Clovis Woman Saw Handcuffs Cut Off Wrists of Billy the Kid

Below is an excerpt from the Clovis Evening Journal of June 3, 1935, detailing the reminiscences of Mrs. S.J. Boykin, daughter of rancher J.V. Walters. She relates a memory of a cowhand cutting off the handcuffs of Billy the Kid in 1878. With Billy are Frank Baker and Jessie Evans. Is this as accurate memory, or have some details been distorted by time? Read below...

Clovis Evening News Journal June 3, 1935, p.19

CLOVIS WOMAN SAW HANDCUFFS CUT OFF WRISTS OF BILLY THE KID

Mrs. S.J. Boykin Heard Wm. Bonney Tell Bear Stories

Incidents of Lincoln County War Days Related By Local Resident

If you thrill at the tales of the Old West with its gunmen, its hard-riding cowboys, and the romance of its old trails, imagine what a spine-tingle you would have received had you stood by and watched a cowhand file handcuffs off the wrists of William Bonney, famous as Billy the Kid of pioneer days.

Imagine what a thrill it would have been when you were a little girl or boy of nine years to have listened to harrowing bear stories as only such a type as The Kid could have told.

A BIG MOMENT

If those incidents would have been the big moments of your life, then you can imagine what they meant in the childhood days of a Clovis woman who saw and experienced those very things way back in the days of the Lincoln County War between the factions that wrote bloody pages into the history of New Mexico.

LIVES IN CLOVIS

Mrs. S.J. Boykin, 400 Sheldon street, this city, was the little nine-year-old girl who in 1878 stood close by while the cowhand of a neighboring ranch filed the handcuffs off the wrists of Billy the Kid, southwestern terror, after that blonde young ruffian of the range had escaped from the Lincoln county jail where he was being held under sentence of death.

After the cuffs were removed from The Kid’s wrists, Mrs. Boykin says she and other children on the ranch followed The Kid and his two companions, Frank Baker and Jesse Evans, to the little mountain stream nearby where Billy tossed the manacles into the water.

Free of jail and now free of his handcuffs, Mrs. Boykin says The Kid and his companions rounded up fresh horses and departed for parts unknown.

“INNOCENT LOOKING”

“He was innocent looking and one could not suspect him of being a criminal. My impression of at the time was that Billy the Kid looked like a boy of about 18 or 19 years,” said Mrs. Boykin recently, afer much urging to tell of these interesting incidents in her life.

“He was courteous and mild mannered,” she continued, “and he talked a great deal to us children, telling us bear stories as we stood about in the yard.

I saw Billy the Kid many times after this first meeting when he, with others, came to our ranch for food. They never stayed over night, no doubt feeling safer in the open some place. My mother cooked meals for them many times. These meals were never paid for,” she continued.

BOTH SIDES CALLED

“My father, whose name was J.V. Walters and who was originally a Kentuckian, had frequent visits from both sides in the Lincoln county war, and each time he told them they could get meals at the ranch, but he admonished them against ever having a fight on his ranch. His request was always respected. He had friends in both factions. The nearest the opposing sides came to meeting at our place was in 1878 or probably 1879. Billy the Kid and his men were at our house and had eaten dinner. At about 3 o’clock in the afternoon the other faction was seen approaching a mile or so in the distance. Hastily mounting their horses, The Kid and his men rode away in the opposite direction. As they left they told my father to tell them if they wanted a fight to come up to the big canyon,” she related.

“My father laughed and told The Kid he was not taking sides. The Kid and his gang had intended to stay for supper too but as it happened the opposing side at the meal, after which they took the back trail.”

NEVER SAW PICTURE

When asked if she had ever seen an authentic picture of Billy the Kid she replied that at that time there was no place she had heard of where a picture could be had and she doubted if The Kid ever had one taken.

She says she has seen pictures which were claimed to be of The Kid but none agreed with the mental picture she had of the notorious scourge of the Pecos.

Mrs. Boykin was born near the banks of the Ruidoso, nine miles from old Lincoln in the year 1869. Her father, who originally hailed from Kentucky, was among that brave caravan who followed in the sunset trails into California in the gold rush of ’49. He later returned to the pine covered slopes of the Capitans, settling on the Ruidoso. Lincoln was the nearest settlement and trading post.

DID LOGGING BUSINESS

One of her earliest recollections, she says, is that of her father hauling logs with ox teams to a sawmill in the mountains. A little later he sold ten ox teams and moved down the river to a settlement called Glencoe where he engaged in farming. His crops were sold to ranchers who were coming west with their mule teams. He lived there from 1875 to 1877 when he moved to the lower Penasco, south of Lincoln where he continued to raise stock and grain. Mrs. Boykin lived there at the family home until her marriage to S.J. “Sid” Boykin, one of the beloved characters of pioneer range days, in 1895, at which time she was 26 years old. Boykin established a ranch at what is now known as Portales Springs, near the town of Portales, where they lived for many years, before moving to Clovis. Mr. Boykin died here a little over a year ago.