Various Accounts of July 14, 1881

“[I] went to Mr. P. Maxwell’s room. I found him in bed, and I had just commenced to talk to him about the object of my visit at such an unusual hour, when a man entered the room in stocking feet, with a pistol in one hand and a knife in the other. He came and placed his hand on the bed just beside me, and in a low whisper, ‘Who is it?’ (and repeated the question) he asked of Mr. Maxwell. I at once recognized the man, and knew he was the Kid, and reached behind me for my pistol, feeling almost sure of receiving a ball from his at the moment of doing so, as I felt sure he had recognized me; but fortunately he drew back from the bed at noticing my movement, and although he had his pistol pointed at my breast, he delayed to fire, and asked in Spanish: ‘Quien es? Quien es?’ This gave me time to bring mine to bear on him, and the moment I did so I pulled the trigger and he received his death wound, for the ball struck him in the left breast and pierced his heart. He never spoke, but died in a minute.” – Pat Garrett, as found in the Brantford Daily Expositor, July 27th, 1881.

“’I was crouched down at the head of the bed, having a last confab with Pete Maxwell before leaving Ft. Sumner. I left Poe and McKinney at the far end of the porch, where they were talking in low voices. Suddenly a voice called to them in Spanish, ‘Who are you and what are you doing?’ McKinney answered in his perfect Spanish, ‘We are your friends only talking,’ at which a man stepped quickly into Maxwell’s room and asked, ‘Who are the fellows on the porch, Pete?’ Pete Maxwell whispered, ‘That’s him, Pat,’” and as the man stepped into the skylight of the open door Pat Garrett said he fired, and that Pete Maxwell went over the foot of the bed taking the covers with him. Poe and McKinney came on the jump but were warned to stay outside and Pat said, ‘I tried to squeeze myself into the adobe wall, waiting for the return fire. When none came I made a run for the door.’ Making it outside, they waited what seemed a long time, hearing only a slight gurgling, and finally lighted a match and threw it inside, and peeped in. Billy the Kid lay dead on the floor, bare headed, in his sock feet, a knife in one hand, a .41 caliber double action pistol in the other… Pete Maxwell and Beaver Smith identified the body and swore to the law involved that the dead man was Billy the Kid alias William H. Antrim…Bell Hudson adds that very privately his Jinglebob saddle pal Kip McKinney told him that when they ventured inside the bedroom with drawn guns, and Pat Garrett stooped and rolled the still figure over, he hastily sheathed his gun and removed his hat, and said in a shaky voice, ‘Boys, Billy the Kid is dead.’ ‘Pat would never speak to me again if he knew I said he cried, when he gazed on the still face of this wayward youngster, whom both of us knew to be just a misguided youth. There was more than one tear shed when we realized Billy the Kid had reached the end of the trail.” – From the notes of Bell Hudson, told by Mrs. Mary Hudson Brothers, reported in the Farmington Daily Times, November 30, 1950

“Pat Garrett would never talk to us about the actual killing [of Billy the Kid] and we soon learned that it would be best not to question him about it. I know that he liked the Kid and that he regretted exceedingly that he was forced to kill him.” – J. Smith Lea, Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, September 31st, 1930

“This is the place,” said [Garrett], pointing at one corner of the grass-grown oblong. “Pete Maxwell’s bed was right in this corner of the room, and I was sitting in the dark and talking to Pete who was in bed. The Kid passed John Poe and Tip McKinney, my deputies, right over there on what was then the gallery, and came through the door right here. He could not tell who I was. ‘Pete,’ he whispered, ‘who is it?’ He had his pistol, a double-action .41, in his hand, and he motioned toward me with it as he spoke, still not recognizing me. That was about all there was to it. I supposed he would shoot me, and I leaned over to the left so that he would hit me in the right side and not kill me so dead but what I could kill him too. I was just a shade too quick for him. His pistol went off as he fell, but I don’t suppose he ever knew who killed him or how he was killed.” - Pat Garret, from the Albuquerque Morning Journal on December 13th, 1905, as told to Emerson Hough

“[Garrett] entered Maxwell’s room through the open door (left open on account of the extremely warm weather), while McKinney and myself stopped on the outside, McKinney squatting on the outside of the fence and I sitting on the edge of the porch in the small open gateway leading from the street onto the porch…It was probably not more than 30 seconds after Garrett had entered Maxwell’s room when my attention was attracted from where I sat in the little gateway, to a man approaching me on the inside of and along the fence, some forty or fifty steps away. I observed that he was only partially dressed, and was both bare-headed and bare-footed – or rather, had only socks on his feet, and it seemed to me that he was fastening his trousers as he came toward me at a very brisk walk…He came on until he was almost within arm’s length of me, as I was partially concealed from his view by the post of the gate. Upon his seeing me he covered me with his six-shooter as quick as lightning, sprang onto the porch, calling out in Spanish, ‘Quien es?’ at the same time backing away from me toward the door through which Garrett only a few seconds before had passed, repeating his query, ‘Who is it?’ in Spanish several times. At this I stood up and advanced toward him, telling him not to be alarmed; that he should not be hurt…As I moved toward him trying to reassure him, he backed up into the doorway of Maxwell’s room, where he halted for a moment, his body concealed by the thick adobe wall at the side of the doorway, from whence he put his head out and asked in Spanish for the fourth or fifth time who I was. I was within a few feet of him when he disappeared into the room. After this, and until after the shooting, I was unable to see what took place on account of the darkness of the room but plainly heard what was said on the inside. An instant after the man left the door I heard a voice inquire in a sharp tone: ‘Pete, who are those fellows on the outside?’ An instant later a shot was fired in the room, followed immediately by what everyone within hearing distance thought was two other shots. I heard a groan and one or two gasps from where I stood in the doorway, as of someone dying in the room. An instant later Garrett came out, brushing against me as he passed. He stood by me close to the wall at the side of the door and said to me: ‘That was the Kid that came in there onto me and I think I have got him.’ I said ‘Pat, the Kid would not come to this place – you have shot the wrong man.’ Upon my saying this, Garrett seemed to be in doubt himself as to whom he had shot, but quickly spoke up and said, ‘I am sure that was him, for I know his voice too well to be mistaken.’…A moment after Garrett came out of the door, Pete Maxwell rushed squarely onto me in a frantic effort to get out of the room, and I certainly would have shot him but for Garrett striking my gun down, saying, ‘Don’t shoot Maxwell!’…we – after some rather forceful persuasion indeed – induced Maxwell to procure a light, which he finally did by bringing an old-fashioned tallow candle from his mother’s room at the far end of the building, passing by the rear to the end where the shooting occurred, and placing the candle on the window sill from the outside…we saw a man lying stretched upon his back dead, in the middle of the room, with a six-shooter lying at his right hand and a butcher knife at his left.” – John Poe’s account, as found in the Choteau Acanthia, October 25th, 1923.

“Garrett and McKinney went into a Mexican house where Billy the Kid was hiding, lying on a cot in the dark of the room. They went in to get him, struck a match, Billy rose and Kip fired. McKinney’s brother made that statement to [Howell] Johnson himself.” – Claims of Pecos county attorney Howell Johnson in the San Angelo Morning Times, November 9th, 1933

“[John W. Poe’s brother] recalled his brother’s words after the shooting at the Pete Maxwell ranch when the elder man said: ‘Frank, don’t ever pack nickel-plated, pearl-handled guns. That was the Kid’s mistake. The Kid was shot at night and lights were out but he was hit plumb center,’ Frank said. ‘reflection of the nickel guns gave the bandit’s position away and John shot between the two guns which he could easily distinguish in the dark.’… ‘It was a girl that stopped the Kid…Brother John and Garrett knew the Kid was sweet on Maxwell’s sister and that despite all of Texas he would hit for the gal’s ranch after shooting those deputies.’”