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April 27, 2004

History Channel Tackles Truths, Fallacies


By Richard Benke
The Associated Press
       A lawyer appointed to represent Billy the Kid says territorial Gov. Lew Wallace, author of "Ben Hur," reneged on a promised amnesty that now warrants a posthumous pardon from Gov. Bill Richardson.
    Richardson said he believes the Kid is a New Mexico legend and wants to keep it that way. He did not say he would grant such a pardon.
    Virtually every other participant in the so-called Lincoln County War of 1876-1881 was extended amnesty because of the lawlessness that infected the region. As told in a History Channel documentary Monday night, two opposing sides were legally warranted to arrest the other after British rancher John H. Tunstall was assassinated by the owners of a rival mercantile.
    The documentary written and co-produced by University of New Mexico historian Paul Hutton, featuring discussion with fellow historians N. Scott Momaday and Robert Utley, suggests Wallace agreed to extend the amnesty to William H. Bonney, aka Billy the Kid, if he would testify in a court proceeding about the corruption in Lincoln County.
    "Stripped of its basics, Billy kept his promise and Wallace did not keep his promise," Utley said in the course of the hourlong documentary narrated by co-producer Bill Kurtis.
    Attorney William Robbins, appointed to represent Bonney's interests, said: "The promise that was given to him by Lew Wallace all those years ago really should be kept."
    Richardson says he believes that claims of the late Ollie "Brushy Bill" Roberts to be Billy the Kid were "patently false," but he wants to see the controversy resolved "through science, not speculation."
    The governor says he has found much international fascination with the Wild West, including the legend of Billy the Kid.
    "I want to keep him a New Mexico legend," Richardson says moments before Kurtis concludes that chances are Billy will get away again this time "just as he always has."
    The program is part of the History Channel's new "Investigating History" series. It focuses on the probe launched last year by Lincoln County officials to settle questions about Bonney, or Henry Antrim, as he was known in the days before the Lincoln County War.
    The documentary looks at efforts to determine if the man Sheriff Pat Garrett killed in 1881 in Fort Sumner was actually Billy the Kid and whether Garrett had a hand in helping the Kid escape from the Lincoln County Courthouse on April 28, 1881, or 123 years ago Wednesday.
    Hutton, 54, author of a prize-winning book about Civil War Gen. Philip Sheridan, is also a regular on network, public and cable-TV programs covering the history of the West.
    He is writing and co-producing two more episodes of the "Investigating History" series   —   one about legendary lawman Wyatt Earp and another about outlaw Butch Cassidy.