New Billy The Kid photo. Special tonight on National Geo. channel

W

Wyatt Burp

Member
Joined
Dec 9, 2008
Messages
6,787
Reaction score
17,741
Location
Northern California
A guy bought three old photos for $2. Later he realized one looked like Bill The Kid. Now hold on, my skeptical friends. I'm the same way except this one looks good. He's with a bunch of people and one women looks dead on like other pictures of Sally Chisum. The photo has been authenticated, but that will all be discussed in the National Geographic special tonight (6:00 & 8:00 Pacific time). Here's one news story on it...
New photo of Billy the Kid found in Fresno thrift shop | abc30.com
 
Register to hide this ad
I've been watching this story and plan to watch the show tonight. I just wonder how they can make a half hour or full hour show on just this. Likely have a lot of filler material and might learn something.
 
Brian41 said:
I've been watching this story and plan to watch the show tonight. I just wonder how they can make a half hour or full hour show on just this. Likely have a lot of filler material and might learn something.
Click to expand...
It's TWO hours! Scenes of it already showed they have actors doing reenacting which I hate. But I just want to see all the other people analyzed. I can't get a decent close up of the guy on horseback on the far right, but if I knew Charlie Bodre back then and saw this guy coming in the distance, I'd think it was him and maybe his wife.



 
I believe it to be authentic; however, what I believe and what you can prove are two different things. Without a person from that photo being able to a verify it as actually being them then it is a trust factor as to someone being able to buy it. Two Lincoln county residents verified the Billy the Kid tin type that Koch bought without that it is going to be tough.

Will people bid on it sure but 5 million dollars? Do not think that is happening.

The photo itself is a neat piece of history though.
 
Shark Bait said:
You have to wonder what happened to Billy's guns. And the others too.
Click to expand...
I saw Billy's captured Whitney Kennedy carbine at the Gene Autry Museum, but that's probably the only verified Kid gun.
I watched the show. It was pretty convincing. The location of the picure was located on Tunstall's ranch. Tunstall was English and played crochet. And there's lots more. Here's the Nat. Geo. article about it. Compare the pictures here of known photos and this one...

Billy the Kid: New Evidence - National Geographic Channel
 
Thanks again for the reminder to watch the show. I did enjoy it and do believe also the photo is legit but true it isn't my millions I'd be spending to buy it either.
 
I could be wrong but I think with the advances that have been made in facial recognition software, it could be determined with a great degree of accuracy , with known examples for comparison, if that were actually Henry McCarty, or William Bonney, or better known as Billy the Kid.
 
There are two different attempts made during this program to use facial recognition software to determine the authenticity of this tintype. The results are mixed and apparently the conclusion is some sort of hard evidence needs to be uncovered linking these individuals as attending some event in 1878. I am personally leaning towards it being authentic as there is NO evidence of fakery of any sort.
Jim
 
lowriderfxr said:
I could be wrong but I think with the advances that have been made in facial recognition software, it could be determined with a great degree of accuracy , with known examples for comparison, if that were actually Henry McCarty, or William Bonney, or better known as Billy the Kid.
Click to expand...

the kid was 80.1 percent accuracy that it was him

sally chisum was a 80.6 percent accuracy that it was her.
 
Two ''professionals'' nixed that it was the kid. One explanation from the first one, was nothing but horse biscuits. He said of the three in the pic//the married couple and the kid// that what would these three be doing together for this image to have been taken? well HELLO, it was the wedding of a confidant/friend/gang member. So, to me its valid that those three could be together at some important function. I've no opinion on whether the guy in said image was the kid but?????? I do believe the man and woman on horses were who was thought they would be.
 
Last edited:
Go over to Nat Geos website and read about it. Its a pretty good read on the 2 who said it was Not Billy.

From what I read, It sounded as the 2 "experts" were kind of bitter and never really gave it any chance.
 
dsink said:
Go over to Nat Geos website and read about it. Its a pretty good read on the 2 who said it was Not Billy.

From what I read, It sounded as the 2 "experts" were kind of bitter and never really gave it any chance.
Click to expand...

The first 'expert' dismissed it with too many vagueties. I.e, there were too many who bought the same sweaters with the same patterns kind of thing. The guy was too vague and also seemed disinterested in actually looking at the image, and his pride seemed hurt as well.
 
It is more compelling when you put everything in the picture together.

1. 80+ percent that it is Billy
2. 80+ percent that another is Sally Chisum
3. The plausibility of two others being Charlie Bowdre and his wife
4. And the location being identified as on Tunstall's ranch

That's a decent package of evidence. Not conclusive, but decent.
 
Kind of makes you wonder what it will do to these 2 "experts" credibility if it is proved to be Billy. They might wish they had spend a little more time looking at it and showed it a little more interest.
 
the ringo kid said:
The first 'expert' dismissed it with too many vagueties. I.e, there were too many who bought the same sweaters with the same patterns kind of thing. The guy was too vague and also seemed disinterested in actually looking at the image, and his pride seemed hurt as well.
Click to expand...
I think the western auction guy who mentioned the sweaters was rolling his eyes before even looking at it because there are lots of wannabe Kid photos out there, and that this guy and his wife weren't nutcases, but just more wishful thinkers. But what's the chances that three other people who just happened to look like the Kid, Sally Chisum, and Charlie Bowdre were hanging out at john Tunstall's ranch around 1878? And something not mentioned in that show. Look at my Nat. Geo. link above and look at the women on horseback next to "Charlie Bowdre, then look at the known Bowdre picture shown that was taken off his body. She's wearing what appears to be the same dress. And the appraisers selling the tintype would be ruined if they had lied about verifying the building and it's foundation like they said they did.
 
After thinking about it for a while-
I am convinced it is Tunstall's ranch.
The event Is probably the Bowdre wedding.
This is a remote and friendly location for the Regulators.
It's still remote!
The photographer would have had to travel a distance.
30 plus miles from Lincoln, more from the Roswell- Pecos valley.
That's a long ways in a buggy.
A wedding picture was found on Charlie Bowdre after he was shot on 23 Dec, 1880.
The trees are bare. This is in the fall after the leaves turned and fell, prior to Dec.
This picture looks to me like an impromptu, hey guys, hold still, I'm going to take one more picture.
The folks on the horses (Bowdres?) are leaving.
If they were arriving, you would yell, step down, I'll take your picture.
The rest of the guys don't look to me like they are leaving anytime soon.
So I say there are or were more pictures.
This photog didn't trek that far to take one bride-groom pic and one outdoor croquet pic.
Weak point? Same as before.
The Kid's image is fuzzy!
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

RM Vivas
NYPD - M&P #S812894 - How I Research The NYPD Guns
2
Replies
22
Views
2K
dobegrant
dobegrant
THE PILGRIM
New Billy the Kid Photo - Expert Opinion
Replies
1
Views
389
snuffy51
snuffy51
PALADIN85020
The boys of Iwo Jima...
2
Replies
29
Views
1K
jaguargolf
J
Jack Flash
Historic Tintype of Billy the Kid Discovered
2 3
Replies
56
Views
4K
Watchdog
Watchdog
PALADIN85020
The true story of the first A-bomb dropped...
Replies
7
Views
1K
sw282
sw282

Latest posts

Back
Top