Some stray thoughts on Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid (1973), the "friendship" between the real Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid, the nuances of "historical accuracy" in Westerns & one of the ways I think historians have overcorrected in their attempts to combat bad history...
Jun 27, 2023 · 8:30 AM UTC
While almost every scene in Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid is steeped in history, it is NOT an attempt at an accurate retelling of Pat Garrett's hunt for Billy the Kid in 1880s New Mexico.
A passing glance at the two stars should make that pretty obvious:
People love mentioning that Kris Kristofferson was a decade & change too old to play Billy the Kid. That's because he has "Kid" in his name. James Coburn was a decade & change too old to play Pat Garrett, but no one mentions that. It would require reading past the character name
I have my thoughts on why Peckinpah cast as old as he did, but that's for another time. Today I'm addressing what's generally regarded as the film's other big inaccuracy: its depiction of Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid as being friends before Garrett hunted the Kid down...
Almost every review/article/video that addresses Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid's relationship to history has a disclaimer noting that Pat Garrett was not friends with Billy the Kid.
The reason being that Pat Garrett shot & killed him. A pretty effective friendship ender, most agree
But what if I told you that the depiction of the relationship dynamic between Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid in Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid is actually historically plausible?*
*Yes, I know I've already established that it doesn't really matter. Shut up.
I'm not saying they were good friends, because I don't think they were. I do want to talk about this (relatively) recent insistence among many historians that they absolutely were not friends, despite quotes from people who knew both of them which claim that they were...
Sallie Chisum, niece of cattle baron John Chisum, was friends with both Billy the Kid & Pat Garrett. According to her diary, in 1878, Billy the Kid gave her 2 candy hearts & 1 Indian pouch (nothing more romantic than that). Here's what she said about Billy & Pat's friendship/feud
Paulita Maxwell was the sister of Pete Maxwell (owner of the house where Garrett killed the Kid) & a close friend of Billy's (& likely one of his many lovers). Here's how she perceived the relationship between Pat & Billy ("the long & short of it"):
On the night of his death, Billy is thought to have "visited" a gal. Paulita is considered 1 of 2 most likely candidates. The other is Celsa Gutierrez, who Paulita mentions by name when talking about Billy's lothario status. Who was Celsa? Pat Garrett's (married) sister-in-law.
Straw Man: Ok, maybe they were gambling buddies, but those quotes hardly prove that they were close. Besides, Paulita seems pretty biased against Garrett. It feels like she's exaggerating their friendship to make Garrett look bad
Me: I don't disagree
Straw Man: Furthermore...
Straw Man: You know that scene where Pat goes into hostile territory to warn Billy?
Me: Yeah
Straw Man: When he asks him to leave so he doesn't have to hunt him?
Me: Yeah
Straw Man: Nothing in the historical record says anything like that happened
Me: I'm glad you said that
In 1880, Billy the Kid befriended a cowboy named John P. Meadows who was down on his luck & enlisted him to deliver/collect on stock Billy was running. Meadows was also friends with Garrett & later acted as Garrett's deputy. Here's Meadows in 1935 relaying a familiar story:
Straw Man: A memory of a memory of a geezer over 50 yrs after it was to have taken place! There are no other examples in the historical record that show Garrett doing anything like that
Me: What about Garrett's own 1882 account of meeting with Billy's pal Charlie Bowdre in 1880?
Man, owning the dude I just made up really takes a lot out of me. Time for bed. I'll continue this thread when I wake up. If you want to ensure I'm focused enough to finish it in a timely, satisfactory manner, consider buying me caffeine & shit buymeacoffee.com/davidlamber…
I'm back & well-caffeinated. Sincere thanks to those who bought me coffee 🙏: @colebrax @knife_or_fork @Dad61179189 & someone who I believe is anonymous, so until they let me know who they are, I'm going to assume it was Alias
Ok, back to the thread:
So I think I've shown that there is more than enough historical conjecture to justify the depiction of Pat & Billy's relationship in the film. Also, @wildwestxtra (who you should follow & listen to) reminded me of this fact:
This tweet is unavailable
I'll go more into the specifics of how & why the film dramatizes their relationship the way it does a little later. Right now I want to put forward my theory as to why so many historians are adamant that Pat & Billy were not friends & it involves a different Billy the Kid film...
The 1st Young Guns probably follows the basic events of the Lincoln County War closer than any other big screen attempt and-Jesus-Christ-that's-really-sad-but-whatever-keep-going
The sequel's depiction of the same post-Lincoln County War period as Pat Garrett is not (& worse)...
Young Guns 2 changes events & characters just like any other Western based on history. No, Doc Scurlock & Chavez y Chavez didn't die after being shot at Stinking Springs. No, Jim Greathouse was not a woman, though historians agree he did have a sweet, supple little ass.
It also allows Geoff Murphy to do his own riff on Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid before getting to do a riff on The Wild Bunch with The Last Outlaw a few years later. And yes, this does mean that Freejack is Geoff Murphy's Ballad of Cable Hogue
It also amps up the relationship between Billy & Pat, going so far as to have them in a gang together, thus contradicting the historical record AND part 1. Murphy's use of insane facial hair to distract from the lack of continuity worked brilliantly & part 2 was a big success...
The reason it amps up the Pat & Billy friendship is so that it can dig up a long dead conspiracy theory that Pat let Billy live & that he became some dope named Brushy Bill Roberts. Roberts also once claimed to be a member of the James Younger gang (he had a busy 19th century)
I'm not interested in going over the myriad of reasons why Brushy Bill was obviously not Billy the Kid & I'm not interested in arguing with any Brushy Bill truthers. If YOU'RE interested in Brushy's dumb-ass, this ep of @wildwestxtra is well worth a listen piped.video/M5s5zuDlxfM
Even the dumbest viewer would assume the events in Young Guns 2 are not how they really happened. But there's something about an epilogue that makes people so trusting. Young Guns 2 renewed interest in Brushy Bill & (speaking of dumb viewers) another infamous Bill stoked the fire
Despite putting his name on a line of poorly researched books about how famous historical figures were killed, Bill O'Reilly decided that Billy the Kid should be the sole exception
So he peddled the Brushy Bill conspiracy in a docuseries/book appropriately titled Legends & Lies
With this shit floating around, it's no wonder that exasperated historians would cut Brushy Bill truthers off at the pass by taking away any motivation Pat might have had for letting Billy go. Therefore Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid were NOT friends. No way. Never.
I mean, both sides have pretty airtight logic:
Historians say Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid weren't friends because Pat killed Billy
Brushy Bill truthers say Pat didn't kill Billy because they were friends
We all know that no friendship has ever turned sour & resulted in murder
Like I said, I'm not arguing that Pat & Billy were friends. I think they were once friendly & that ended when Garrett became Sheriff, if not before. I don't think it's a good idea to just ignore or discount the recollections of Paulita Maxwell & Sallie Chisum either #believewomen
