Have you seen the Kid’s suspenders?
Antiques dealer searching for straps in hopes they will help him authenticate newly surfaced tintype known as ‘Three Gun Billy’
Ever since billionaire businessman, collector and sailor William Koch — brother of the better-known duo Charles and David Koch — paid $2.3 million for an authenticated tintype of legendary New Mexico outlaw and cattle rustler Billy the Kid in 2011, the market for bona fide Kid memorabilia has been particularly hot.
Now the search is on for a pair of suspenders some experts believe the Kid, also known as William H. Bonney, was wearing in 1878 when he allegedly posed on a rock in New Mexico with one pistol in his right hand and another in a holster. When the print surfaced this year, it was known as Two Gun Billy.
Jim Williams, a Western antique dealer with a shop in Springfield, Mo., who is trying
to authenticate the photo for its owners, met a man last month in Oklahoma who said he had once owned the patterned suspenders the purported Billy is wearing in the photo. The man, who has declined to be named, said a Derringer holster was attached to the suspenders, causing Williams and others to now refer to the photo as Three Gun Billy.
Williams is optimistic about tracking down the suspenders. The current owner — or his or her descendants — could well be connected to a club, group or history association, he said.
The suspenders in the sepia-toned photo are actually red and yellow and are decorated with card suits. The words “Little Casino” are embroidered along one suspender and “Big Casino” embroidered down the other. When he purchased the suspenders, the man said, he was told that Billy had won them from Lincoln County Sheriff Pat Garrett in a card game. Garrett was the same sheriff who killed the Kid and later made the young outlaw famous by writing a book about him.
Cassino, also spelled Casino, is an Italian fishing card game that was said to be popular in Lincoln County at the time. A liquor store in Lincoln County was named for it. In the game, the two of spades is called Little Cassino and the 10 of diamonds is called Big Cassino. Those are the nicknames associated with Garrett and the Kid.
The man who owned the suspenders, and sold them about 35 years ago, said the holster attached to them was marked with the name of the maker and “Lincoln County.” He said he couldn’t remember the name of the maker.
The photo is one of nearly 500 in an Old West collection believed to have been owned by Frank Phillips, the founder of Phillips Petroleum. It was purchased, with others, from an antique store in Oklahoma near Phillips’ ranch by a couple of Western enthusiasts in the 1990s.
Williams was hired by the couple to try to authenticate and market the photo, which currently lacks the provenance of the Koch tintype. But Williams might be getting closer. Last month, he took a 2-foot by 3-foot enlargement of the photo to the Wild West History Association’s Roundup in Oklahoma City, Okla., where he encountered the man who said he had owned the suspenders. After speaking with the man, Williams examined the photo more closely. He now says he can see the handle of the Derringer sticking out from under the Kid’s left arm. The butt of the gun is small, with a round protrusion in the center that he said is the center screw.
Williams said he believes the man’s story. “The idea of having suspenders with Little Casino and Big Casino, you just can’t make that up,” he said.
The man was a collector of Wild West items and was familiar with the area of New Mexico depicted in the photograph. Williams believes it was taken on a hillside between Lincoln and Tularosa, overlooking a 19th-century village called South Ford, now part of the Mescalero Apache Reservation. He said he found the actual rock Jan. 20 and was able to match up the mountains in the background and the old Indian trails.
He believes the photo was taken April 3, 1878, a couple of days after the murder of Lincoln County Sheriff William Brady and the day before a shootout at Blazer’s Mill between the Lincoln County Regulators — a cowboy posse to which the Kid belonged — and the buffalo hunter Buckshot Roberts.
The Kid was convicted of killing Brady in 1881.
The day of the Blazer’s Mill shootout, which set off the Lincoln County War, the Regulators were looking for anyone associated with the murder of their ally, rancher and merchant John Tunstall.
Cathleen Briley, who represents the Phillips Collection, along with Williams, said the man who once owned the suspenders does not have a record of his sale and wants to remain anonymous because, she said, he doesn’t want to be “subjected to abuse” by those who doubt the origins of purported photos of Billy the Kid that have shown up in recent years.
In particular, she cited a tintype purchased from a Fresno, Calif., memorabilia shop in 2010 that the owners believe shows the Kid and his friends holding croquet mallets. A documentary on the photograph aired last fall on the National Geographic Channel. The image drew skepticism and generated controversy.
Briley said she and Williams just want to find the suspenders’ current owner in order to let them know, “What you have is a big deal.” “It’s just a remarkable thing,” she added. “It’s a fascinating story,” Williams agreed. “Somebody’s got to know where they’re at.”
Williams said the Phillips Collection includes over 20 photographs of people involved in the Lincoln County War that have been confirmed by family members.
As for Three Gun Billy, he believes there is a “great chance” it is authentic. “Because there’s no provenance, some will say it’s not him,” he said. “But we’re confident it is, although it will take more research to convince more people.”