4 minute read
El Paso Shootout
Billy the Kid Breakout Show
The teenage outlaw of the Southwest comes to Texas
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by Wendy Little
DON’T MISS
Billy the Kid Breakout Shows
Held every 3rd Sunday at 1 p.m. & 3 p.m. at the Old El Paso County Jail Museum in the San Elizario Historic District 1551 Main St., San Elizario (915) 830-2563
Visit El Paso VisitElPaso.com
More about The Pistorleros facebook.com/pistolerosdesanelizarioreenactors/
Billy the Kid was one of several aliases, but he was born Henry McCarty in 1859. McCarty’s trouble with the law started in New Mexico when he was about 16. Committing petty crimes got him arrested and jailed several times early on, and on one of these occasions he escaped, and fled to Arizona which made him a fugitive. Soon after, he murdered a man in Arizona which made him a wanted man there, so back to New Mexico he went.
Back in New Mexico he laid low for a time to avoid being arrested again. But then in 1876, he received a telegram about his friend Meliquiades Segura, who was jailed in San Elizario, El Paso County, Texas. McCarty (then going by William H. Bonney) was known for his jail breaking skills, so he set a plan to help his buddy. Rumor has it that it was ultimately his (alleged) girlfriend
SAN ELIZARIO
Abrana Segura, that pressured him to go. McCarty and another man, John Mackey, travelled on horseback from Mesilla, New Mexico, through the night, arriving in San Elizario in the wee hours of the morning.
When they arrived at the jail, McCarty banged on the door claiming to be a Texas Ranger with a prisoner to turn over. The jailer opened the door to find McCarty and Mackey, guns drawn, ordering him to release Segura. They locked the jailer in a cell and escaped without a scratch.
The three outlaws hightailed it to the Rio Grande (about a mile away) and hid out across the border for a time, then Segura headed to interior Mexico and McCarty returned to New Mexico.
McCarty earned the name of Billy the Kid, the infamous outlaw and gunslinger by murdering many men (histories differ on exactly how many - possibly over 20), fighting in the Lincoln County War, and breaking out of jail multiple times. After being tried and convicted of one of the murders, “The Kid”, was meant to be hanged, but escaped once again. He was later shot dead by Sheriff Pat Garret in Fort Sumner, New Mexico in 1881, at the age of 21.
Billy the Kid broke out of jail many times, but there’s only this
Before restoration interior and exterior | Courtesy Library of Congress
Constructed ca. 1850. Designated as a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark in 1970. The old jail was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1997 as part of the San Elizario Historic District. It is located on El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro National Historic Trail.
The Pistoleros of San Elizario performing the Billy the Kid Breakout Shows | Photos courtesy Al Borrego
Old El Paso County Jail after restoration | Photos courtesy C. Hanchey
one account of him breaking into jail, and according to legend, the Kid freed the only man to ever escape from the old El Paso County Jail. One hundred forty years after his death, you can see a re-enactment of this event at the old El Paso County Jail, in San Elizario, performed every 3rd Sunday by the local group “The Pistoleros de San Elizario.”
Al Borrego, President of the Cultural Heritage Society of the Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, who has been the host and narrator of the show for 11 years, says, “we want to be true to the history so we give a historical account at the beginning, but the actual event lasted maybe only 2 minutes, and that wouldn’t be much fun for the crowd. After the factual presentation, I tell the actors to rewind, and they walk backwards to the start. We then do what I call the Hollywood version complete with audience participation as witnesses, girls from the local brothel, and a Matrix-style shoot out where the gunfighters are in slow motion and catch bullets with their hands. In reality there were never any shots fired.”
Regarding the Billy the Kid Breakout Show, Borrego says, “of all of the notorious crimes that he committed, this event was actually pretty boring, so we make it fun for the audience. We have a lot of families with kids that come, and everyone has a great time. I like to add humor, so we all have a good laugh.”
LEGACY
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Texas originals
Representing the law in Texas’ largest county— Sheriff Carl Williams. Texas State Library & Archives
Documenting Texas outlaws. Texas Historical Commission
Tour cultural sites in Clifton before bedding down in jail.
