Billy the Kid: a pardon at long last?

"I expect you have forgotten what you promised me," Billy the Kid wrote to New Mexico Territory's governor, Lew Wallace, in 1881. The Kid was writing from a Santa Fe jail cell. He was there because of the dogged efforts of Pat Garrett, who had been elected sheriff of Lincoln County, which comprised the southeastern part of the territory, on the promise that he would put a stop to Billy and his gang of rustlers. Now Billy was waiting to be transported to Mesilla, where he would be tried for the murder of another Lincoln County lawman, Sheriff William Brady. Billy's pointed reminder to Wallace referred to a deal the two had made two years earlier. Wallace had promised to grant Billy amnesty for his role in shooting Brady and other misdeeds if the Kid agreed to testify before a grand jury investigating another Lincoln County murder. Billy held up his end of the bargain, but the governor failed to follow through with his. The Kid's letter went unanswered, as did all the others he sent to the Palace of the Governors on Santa Fe Plaza. In 2003, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson announced that he would consider making good on Wallace's promise and issue a pardon for Billy. Richardson's announcement came in the midst of international media attention over a modern-day forensic investigation looking into the circumstances of the Kid's death. But as the hoopla subsided, so did the talk of a pardon. Now the governor, whose term expires in January, is reportedly again giving serious consideration to Billy's pardon. Just what would a pardon for Billy the Kid mean? It can no longer help the Kid, of course, whose body lies buried beneath a stark metal cage at Ft. Sumner. Richardson would certainly make headlines, but after that would Billy lose some of his outlaw mystique? Would Garrett's obsession be made ridiculous? Would the two deputies killed during Billy's sensational daylight jailbreak have died in vain?...more

"Billy" Bonney and "Billy" Richardson...hmmmm