TX BIOS:  Louis Bousman
   Selected and converted.American Memory, Library of Congress.
   
   Washington, 1994.
   
   Preceding element provides place and date of transcription only.
   
   This transcription intended to be 99.95% accurate.
   
   For more information about this text and this American Memory
   collection, refer to accompanying matter.
   
   U.S. Work Projects Administration, Federal Writers' Project (Folklore
   Project, Life Histories, 1936-39); Manuscript Division, Library of
   Congress.Copyright status not determined.
   
   0001
   
   Dulaney, Ethel C., Wichita Falls, Texas Life History
   
   REMINISCENSES OF LOUIS BOUSMAN
   
   The following was taken from a copy of an interview given by Mr.
   Bousman, while he was a guest [of?] of the State Theatre in Wichita
   Falls, September 7,1934, during the showing of the film, Billy, the
   Kid. According to Mr. Bousman, he was with Pat Garrett when Billy the
   Kid was captured [DEL: [?] :DEL] a few weeks before he was killed by
   Pat Garrett. During the showing of the film in Wichita Falls, there
   was on display in the lobby of the theatre a Winchester belonging to
   B.P.Schwend of [Henrietta?], Texas. Mr. Bousman says he remembers the
   gun very well, and is "quite sure that it belonged to Billy the Kid at
   the time of his capture". Mr. Schwend has a well known collection of
   old guns. (The original manuscript is on file with the HISTORICAL
   SURVEY files in the Kemp Pulbic Library, Wichita Falls, Texas.)
   
   "I was born in the state of Virginia, seventy-six years ago. I lived
   there until I was a good-sized boy and then moved to Grayson county,
   Texas when I was about fourteen years old. Later I went to Cherokee
   [ation?], close to Ft. Gibson, and stayed a number of years. When I
   was about twenty years old I moved to a place called Tascosa, in the
   Panhandle of Texas.
   
   "At Tascosa I worked for a cattleman named Lit Littlefield. The town
   was a wild and wooly place and every body carried guns. [DEL: [?]
   :DEL] I built a picket corral out of cedar north of [DEL: hwere :DEL]
   where the town of Amarillo now stands. Tascosa was forty-five miles
   northwest of Amarillo. The old court / house belongs to Mr. Bivins, a
   cowman who now lives in Amarillo. It is used as a ranch house. He owns
   the Lit Ranch, which is about ten miles square.
   
   "The cattlemen around Tascosa complained that the cowboys were
   stealing their cattle, and also the boys were striking for higher
   wages. The cowmen got Pat Garrett to go down to Austin and get
   authority to put in a bunch of rangers, and they put in four under Pat
   Garrett. But Pat didn't stay with them; he was
   
     NOTE: C.-12. Tex.
     
   00022the sheriff in Linclon county, New Mexico. Me and another deputy
   sheriff told the cowmen that if they would go and swear out a warrant
   for these boys we would go out and arrest them. They did not do this.
   They were afraid of them. They thought if they could get rid of them
   they would be all right. They wanted to make an agreement with us to
   stay in bed on a certain night while they hung the strikers. We told
   them that if they came in to kill the boys the fight would be open,
   for we would protect the boys.
   
   "The 'Home Rangers'----never arrested a man. They wanted to run over
   everybody around town, so one night we got in a fight--and killed
   three of them---Ed King--Fred Shelton, and I forgot the name of the
   [DEL: othe :DEL] other and I got away---one of our men got wounded
   --Len Woodruff, me and a fellow they called 'Cat Fish' never got a
   scratch. They buried the dead man out in what is called 'Boot Hill
   Cemetery'. They said I killed some of them. They shot Jessie Sheets
   and they thought that they were getting me. I heard a man say ' [DEL:
   [?] :DEL] I got Bousman'. They first started the row; they commenced
   the shooting and we shot back and blew some of their heads off. Pat
   Garrett was not there when the shooting took place. But they never put
   any more Rangers there after that.
   
   'BILLY THE KID'
   
   "Billy was fourteen years old when he killed his first man in Silver
   City, New Mexico. He was a porter and general boot black around the
   hotel. He came from New York, or somewhere in the East. There was a
   fellow there in the hotel who kept deviling Billy, and Billy told him
   that if he did not let him 00033alone he would kill him. The next
   morning the fellow commenced deviling him again, and grabbed a hold of
   him, so Billy killed him. Then he went out and stole [DEL: [?] :DEL]
   him a horse and left, and went down on the Pecos river where
   Chisholm's outfit was, and joined them. He hired to Chisholm as a
   cowboy.
   
   "The Lincoln County War was going on. It was a cowman's war. They were
   fighting over the grazing land for the cattle. Chisholm wanted it all.
   The war lasted about a year. After the war Billy the Kid did not
   surrender. The government of New Mexico pardoned all these men, but
   Billy did not surrender to them.
   
   "Billy came to Tascosa---stayed at my camp a month. He stayed all
   around there among the cowmen until spring and then went back to New
   Mexico.---stealing cattle; would come over south of Tascosa and get
   them and drive them away---Cowmen---got Pat Garrett to come over there
   and [DEL: tlak :DEL] talk to him--- [DEL: H :DEL] He told them if they
   would send him a bunch of men over there that he would capture Billy.
   I was one of the men sent over there and the others were Jim East, Tom
   Emory. Lon Chambers, and Charles Siringo.---So we met up with Pat
   Garrett at Anton Chico, in New Mexico. Then he picked out---me and Jim
   East, Lon Chambers, and Tom Emory.----rode all night--When we got to
   Fort Sumner--we sent a spy to see if Billy and his bunch were there .
   [DEL: in that town :DEL] He said, 'When I left there Billy and his men
   were there in the town.' So we rode into Fort [DEL: Si,mer :DEL]
   Sumner before day, and went to Pete Maxwell's barn, and thought we
   would find Billy's horses---but they were not there,--so ---we went
   over town and saw that he was gone.-- Then Billy found out that we
   were there---Billy said, 'I will 00044just go down and run them out of
   town and dismount them [!?] So he sent two men and Tom O'Phalliard. He
   rode up to the hospital and Pat was standing there in the shade of the
   porch, and Pat shot him. His horse went off with him and then he came
   back and we went out and got him and carried him inside. Billy the Kid
   and three other men were watching from a distance and we opened fire
   on them, so they left.---We buried Tom O'Phalliard the next day. Billy
   sent a spy in [DEL: ther :DEL] there to see who all we were---The spy
   told us that if we would start out they would meet us half way.--We
   started out there that night, and the spy [DEL: net :DEL] met us and
   said they were gone--We took the trail of the horses and trailed them
   to the rock house and saw the horses tied on the outside. So me and
   Pat Garrett and Lon Chamber and a Mexican went over there and lay down
   down in a hollow by the door so [DEL: wer :DEL] we could look in--We
   lay there all night in the snow on our blankets.---Pat told us, 'If
   Billy goes out to feed the horses he will have a Mexican hat. You boys
   cut down and kill him.' Then Bowdre came out to feed the horses, so we
   all took a shot at him. He fell with his head back in the house. We
   thought it was Billy the Kid. Afterwards Billy hollered and said
   Bowdre wanted to come out there to us. Pat told him to come ahead and
   leave his guns in the house. But he came out with his gun right in
   front of him with his hands up. And when he got out there I [DEL: [?]
   :DEL] raised up and got him and laid him down on my blanket. He was
   shot in three places and was bleeding. He did not live but a [DEL: lew
   :DEL] few minutes. 00055"Billy and his outfit began trying to dig port
   holes in that rock house. There was only one north window [DEL: ans
   :DEL] and one west door. Pat says, 'There is no use for us to lay here
   all day. We better get away from here before they do get port holes.'
   Then we went down in th hollow a little ways and singled across to
   where our horses were and the rest of the men. Then we went back to
   the ranch house and got us some breakfast. Billy and his bunch tried
   to lead their horses into the house. They were tied to a post and they
   could reach out and get them. I shot the first one right in the neck,
   and he fell with his shoulders right in the door. The next one Pat
   shot the rope in two and he ran off and some of [DEL: or :DEL] our
   bunch caught him. We got the ranchman to bring us down some food and
   some horse feed, and we stayed all day and finally Billy turned his
   horses out of the house in the middle of the evening and we got them.
   Between sundown and dusk Billy surrendered. He said he smelt that
   bacon frying and he was right hungry. We took them back to the ranch
   house and guarded them all night, and the dead man, too. Then we
   pulled out to Fort Sumner with them the next morning. When we were
   getting right at Fort Sumner Bowder's wife came out to meet us in the
   snow. We whipped up the horses when we passed her and ran right up to
   the door, and I and Jim East grabbed the body and took it in and put
   it on the table. We didn't stop when we met her because we [DEL: [?]
   :DEL] did not want to hear her abuse[.?] She cussed Pat Garrett out.
   He told her to go over and pick out a suit of clothes to bury her
   husband in and he would pay for it. He also had the grave dug.
   00066"We kept Billy the Kid and the three others in his bunch, put
   them in a house--under guard until next morning and Pat pulled out
   with them to Las Vegas, New Mexico. We got in there at night and the
   people found out that he had Billy the Kid in jail and a mob tried to
   take him away from Pat, and he told them if they did not stand back he
   would arm Bill and his bunch and they would fight it out. Pat and four
   other men took the prisoners to Silver City, New Mexico, and put them
   in jail there. They took him back to Lincoln afterwards where he was
   tried and got death sentence. After he got his sentence they placed
   two guards over him. One morning one guard had gone to breakfast, the
   other was [DEL: readin :DEL] reading the newspaper, and Bill was
   standing behind him, and he hit him over the head with his handcuffs.
   The guard started to run down the stairs, and Billy [DEL: grabbd :DEL]
   grabbed his gun from his scabbard and killed him. He then went back
   [DEL: i :DEL] in the room and got a shot gun loaded with twenty-two
   buck shot and went down stairs and raised the window and saw the other
   guard coming, and when he got right up close to him Billy hollered,
   'Look out, I am going to put some buck shot into you.' And he killed
   him dead. Then Billy went back upstairs and armed himself with a
   Winchester and six-shooters, ordered a Mexican to steal a horse for
   him that was right in behind the house where he was being guarded. He
   told him to bring the horse to the blacksmith shop. He had the
   blacksmith to cut his shackles in two. When Billy mounted the horse
   the horse threw him. He ordered the Mexican to catch him, which he
   did, and Billy rode off. He went back to Fort Sumner and a 00077month
   [DEL: ot :DEL] or two after that Pat Garrett killed him there at Pete
   Maxwell's house. Pat slipped into Maxwell's room and found out Billy
   was there, Billy overheard somebody talking and he went to Maxwell's
   room and he says, 'Maxwell, what is that lying out there under those
   bushes?' Maxwell didn't answer, and then Pat shot him. That was John
   Poe, the deputy, lying out under the bushes. Billy was stuck on
   Maxwell's sister, the reason he went to their house, but Maxwell
   wanted to get rid of him."

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