Brushy Bill
Copyright© 2026 by A Bad Attitude
Chapter 2
The notes suggested that illustration #2 be Billy the Kid standing in a frontier town drawing his pistol and killing another man in a gunfight.
“Like I said I am Billy the Kid. I have killed over 20 men; all in fair fights. Pat Garrett did not shoot and kill me back in 1881. Hell, anybody who knew us back then knew that never happened. Pat and I were pals.”
“But the coroner signed...”
“He was a good friend, and he wanted to help us out. Hell, he’s the one who came up with the idea!”
“Okay, I want you to start from the beginning and I mean from when you were born.”
“My mother immigrated from Ireland after her first husband died. She was living in New York when she met my father. Soon after they were married, I was born. I grew up in a nice home, we were not rich, but my father had a good job and we had a good life. When I was 18 years old I decided to come west and seek my fortune. I found a job on a ranch working for Mr. Tunsdale. He was an Irishman like me and a Catholic, also like me. That man treated me and all his employees with respect. Everyone loved working for him. He became involved in a dispute with another big landowner and one day while on his way to town he was murdered. One of my men was with him and he lived long enough to tell me who did it. I went to the Sheriff, Pat Garrett, with the information I had. He investigated but did not have enough evidence to make an arrest.
That pissed me off. Me and a couple of the boys decided to take the law into our own hands and seek justice for Mr. Tunsdale. We caught two of the murders on the road to town and killed them. Their boss was friends with the Governor and had arrest warrants issued for us. Pat knew what had happened and did not serve the warrants. The Governor sent his ‘regulators’ to bring us to justice. They caught us in a house in town and set fire to that house. Me and a couple of the boys escaped and made it to Pat’s house. He was on our side and hid us.
Pat told us we needed to lay low until he could get this all worked out and suggested we go to Mexico. After dark one night we lit out for Mexico. We crossed the border and headed for the Martinez’s ranch. Señor Martinez and Mr. Tunsdale had been good friends, so we knew he would give us shelter on his huge ranch when he heard how we had avenged the murder of his good friend. We were received well and started working on his ranch. That’s where I met Juanita. She was 17 at the time and a real Mexican beauty! We fell in love and six months later we were married in a Catholic church in town...”
I had not said anything when it was obvious that Brushy Billl could not read or write. I knew William Bonnie had graduated high school in New York city before he came west. I had also kept quiet when he referred to Tunstill as Tunsdale. But him marrying Juanita, I had to say something!
“Wait a minute, are you saying you married Juanita Garrett...”