On This Day in History ...

July 14, 1881



''¿Quien es? ¿Quien es?''
136 years ago on this day, those were (allegedly) the last words spoken by William H. Bonney aka Billy the Kid.

* Pat Garrett was elected Sheriff of Lincoln County in 1880 on a reform ticket with the expectation that he would reinstate justice in the area. One of his first acts was to capture Billy the Kid, sending him to trial for the murder of the Lincoln sheriff and his deputy. Garrett was away from Lincoln on county business when the Kid made his escape. Rather than chase after the fugitive, Garrett kept to his ranch mending fences and attending to his cattle. In July, the Sheriff received word that the Kid was hiding out at the abandoned Fort Sumner about 140 miles west of Lincoln. Rounding up two of his deputies, John Poe and Thomas McKinney, Garrett set off in pursuit of the Kid.

On the night of July 14, the Sheriff and his two deputies approached the dusty old Fort now converted to living quarters. The residents were sympathetic to the Kid and the lawmen could extract little information. Garrett decided to seek out an old friend, Peter Maxwell, who might tell him the Kid's whereabouts. As chance would have it, the Kid stumbled right into the Sheriff's hands. Garrett published his account of the incident a year after it happened:

Pat Garret

"I then concluded to go and have a talk with Peter Maxwell, Esq., in whom I felt sure I could rely. We had ridden to within a short distance of Maxwell's grounds when we found a man in camp and stopped. To Poe's great surprise, he recognized in the camper an old friend and former partner, in Texas, named Jacobs. We unsaddled here, got some coffee, and, on foot, entered an orchard which runs from this point down to a row of old buildings, some of them occupied by Mexicans, not more than sixty yards from Maxwell's house. We approached these houses cautiously, and when within earshot, heard the sound of voices conversing in Spanish. We concealed ourselves quickly and listened; but the distance was too great to hear words, or even distinguish voices. Soon a man arose from the ground, in full view, but too far away to recognize. He wore a broad-brimmed hat, a dark vest and pants, and was in his shirtsleeves. With a few words, which fell like a murmur on our ears, he went to the fence, jumped it, and walked down towards Maxwell's house.  Little as we then suspected it, this man was the Kid. We learned, subsequently, that, when he left his companions that night, he went to the house of a Mexican friend, pulled off his hat and boots, threw himself on a bed, and commenced reading a newspaper. He soon, however, hailed his friend, who was sleeping in the room, told him to get up and make some coffee, adding: 'Give me a butcher knife and I will go over to Pete's and get some beef; I'm hungry.' The Mexican arose, handed him the knife, and the Kid, hatless and in his stocking-feet, started to Maxwell's, which was but a few steps distant.

When the Kid, by me unrecognized, left the orchard, I motioned to my companions, and we cautiously retreated a short distance, and, to avoid the persons whom we had heard at the houses, took another route, approaching Maxwell's house from the opposite direction. When we reached the porch in front of the building, I left Poe and McKinney at the end of the porch, about twenty feet from the door of Pete's room, and went in. It was near midnight and Pete was in bed. I walked to the head of the bed and sat down on it, beside him, near the pillow. I asked him as to the whereabouts of the Kid. He said that the Kid had certainly been about, but he did not know whether he had left or not. At that moment a man sprang quickly into the door, looking back, and called twice in Spanish, 'Who comes there?' No one replied and he came on in. He was bareheaded. From his step I could perceive he was either barefooted or in his stocking-feet, and held a revolver in his right hand and a butcher knife in his left.

The death of Billy the Kid
From a contemporary illustration

He came directly towards me. Before he reached the bed, I whispered: 'Who is it, Pete?' but received no reply for a moment. It struck me that it might be Pete's brother-in-law, Manuel Abreu, who had seen Poe and McKinney, and wanted to know their business. The intruder came close to me, leaned both hands on the bed, his right hand almost touching my knee, and asked, in a low tone: -'Who are they Pete?' -at the same instant Maxwell whispered to me. 'That's him!' Simultaneously the Kid must have seen, or felt, the presence of a third person at the head of the bed. He raised quickly his pistol, a self-cocker, within a foot of my breast. Retreating rapidly across the room he cried: 'Quien es? Quien es?' 'Who's that? Who's that?') All this occurred in a moment. Quickly as possible I drew my revolver and fired, threw my body aside, and fired again. The second shot was useless; the Kid fell dead. He never spoke. A struggle or two, a little strangling sound as he gasped for breath, and the Kid was with his many victims."

References:
Garrett, Pat, The Authentic Life of Billy the Kid (1882, republished 1954); Utley, Robert, Billy the Kid: A Short and Violent Life (1989).
*"The Death Of Billy The Kid, 1881," EyeWitness to History, www.eyewitnesstohistory.com (2001).

Billy the Kid has featured in several books that we've published including as a ghost!

Gunsmith #8

THE GHOST OF BILLY THE KID

The local gold rush is over. The threat of bandits is next to nada. And by the time Clint Adams rides through it, the pint-sized town of White Oaks is ready to settle back to normal, except for a bitter dispute between two storekeepers. But then folks begin spotting Billy the Kid around town. Problem is, the Kid's been dead several years! Normally, Adams can smell a hoax from a mile away. But, one he's taken on as a hired gun by a storekeeper, the Gunsmith spots Billy the Kid and would swear on a stack of bibles that the menace has come back to haunt him. Little does he know, though, that this phantom has a message for him - that, without the right friends in this town, the Gunsmith ain't got a ghost of a chance!

Published July 01, 2015 Recommended Price: $2.99 / £2.05

BILLY THE KID

 

Jedediah Herne only wanted to play checkers but a fool-hardy youth wanted to draw him into a gunfight. The kid didn’t know he was facing Herne the Hunter. For Herne, it brought back memories of another time; another kid … New Mexico Territory 1878: The murder of local rancher John Tunstall lit the fuse for a bloody conflict that will be forever known as The Lincoln County War. Standing shoulder-to-shoulder is a legend and one in the making—Herne the Hunter and Billy the Kid. Luckily they are on the same side. Not so for the opposition. Herne hires out his Colt .45 to the Tunstall/McSween supporters against the Dolan/Murphy faction and thus The Regulators are born. The Kid’s gunning down of Lincoln County Sheriff Brady changed the playing field. Soon Herne and the Kid are pitched against lawmen and desperately fighting for their lives. A fast-paced adventure featuring notable figures of the Old West, including Sheriff Pat Garrett, John Chisum, Alexander McSween, Dick Brewer, Lawrence Murphy and the most famous of them all—Billy the Kid.

 

Published October 01, 2015- Recommended Price: $1.99/ £1.80

 

John Harvey's ten book series, HART THE REGULATOR has the main character of Wes Hart an ex-soldier, ex-Texas Ranger, ex-rider with Billy the Kid. He's tough, ruthless, and slick with a .45.

 



 

 

Or if you want to delve more in the "factual" side of the Kid's history, there is no better place to start than our very own Frederick Nolan's - or to you, Frederick H. Christian - terrific book, THE WEST OF BILLY THE KID.

 

Happy reading!



Announcing the new novel from FREDERICK H. CHRISTIAN

For the first time in over 40 years comes an original FREDERICK H. CHRISTIAN novel.

The author, who we all know and love, is the author of the Frank Angel and Sudden novels, says:

"You could say that APACHE  COUNTRY is a “chase thriller”

But (I hope) it’s a bit more sophisticated than just that.

It’s a story filled with love, death, hope and hatred that begins when David Easton, a small town law officer in Riverside, New Mexico, takes a call from one of his detectives that prominent and powerful citizen Robert Casey and his grandson Adam have been bloodily murdered in an arroyo outside town.

The murder scene is a bloodbath that makes no sense: why would anyone kill a middle-aged businessman and a schoolboy? Even as a full-scale investigation  led by District Attorney Olin McKitrick is mounted, a suspect – James Ironheel, a Chiricahua Apache -- is arrested by State p0lice not far from the murder site. "

He looks as guilty as hell, but Easton becomes convinced there is something behind his refusal to tell them anything. His concern grows, first when the rookie State lawyer sent to defend the Apache is clearly devastated by what he learns interrogating the suspect, and further when Ironheel’s sister Joanna refuses to become involved in her brother’s problems. When, that same day, lawyer Weddle is found murdered in his motel room, Easton gives Ironheel one more try, and it leads to a shattering surprise: the reason the Apache won’t talk is because he witnessed the twin murders and has recognised Easton’s boss, Sheriff Joe Apodaca, as one of the two men who did the killing. "

As to what happens to Easton and Ironheel, you will have to wait until May 1st, 2016.

You can pre-order from Amazon UK, Amazon.com and Smashwords ... NOW!

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We will be publishing APACHE COUNTRY on May 1st 2016 at $4.50

 

 

Piccadilly Publishing JANUARY 2014 TITLES

BlogThis!

SUDDEN hits the Top Ten on Amazon UK

Great news to wake up to - finding that the September release of SUDDEN APACHE FIGHTER is #3, whilst SUDDEN AT BAY is #17 and SUDDEN STRIKES BACK is at #57.

When we first took on the series we spoke with Frederick Nolan (Frederick H Christian) on several things. Firstly, the cover: We wanted to get a modern take on the old classic style pulp western. Fred agreed: "I rather like the "Ranch Romances" feel of your Sudden covers -- they bring back memories of the original Newnes covers for the Oliver Strange titles, which were always 1930-ish, and remained unaltered even into the 1960s."

Secondly the language and about whether or not to "upgrade" the lingo for new readers, or to stick with Oliver Strange's archaic view of how they talked Out West. It was decided that we were going to leave it be - thinking of how many thousands of readers have gone before and not complained. That's the way OS wrote 'em.

Why am I bringing this up? Well, there have been a few comments in the feedback area ranging from 5 star:
"written in the original style of Oliver Strange, good story line and a moralistic outcome to the story."
to 1 star:
"Full of spelling and grammar mistakes. Very poorly edited. A five year old could have done better. Always loved sudden books but this one could have put off someone new to them."

Ouch.

We carefully go through each manuscript as if it was an original script. Part of the editing includes changing the UK spelling to American and keeping words such as "yu" rather than "you"; "shore" for "sure" etc. etc. So, perhaps it is the use of the vernacular, in the style of Oliver Strange, which looks somehow "mistaken" to today's modern readers?

Our aim is to do right by our authors and readers. We have no intention of knowingly publishing a book that is less than the best we are capable of.