Latest / History Dark / (1881_ New Mexico) The Macabre History Behind Billy the Kid_s Death_ The Story Hidden for Years

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(1881_ New Mexico) The Macabre History Behind Billy the Kid_s Death_ The Story Hidden for Years · History Dark

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Welcome to this journey through one of the most disturbing
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: cases recorded in the history of New Mexico. Before we begin,
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: I invite you to leave in the comments where you're
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: watching from and the exact time you're listening to this narration.
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: We're interested in knowing what places and what times of
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: day or night these documented accounts reach. The year was 1881,
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: Fort Sumner, New Mexico Territory. A small settlement nestled in
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: the arid landscape of what was still considered the Wild West,
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: July 14th, a night that would forever be etched in
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: the annals of American frontier history. The official records state
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: that Henry McCarty, better known as William H. Bonney, or
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: simply Billy the Kid, was shot and killed by Sheriff
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: Pat Garrett at Pete Maxwell's ranch house. A clean shot
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: to the chest in a darkened room. The outlaw was
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: buried the next day at the old military cemetery. Case closed.
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: Or so the history books would have you believe. What
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: happened that night in Fort Sumner has been recounted countless times.
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: The young outlaw, barely 21 years of age, with supposedly
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: 21 kills to his name, though historians now believe the
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: number was closer to eight or nine. The sheriff who
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: once rode alongside him, now his executioner. A simple story
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: of frontier justice. But in 1962, when Fort Sumner's old
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: county archives were being relocated to a new facility, a
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: small leather-bound journal was discovered wedged behind a filing cabinet.
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: The journal belonged to James Miller, a deputy who worked
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: under Sheriff Garrett in 1881. What this journal revealed contradicts
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: almost everything we know about one of the most infamous
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: deaths in American history. The discovery was kept quiet, too quiet.
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: The journal was transferred to the New Mexico Historical Society,
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: where it remained untouched until 1967, when historian Margaret Dawson
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: stumbled upon it while researching frontier law enforcement. According to
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: institutional records obtained during a review of the Society's acquisition logs,
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: Dawson specifically requested materials related to Lincoln County war aftermath.
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: The journal was delivered to her among several boxes of
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: miscellaneous documents. Society employee Thomas Whitfield later recalled in a
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: 1968 interview with the Santa Fe New Mexican that Dawson's
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: reaction upon discovering the journal was immediate and visceral. She
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: went pale, Whitfield stated, asked for a private research room
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: and remained there until closing time. Dawson returned daily for
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: two weeks, taking extensive notes and photographing pages. What she
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: found was disturbing enough that her subsequent paper on the
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: subject was never published. The paper, titled Shadows at Fort Sumner,
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: Reassessment of the Billy the Kid Narrative, was submitted to
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: the Journal of Western American History in early 1968, but
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: withdrawn prior to peer review. The editor, Dr. William Harding,
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: noted in private correspondence that Dawson had called him personally,
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: sounding agitated and insisting the paper be pulled. Some things
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: aren't ready to be told, she reportedly said. Dawson died
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: of apparent heart failure in her Santa Fe home in 1968,
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: her research notes mysteriously missing from her office. The medical
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: examiner noted no signs of foul play, though friends reported
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: Dawson had been in excellent health and had mentioned feeling
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: watched in the weeks before her death. The journal disappeared
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: back into the archives, its contents largely forgotten, until now.
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: Fort Sumner in 1881 was not a place of particular note.
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: Originally established as a military fort in 1862 to oversee
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: the Navajo and Mescalero Apache forced to relocate there as
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: part of the Long Walk, it had been abandoned by
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: the military in 1868 and sold to Lucy and Maxwell.
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: By 1881, it was a small agricultural community of approximately
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: 200 residents, primarily of Hispanic and Native American descent, with
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: a scattering of Anglo settlers. According to census records from 1880,
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: the settlement boasted a general store, two saloons, a post
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: office operated out of a private residence, and a small
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: chapel that doubled as a schoolhouse when the circuit preacher
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: wasn't in town. Pete Maxwell's house stood as one of
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: the more substantial buildings, a remnant of the area's military past.
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: Constructed of adobe with thick walls and small windows, It
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: had once served as officers' quarters. Maxwell had expanded it somewhat,
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: adding a rear section with a kitchen and private quarters.
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  Speaker 1: The surrounding landscape was harsh, scrubland and desert, stretching for
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: miles under the punishing New Mexican sun. The Pecos River,
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: running north to south approximately a half-mile east of the settlement,
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: provided the only reliable water source. At night, temperatures dropped sharply.
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: and darkness enveloped the scattered buildings with an almost suffocating intensity.
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: Without moon or lamplight, the darkness was complete, the kind
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: that early settlers described as thick enough to cut with
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  Speaker 1: a knife. Billy the Kid had chosen Fort Sumner as
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: a hideout for several reasons. He had friends there, including
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: a young Mexican woman named Paulita Maxwell, Pete's sister. According
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: to local oral histories collected by WPA workers in the 1930s,
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: Billy and Paulita were romantically involved, though the exact nature
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: of their relationship remains disputed. Some accounts suggest they were
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: planning to marry, others that their relationship was more casual.
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: What is clear from multiple sources is that Billy was
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: well-liked in the predominantly Hispanic community. He spoke Spanish fluently,
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: respected local customs, and was known for his fair treatment
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: of all regardless of ethnicity. unusual for an Anglo in
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: that time and place. He knew the terrain, having spent
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: considerable time in the area. The surrounding countryside offered numerous
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: places for a man to disappear quickly if trouble came.
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: Caves in the nearby mesas, abandoned line shacks from the
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: large cattle operations, and the endless expanses of scrubland where
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: tracking was nearly impossible without expert scouts. And perhaps most importantly,
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: He believed he was relatively safe there, despite being the
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: subject of one of the most extensive manhunts in territorial history.
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: Fort Sumner was isolated, news traveled slowly, and the local
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: population had little reason to love the territorial authorities, who
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: rarely addressed their concerns and frequently discriminated against them. In
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: the weeks leading up to July 14th, there were reports
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: of Billy being seen in several locations around Fort Sumner.
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: He moved freely, almost casually, among the local population. According
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: to James Miller's journal, this unusual behavior did not go
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: unnoticed by Garrett and his deputies. The kid makes no
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: attempt to conceal his presence, Miller wrote on June 23, 1881.
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  Speaker 1: It is as if he wishes to be found, though
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  Speaker 1: I cannot fathom why a man with such a price
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: on his head would act with such disregard for his
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: own safety. Today I observed him in plain sight at
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: Beaver Smith's saloon, playing monte with three vaqueros. When a
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: stranger entered, the kid merely nodded to him rather than
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: seeking cover. The stranger, unknown to me, seemed not to
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: recognize Bonnie. But such carelessness will surely be his undoing. Miller,
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: a thirty-two-year-old former Texas Ranger who had joined Garrett's force
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: in early 1881, was known for his methodical approach and
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: detailed record-keeping. His journal entries were typically dispassionate and observational,
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: which makes the increasingly troubled tone of his later entries
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: all the more striking. As a deputy, Miller had participated
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: in the capture of several members of Billy's gang earlier
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  Speaker 1: that year, but had not been present for Billy's arrest
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  Speaker 1: and subsequent escape from the Lincoln County Courthouse in April,
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: during which the outlaw had killed two deputies. What Miller
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: could not have known then was that Billy had been
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: acting strangely for months. Accounts from locals, documented in letters
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: and later statements to territorial newspapers, described the outlaw as distracted,
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: often staring at nothing for minutes at a time, and
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: speaking of being watched when no one was there. Jose Trujillo,
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: who worked at Beaver Smith Saloon, told the Las Vegas
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: Optic in an 1882 interview that the kid would sometimes
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: stop mid-conversation cocking his head as if listening to something
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: no one else could hear. He would turn quickly, Trujillo recalled,
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: looking over his shoulder at empty air. When I asked
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: what troubled him, he would laugh and say it was nothing,
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: but his eyes told a different story. One particularly telling
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: account came from Juan Patron, a local friend of Billy's
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: and a respected community leader who described meeting the outlaw
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: on the outskirts of Fort Sumner in early July. He
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: was not himself, Patron later told a journalist from the
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: Las Vegas Gazette in 1882. His eyes kept darting to
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: the shadows. When I asked what troubled him, he said
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: only that they were closing in but would not say
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  Speaker 1: who they were. I assumed he meant Garrett and his men,
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: but something in his manner suggested otherwise. He asked me
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: strange questions about the old stories, legends from before the
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: American came, about doorways in the earth and those who
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: might use them. I told him such things were just
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: tales to frighten children. He nodded, but did not seem convinced.
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: Patron's account is particularly significant, because he was known as
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: a man of education and standing, not given to exaggeration
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: or superstition. a former territorial legislator and advocate for Hispanic
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: land rights, he had been a moderating influence during the
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: Lincoln County War. His obvious discomfort when discussing his final
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: conversations with Billy suggests he heard something that deeply troubled him.
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: The official narrative has always maintained that Billy's presence in
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: Fort Sumner was motivated by his relationships and comfort in
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: the area. But Miller's journal suggests something far more disturbing.
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: Maxwell spoke to me in confidence today, reads an entry
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: dated July 1, 1881. He claims the kid has been
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: asking about the old ruins at Agua Negra Canyon, says
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: the boy is obsessed with some tale of Spanish gold.
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: But there is something in Maxwell's manner that suggests he
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: is not telling the whole truth. When I pressed him
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: on the matter, he became agitated, saying only that some
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: places are best left undisturbed, and that the kid would
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: do well to stay away from the canyon. When I
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: asked why, Maxwell merely shook his head and changed the subject.
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: Later I heard him speaking with his sister, Paulita, in
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: rapid Spanish. I caught only fragments, but he seemed to
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: be warning her against telling the kid something about Los
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: Antiguos and La Puerta. Agua Negra Canyon, located approximately 15
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: miles southwest of Fort Sumner, had once been the site
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: of a small Spanish settlement abandoned decades before. The canyon
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: was not on any official maps of the territory, but
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: local knowledge of it persisted. Named for the dark, almost
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: black water that pooled in its depths after rare rainfall,
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: the canyon had a reputation among the Hispanic and Native
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: populations as a place to be avoided. Local lore spoke
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: of treasures hidden by retreating Spanish forces during indigenous uprisings,
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  Speaker 1: which might explain Billy's interest if he was indeed seeking
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: a last big score before fleeing the territory. But according
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: to previously unpublished correspondence between Miller and a fellow deputy
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: named Thomas Williams, Billy's interest in the canyon had nothing
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: to do with gold. Williams returned from patrol near the canyon,
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: Miller wrote, on July 3rd. Says he found evidence of
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: someone camping in the old stone cabin. Fresh ashes. Food scraps.
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: More disturbing were the markings on the walls. Circles and
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: lines that Williams says resembled nothing he had ever seen before.
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: When I asked if it could be Indian signs, he said,
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  Speaker 1: no Indian he knew would make such marks. He made
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: a rough sketch for me, which I enclose here. The
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: design suggests something astronomical, perhaps, though I am no expert
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: in such matters. Williams also reported finding a shallow pit
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: dug in the cabin floor as if someone had been
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: searching for something beneath. Most curious was his discovery of
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: several pages torn from a book in Spanish, too weathered
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: to read clearly, but with similar designs drawn in the margins.
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: The sketch Miller mentions was not found with the journal
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: when it was discovered in 1962, nor were any of
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: the other enclosures he references throughout his entries. Whether these
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: items were deliberately removed or simply became separated over time
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: remains unknown. Williams, described in territorial records as a scout
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: and deputy in Garrett's employ, was of mixed Anglo and
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: Apache heritage. His familiarity with indigenous symbols lends weight to
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: his assessment that the markings were not of Native American origin.
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: The Las Vegas Gazette described Williams in an 1880 article
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: as a man who straddles two worlds as comfortable in
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: Apache camps as in American settlements. and noted his reputation
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: as a tracker who could read sign others missed entirely.
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: What were these markings, and why was Billy so interested
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: in an abandoned settlement in a remote canyon? The journal
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: doesn't provide clear answers, but it does record that on
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: July 7th, a local rancher reported seeing Billy riding hard
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: toward the canyon, as if the devil himself were in pursuit.
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: The rancher, identified only as Mendoza in Miller's journal, said
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: he called out to the kid but received no acknowledgment.
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: He rode as one possessed, Mendoza reportedly told Miller. His
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: horse was lathered and breathing hard, but still he spurred
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: it on. I have seen men ride so to escape death,
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: but never toward an empty canyon with nothing of value.
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: As July 14th approached, the atmosphere in Fort Sumner grew
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: increasingly tense. Miller's journal entries become more erratic. with mentions
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: of strange lights seen on the horizon toward the canyon
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: and sounds that carry on the night air, like voices
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: but not voices. There are references to cattle found dead
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: with no apparent cause and dogs in the settlement howling
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: through the night. The locals will not speak of it,
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: Miller wrote on July 10th. When pressed, they cross themselves
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: and turn away. Maxwell's housekeeper, an old Apache woman, told
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: me today that the kid has awakened something that should
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: have remained asleep. When I asked for clarification, she spat
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: and made a sign with her hand I have not
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: seen before. La puerta, she said. Está abierta ahora. The
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: door is open now. Miller's entry for July 11th describes
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: his own journey to the edge of Agua Negra Canyon,
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: though he did not venture into its depths. I rode
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: out at first light, telling Garrett I wished to scout
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: the area for signs of the kid. In truth, I
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: sought to see for myself what might be in this
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: place that has caused such disquiet. The approach is unremarkable,
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: scrubland giving way to rocky terrain, then the sudden drop
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: of the canyon walls. But even at the rim there
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: is a strange quality to the air, a stillness that
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: seems to swallow sound. I sat my horse for perhaps
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: half an hour, looking down into the shadows below. Saw
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: nothing unusual— yet could not bring myself to descend the
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: trail that switchbacks to the canyon floor. Something in that
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: stillness warned against it. As I turned to leave, I
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: thought I heard my name called, very faintly, as if
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: from a great distance. There was no one in sight
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: in any direction. I did not linger. What exactly was
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: happening in Fort Sumner during those summer days of 1881?
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: The conventional historical record makes no mention of these occurrences,
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: but Miller's journal is not the only source that hints
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: at something unusual. A letter discovered in 1965 in the
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: personal effects of a Fort Sumner resident named Maria Gutierrez,
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: dated July 12, 1881, and addressed to her sister in
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: Santa Fe reads, People say it is because of Billy,
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: because of what he found in the canyon. Pete, Maxwell
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: will not speak of it, but I have seen his
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: face when the subject arises. There is fear there, sister,
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: not the kind of fear a man has for another
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: man but the fear one has of things that cannot
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: be explained. Last night the dogs would not stop their
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: howling until dawn. This morning Señora Vigil found her chickens
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: dead in their coop, not eaten or taken, just dead
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: with their eyes open. The old ones say it is
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: like before, in the time of our grandparents, when the
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: people of Agua Negra brought something back that should have
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: stayed buried. Father Garza has been called for, but he
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: is two days' ride away. I fear he will arrive
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: too late. This letter, preserved now in the Gutierrez family
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: collection at the New Mexico State Archives, provides independent confirmation
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: of the unusual atmosphere Miller described. Maria Gutierrez was known
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: in the community as a practical, no-nonsense woman who ran
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: a small boarding house. Her matter-of-fact description of events, without
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: embellishment or obvious superstition, lends credibility to her account. The
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: night of July 14, according to the official account, was
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: clear and moonlit. Garrett and two deputies had received information
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: that Billy was in Fort Sumner and had staked out
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: the settlement. Shortly after midnight, Billy entered Maxwell's house, reportedly
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: to get some meat from the kitchen. Garrett, who was
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: speaking with Maxwell in his bedroom, recognized Billy's voice. When
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: Billy entered the darkened room, Garrett fired twice. hitting Billy
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: once in the chest. The kid died without speaking a word,
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: but Miller's account differs significantly. Garrett ordered us to surround
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: Maxwell's house at sundown, he wrote. The kid was not
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: yet there, but Maxwell was certain he would come. What
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: troubles me is Maxwell's insistence that we must wait inside
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: the house in darkness. When William suggested we might better
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: apprehend the kid on his approach, Maxwell became agitated, saying,
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: He must be taken inside. It must happen here. Garrett
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: seemed to understand something I did not, for he nodded
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: and said, It ends tonight. The tone of his voice
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: sent a chill through me. This was not merely about
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: capturing an outlaw. There was something more at stake. Maxwell's sister, Paulita,
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: was sent to stay with neighbors despite her protests. The
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: old Apache housekeeper refused to remain in the house, saying
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: she would sleep in the stable. Blood inside, not outside,
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: she told Maxwell in broken English. Must be inside. According
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: to Miller, Billy did not arrive until well after midnight.
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: The deputy described how the night grew unusually quiet as
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: the hours passed. No coyotes calling, no night birds, not
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: even the sound of insects. The silence pressed against the
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: walls like a physical thing, he wrote. Inside, Maxwell paced,
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: pausing occasionally to peer out into the darkness. Garrett sat motionless,
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: his pistol on his lap. No one spoke. It was
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: as if we were awaiting not a man, but some judgment.
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: But what is most disturbing is his description of the
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: kid's appearance. He came on foot, not on horseback, as
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: would be expected. His approach was direct, with no attempt
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: at stealth. When he passed by my position at the window,
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: I saw his face clearly in the moonlight. I have
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: seen men face death before, have seen the gallows fear,
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: and the battlefield terror. What I saw in the kid's
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: face was neither of these. There was knowledge there, and
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: a terrible resignation. His eyes— I cannot describe what I saw
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: in his eyes, save that I know I will see
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: it in my dreams until my dying day. He paused briefly,
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: looking up at the moon, then toward the distant outline
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: of mesas that hid the canyon. He nodded slightly, as
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: if confirming something to himself, then entered the house. No
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: weapon was visible in his hands— Miller's account of what
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: happened inside the house is fragmented and confused. He describes
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: hearing voices, though he cannot make out the words. Then
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: a silence, so complete it was as if the world
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: itself held its breath. The sound of Garrett's pistol was
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: swallowed somehow, muffled as if fired underwater. When Miller entered
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: the room, he found Billy on the floor, a bullet
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: wound in his chest. Garrett stood over him, pistol still raised.
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: Maxwell was pressed against the far wall, his eyes fixed
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: not on the kid, but on the window, where nothing
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: but the night was visible. The kid's eyes were open,
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: but the life was gone from them. His lips were moving,
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: though no breath passed them. Garrett saw this, too, for
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: he leaned down as if listening. What the dying man
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: might have said I cannot know. But when Garrett straightened,
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: his face was ashen.' It' s done,' he said to Maxwell.
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: God help us all, but it's done. Miller noted that
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: neither man seemed to celebrate the death of the territory's
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: most wanted outlaw. There was no satisfaction, no relief, only
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: a grim, almost fearful tension. Garrett instructed me to summon Dr.
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: Finney from the old infirmary, Miller wrote. But his words
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: rang hollow, for it was clear the kid was beyond
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: medical help. Maxwell merely nodded, his eyes still fixed on
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: the window. He won't be coming back, Maxwell said. It
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: struck me as an odd thing to say about a
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: dead man. Dr. Marcus Finney, who had served as a
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: military surgeon during the fort's active years and remained in
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: the settlement afterward, arrived quickly. According to territorial medical records,
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: Finney was in his early sixties in 1881, respected if
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: somewhat eccentric. His examination of Billy's body was cursory at best,
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: according to Miller. Finney knelt beside the body, checked for
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: a pulse he surely knew would not be there, then
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: nodded to Garrett. Death by gunshot wound to the heart,
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: he said, loudly enough that all present could hear clearly.
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: But then he frowned, leaning closer to examine something. I
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: could not see what drew his attention, but I saw
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: Maxwell shake his head slightly at the doctor. Finney straightened immediately.
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: Nothing more to be done here, he declared, and promptly left.
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: Later I overheard him arguing with Maxwell on the porch.
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: I've never seen anything like it, Finney insisted. Maxwell hushed him,
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: glancing around nervously. It's better not to know, he told
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: the doctor. Better for everyone. The aftermath of Billy's death,
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: as described in the official record, was straightforward. His body
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: was examined by a local justice of the peace. An
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: inquest was held, and he was buried the following day
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: in the old military cemetery. Few mourners attended. The legendary
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: outlaw's story was over. But Miller's journal, along with several
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: other documents discovered in the 1960s, suggests a very different
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: sequence of events. The body was not examined, Miller wrote.
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: Garrett insisted it be buried immediately. When the justice arrived
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: the next morning to perform his duty, he was told
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: the inquest had already been conducted. No papers were filed,
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: no statements taken. Maxwell provided a simple pine coffin, and
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: the kid was in the ground before noon. Garrett ordered
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: Williams and myself to remain at the grave until the
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: last shovelful of earth was in place. No one approached,
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: though I noted that the locals watched from a distance,
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: many making signs against evil. Paulita Maxwell wept in the
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: doorway of a neighbor's house, but did not come to
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: the graveside. Most strange was the precaution taken with the
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: body itself. Before it was placed in the coffin, Garrett
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: instructed me to assist him in binding the kids' hands
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: and feet with rope. though there could be no earthly
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: reason to restrain a corpse. More disturbing still, he placed
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: what appeared to be a silver crucifix in the body's
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: mouth before the lid was nailed shut. When I questioned this,
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: Garrett merely said, Old custom. For those who die suddenly.
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: But his eyes would not meet mine. The practice Garrett
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: described is not consistent with any known Anglo burial customs
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: of the time, though similar practices did exist in some
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: European traditions for those believed to be restless spirits or
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: victims of unnatural deaths. The presence of a crucifix in
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: the mouth specifically recalls traditions meant to prevent the dead
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: from speaking or returning, but such practices were largely extinct
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: in mainstream American culture by the late 19th century. What
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: was the rush to bury Billy? Why the lack of
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: proper procedure? And why did Garrett, known for his adherence
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: to legal formalities, allow such irregularities. As a lawman seeking
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: to prove he had indeed killed the notorious outlaw, one
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: would expect Garrett to want witnesses to examine the body,
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: perhaps even to display it publicly, as was sometimes done
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: with famous outlaws. Instead, he seemed intent on placing Billy
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: in the ground as quickly and quietly as possible. The
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: days following the burial were marked by a strange quiet
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: in Fort Sumner, Miller describes the settlement as holding its breath.
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: People stayed indoors after dark. Conversations fell silent when strangers approached. Maxwell,
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: who should have been relieved that the notorious outlaw was
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: no longer a threat, became reclusive, refusing visitors and reportedly
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: drinking heavily. According to Miller, Maxwell ordered the room where
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: Billy died to be thoroughly cleaned, the floorboards scrubbed with lye,
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: and then locked the room and refused to allow anyone
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: to enter it again. Most telling is Miller's entry from
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: July 20th. Garrett announced today that we ride for Lincoln
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: in the morning. When I asked about completing our report
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: on the kid's death, he said the matter was closed.
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: The less said about Fort Sumner, the better for all concerned,
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: were his exact words. Later I overheard him speaking with Maxwell.
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: Something about the canyon being sealed? Maxwell asked if Garrett
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: was certain It would not escape. Garrett's reply chilled me
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: to the bone. Nothing escapes the grave, Pete. Not even him. Williams,
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: who has spoken little since that night, confided in me
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: that he plans to leave the territory entirely. This is
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: not finished, he told me. What walks in Agua Negra
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: still walks. When I pressed him for explanation, he merely
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: shook his head. Ask the old ones, he said. They remember.
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: What happened in the days and weeks before Billy's death?
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: What did he find in Agua Negra Canyon? And what
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: did Garrett and Maxwell know that they were so determined
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: to keep secret? The answers may lie in a set
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: of documents that were never meant to be found. In 1963,
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: during renovations to the old Maxwell House, by then a
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: historical site, workers discovered a small metal box sealed within
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: a wall cavity. The discovery was documented in the renovation
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: contractor's report, to the New Mexico Historical Preservation Office, though
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: with minimal detail. A box found in north wall of
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: main bedroom during removal of damaged adobe. Contents transferred to
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: site supervisor. The site supervisor, Edward Salazar, initially treated the
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: find as just another artifact of the house's long history.
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: But upon opening the box, he realized its contents might
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: be significant. Inside were several items. A leather pouch containing
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: what appeared to be soil or ash, a small silver
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: crucifix badly tarnished, and a journal. The journal, written in Spanish,
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: belonged to an unnamed Franciscan monk and dated from 1768.
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: According to Salazar's personal notes, now part of the Salazar
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: family papers at the University of New Mexico, he immediately
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: recognized the potential historical significance of the journal and arranged
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: for its transfer to academic authorities for proper study. The
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: journal was sent to the University of New Mexico for
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: translation and analysis. Dr. Elena Fuentes, who led the examination,
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: submitted her findings in a paper that was scheduled for
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: publication in the Journal of Southwestern History in 1965. The
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: paper was pulled at the last minute, officially due to
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: concerns about the provenance and authenticity of the source material. Dr.
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: Fuentes subsequently left the university and relocated to Spain, where
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: she took a position at the University of Salamanca. Attempts
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: to contact her by researchers in the late 1960s were unsuccessful.
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: Her original manuscript, however, was preserved by a colleague and
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: surfaced in a private collection in 1968. According to Dr.
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: Fuentes' analysis, the monk's journal described an expedition to what
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: would later be known as Agua Negra Canyon. The purpose
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: was to investigate reports of pagan practices among the indigenous population.
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: What the monk found was a small settlement of mixed
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: Spanish and indigenous people who had established a community centered
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: around what he described as a place of emergence. The
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: locals believe that the cave at the canyon's eastern end
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: is a doorway, Dr. Fuentes translated. Not a doorway to
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: any earthly place, but to what they call the world below.
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: They maintain that ancestors can return through this opening, bringing
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: knowledge from beyond. But their rituals suggest they also believe
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: less benevolent entities may use this passage. They conduct ceremonies
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: at each full moon to keep the way closed and
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: feed those who wait. I have observed these rituals from
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: a distance and find them troubling. They slaughter a black
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: goat and spill its blood at the cave entrance, then
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: seal the opening with a mixture of clay, ash, and
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: what appears to be ground bones. The local headman, who
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: calls himself Pablo, but was born with an indigenous name
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: he refuses to share, tells me these practices date back
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: to the time before time. When I suggested such beliefs
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: run counter to Christian teaching, he smiled and said, Father,
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: your God is young. What sleeps beneath is ancient. The
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: monk described rituals performed to keep the doorway sealed, and
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: his growing concern that these practices represented a syncretism of
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: Catholic and indigenous beliefs that bordered on heresy. As his
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: time in the settlement progressed, his entries became increasingly disturbed.
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: He wrote of dreams in which he heard voices calling
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: from the depths of the cave, speaking in languages unknown
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: to him. He described the settlement's inhabitants as nervous, always
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: watching the cave entrance as if expecting something to emerge.
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: And most troublingly, He noted that several children had gone missing,
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: with their disappearances explained away as taken by coyotes or
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: wandered into the desert. His final entries indicate he had
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: requested additional priests to help cleanse the settlement. What occurs
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: here is not merely paganism, but something darker, he wrote.
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: I fear the blood rituals do not prevent evil but
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: sustain it. Something waits in that cave, something aware and hungry.
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: I have heard it in my dreams, calling my name,
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: promising knowledge, if only I would enter. I resist, but
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: my resolve weakens with each passing night. I have written
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: to Father Superior Domingo, requesting immediate assistance and authorization for
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: more extreme measures. The cave must be permanently sealed. The
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: rituals ended. Until help arrives, I will continue to document
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: what I observe, though it sickens my soul to do so.
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: The journal ends abruptly in mid-sentence. Last night I approached
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: the cave alone, against all good judgment. In the moonlight
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: I saw what appeared to be writing on the rock
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: face beside the entrance, symbols that seemed to shift and
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: change as I— Historical records confirm that a Spanish military
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: expedition was dispatched to the area in late 1768, reportedly
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: to deal with indigenous unrest. The settlement was abandoned shortly thereafter.
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: its inhabitants relocated or, more likely, killed. The official report,
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: preserved in archives in Mexico City, makes no mention of
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: religious concerns, describing the action simply as pacification of hostile elements. However,
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: a letter discovered in the Archivo General de Indias in Seville,
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: from Father Superior Domingo to his superiors in Mexico City,
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: suggests a different motivation. The situation described by Brother Alejandro
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: is grave indeed. If even half of what he reports
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: is true, the settlement must be cleansed not merely for
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: the glory of God, but for the safety of all
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: who dwell in these territories. The expedition departs within the week.
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: I have instructed Captain Vega that the cave must be
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: sealed completely, with no possibility of reopening. Brother Alejandro himself,
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: I fear, may be beyond salvation. Captain Vega understands he
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: may be required to take extreme measures. What connection could
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: this 18th century event have to Billy the Kid's death
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: in 1881? A partial answer comes from an unexpected source,
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: Pete Maxwell's personal correspondence, discovered among family papers donated to
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: the New Mexico State Archives in 1966, in a letter
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: to his brother in St. Louis, dated August 1881. Maxwell wrote,
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: The matter we discussed regarding the kid has been resolved.
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: Garrett performed his duty, though he does not know the
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: full truth of it. It is better this way. Some
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: knowledge is too heavy a burden. I have sealed the
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: old Spanish papers back in their place in the wall.
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: May God forgive me, but I cannot destroy them. Perhaps
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: some day someone will need to know what lies in
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: the canyon should the seals fail again. The Apache woman
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: tells me the signs are good. The boundary holds. But
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: for how long? The kid found a way to open
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: what should have remained closed. Others may do the same.
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: I dream of his eyes, Stephen. Not as they were
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: in life, laughing, quick, alert, but as they were at
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: the end. But looked out through those eyes was not
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: the boy we knew. The old Spanish papers likely referred
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: to documents related to the settlement in Agua Negra Canyon,
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: possibly including the monk's journal or copies of it. But
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: what did Maxwell mean by seals? And what role did
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: Billy the Kid play in all of this? A potential
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: clue exists in a statement given by a Fort Sumner
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: resident named Miguel Sandoval to a traveling journalist in 1883.
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: The interview, conducted for a series on frontier life, was
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: never published but was found among the journalist papers after
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: his death. These papers, now housed in the American Folklore
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: Collection at the University of Texas, contain numerous interviews with
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: residents of New Mexico territory, most focusing on daily life, customs,
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: and local history. The Sandoval interview stands out for its
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: unusual content. Sandoval claimed that in early July 1881, Billy
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: the Kid arrived at his home in a state of
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: extreme agitation. He had been in the canyon, Sandoval said.
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: He spoke of finding a cave with strange markings, similar
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: to those the old ones described. He had gone inside,
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: he said, following the sound of voices. What he found
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: there he would not say directly. He spoke in circles
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: about those who wait below and the hungry ones. He
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: asked me about the old stories, about the doorway. I
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: told him those were just tales to frighten children. He
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: laughed then, but there was no humor in it. I've
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: seen them, he said, and now they've seen me. According
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: to Sandoval, Billy left his house, but returned the next evening.
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: He was calmer then, but there was something wrong in
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: his eyes. He said he had been back to the cave.
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: They made me an offer, he told me, knowledge for freedom.
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: When I asked what this meant, he only smiled and
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: said that soon everyone would know his name, and that
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: he would never die. I thought it was the talk
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: of a man who had been too long in the sun,
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: or perhaps had drunk too much. Now I am not
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: so certain. Sandoval's account could be dismissed as the elaboration
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: of a man seeking to capitalize on his connection to
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: a famous outlaw, or perhaps influenced by the growing mythology
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: around Billy's death. Yet it aligns with other accounts from
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: the period, and with the strange details in Miller's journal.
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: If Sandoval was fabricating, he was doing so in a
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: way that remarkably paralleled private documents he could not have
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: had access to. Was Billy the Kid suffering from delusions
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: in his final days? Or had he stumbled upon something
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: in Agua Negra Canyon that defied rational explanation? And how
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: does this connect to the unusual circumstances of his death
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: and burial? Miller's journal provides one final disturbing piece to
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: this puzzle. In his last entry, dated July 30, 1881,
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: he wrote, I have requested a transfer to the Arizona Territory.
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: Garrett has not questioned my decision. though I see in
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: his eyes that he knows why I can no longer
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: remain here. Last night I rode to the cemetery on
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: the outskirts of Fort Sumner. I cannot explain what compelled
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: me to visit the kid's grave, save that I have
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: not slept well since that night, troubled by dreams I
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: cannot recall upon waking. The moon was full, casting enough
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: light to see clearly. The grave showed signs of disturbance.
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: Not as if someone had dug there, but as if
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: the earth had shifted from below. Beside the grave marker
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: I found a playing card half buried in the soil.
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: The Ace of Spades. It was said to be the
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: kid's calling card in life. Next to it was a
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: single footprint, leading away from the grave toward the open desert.
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: Toward the canyon. I did not follow it. Some trails,
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: once taken, allow no return journey. I am leaving Fort
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: Sumner tomorrow. I will not speak of what happened here,
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: nor of what I suspect. Some stories are better left untold.
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: This entry is particularly significant because it shows a marked
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: change in Miller's writing style. Earlier entries were methodical and detailed,
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: befitting a former Texas Ranger accustomed to precise observations. This
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: final entry is almost poetic in its fatalism, suggesting a
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: profound shift in Miller's worldview. Whatever he believed he saw
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: that night affected him deeply enough to abandon his position
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: and leave the territory entirely. Miller kept his word. He
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: served as a lawman in Arizona until 1886, then disappeared
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: from public record. A James Miller appears in the 1900
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: census in Idaho, listed as a prospector. but it is
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: unclear if this is the same man. His journal remained
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: hidden for over 80 years, its contents known only to
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: those few who handled it during its brief emergence in
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: the 1960s. The journal was reportedly returned to the New
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: Mexico archives, but attempts to locate it in 1969 were unsuccessful.
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: It had vanished, along with the monk's journal found in
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: Maxwell's Wall and most of Dr. Fuente's research materials. Pat
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: Garrett never spoke publicly about the details of that night
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: in Fort Sumner. In his biography of Billy the Kid,
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: published in 1882, he presented the official version of the events,
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: a straightforward shooting of a dangerous outlaw. The book, largely
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: ghostwritten by Ash Upson, contains none of the unusual elements
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: described in Miller's journal or suggested by other sources. Garrett
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: rarely discussed the matter in private either, according to those
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: who knew him. Charles Siringo, a Pinkerton detective who met
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: Garrett several times in later years, noted in his memoir
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: that the former sheriff would change the subject whenever Billy's
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: name was mentioned, saying only, that business is finished. Garrett
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: himself was murdered in 1908, shot in the back while
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: on a remote road outside Las Cruces, New Mexico. His
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: killer's identity and motive remained disputed. Wayne Brazel confessed to
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: the shooting, claiming self-defense, and was acquitted at trial. However,
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: rumors persisted that Brazel had been hired to kill Garrett,
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: either for political reasons or because of old business the
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: former sheriff knew too much about. In a curious parallel
• 42:58
  Speaker 1: to Billy's death, Garrett's body was buried quickly, with minimal
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: ceremony and few mourners in attendance. Pete Maxwell sold his
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: property in Fort Sumner in in 1882, and moved to Colorado.
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: According to property records, he received significantly less than market
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: value for the ranch, suggesting he was eager to leave
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: quickly rather than wait for a better offer. He died
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: in 1898, reportedly after a long illness characterized by nervous
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: exhaustion and delusions. According to his physician's notes, preserved in
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: the Maxwell family papers, in his final days, Maxwell spoke
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: repeatedly of keeping watch, and begged visitors not to let
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: him in. The doctor attributed these statements to fever, and
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: the effects of morphine administered for pain. Maxwell's sister, Paulita,
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: who had been rumored to be romantically involved with Billy,
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: never married. She lived until 1929, maintaining until her death
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: that there was more to the story of Billy's end,
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: though she refused to elaborate when pressed. Agua Negra Canyon
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: remains a remote and seldom visited location in present-day New Mexico.
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: It does not appear on most maps, and local guides
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: are reportedly reluctant to take visitors there. In 1962, a
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: geological survey team from the University of New Mexico reported
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: finding a cave system at its eastern end, but their
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: exploration was cut short by what the official report described
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: as structural instability. Unofficially, team members spoke of unusual acoustic
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: phenomena and disorienting effects that made accurate mapping impossible. Dr. Ortish,
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: Harold Weinberg, who led the expedition, later told colleagues that
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: his team experienced an inexplicable sense of dread as they
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: approached the main cave entrance. It was as if we
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: were being watched, he reportedly said, not by anything visible,
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: but by something aware and and deeply hostile. The cave
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: entrance was later declared unsafe and sealed by the state
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: geological service. The grave of Billy the Kid became something
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: of a tourist attraction in the decades following his death.
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: The original Fort Sumner Cemetery was washed away in a
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: flood in 1904 with many graves, including Billy's, lost to
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: the waters of the Pecos River. A new marker was
• 45:31
  Speaker 1: erected at the reconstructed cemetery, though it is unlikely it
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: stands over the outlaw's actual remains. Perhaps, as Miller's journal suggests,
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: those remains were no longer there to be found. The
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: new headstone has been stolen and replaced several times over
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: the years. Local lore maintains that possession of a fragment
• 45:50
  Speaker 1: of the original marker brings bad luck, with several supposed
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: owners experiencing unusual accidents or unexplained illnesses. In 1950, a
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: rancher named Thomas Garcia claimed to have found human remains
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: while digging a fence post hole near the edge of
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: his property, approximately two miles from Fort Sumner and in
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: the general direction of Agua Negra Canyon. The bones were
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: examined by the local medical examiner and determined to be
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: those of a young man, approximately 20-25 years of age,
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: who had died 70-100 years earlier. A bullet was found
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: among the remains, though Whether it had caused the death
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: could not be determined. Garcia reburied the bones where he
• 46:33
  Speaker 1: found them, placing a small unmarked stone as a grave marker.
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: When researchers attempted to relocate the site in 1968, Garcia
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: refused to help, saying only that some things were better
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: left in the ground. In 1968, anthropologist Dr. Robert Westfall
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: interviewed several elderly residents of the Fort Sumner area as
• 46:56
  Speaker 1: part of a study on frontier oral traditions. One account
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: provided by a woman who claimed her grandmother had lived
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: in Fort Sumner in 1881 described a local belief that
• 47:07
  Speaker 1: persisted for decades after Billy's death. The old ones said
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: the kid made a deal with the dark ones from
• 47:13
  Speaker 1: the canyon. They said Garrett shot him true, but it
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: wasn't enough to keep him in the ground. That's why
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: they say you should never go near Agua Negra after sunset,
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: and why you should never, ever, Speak the kid's real
• 47:27
  Speaker 1: name after dark. Names have power, my grandmother said. They
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: can call things that should stay hidden. Another interviewee, a
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: man in his nineties who had grown up near Fort Sumner,
• 47:39
  Speaker 1: told Westfall, When I was a boy, there was a
• 47:42
  Speaker 1: man who came through town every few years. Tall fellow,
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: kept to himself. Some said he was the kid, that
• 47:48
  Speaker 1: he hadn't died at all. Others said it couldn't be him,
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: that he was too tall, too quiet. The kid they
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: knew was quick to laugh, quick to draw. This man
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: moved slow, deliberate-like, but there was something in his eyes.
• 48:03
  Speaker 1: My father forbade us from speaking to him, said he
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: wasn't natural. Last time he came through was 1915 or thereabouts,
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: stopped at the general store, bought supplies, then headed out
• 48:15
  Speaker 1: toward the canyon. Far as I know, he never came back.
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: Was this simply frontier superstition, the kind of tale that
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: often grows around notorious figures? Or is there something more
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: to the strange circumstances surrounding Billy the Kid's final days
• 48:30
  Speaker 1: and the enduring mysteries of his death? The complete truth
• 48:34
  Speaker 1: may never be known. The key documents have vanished, their
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: custodians silenced by time or more deliberate means. What remains
• 48:43
  Speaker 1: are fragments, hints of a story far different from the
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: one recorded in history books. A story of an outlaw
• 48:50
  Speaker 1: who found something ancient and terrible in a remote canyon.
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: of lawmen who killed not just to bring justice, but
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: to contain something they could barely comprehend, of a community
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: that held its secrets close, out of fear of what
• 49:05
  Speaker 1: might happen if they were revealed. And perhaps somewhere in
• 49:10
  Speaker 1: the high desert of New Mexico, in a canyon seldom
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: visited and avoided after dark, by those who know the
• 49:17
  Speaker 1: old stories, something still waits. Something that remembers a young
• 49:21
  Speaker 1: outlaw who discovered its resting place and made a bargain
• 49:25
  Speaker 1: he didn't fully understand. Something patient that measures time not
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: in years or decades, but in centuries. As James Miller
• 49:34
  Speaker 1: wrote in his final journal entry, some trails, once taken,
• 49:38
  Speaker 1: allow no return journey and some stories are better left untold.
• 49:43
  Speaker 1: But in the dark corners of history, in fragmented documents
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: and half-remembered tales, the echoes of these stories remain, waiting
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: for someone to piece them together, waiting, perhaps, for someone
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: to speak a name that hasn't been forgotten after all.
• 49:59
  Speaker 1: In 1969, a small archaeological team from Eastern New Mexico
• 50:04
  Speaker 1: University conducted a brief survey of Agua Negra Canyon, Their
• 50:08
  Speaker 1: permit allowed for surface examination only. No excavation was authorized.
• 50:14
  Speaker 1: The team consisted of four graduate students led by Dr.
• 50:18
  Speaker 1: Michael Landon, an assistant professor of anthropology specializing in pre-Columbian settlements.
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: According to the official research proposal, their objective was to
• 50:28
  Speaker 1: document any evidence of Spanish colonial or indigenous habitation and
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: to assess the site for future, more comprehensive study. After
• 50:37
  Speaker 1: three days, the team abruptly packed up and left, their
• 50:40
  Speaker 1: survey incomplete. The official report cited logistical issues as the
• 50:46
  Speaker 1: reason for the premature termination. University records indicate that Dr.
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: Landon requested the remaining research funds be reallocated to other projects,
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: an unusual move given the time and effort already invested
• 50:59
  Speaker 1: in securing the site permit. Dr. Landon submitted his field
• 51:03
  Speaker 1: notes as required. but declined to be interviewed about the expedition.
• 51:07
  Speaker 1: His notes, preserved in the university archives, are remarkably sparse
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: given his reputation for detailed documentation. They mention finding evidence
• 51:17
  Speaker 1: of a small settlement, foundations of adobe structures, scattered pottery
• 51:22
  Speaker 1: fragments consistent with late 18th century Spanish colonial style, and
• 51:27
  Speaker 1: what appeared to be the remains of a small chapel
• 51:31
  Speaker 1: or mission building. The notes make no mention of a
• 51:34
  Speaker 1: cave or any unusual features, despite the geological survey team's
• 51:38
  Speaker 1: documented discovery of such features seven years earlier. Landon left
• 51:43
  Speaker 1: his position at the university shortly thereafter and reportedly relocated
• 51:48
  Speaker 1: to the East Coast. Colleagues described his departure as sudden
• 51:53
  Speaker 1: and uncharacteristic. Dr. Eleanor Hayes, who shared an office with Landon,
• 51:58
  Speaker 1: later recalled that he returned from the canyon expedition early.
• 52:01
  Speaker 1: changed somehow, withdrawn, jumpy, not at all like the methodical,
• 52:06
  Speaker 1: enthusiastic person I knew. She also mentioned finding a strange
• 52:10
  Speaker 1: object on his desk, a small stone, perfectly round, with
• 52:15
  Speaker 1: markings that looked like writing but in no alphabet I recognized.
• 52:19
  Speaker 1: When I asked him about it, he snatched it away
• 52:22
  Speaker 1: and told me never to touch it again. It was
• 52:25
  Speaker 1: the only time I ever saw him angry. His personal journal, however,
• 52:29
  Speaker 1: was discovered among materials he left behind. The journal, unlike
• 52:33
  Speaker 1: his official notes, contains detailed observations about the canyon and
• 52:38
  Speaker 1: the team's experiences there. It describes the unsettling acoustics of
• 52:42
  Speaker 1: the place. Voices echo strangely, sometimes returning after a delay
• 52:47
  Speaker 1: of several seconds, sometimes not at all. And the discovery
• 52:52
  Speaker 1: of the cave entrance, partially collapsed but still accessible. Landon's
• 52:56
  Speaker 1: entry from the second day of the expedition notes, Davis
• 53:00
  Speaker 1: and Chen explored approximately 20 meters into the cave before
• 53:04
  Speaker 1: turning back. They reported unusual markings on the walls, not
• 53:08
  Speaker 1: pictographs or petroglyphs in any recognized style, but geometric patterns
• 53:13
  Speaker 1: of remarkable precision. I plan to examine these myself tomorrow
• 53:18
  Speaker 1: and document them properly. But the entry from the following
• 53:21
  Speaker 1: day shows a marked change in tone. I have instructed
• 53:26
  Speaker 1: the team to break camp. We are leaving immediately. The
• 53:29
  Speaker 1: university will have to be satisfied with what we've gathered
• 53:32
  Speaker 1: thus far. Some places are not meant to be studied.
• 53:36
  Speaker 1: What exists in that cave defies rational explanation. I heard something.
• 53:42
  Speaker 1: A voice, but not a human voice. It knew my name.
• 53:46
  Speaker 1: It knew all our names. The final entry, dated the
• 53:49
  Speaker 1: night before the team's departure from the canyon, reads simply,
• 53:53
  Speaker 1: There are footprints around our camp each morning. They approach
• 53:57
  Speaker 1: from the direction of the cave, circle our tents, and
• 54:01
  Speaker 1: return the way they came. They appear to be made
• 54:03
  Speaker 1: by boots of a style not worn for many decades.
• 54:06
  Speaker 1: Tomorrow we leave this place. Some doors should remain closed.
• 54:11
  Speaker 1: The journal was filed away and forgotten until 1969, when
• 54:15
  Speaker 1: a graduate student came across it while researching frontier archaeology.
• 54:21
  Speaker 1: Attempts to contact Dr. Landon for clarification were unsuccessful. The
• 54:26
  Speaker 1: journal itself disappeared from the university archives shortly after being rediscovered.
• 54:32
  Speaker 1: Like so many pieces of this strange story, it vanished
• 54:36
  Speaker 1: just as its significance was being recognized. In the years since,
• 54:40
  Speaker 1: other researchers have attempted to investigate the Agua Negra site
• 54:44
  Speaker 1: and the unusual circumstances surrounding Billy the Kid's death. Most
• 54:48
  Speaker 1: have been hampered by the disappearance of key documents, the
• 54:52
  Speaker 1: reluctance of local residents to discuss the canyon, and in
• 54:55
  Speaker 1: some cases, by more direct obstacles. In 1972, historian David
• 55:01
  Speaker 1: Marshall secured permits for a comprehensive survey of the canyon,
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: including the cave system. Two days before his scheduled departure,
• 55:10
  Speaker 1: his research materials were destroyed in an office fire attributed
• 55:14
  Speaker 1: to faulty wiring. The only item salvaged was a map
• 55:18
  Speaker 1: showing the canyon's location, which was found to differ significantly
• 55:22
  Speaker 1: from official topographical surveys. The discrepancy was never explained. In 1975,
• 55:29
  Speaker 1: documentary filmmaker Susan Reyes began production on The Billy the
• 55:34
  Speaker 1: Kid Conspiracy, which would have explored alternative theories about the
• 55:38
  Speaker 1: outlaw's death, including the strange accounts associated with Agua Negra Canyon.
• 55:44
  Speaker 1: After conducting preliminary interviews in Fort Sumner, Reyes reported being
• 55:49
  Speaker 1: followed by an unmarked vehicle and receiving anonymous phone calls
• 55:53
  Speaker 1: from warning her to leave the past buried. Production was
• 55:58
  Speaker 1: abandoned after financial backers unexpectedly withdrew their support. Most recently,
• 56:04
  Speaker 1: in 1967, paranormal investigator Raymond Dietz claimed to have visited
• 56:09
  Speaker 1: the canyon and experienced profound temporal distortions near the sealed
• 56:14
  Speaker 1: cave entrance. His self-published account describes finding a weathered playing card,
• 56:20
  Speaker 1: the Ace of Spades, at the site. and hearing what
• 56:23
  Speaker 1: he described as whispered conversations in antique Spanish and another
• 56:28
  Speaker 1: language I could not identify. Dietz's account is largely dismissed
• 56:32
  Speaker 1: by serious researchers due to his history of embellishment and
• 56:36
  Speaker 1: focus on supernatural explanations. However, his description of the canyon's
• 56:42
  Speaker 1: geography matches historical accounts, suggesting he did at least visit
• 56:46
  Speaker 1: the actual location. And so the mystery remains. Buried in
• 56:51
  Speaker 1: lost documents and fading memories, what really happened to Billy
• 56:55
  Speaker 1: the Kid? What did he find in Agua Negra Canyon
• 56:58
  Speaker 1: in those final days of July 1881? And what secrets
• 57:02
  Speaker 1: lie behind the official story of his death? Perhaps it
• 57:06
  Speaker 1: is better not to know. Perhaps, as James Miller concluded,
• 57:10
  Speaker 1: some stories are better left untold. But in the whispers
• 57:14
  Speaker 1: of the desert wind, in the shadows that gather in
• 57:17
  Speaker 1: remote canyons as the sun sets, The echoes of those
• 57:21
  Speaker 1: untold stories linger, waiting, watching, remembering, and sometimes on dark
• 57:27
  Speaker 1: nights when the moon is hidden and the stars seem
• 57:30
  Speaker 1: distant and cold. Those who live near Agua Negra Canyon
• 57:34
  Speaker 1: say they can hear the soft sound of footsteps passing
• 57:36
  Speaker 1: by their homes, the distinctive sound of spurred boots walking
• 57:40
  Speaker 1: with purpose toward the desert, toward the canyon, toward whatever
• 57:44
  Speaker 1: waits there in the darkness below. They do not look
• 57:47
  Speaker 1: outside when they hear those footsteps. They do not speak
• 57:51
  Speaker 1: the name of the young outlaw, who some say found
• 57:54
  Speaker 1: a way to cheat death itself. Instead, they lock their doors,
• 57:58
  Speaker 1: draw their curtains tight, and wait for morning. For in
• 58:02
  Speaker 1: the light of day the world makes sense again. History
• 58:05
  Speaker 1: is just history, stories are just stories, and the dead
• 58:09
  Speaker 1: remain safely in their graves until night falls once more.