Billy the Kid was promised a pardon

Sources

Sources

• Wallace to W. H. Bonney, 15 March 1879, and Bonney's letters to Wallace, Lew Wallace Papers, Indiana Historical Society
• Bonney to Wallace, March 1881, Fray Angélico Chávez History Library, Santa Fe
• Lew Wallace: An Autobiography (Harper & Brothers, 1906): https://archive.org/details/lewwallaceanaut00wallgoog
• Las Vegas Gazette, December 1880 to June 1881, including its interview with Gov. Wallace of 28 April 1881 (Chronicling America, Library of Congress)
• Saint Paul Globe, 8 June 1902, Lew Wallace on "Billy the Kid" (Chronicling America, Library of Congress)
• New Mexico State Records Center and Archives, "Billy the Kid": https://www.srca.nm.gov/billy-the-kid/
• PBS American Experience, "The Pardoning of Billy the Kid": https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/billy-pardoning-billy-kid/
• David G. Thomas, "Was Billy the Kid's Murder Trial Fair?", HistoryNet: https://historynet.com/billy-the-kid-trial/
• Mark Lee Gardner, To Hell on a Fast Horse (2010)
• General Lew Wallace Study & Museum, "William Bonney and Lew Wallace": https://www.ben-hur.com/?p=6719
• U.S. Office of the Historian, Lewis Wallace: https://history.state.gov/departmenthistory/people/wallace-lewis
• Associated Press, 16, 23 and 31 December 2010, on the pardon request and Governor Richardson's answer

Pictures

• the Fort Sumner tintype of Billy the Kid (1879-80); Wallace's letter of 15 March 1879 and Billy's of 2 March 1881; portraits of Lew Wallace (Rijksmuseum; Brady-Handy collection, Library of Congress; National Archives; 1893-1908 books), John Tunstall, Alexander and Susan McSween, William Brady, James Dolan and Lawrence Murphy, the House partners (1871), Rutherford Hayes, James Garfield, Pat Garrett, and Charlie and Manuela Bowdre (1880); Santa Fe, Las Vegas, Fort Sumner, Fort Stanton, Mesilla (Leon Trousset's painting and an 1890s photograph) and Constantinople; the Las Vegas Gazette, Mesilla Valley Independent, New-York Tribune, Chicago Tribune, Arizona Citizen, National Republican, Sacramento Record-Union and Saint Paul Globe (Chronicling America, Library of Congress); plates from Pat F. Garrett's The Authentic Life of Billy, the Kid (1882) and Emerson Hough's The Story of the Outlaw (1907); The True Life of Billy the Kid (1881); Ben-Hur (Harper & Brothers, 1880) and its 1901 stage posters (Library of Congress); the 1925 film Ben-Hur (MGM; chariot-race excerpts from TECHNÈS, Internet Archive) and King Vidor's Billy the Kid (MGM, 1930, Internet Archive). The old Lincoln County courthouse, 1940: W. Bailey, Historic American Buildings Survey. Via Wikimedia Commons: Governor Bill Richardson by Jeff Foust (CC BY 2.0), Jay Godwin and the LBJ Library, and Prognosic (CC BY-SA 2.5); Lew Wallace scan by Political Graveyard (CC BY 2.0); Robert Utley by Larry D. Moore (CC BY 4.0); Billy's grave at Fort Sumner by Asagan (CC BY-SA 4.0); the Indiana Historical Society by Jim.henderson (CC BY-SA 4.0).