They say that the blue-eyed William Henry Bonney sang at a hotel for tips in his youth. Born in New York City, he was charming and educated. He became Billy the Kid after he particpated in the Lincoln County Wars. One of the most celebrated of outlaws, he was later shot by New Mexico sheriff Pat Garrett and buried in Santa Fe, NM.

Recently, NM Gov. Bill Richardson announced that he would like to post-humously give Mr. Bonney a pardon because he had been promised one some one hundred and thirty years ago after he testified before a grand jury about a killing he witnessed.

It never came. Richardson, to his credit, has asked that the matter be investigated before deciding. I read that he wanted to right some wrongs for the young man who was jailed at one point for hiding stolen clothes in his hotel room.

They are hashing it out in NM, I understand. Apparently Pat Garrett’s descendants think it would besmirch the name of Garrett if the outlaw gained absolution. A story I read about this asked if the Kid were living now, would a thief and killer (offing four lawmen) get a pardon. What a question.

Meanwhile, in another part of the Old West (about a decade before Billy the Kid’s demise), another tale unfolded. It is of Captain Jack, the Modoc chief. The chief battled for a reservation area for his small tribe and subsequently became a fugitive. He clashed with settlers who resented the Modoc presence in California, a Golden Oldie experienced by every Indian tribe.

Don’t get me started. In my version of the Hate Olympics, Californians of the day won a silver medal for their mistreatment of native indigenous people (The bronze goes to Georgia and gold to Texans). I rank them according to barbarity and greed.

Captain Jack navigated the pattern oft repeated in the years of Manifest Destiny. He fought, fled, negotiated, was incarcerated and died. Oh, but how he fought. At one point, he and his men hid in lava caves which were called the strongholds. By fitting in these natural crevices on the ground, they achieved the perfect trench warfare about 40 years before World War I.

The Modoc chief and his co-horts are not blameless. History accounts that after several battles, he bargained for negotiations that went nowhere. Frustrated, Captain Jack uttered the Modoc words, “Utwih-kutt,” or “Let’s do it.” He then shot and killed the unarmed Major Edward Canby. In perfect hindsight, it was not the thing to do. He and his gang ended up fugitives, were manhunted then incarcerated. He was subsequently hanged in Fort Klamath on Oct. 3, 1873.

I’ve seen a picture of Captain Jack in the days when he was waiting to be hanged. His ineffable sadness always unnerved me. I have also seen a photo reputed to be Billy the Kid in his heyday. The young white outlaw betrays no gloom but cockiness and a heavy holster. Maybe  infamy is lighter when you dance with it rather than have it tackle you.

The possibility to pardon Billy the Kid lets me know that surprises are always in store. I never saw this coming. The second of Richardson’s two terms are coming to a fast end. Granting clemency for Billy the Kid would certainly be a dazzling exit. Perhaps some politician in California (Jerry Brown?) is daydreaming about pardoning the Modoc chief because it too would be the right thing to do.

Still, a kind of wild but effective mode of justice existed in the Old West. Modoc chief Captain Jack lived in this era. So did Billy the Kid. Sometimes brutal, it usually enforced the idiom that whoever lived by the sword would die likewise. As a code, it covered all manner of sins.

So if Billy the Kid’s reputation can still be neutralized, can not the same salve be applied to the Modocs? Interestingly, when fighting the Modocs, the federal government spent $400,000 (a princely sum then) on the conflict as opposed to the $20,000 for the land Captain Jack wanted to spend on a Modoc reservation, I read.

In death, Billy the Kid’s final resting place is disputed. Still, hundreds visit his presumed grave in Santa Fe each year. Well wishers leave flowers and bullets. Conversely, Captain Jack has no grave. He was said to have been decapitated and his head traveled in a circuit for the curious onlooker.

Today, the Modocs have a casino jointly owned with another tribe in Miami, OK. I am stunned by how far this is from the borderlands of present day CA and OR. It is a moment of clarity I get from time to time on just how much of a repository for Indian tribes that OK Territory was.

So we’ll see if Billy the Kid rates a pardon in his home state. Amnesty for history’s infamous may color Mr. Bonney harmless. Sometimes, however, a clean coat doesn’t always fit. And one that does fit is not always offered.



(S.E. Ruckman is a citizen of the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes in Anadarko, Okla. She graduated from the University of Oklahoma’s School of Journalism and has written for the Tulsa World and the Native American Times. She is a freelance writer who is based in Oklahoma.)