Forensic expert works on
Billy the Kid's case
Forensic expert works on Billy the Kid's case
©2004, Santa Fe New Mexican
August 2, 2004
LINCOLN, N.M. - Sheriff's investigators
for Lincoln and DeBaca counties are getting help from one of the nation's
leading forensic scientists as they examine the Billy the Kid saga.
Henry Lee, the director emeritus of the Connecticut State Police Forensic
Science Laboratory, has worked on the O.J. Simpson murder trial and the Jon
Benet Ramsey case.
Lee arrived at the old Lincoln County courthouse Sunday afternoon.
"This is an extremely interesting case of some historical importance," he said.
"That's why I agreed to spend some of my own time to work with them. ... It's
basically a worthwhile project and legitimate."
Lincoln County Sheriff Tom Sullivan, joined by deputy and Capitan Mayor Steve
Sederwall and DeBaca County Sheriff Gary Graves, launched a probe last year into
the Kid's escape from the courthouse in early 1881 and then-Sheriff Pat
Garrett's slaying of the outlaw later that year.
The investigation aims to clear up questions about the Kid's fate.
Over the last century, at least two men surfaced claiming to be Billy the Kid.
Those stories presuppose that Garrett killed the wrong man in Fort Sumner and
lied about it and that the outlaw isn't buried in a Fort Sumner cemetery.
On Saturday, Lee and Calvin Ostler, an investigator with the Utah Office of the
Medical Examiner, performed tests on a bench that Sederwall believes to be the
one the Kid's body was laid on after Garrett gunned him down.
Preliminary results indicated trace evidence of blood, but Lee said that without
further testing it's not certain whether the blood is human.
Lee and the investigators also examined a washstand that was purportedly struck
by a bullet when Garrett shot the Kid.
In his memoir, "The Authentic Life of Billy the Kid," Garrett said he was
sitting on the edge of a bed in the dark, asking about the Kid's whereabouts
when the Kid entered with a revolver in his right hand and a knife in his left.
"Quickly as possible I drew my revolver and fired, threw my body aside and fired
again," Garrett wrote. "The second shot was useless; the Kid fell dead."
Lee and the investigators used laser technology to determine the bullet's
trajectory as it entered the washstand and exited the right at a downward angle.
Given the washstand's likely location in the room, the investigation has already
cast some doubt on Garrett's account of the event, Sederwall and Ostler said.
"The evidence we are seeing does not corroborate the popular legend," Ostler
said. "Something's askew."
Still, Ostler said, the washstand's place in the room is indefinite and it's not
certain that Garrett's bullet made the hole.
One simple explanation Lee offered is that Garrett may have shot defensively at
the Kid as he fled and struck the washstand from the side instead of head on.
Garrett's official story may have simply omitted that embarrassing detail.
"You don't want to paint yourself as a chicken," Lee suggested.
On Sunday, Lee and the investigators found several positive indications of blood
residue below floorboards at the top of a stairwell in the old courthouse.
Such evidence could support Sederwall's theory that the Kid fatally shot deputy
J.W. Bell at the top of the stairs during his infamous escape. Garrett's account
claims the Kid, at the top of the stairs, shot Bell who was at the bottom of the
stairwell.
While the investigation is far from complete, Sederwall said: "I do know this.
What history says happened is not true. ... We are finding more and more
evidence that points to history not being portrayed correctly."