Lute Wilcox Is A Lying Liar

On July 18, 1881, three days after Kid was killed at Fort Sumner, Lute Wilcox, the editor of the Las Vegas Optic, was quoted in an Indianapolis, Indiana, newspaper, telling folks all about the “noted desperado.”

Speaking of the notorious Billy the Kid, Wilcox said: Of all the killers in New Mexican country, the Kid is the most successful. He has slain thirty-six, and wants to wind up with Governor Wallace…He was once a bootblack in New York; a great reader of dime novels. He has been in New Mexico about four years. At first he was only a herder, and got his hand in by killing Mexicans…He is now in the San Juan country, collecting, it is said, a large party of killers. A few days before I left Las Vegas, Officer Bill Goodlet, at the instance of Governor Wallace, started in search of him.

It is to the everlasting shame of history and journalism that this young boy’s reputation was so exaggerated to legendary proportions so often throughout his life, that it ultimately resulted in his shooting.

Billy the Kid cast a long shadow over young Henry McCarty, and unfortunately, McCarty could never get free of it.

The above is just one example of the horrible lies found in newspapers of his day that cemented his false reputation and prevented him from leading any kind of life other than that of an outlaw.

(Source: The Helena Independent, Helena, Montana, July 18, 1881, p. 1.)