Billy The Kid Makes a Killing

By Bennett Owen

Credit: TriangleCRanch.com

It is one of the few known photographs of Billy the Kid … taken in 1879 outside a saloon in Fort Sumner, New Mexico, just a year before lawman Pat Garrett shot the outlaw dead.  Now, the tintype has the distinction of being the 4th most valuable western photograph ever sold at auction … fetching $2.3 million at the annual Old West Auction in Denver.  Who said crime doesn’t pay?

Pre-auction buzz put the selling price in the $400,000 range but obviously that was a masterpiece of understatement. Just ahead of the sale, the owner of the Cody Old West Show and Auction set the stage for Fox News:

The new owner, billionaire William Koch, had a simple explanation for his multi-million dollar outlay: “I love the old west,” he said. 

Billy the Kid killed anywhere between eight and 22 men before his own death at age 22.  But his story also inspired one of the greatest western movies ever, coupled with what just might be the greatest rock and roll ballad of all time.

See Knockin' in Heaven's Door (Sorry - video can't be embedded).

This wasn't the only photo of Billy. Here's one with Billy, Doc Holliday, Jesse James and Charlie Bowdre. What do you think this would fetch at auction?

From the Ellison Collection. Credit: Stuff I Bought or Six Degrees of Separation