Lincoln Lecture: John Chisum versus Billy the Kid

Join us for a special Lincoln Lecture Series during Old Lincoln Days in the Billiard Hall inside the Courthouse at 2 p.m. John LeMay will present about the rivalry between John Chisum and Billy the Kid.

From the 1860s to the mid-1880s, much of the land from Seven Rivers to Fort Sumner on either side of the Pecos River belonged to John Chisum, sometimes called the Cattle King of the Southwest. Immortalized in the John Wayne Western Chisum (1970), the cattle baron is more often than not overshadowed by the legend of Billy the Kid. This talk will illustrate the vast parameters of Chisum’s domain with an emphasis on his headquarters at Bosque Grande, south of Fort Sumner, and his South Springs River Ranch south of Roswell, including photographs of these locations. Whether or not William H. Bonney ever worked for John Chisum will also be emphasized, along with an overview of the feud between the two that came about in the aftermath of the Lincoln County War. Special consideration will be given to an infamous fraudulent article, which we would today call “fake news,” about the Kid murdering three Chisum cowboys simply because they worked for Chisum in June 1881. Research has shown that one of the murdered men, Bennett Howell, actually went on to start a family and lived until 1895. That Howell’s death was a falsehood was reported in newspapers in his home state of Tennessee, but never in New Mexico papers. This has led to the theory that the article may have been a known falsehood perpetrated by John Chisum to sway public opinion against the popular young outlaw. That Ash Upson, the future ghostwriter for Pat Garrett’s Authentic Life of Billy the Kid, may have penned the 1881 article will also be explored. LeMay is the author of over sixty non-fiction books, many of them on the history of the Southwest. Among his better-known titles are Tall Tales and Half Truths of Billy the Kid and The Man Who Invented Billy the Kid: The Authentic Life of Ash Upson.

LeMay is a Past President of the Historical Society for Southeast New Mexico in Roswell, and also currently serves on the board for the Historical Society of New Mexico.

The Lincoln Lecture is held in the Billiard Hall in the historic Courthouse and is included with admission of $7 for adults and free to children 16 years and younger, NM disabled veterans, NM foster families, Friends of Lincoln, and MNMF members.