Tom Folliard's Brother?

Thomas Folliard (not O'Folliard, not O'Phallier, etc.) was Billy the Kid's dedicated pal; his "ride or die," as some would say, and someone who did, eventually, die for the Kid. Or at least as a result of keeping company with him.

If Pat Garrett's account can be believed, on December 19, 1880, William H. Bonney, Tom Folliard, Tom Pickett, Billy Wilson, Dave Rudabaugh, and Charlie Bowdre were riding into Fort Sumner. Lincoln county sheriff-elect Pat Garrett and his posse were waiting in the dark on the entryway of the old hospital. Billy Bonney's innate "spidey-sense" kicked in: he sensed something was up as they approached the abandoned hospital building, and moved to the back of the group, pretending he wanted some tobacco. According to Garrett, Billy related this tale of supernatural premonition to the sheriff after his capture, with a twinkle in his eye.

(I don't believe this account: if Billy suspected an ambush, and merely went to the back, leaving his best friend Tom to be shot and killed, and later bragged about his prowess to Pat Garrett, that would reveal a lot about Billy's character: namely, that he didn't give a shit about his friends. While I'm willing to accept that if all evidence points to it, the overwhelming amount of recollections and anecdotes to the contrary from friends who remembered Billy leads me to suspect this is an apocryphal fabrication on the part of Garrett. And, as James B. Mills says in his book Bandido Simpatico, "Billy wasn't a Jedi.")

Tom Folliard, now in the lead, guided his horse to the porch. As the horses head came under the porch roof, Garrett cried out to halt, and Tom went for his gun.

Although it was a chaotic cacophony of gunshots and blinding flashes in the night, Tom Folliard was shot center-mass, and died shortly after.

Tom was born around 1859 in Texas, to Stephen and Sarah Folliard (Sarah was a daughter of David Cook and Eliza McKinney. Eliza was the aunt of Thomas "Kip" McKinney's, one of the deputies that was present the night Billy the Kid was killed, making Tom Folliard's mother and Kip McKinney first cousins).

Sometime after 1860 the Folliards moved over the Texas border into Mexico, and by 1866, both of Tom's parents had died of smallpox. On the 1870 census, Tom is living in Uvalde, Texas with his grandparents David and Eliza Cook.

In December of 1897, a story circulated in newspapers around the nation, one example being The Salt Lake City Herald on December 10, 1897, containing the following:

Denver, Colo., Dec. 9 - News has just been received here of a desperate fight that occurred near the border of Arizona and old Mexico. Three guards of the Mexican service and one desperado were killed. The latter was Franco Phallard, one of Black Jack's gang, and an outlaw from Texas, whose two brothers were killed while members of Billy the Kid's gang.

A few days ago the border guards learned of a raid that was designed by Black Jack to loot a town across the river. A start was made from Leander Springs, and the guards had no difficulty in finding them.

The two forces met face to face at a turn in the road. There were eight outlaws against three officers, but the latter opened the attack with orders of "Hands up." Two of the outlaws turned their horses for the hills, but Phallard dismounted, and, drawing his Winchester, opened fire and killed the three officers before he fell with a wound in his side which proved fatal.

In his pocket was a letter from Miss Edith Cunningham, of Las Vegas, stating that her brother had just been shot and killed by Dick Manley at Red River, N.M. Phallard is the last of the Sam Bass gang of train robbers, who cleaned out Custer City many years ago. His two brothers were killed in the Panhandle of Texas by state rangers.

Other than the name misspelling and the inaccurate account that two brothers named "Phallard" rode with Billy the Kid, this lone story mentions Franco Folliard: brother of "Big Foot" Tom.

It's possible Tom did have siblings. If Tom was born around 1858 or 1859, and his parents died in 1866, a sibling could have been born in those interim years, and perhaps that sibling went to live with another family upon the death of the elder Folliards.

A search for any other mention of a Franco or "Frank" Folliard in the southwest has yielded no results. Any mention of a Franco Folliard who rode with the Sam Bass gang or the Black Jack gang (both Black Jack Christian and Black Jack Ketchum) yielded no results.

It is entirely possible that this story is comprised of completely fabricated elements. That's not unknown in the press of this era. No mention anywhere else of Franco Folliard leads me to believe this is an unreliable account.

But it's interesting enough for me to put out there in the wider World of Billy, to see if anyone else is able to hone in on some truth in the matter.