Billy the Kid
The Lincoln County Regulators, or just the Regulators, were an American Old West deputized posse that fought in the Lincoln County War in New Mexico, during the late 19th century. They are well known for including Billy the Kid as a member.
The Regulators were formed out of numerous small ranch owners and cowboys in the Lincoln, New Mexico area by 1876, before the Lincoln County War.[1] Many of those who became best known as "Regulators" had a long history with one another previously. William H. Bonney, aka Billy the Kid or Henry McCarty, would become the best known, mostly because news accounts attached his name to everything the Regulators did. The Lincoln County War brought him to the front, but several of the other Regulators were actually the driving force behind the events, and had a history of killing alongside one another prior to the war.
Ab Saunders, Charlie Bowdre, Doc Scurlock, Frank Coe, and George Coe had previously killed rustlers together. On July 18, 1876, that group had stormed the Lincoln jail without opposition, removing horse thief Jesus Largo, and hanged him (no one was arrested).[1] Saunders and Coe had tracked down cattle rustler Nicos Meras, shooting and killing him that same month in the Baca Canyon. Their association with McCarty began when, in the spring of 1876, Henry (at the time known as either Henry Antrim or William Bonney) moved to Lincoln County and began working for Scurlock and Bowdre at their cheese factory. He later worked, for a time, for rancher Henry Hooker, and then for Saunders and the Coes on their ranch. By the time the Lincoln County War came along, those main core members, referred to as the "iron clad", were all more experienced and closer to being actual "gunmen" than was McCarty.
The Lincoln County War began when a posse of three men, deputized by Sheriff William J. Brady, confronted and fatally shot English cattle and horse rancher John Henry Tunstall on February 18, 1878. The posse had ostensibly been chasing Tunstall to attach, i.e., seize by legal authority, some stock Tunstall and his men were driving from Tunstall's ranch on the Feliz River to Lincoln, but the posse's real motivation may have been to eliminate John Tunstall as an economic threat to businessmen James Dolan and L.G. Murphy, who allegedly had Sheriff Brady under their control.[2]
The historian Robert Utley writes that Tunstall may have surrendered or he may just as easily have drawn his side arm and tried to defend himself from Deputies Morton, Hill, and Evans. Either way, shooting began and Tunstall died instantly when hit by two rifle bullets, one in the chest and another in the head. In the aftermath, some people "claimed that he was murdered in cold blood", while others "insisted he had been shot down while resisting arrest by a lawfully commissioned deputy sheriff of Lincoln County."[3]
Tunstall's ranch-hands and other local citizens formed a group known as the Regulators to avenge his murder, and counter what they viewed as a corrupt territorial criminal justice system controlled by allies of Murphy, Dolan, and company. The Regulators obtained their legality from the authority of the Justice of the Peace of the town of Lincoln, John B. Wilson.[4] Justice of the Peace Wilson issued warrants for the arrests of John Tunstall's killers, and appointed Regulator Dick Brewer a Special Constable to execute the warrants. Additionally, Regulator Robert Widenmann, who previously secured an appointment as a Deputy U.S. Marshal, was given permission to form a civilian posse and arrest the accused.[5][6]
The Lincoln County War and the Regulators would launch Billy the Kid to everlasting fame. It is probable that in reality other Regulators, for example Doc Scurlock, were closer to actually being "gunmen" than Billy. It is likely that in some cases, Billy the Kid was credited with killings that in fact were carried out by other Regulators. By the Regulators' end, any killings committed by them had his name appended, whether he was the actual shooter or not. This would eventually be detrimental to his attempts at amnesty.
The Regulators would go through three different leaders, all but one being killed. Although Billy the Kid would achieve fame as a member of the Regulators, he never led them. Their first leader was Richard "Dick" Brewer, killed later by Buckshot Roberts and replaced by Frank McNab, who was killed by members of the Seven Rivers Warriors. McNab was replaced by the Regulators final leader, Doc Scurlock.
William Bonney, aka Billy the Kid, never made any effort to become well known, or to be the main subject of news reports on the events taking place during the range war. Frank Coe commented years later, "He never pushed in his advice or opinions, but he had a wonderful presence of mind."[7]
Ultimately, the Lincoln County War accomplished little other than to foment distrust and animosity in the area and to make fugitives out of the surviving Regulators, most notably Billy the Kid. The Kid, Scurlock, Bowdre, Chavez y Chavez, Waite, Saunders, Brewer, Brown, McNab and the Coe cousins received the most notoriety as being "Regulators". Gradually, his fellow gunmen scattered to their various fates, and Billy the Kid was left with Charlie Bowdre, Tom O'Folliard, Dirty Dave Rudabaugh, and a few other friends with whom he rustled cattle and committed other petty crimes while negotiating for an amnesty that would never come, and evading capture.
Most of the some 40 plus Regulators were relative unknowns and their whereabouts after the war ended up being lost to history.
