning of Friday July 15, 1881.