NEW MEXICO’S OLD TIMES & OLD TIMERS by Don Bullis, New Mexico Author donbullis@msn.com
O
ne of the most cowardly acts in New Mexico’s Lincoln County War (18781881) took place on April 1, 1878, in the town of Lincoln. At mid-morning, Sheriff William Brady and deputies George Hindman, Billy Mathews, George Peppin and Jack Long walked down Lincoln-town’s only street. Suddenly, from behind cover—either an adobe wall or a heavy gate, depending on who told the tale—there erupted a fusillade of small arms fire. Sheriff Brady was killed instantly, penetrated by numerous bullets. Deputy Hindman also went down, mortally wounded. The remaining deputies scattered and took cover. Billy Mathews was able to return fire and wounded one of the assailants as he picked over Brady’s body. The killers all escaped. Historians William A. Keleher and Bill O’Neal identify the assassins as William H. Bonney (Billy the Kid), Henry Brown, John Middleton, Fred Waite, and Jim French. To those five, historians John P. Wilson and Robert Utley add Frank McNabb. Abneth McCabe, who lived near Lincoln at the time, wrote the following in a letter to
The Murder of Sheriff William Brady Lily Klasner not long after the events fire the fatal shot since he spent his time described: “… Brady and George Hindman shooting at Billy Mathews, a man with whom were killed in the streets of Lincoln by men he had a personal grudge. Bonney blamed hid in the corral behind the new store of Mathews, as Brady’s chief deputy, for the McSween and Tunstall, shot in the back as disorder that led to Tunsdall’s murder the they were passing. John Middleton, [Robert] previous February 18th. Weiderman [Widenmann], a Negro, George So, what to believe? Take your pick. Washington, and another Negro, Little Better yet, simply acknowledge that no one Henry, ‘the kid’ [sic] and a man called French knows exactly what happened in Lincoln on were seen to come out the corral after the April 1, 1878, except that a sheriff and one of firing. All must have shot.” his deputies were murdered from ambush by Keleher, and Utley are most likely correct, a gang of cowards, perhaps led by Billy the as their scholarship rises to the top in a caul- Kid. dron full of historians of the Lincoln County And who was William Brady that so much War. As for Ab McCabe’s letter, it is unlikely hostility was directed toward him? that Widenmann participated although one Brady, a native of Cavan County in writer claims he was there, in the corral, Northern Ireland, was born in 1825 or 1829, feeding his dog, but did not shoot. Until that depending on the source. He completed his date he was a deputy U.S. Marshal. George education there about 1844 and began work Washington and George Robinson, both on the family’s tenant farm. He became head former members of the Negro 10th Cavalry, of his family upon the death of his father in were arrested after the killings, but were 1846, just at the height of the Irish potato released and likely had nothing to do with it. famine (1845-1852). He left Ireland for the In the final analysis, only one man was United States in 1850 and soon after his ever convicted of killing Sheriff Brady, and arrival joined the U. S. States Army. He that was William Bonney—Billy the Kid. In served two five-year enlistments before he his own defense, he claimed that he did not joined the New Mexico Volunteers as a lieutenant in August of 1860 and subsequently served during the Texas-Confederate invasion of New Mexico in 1862. While he was stationed in Albuquerque, Brady met Bonifacia Chaves of Corrales and they married in late 1862. They were the parents of nine children, the youngest of which was born after his father was slain. After the Civil War, Brady was stationed at Fort Stanton and in 1864 as a captain he was named commandant of that installation. He was promoted to brevet major the follow-
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