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Brushy Bill Roberts (August 26, 1879 – December 27, 1950; claimed date of birth December 31, 1859) also known as William Henry Roberts, Ollie Partridge William Roberts, Ollie N. Roberts, or Ollie L. Roberts, was an American man who attracted attention in the late 1940s and the 1950s by claiming to be Western outlaw William H. Bonney, (who actually died in 1881).
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- He was orphaned as a teen. Little is known about Billy the Kid’s early days, but he was most likely born Henry McCarty in the Irish slums of New York City sometime in late 1859.
- The Kid’s first arrest came for stealing clothes from a laundry. Henry McCarty’s first run-in with the law came in 1875 when he assisted a local street tough known as “Sombrero Jack” in stealing clothing from a Chinese laundry.
- He played a prominent role in a frontier feud. Billy the Kid first earned his reputation as a gunslinger in 1878, when he participated in a bloody frontier war in Lincoln County, New Mexico.
- The Kid never robbed a train or a bank. Billy The Kid shooting down his foe who had taken refuge behind a saloon bar. Unlike other Old West outlaws such as Jesse James, Cole Younger or Butch Cassidy, Billy the Kid didn’t make his living as a bandit.
Dec 25, 2018 · Brushy Bill Roberts claimed he’d been born William Henry Roberts, in Buffalo Gap, Texas. Early in life, he adopted the nickname Billy the Kid. After he escaped from prison in 1881, he’d adopted the name Oliver P. Roberts, which he lived under for the rest of his life until his death in 1950. And on the night that Pat Garrett supposedly shot ...
Mar 30, 2017 · In November 1950, Morrison filed a petition on behalf of Brushy Bill. But it wasn’t to be. Roberts died a month later, and neither Billy the Kid nor Brushy Bill Roberts ever received a pardon.
To many in the small town of Hico, TX, Brushy Bill Roberts was simply a local frontier character. By the time he came to Hico, Brushy Bill was more than seventy years old. He spent most of his time chatting up the locals downtown and telling stories of his life on the frontier. From time to time, he would share with some that he "had a secret ...
Nov 7, 2005 · Over the last century, at least two men surfaced claiming to be Billy the Kid – Miller and Ollie P. “Brushy Bill” Roberts of Hico, Texas. Those stories presuppose that Garrett killed the ...
Apr 17, 2024 · Scholarly opinion is divided over whether that or William H. Bonney, Jr. (the name he used later, as in the trial), was his true name. Another hypothesis is that Billy the Kid was in fact Ollie L. (“Brushy Bill”) Roberts, who escaped, lived in Mexico and the U.S. Southwest, rode in Wild West shows, and died in 1950 in Hico, Texas.
