From: firstinitiallastname@texas.net   
      
   Pan T. Waste wrote:   
      
   > But all of this current nonsense ignores the fact   
   > that there WAS a formal (for those times) coroner's   
   > inquest with the usual sworn affidavits of witnesses   
   > to the death of the Kid. It's highly unlikely   
   > that all of those who witnessed and saw the body would   
   > have been hoodwinked into identifying someone other   
   > than the Kid, as well known as he was to all the   
   > locals at that time.   
      
   A plot of the sort that is proposed would hardly go undetected, even if   
   the facial features were destroyed. And it's unlikely that someone   
   wouldn't have said something. A number of people who knew him live long   
   enough to give oral recollections to WPA interviewers. The Kid could   
   hardly have stayed in the area, and after he'd been gone for years, the   
   story would surely start being talked around. And, if he could go and   
   stay gone and remain unrecognized for the rest of his life, it would   
   hardly have been necessary to fake his death.   
      
   If he had been ready to give over his local activities, he could no   
   doubt have left the state and been safe enough. The whole situation was   
   a local one. There's no reasons to think he was inclined to relocate,   
   though, but if he had been, faking his death would have served little   
   purpose. If would have been far easier to just take off and arrange for   
   word of his "death" to be sent back at some point in the future.   
      
   It seems that the whole notion of the faked death relies heavily on a   
   thread that runs through the bogus claims, the sheer weight of baloney   
   being enough to keep it going. Of course, if you're going to put   
   yourself forward as being Billy the Kid, you have to account for the   
   apparent death, and there's no other way to explain it away but as a fake.   
      
   --   
                          Gerald Clough   
       "Nothing has any value, unless you know you can give it up."   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)