Billy The Kid Death Site - Fort Sumner

Billy The Kid's death site is located behind the Bosque Redondo Memorial on Billy The Kid Road in Fort Sumner, New Mexico, in the Fort Sumner Historic Site.  After being captured in Stinking Springs, sentenced to hang, and escaping from the jail in Lincoln, New Mexico, the outlaw known as Billy the kid, A.K.A. Henry McCarty, A.K.A. William H. Bonney, was on the run.  Sheriff Pat Garrett and two of his deputies heard rumors that the Kid was in the area of Fort Sumner and arrived on July 14, 1881, nearly three months after his escape. Garrett chose the house of Pete Maxwell, a known friend of the Kid, to begin his inquiries.  Garrett and Maxwell were talking in Maxwell's darkened bedroom as the Kid unexpectedly came in, and, although accounts differ as to what exactly happened, the Kid was taken unawares and killed by Garrett.  The Pete Maxwell ranch house no longer stands, having fallen into disrepair shortly after Billy the Kid's death.  The ruins were finally washed away in the 1937 Pecos River floods.  There is a marker near the spot of the house, on the grounds of the Fort Sumner/Bosque Redondo National Memorial Site.  Nearby is the Old Fort Sumner Cemetery where Billy The Kid was laid to rest.

 Submit photo(s) for this home.