The Guilty - Jason Pinter [80]
who'd begun scratching at the couch. "First off, Billy
Bonney's alleged grave site has been robbed so many times
that nobody knows for sure just who's buried under that tombstone. Plus the man who bought Catherine Antrim's cemetery
plot in Silver City claims he moved the headstone years ago
and isn't a hundred-percent sure just where Antrim's body is
actually buried. He said he'd die and come back as Christ
himself before we marched in there and accidentally dug up
somebody's poor dead grandmother.
"It didn't matter, though," Vance continued. "The fact is if
the government wanted to conduct the tests, they would have
bent over backward to do so. When it comes to proving a live
man's guilt or innocence, there's no limit to what our government will do. But when it comes to proving the life and death
of one of the biggest legends in human history, and in the
process possibly destroying one of the most enduring American
myths of all time, well, they'd rather discredit an honest old
man, call him a loon, get his tenure revoked and make him live
out his days miles from where he might crack their wall of lies.
"The truth is Pat Garrett did not kill Billy the Kid. William
H. Bonney died under the assumed name of Oliver P. Roberts,
in Hamilton, Texas."
The Guilty
233
"What makes you so sure?"
"Let me give you an example of the idiocy--or just plain
ignorance--of those wishing to protect the legacy. As I was
trying to have the bodies exhumed, both the mayor of Fort
Sumner and the governor of Texas claimed that Brushy Bill
and William H. Bonney could not be one and the same person,
for the following reason. When Ollie Roberts died, it was a
well-known fact that he was right-handed. The most famous
photo of Billy the Kid depicts him holding his beloved Winchester 1873 model in his right hand, with his single action
Colt revolver in a holster by his left hip. By this photo you
would deduce that Bonney was, in fact, left-handed."
"So they claimed that Bonney was left-handed but Brushy
Bill was right-handed."
"That was their claim." Largo stood up and pulled a book
off his shelf. He flipped to a page on which there were two
photographs. Both depicted the famous photo of Billy the
Kid, standing slightly awkwardly, holding his Winchester
rifle, a mischievous grin on his face.
"If you look at this picture, the Colt is by his left hip."
"Okay," I said.
"But what the blue bloods in their marble castles failed to
realize is that this photograph is actually a ferrotype. In other
words, a mirror image of the actual subject."
"So in real life, Billy the Kid had the Colt by his right hip.
Meaning he was right-handed."
"Just like our friend Brushy Bill."
"Would you be willing to go on record?" I asked.
Largo seemed taken aback. Another cat jumped onto his
lap. He was too distracted to scratch it, so it simply nuzzled
against his chest and closed its eyes.
"On record? You mean like in the newspaper? Would I be
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Jason Pinter
willing? Boy, I've been waiting for years for somebody to
ask me that."
"Is that a yes?"
"Let me put it this way. If I'm not on the record enough,
I'm coming down to that paper of yours and shoving a cat up
your keester."
"That's fair," I said, pulling the tape recorder from my
bag. "Now let's get started. Tell me everything you know
about Brushy Bill Roberts, why you believe he was Billy the
Kid, and leave nothing out."
36
When I arrived at the Gazette, the newsroom was abuzz in
a way I'd never seen it before in my brief tenure at the paper.
The stringers seemed a little louder, the phone calls a little
more urgent. A palpable electricity ran through the place.
The whole organization seemed galvanized, charged, like a
black cloud had been dragged away to let the sun back in.
It wasn't a minute after I stepped off the elevator when
Wallace came jogging up to me. His hair was slightly askew
and his right ear was red as though he'd been pressing a
phone to it the whole morning.
"Henry, glad you're here," he said, catching