An Arizona historian, who wants to settle questions about whether the infamous outlaw, Billy the Kid, was actually killed in 1881, has filed a petition at a district court in Fort Sumner a to make the death date official.
Historian Robert Stahl believes that Lincoln County Sheriff Pat Garrett shot and killed the notorious bandit, who had escaped from the Lincoln County Jail in New Mexico, in the morning of July 15, 1881, in Fort Sumner, New Mexico, the ABC News reported.
In the 29-page petition, Stahl requests that the state of New Mexico issue a death certificate acknowledging July 15, 1881 as the death date and Garrett as the shooter.
Stahl said that by issuing a death certificate, especially with overwhelming evidence that he did in fact die, it would mean all of these people who are impostors couldn't have been Billy the Kid, because he died at about 12:30 a.m. on July 15, 1881.
Stahl added that there is overwhelming evidence as too many people saw the body with the bullet and the coroner's jury report not only identified the body as being that of Billy the Kid, but that he was shot by Pat Garrett.
Others claim that the outlaw didn't die at the hand of the sheriff and instead lived to be an old man and several people over the years have claimed to be Billy the Kid, but as per Stahl, the state only didn't officially recognize the Kid died because they didn't create a death certificate.
He noted that death certificates should be issued when somebody died and the fact is, in territorial New Mexico at the time, death certificates were rarely issued and especially in rural areas. They do know that Billy was killed because there is an official coroner's report, but even with that report, it was not a common practice to go and create a death certificate.
A New Mexico judge is expected to schedule a hearing soon to make a decision.