Possibility of pardon for Billy the Kid upsets Garrett descendants

Almost 130 years after one of the more significant historical events in New Mexico, and almost 100 years after the death of one of the two key figures, the rhetoric continues in the fateful shooting of Billy The Kid by legendary lawman Pat Garrett. Garrett gunned down Billy The Kid - also known as Henry McCarty, Henry Antrim, and William H. Bonney, on July 14,1881 in Fort Sumner, about 200 miles northeast of Las Cruces. There are claims that New Mexico territorial governor Lew Wallace - the same person who wrote "Ben Hur" - offered Billy The Kid a pardon if he testified against the principles involved in the "Lincoln County War," a bloody uprising between rival merchants and ranchers in 1877. Billy The Kid agreed to testify in return for a pardon from Wallace, but the governor reportedly reneged on that promise. An inquiry into the claims was started by Gov. Bill Richardson in 2003, and he said then if there was enough information to warrant it, he would pardon Billy The Kid. But Susan Floyd Garrett, the granddaughter of Pat Garrett, said Wednesday that she and other relatives are opposed to the governor issuing a pardon. "From the beginning, we feel that, as many other historians have, that the governor has created his own version of the facts, and those have nothing to do with the real history of New Mexico."...more