Slashdot Mirror
Billy the Kid Faces The Law... Again
Jason Raddin writes "MSNBC.com has an interesting story about a new showdown in the Old West. It seems as if Billy the Kid can still cause problems for the law-men of New Mexico, even as he rests in his grave. Several small New Mexico towns claim to possess the "true" grave of Billy the Kid (a.k.a. William H. Bonney, Henry McCarty, Kid Antrim). Two sheriffs in Capitan, New Mexico have proposed that this mystery be solved using modern DNA testing. The proposal was made in June to exhume the remains of Bonney's mother and the two reported graves of Bonney. This has spurred a hot legal debate raising an interesting question: which is more important, tourist dollars or the truth?"
...the rights of the dead buried people that they're digging up?
Who owns those plots of land? Do dead bodies automatically become the property of the state?
I claim first use of "Error No. 0B" - or "No. 0B error." It'll be the new ID 10T!
Really. I mean is there even an argument here?
If he explores all forms and substances Straight homeward to their symbol-essences; He shall not die.
Right, so this is a very suspense-inducing story. I can tell. I just have to wonder, though, as this sort of thing doesn't really inspire suspense in me (plugging in a new cable does, though), why is this story on Slashdot? I mean, really. I'd rather hear about someone (or even several towns) digging up his (or anyone's for that matter) remains and rigging them with wireless technology that allows people to control their movements. Now that would be cool...
but this? bah...
But the mayors of Fort Sumner and Silver City say they won't let the bodies buried in their towns be disturbed, and that sets the stage for a legal showdown in December when New Mexico District Court Judge Jim Foy is to consider the matter.
Mayor Lopez: Draw.
Sheriff Graves: No!
(Lopez pauses)
Graves: I thought we could settle this like men!
Lopez: You thought wrong, dude.
*BLAM*
(Back to the Future ref for those of you in the sad sad dark.)
The coolest voice ever.
What if they do the DNA tests and it turns out that Billy the Kid isn't in either of those graves?
I would think that more important question to be raised here is how moral/ethical it is to dig out graves for tourists' money.
Whatever happened to the whole "rest in peace" notion? Let me get this in writing right now: if someone comes diggin' me up in a century or so, I am *so* gonna haunt that guy!
"...which is more important, tourist dollars or the truth?"
How about respecting the dead? Is 'loss of tourism' really the best answer we can come up with to not open up two people's graves (at least one of whom is assuredly not Billy the Kid)?
Kevin Fox
a biotech issue. It is a moral issue. I wouldn't want people digging up my great-grandmother, and I don't think Billy would like it either.
When you look at the state of the world, how can you not become a radical, liberal anarchist?
Since when do living people have rights?
Epitaph from the grave of William Shakespeare: Good friend for Iesus sake forbeare to digg the dvst encloased heare. Blese be ye man yt spares thes stones and cvrst be he yt moves my bones.
He may have been a real person once, but today, Billy the Kid is a mythological figure no different than Zeus or Odin. Without delving too deeply into Campbell, I'd say that going to all this effort to prove which is THE Mister The Kid really accomplishes nothing, when allowing his stories to thrive uninterrupted provides a psychological service.
Bush: He's Liberal in all the wrong ways.
It could decide whether Pat Garrett was a hero or a "liar who covered up a murder to save his reputation."
I've got a lot of family in New Mexico and Arizona, and I've actually been to a couple towns which claim to have his body, and you know what?
Nobody really cares, outside of those towns.
The problem is, some of these town, having basically nothing aside from big-ass desert, have so little in the way of anything whatsoever, that some of these little towns a hundred miles from anything have to go out of their ways to rationalize their existance.
And you know what's really shocking? It's not even a tourist thing. There's not that much cash in it. Nobody makes holy pilgrimages to Billy the Kid's tomb. It's a pride thing. It's completely about these towns wanting some claim to history, however miniscule.
It's rather sad really. Not unlike the town of Roswell, where you can't go downtown without seeing a dozen shops selling schlocky plastic alien trinkets.
"Isn't that the sweetest little well-balanced undergraduate-level philosophy of life."
there no need for diggin up bodies, dna tests and the like.
there is a simple way to solve this exact problem
Homer Jay Simpson: Dig him up! Dig up that corpse! If you really love Jebediah Springfield, you'll haul his bones out of the ground to prove my daughter wrong! Dig up his grave! Pull out his tongue!
Mayor 'Diamond' Joe Quimby: Can't we have one meeting that doesn't end with us digging up a corpse?
Besides, what happens when neither corpse is the Kid? I mean, anyone who has seen the Simpsons Halloween special knows he's buried in Springfield, just waiting for all of us to throw away our guns! :-)
To precis the story:
- popular legend has it that Billy the Kid was buried in place A
- some guy said "I'm Billy the Kid" before he died, and he's buried in place B
- another guy said "I'm Billy the Kid" before he died, and he's buried in place C
Surely places A, B and C are all benefitting from tourist dollars out of the pockets of people wanting to see the "real" Billy the Kid's hole in the ground.
Why on earth would the officials in place A want to (a) disturb the remains of 4 people (3 Kids and mum), (b) potentially wreck the tourism incomes of places B & C, and (c) potentially wreck the tourism income of their own town? If (c) happens, then I figure they won't be re-elected and will probably need to find a new place to live.
Surely the commonsense thing for guys in towns A, B & C is to leave things exactly as they are, and try to fuel the mystery of BtK's final resting place as part of his mystique.
"They think they've got him somewhere else, but old Mabel up the road remembers his grandson who lived just next door and he was a helluva shot with a gun, just like ol' Billy. Killed 150 buffalo in an afternoon with his bare hands, he did, and ate 'em all for dinner that night; never seen a buffalo in these parts since. You can see the family resemblance in this here photo, and you can get your own copy for only $5"
IHT Article
Why? Because it may reveal that one Sheriff Garrett was really a murderer, covering his crime with wild claims. This would serve justice to his victim. The effort will be made to verify the claims of Brushy Bill Roberts of Texas who died at the age of 90 claiming to be the muderous outlaw. If this man is Billy the Kid, is it so distasteful to disturb his grave, seeing as how he sent so many people to their graves? To exhume the man who claimed to be Billy The Kid would dispoil the grave of an killer or a fraud claiming to be an killer. Besides, if Roberts is the Kid, I'm sure he'd gladly oblige anyone who clould prove his claim. If not, then to disturb his rest would merely be an exercise in situational irony.
But, my goodness, that poor lady!
And, after they figure out who (if anybody) has the remains of Billy the Kid, I think they should gather together a bunch of relics from cathedrals, do some DNA comparison between them, and figure out once and for all if John the Baptist really did have four skulls, six hands, and three tongues.
Our country is littered with "historical" markers that bear only the faintest resemblances to the events they supposedly commemorate. These Billy the Kid graves are just a tiny spur of that iceberg. History is in the thrall of local chambers of commerce. Think they want to tell a story that isn't favorable to their area?
The number of museums to Custer that are out there is an okay example of when it's just innocent squabbling, not a total whitewash. There are collections of Custer memorabilia scattered from Michigan to North Dakota (and of course Montana), and they're all bitterly opposed to giving up a scrap from his leather belt. It's a matter of tourism and civic pride. Want to see the definitive Custer exhibit? Get ready to spend a summer.
That's when it isn't the obviously censored version. James Loewen wrote a decent, fun little book, "Lies Across History," about those. Monuments to Confederate dead in Montana -- not a state, not even a territory, during the Civil War. References to "battles" all over the place, when they weren't battles at all: the Mormons ambush and slaughter a huge wagon train of settlers, but the monument calls it a battle with the federal government. And so on.
So your answer is: Tourist Dollars.
"Fundamentalism" isn't about divine morality. It's about human authority.
Wait for a good rain! http://www.rosenet.org/library/historyimages/cemet eries2.jpg
"If you think you have things under control, you're not going fast enough." --Mario Andretti
He's still alive: last time anyone saw him, he was coaching the mighty ducks!
There's a growing sense that even if The Future comes,
most of us won't be able to afford it.
-- Lemmy
Everyone knows that he's buried in Springfield!
It was on the Simpson's. It _must_ be true!
A new feature is just a bug waiting to happen. And vice versa.