Billy the Kid | Lincoln County War (Part 3)

The Wild West Extravaganza

Wild West Josh

Education, History

4.8 • 667 Ratings

🗓️ 29 March 2023

⏱️ 55 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Lincoln County, New Mexico Territory was the setting of a brutal conflict between rival factions vying for control of the county's dry goods and cattle interests. The Lincoln County War, as it came to be known, began in 1878 and persisted until 1881, a time of lawlessness and bloodshed in the Old West. One side of the feud was led by James Dolan, a powerful figure who wielded a monopoly over dry goods through his establishment "The House". The other faction was established by English-born John Tunstall and his partner Alexander McSween, who opened their own competing store with support from established cattleman John Chisum. Both sides gathered lawmen, businessmen, and criminal gangs to their aid, setting the stage for a violent and deadly confrontation. The Dolan faction was aligned with Sheriff William J. Brady and supported by the notorious Jesse Evans Gang. The Tunstall-McSween faction organized their own armed posse, the Lincoln County Regulators, with their own lawmen in the form of town constable Richard M. Brewer and Deputy US Marshal Robert A. Widenmann. And of course the notorious Billy the Kid. The War was characterized by a series of brutal revenge killings, starting with the murder of Tunstall by members of a Dolan authorized posse and the Evans Gang. The Regulators retaliated by killing Sheriff Brady and others in a series of violent incidents. The conflict continued to escalate for several months, culminating in the epic five-day battle of Lincoln, which resulted in the death of McSween and the dispersal of the Regulators. William H. Bonney rode into Lincoln County a teenager on the run from a noose. By the time he came out of McSween’s burning home, guns blazing, he was well on the way to becoming the legend known as Billy the Kid. This is part three in the series on Billy the Kid. For the previous two installments see the links below. Check out my website for more true tales from the wild and woolly west https://www.wildwestextra.com/ Email me! https://www.wildwestextra.com/contact/ Buy me a coffee! https://www.buymeacoffee.com/wildwest Free Newsletter! https://wildwestjosh.substack.com/ Join Patreon for bonus content! https://www.patreon.com/wildwestextra Billy the Kid part 1 | Orphan - https://www.wildwestextra.com/billy-the-kid-orphan/ Billy the Kid part 2 | Prelude to War - https://www.wildwestextra.com/billy-the-kid-prelude-to-war/ Billy the Kid: A Short and Violent Life | Robert Utley - https://www.amazon.com/dp/0803295588?linkCode=ssc&tag=onamzjoshta02-20&creativeASIN=0803295588&asc_item-id=amzn1.ideas.YEHGNY7KFAU7&ref_=aip_sf_list_spv_ofs_mixed_d_asin Billy the Kid: The Endless Ride | Michael Wallis - https://www.amazon.com/dp/0393060683?linkCode=ssc&tag=onamzjoshta02-20&creativeASIN=0393060683&asc_item-id=amzn1.ideas.YEHGNY7KFAU7&ref_=aip_sf_list_spv_ofs_mixed_d_asin Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	A lot of people are surprised to find out how young John Tunstall was during the Lincoln
0:04.5	County War.
0:05.7	At just 24 years of age in 1877, Tunstall was only a few years older than Billy the
0:10.5	kid and younger than many of his employees like Dick Brewer.
0:14.6	Another common misconception is that John and Billy were close and even had a mentor-mentee-type
0:19.8	relationship.
0:26.0	Truth is, there's just no evidence to back that up. All total, Bonnie would only work for the Englishman just 10 weeks, and most of that time, Tunstall had pressing business elsewhere.
0:31.3	Billy was a hired hand, and that's about it, a position he secured more due to his willingness
0:35.7	to use a firearm than anything else. And Billy weren't the only gunman that Tunstall hired, and more due to his willingness to use a firearm than anything else.
0:38.3	At Billy weren't the only gunman that Tunstall hired.
0:40.9	In a letter to his family, John lamented that keeping such men on his payroll wasn't cheap,
0:45.6	writing that a quote, cost a lot of money for men expect to be well paid for going on the warpath.
0:50.9	End quote.
0:51.9	Warpath, indeed.
0:54.0	One has to wonder if Tunstall would have stuck around if he really knew how determined
0:58.0	his enemies were.
0:59.0	It was a deadly game that the young Englishman was playing, and his opponents were more than willing
1:04.0	to do whatever it took to come out on top.
1:06.0	By the way, this is part three in the Billy the Kid series, linking the show notes for the
1:10.0	previous two installments.
1:11.6	Without further ado, my name's Josh and you're listening to the Wild West extravagance.
1:17.6	By February of 1878, you had somewhat of an arms race there in Lincoln County, with
	...

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