Museum History

The Museum Today

The museum opened in 1987 after Justice of the Peace Bob Hefner wrote a book that claimed to substantiate Roberts’ claims. A statue went up, and the town started its annual Billy the Kid Day festival in April.

“It’s not that we’re promoting an outlaw or a killer,” Land said. “We’re promoting Hico.”

Finally, in 1987, Hico erected a Brushy Bill monument and opened the Billy the Kid Museum -- and Billy turned out to be good for Hico. Wild West fans trek to this part of central Texas to see Brushy's grave, death spot, statue, and the museum, with its small collection of firearms and Western memorabilia. Sue admits that Hico's delayed embrace of Brushy hurt the museum's collection, limiting it to a handful of items owned by the old man (including possibly one of his guns). "By the time we come along, almost everything was gone."

Sue Land ran through the details: Pat Garrett mistakenly killed someone else in Fort Sumner, New Mexico then covered it up to hide his embarrassment and collect the reward money (A flood in Billy's cemetery later "washed away all those old wooden caskets and bones and things," said Sue, leaving the grave empty). Billy escaped the shootout, changed his name, and reformed, embarking on a career that included catching horse thieves, working for Hanging Judge Parker, and holding down jobs as a constable, deputy sheriff, and plainclothes policeman.

By 1950 Brushy Bill knew he was dying and wanted to be pardoned by the governor of New Mexico for his crimes. His body was examined, revealing bullet wounds and knife scars that matched those known to be on Billy. "I don't know any man that would've shot and stabbed themselves just so they could have the same scars as Billy the Kid," said Sue.

"All he was asking for was a pardon," said Sue. "Not money or notoriety or anything like that."

The New Mexico governor, however, scoffed at Brushy's claims (And was probably alarmed at the thought of losing Billy the Kid tourists to Texas). The governor said, according to Sue, "I don't believe him. He's just a sick old man."

Heartbroken, Brushy Bill returned to Hico. A month later, four days shy of his 91st birthday, he dropped dead on a downtown sidewalk, walking to the post office to mail a package for his wife.

Blindsided by its unexpected fame, Hico tried to forget Brushy Bill -- but couldn't. Decades passed. "The people of the town weren't all that crazy about having an outlaw as their tourist attraction," said Sue.

The Billy the Kid Museum opened in Hico nearly 40 years after Roberts’s death, and the city actively celebrates the connection. In Hico Billy is everywhere, from a statue downtown, to the standee in the Chamber of Commerce, to the monumental arch over Roberts’s grave. There is no doubt there that Billy the Kid is one of their own, and they’re happy to tell the world.

Billy the Kid Museum is a small history museum in the town of Hico in rural Texas. Our claim to fame is that Billy the Kid , the famous gunfighter/outlaw, was not shot and killed by Pat Garrett in 1881 but died at the age of 91 in Hico, Texas.

The Museum promotes research and public education through its Museum collection. Visitors to the Museum can see exhibits, attend events at the Museum, and access educational programs. The Museum supports itself through ticket sales, membership, fundraisers, and donations.

Sue Land, director of the Billy the Kid Museum, said she wasn’t really a believer in the Brushy Bill claim until she read Edwards’ book. Now her doubts are gone, and she is confident that Brushy Bill was Billy the Kid.

It's a complicated story that Sue or one of her museum staffers will be happy to explain to you -- or you could simply watch one of the small museum's three flat screen monitors, each playing a different video with historians and researchers asserting that Brushy Bill and Billy the Kid were the same person.

According to Sue, visitors seem satisfied to read the museum's informational displays and get the facts from Sue and her small staff. "One man said, 'I wanted to know that the Kid made it out,'" said Sue. "That's the way the majority of them feel."

“Hico doesn’t have industry,” Land says. “We have tourism. That’s our industry. We have some wonderful stores, but people can go shopping anywhere. What is unique about us is the Billy the Kid Museum.” As Director it is her responsibility to promote the museum and to raise funds.

And although he was born in New York City, his namesake museum survives in Hico, Texas. Visitors to the Billy the Kid Museum in Hico can explore the mythology surrounding the young man’s life story as well as the history of Hico’s past. The museum also features a well-stocked gift store where shoppers may pick up a variety of items including a reproduction of the famous McCarty ferrotype (an early form of photography printing).

The statue of Billy The Kid on Pecan Street in Hico sits one block from a thriving and revitalized downtown anchored by the Museum. Visitors from Australia and Europe have signed the guestbook there.