The Six-Million-Dollar Gun

The real story behind Pat Garrett's infamous pistol that killed Billy the Kid

- BOB BOZE BELL 

In the fall of 1880, Sheriff-elect Pat Garrett was given his marching orders by the cattle king of New Mexico, John Chisum: "Clean out that squad east of Sumner." On December 23, Garrett and a motley crew of Texas cowboys had surrounded a rock house at Stinking Spring, New Mexico, in the freezing dark, and as the sun came up, they coldly shot down the first person who walked out the door. It turned out to be Charlie Bowdre and not the Kid. Garrett's posse had already shot and killed another of Billy's pards, Tom Folliard, back in Fort Sumner. With the death of Bowdre, two of the Kid's gang were toast. After a long standoff, everyone inside eventually surrendered and gave up their arms. They included Billy the Kid, Dirty Dave Rudabaugh, Tom Pickett and Billy Wilson. At some point Pat Garrett took a liking to Billy Wilson's Winchester and pistol, and like lawmen had been doing for a long time, he purloined these two guns for his own use.

Beaver Smith ended up with the Kid's Winchester, Frank Stewart was gifted the Kid's horse by Billy himself and the young outlaw is reported to have given his pistol to the mail carrier's brother Mike Cosgrove.

As a side note, after a standoff in Las Vegas, New Mexico, on December 27, Garrett delivered his prisoners to the Santa Fe jail, where the Kid spent three months before being tried in Mesilla and sentenced to hang.

While in the jail, a reporter asked him what he thought about getting as famous as Buffalo Bill, and the Kid replied,  "There's no money in it." Seven months later, Garrett dispatched Billy the Kid with Wilson's seven-and-a-half inch, .44 single-action Colt.

So, how do we know, 141 years later, that the gun that recently sold for over $6 million is this same gun? And, more importantly, what does Pancho Villa have to do with this whole story? And, finally, who would pay that kind of money for a gun, even if it turns out it is the actual gun that killed the Kid?