Billy The Kid Photos

[BobC]

Originally Posted by ALR-bishop

These may be what Bob mentioned. Have no idea about autheticity of either

Yes, those are the two pictures. The top one was apparently taken in 1877 and given to another outlaw friend of Billy's, named Billy Wilson, also known as David Anderson. It was then handed done through Anderson's family till brought to light just recently in 2019. Because of the story, provenance, and ownership in the one family for over 100 years, that photo has supposedly been confirmed as showing Billy the Kid (real name Henry McCarty) playing cards with members of his gang. It was verified by the George Eastman Museum, and historian Mark Osterman, as being a vintage period tintype photo. Billy is the player second from the left, and it has had the image matched with his only other confirmed photo. The names of the other three players are also known and known members of his gang. I believe the photo was then auctioned off by Sofe Design Auctions of Richardson, near Dallas, TX, back in November, 2019. But I didn't go digging to see what it sold for. The first originally confirmed photo of BTK, the one where he's standing by himself with a rifle at his side, last sold at auction back in 2011 for $2.3M.

There is supposedly another photo that surfaced around 2017 that shows five men, and allegedly includes images of BTK and Pat Garret, who ended up shooting and killing BTK. It has supposedly gone through forensic video and handwriting analysis to determine that it is actually Garret and BTK in the photo, but lacks the provenance of the photo of him playing cards. So like the other alleged BTK photo of him outdoors playing croquet, I don't believe this other five man group photo with Garret is considered fully confirmed yet either.

Can you imagine how crazy it would be if a confirmed photo of Billy the Kid playing baseball ever surfaced?