Together in one startling photo, Billy the Kid and his nemesis, Pat Garrett
A BLURRY photograph bought for £7 at a flea market has been identified as the only known image of Wild West outlaw Billy the Kid with the sheriff who shot him dead.
The picture, which was hanging on the wall of a spare room rented out on Airbnb, is thought to be worth millions of pounds.
Owner Frank Abrams, a lawyer from North Carolina, suspected the picture might be important after watching a documentary about another photo of the notorious gunslinger, which portrayed him playing croquet.
But he found his picture was even more special – as not only is one of the five men Billy the Kid, but one of the others is Pat Garrett, his killer.
Apart from the newly identified image, only two other pictures of Billy the Kid, also known as William Bonney, are known to exist.
The photo, an image produced on a thin sheet of metal known as a tintype, is dated August 1880.
Bonney was only 21 when Garrett shot him dead in July 1881, after he had escaped jail, shooting two men on the way out.
A deadly gunfighter, Bonney killed as many as 27 men in the lawless Wild West and was hunted across statelines. The pair were said to have been close friends until Garrett became sheriff of Lincoln County, New Mexico in 1880.
Experts continue to argue over the strength of their friendship, although this image is likely to silence those who insist they barely knew each other.
In an interview yesterday, Mr Abrams identified two of the other men in the photo as ‘Dirty Dave’ Rudabaugh, a member of Bonney’s gang, and Barney Mason, who was another gang member who became Garrett’s deputy.
Mr Abrams, who had bought the photo with four other images at a flea market in 2011, enlisted academic and Billy the Kid expert Professor Robert Stahl to establish if it was genuine.
He concluded there was a ‘high probability’ that Garrett is in the photo.
Mr Abrams then spoke to forensic specialists who used facial recognition software to match the faces in the photo with others of the two antagonists.
A tintype expert said the photo was most likely that of the two men and taken between 1875 and 1880 – matching the date on the back.
A handwriting specialist was also able to compare a signature from Garrett on the photo with documents that showed his handwriting. Again, he found a match.
The picture of Bonney playing croquet has been valued at £3.8million, but experts believe Mr Abrams’ image would be worth much more. Mr Abrams said that the photo is now kept in a safe deposit box, and that he is in the process of having it insured.
Yesterday he joked: ‘If I had known it was one of the most famous photos in history, I would have charged more for the room.’
When asked if he had any advice for people wanting to find a bargain, he said: ‘I say those who don’t know history are bound to sell it. You have to do research.’