The lore of the Old West — report of hired gun , tribal and territorial war , missing hoarded wealth — is undying . But are the diachronic record to be believed ? I interviewed W.C. Jameson , the famed treasure hunting watch , hard-core Texas cowpoke , and author of over 90 books on Old West account — includingUnsolved Mysteries of the Old Westand theBeyond the Graveseries . He tends to approach the official record more like a single man of grounds amongst a larger crime scene . “ I look for the hint that are there and chase them down , ” he enounce . As a result , he ’s string some conclusion of his own .
1. Did Sheriff Pat Garrett Really Kill Billy the Kid in 1881?
After William H. Bonney get away from Lincoln County Jail in New Mexico while awaiting hanging for the murder of Sheriff William Brady , the record will distinguish you that Sheriff Pat Garrett tracked the criminal , advantageously known as Billy the Kid ( above , right ) , to a residence in Fort Sumner where he shot and killed him . query abound , however , as to Garrett ’s trustworthiness and the reasons for the immediate disposal of the dupe ’s consistence . Even one of his deputies present for the shooting said that the man Garrett shoot was not the runaway they had been expect for .
When a man extend by the name Brushy Bill Roberts ( above , leave ) rise up in Texas in 1950 seeking pardon for the crimes of Billy the Kid , the media took notice . His case was finally thrown out by the governor of New Mexico , who agreed to encounter with him . The Governor did not believe Roberts was Billy the Kid . Roberts died a scant metre later , reportedly ashamed by the medium carnival that adopt his confession . Jameson , however , is one of many convinced that Roberts was the tangible mess . “ We started out taste to prove Roberts was lying , ” he says of his probe . One by one , though , all of Roberts ’ claims were finally verify . A statistical facial acknowledgment depth psychology compare Roberts to be intimate images of The Kid suggested that the two man were actually one and the same . Jameson says that he ’s challenged the so - called “ diehard academics ” that hold to Garrett ’s prescribed account of The Kid ’s death to debate him on the subject , but none have accept thus far .
2. Where is the Head of Pancho Villa?
Wikimedia Commons
This bandit - turned - hero of the Mexican Revolution retired from the battlefield after negotiating terms of withdrawal with the Mexican government in 1920 — only to be assassinated in an ambush three year afterward . In 1926 , Villa ’s body was exhumed mysteriously in the dark of night and his promontory , among other things , was removed and choose from the gravesite .
Jameson says the “ endure theory ” was that a rival Mexican superior general had been behind the deed . Another news report hold that the head word was on its way to be studied by brain doctor in Chicago . Others arrogate the ill-famed Yale biovular organisation acknowledge as Skull and Bones take for the skull in their vault for utilisation in ritual rite . Jameson says that the evidence behind all of these theories is scant . ( Skull and Bones has also been legally entail in the thievery of Apache Chief Geronimo ’s skull , though no grounds exists that Geronimo ’s headway is in reality miss . )
3. Where is Ben Sublett’s Secret Gold Mine?
In his bookUnsolved Mysteries of the Old West , Jameson assert the call that Ben Sublett discover a rich crop of gold ore in the Guadalupe Mountains of West Texas in the 1880s has been verified . The location of this mine , though , has been a subject of debate since Sublett ’s death in 1892 . Sublett says he found a canyon amongst the limestone cliffs in the Texas desert where a simple “ rake of the hired hand through the gravel ” was sure to knuckle under a fistful of near - pure gold nugget . Sublett even showed the location of the mine to a figure of people , though none were ever capable to find it in subsequent searches .
4. What Is a Thunderbird and Where Are They Now?
Pterodactyl engraving viaWikimedia Commons
Multiple newspaper articles from California and Arizona in the late 1800s report sighting of a monster fly creature resembling what would likely be called a pterodactyl today . A photo of one such beast nailed to a barn in Tombstone is say to have been wide disseminate ( Jameson says he ’s visit it ) , though nobody has ever been able to grow a copy of the image .
A Cherokee treasure hunter who was a match of Jameson ’s claims to have dug up several feather — each over 18 in farseeing with quills “ as adult around as one of his fingers”—from a cave in Utah while looking for a long - lost cache of Spanish silver . Above the mouth of this cave was an ancient pictograph of an enormous horned bird . Jameson , who says he has one of the original feather in his appeal , aver that the feathers have been examined by a number of bird watcher , but that the species creditworthy for producing them has yet to be identified .
5. Where Is the Lost Dutchman’s Gold Mine?
It ’s perhaps the most spill - about lose hoarded wealth in American history , but there seems to be more myth than fact surround the gold find in Arizona by German immigrant Jacob Waltz . A political party of treasure hunters move to the Superstition Mountains of Arizona in search of Waltz ’s cache shortly after his destruction in 1891 and , still today , an estimated 8000 visitors move to Lost Dutchman State Park each year in hope of striking it rich . It was allege that Waltz mine his call in the Salt River Valley of Arizona every winter between 1868 and 1886 , though the source of his ore was never found .
Jameson , who wrote about the missing mine in his bookLost Mines and Buried Treasures of Arizona , suggest that the Lost Dutchman ’s Mine was credibly not miss at all , but says , “ the chances are that the Lost Dutchman Mine was just simply mine out . ” So , if you ’re contrive on searching for a lost treasure of your own anytime soon , it may be in force to start out somewhere else first .
6. Did Butch Cassidy Return to the United States?
It has been said that Butch Cassidy and his accomplice Henry Alonzo Longabaugh ( " the Sundance Kid " ) were the only crook who lived to see themselves portrayed on celluloid . Though the record state — and Hollywood would have you trust — that the notable bank robber were vote down in a gunfight with the Bolivian military after fleeing the U.S. , many of Cassidy ’s friends and family members cover that he in reality visited them several times after he was said to have been killed .
To perplex matters , the adult male creditworthy for place the two victim of the shootout in South America was a loyal friend of Cassidy’s — perhaps fast enough to bolster up Cassidy ’s betting odds of a successful escape by falsifying the ID . Another of Cassidy ’s friends was asked to calculate at photographs of the torso in motion and confirmed the dying of Longabaugh , but said the soundbox previously identified as Cassidy was someone else only .
7. Did the U.S. Army Secretly Claim the Treasure at Victorio Peak for Their Own?
The legend of the Victorio Peak Treasure begins in the 1600s when a fail soldier stumbled into a New Mexico monastery and fink his knowledge of a secret memory cache of gold ore in the mountains to a monk named Padre Felipe LaRue . LaRue put together a band that supposedly located the mine and successfully drew ore from it for three whole years . When the Mexican Army was sent to overtake LaRue ’s operation , he ordered workers to fill up the entrance to the mine with a landslide and , soon thereafter , LaRue ’s entire camp take information about the fix with them to the grave at the hand of the soldier .
A New Mexico couple list Ernest and Ova Noss were said to have stumbled upon a minute entrance to this mine while hunting in 1937 , and then yield several fourth dimension to collect the grievous gold metal bar from the secret emplacement . When Ernest adjudicate to spread out the mine further with a blast of TNT , it was inadvertently seal despite repeated attempts to reopen it . When the White Sands Missile and Bombing Range was lucubrate in 1955 to include the land , Ova Noss supposedly get off a party to investigate and they reported that Army officials were seen dig near the land site . Still , the Army never made any cite of the Victorio amber .
In 1977 , ground - pervade radio detection and ranging identified an open area underground near where the Noss ’ claim might have been . In the nineties , a locked steel door was said to have been found covering the site of the original diaphysis . Whatever the case , a reported 88 solid - gold ingots were brought forth from the mountains of New Mexico by the Noss couple , and it is unlikely the public will ever know precisely what became of the internet site and its associated treasure .
8. Did Outlaw Bill Longley Elude Execution?
Bloody Bill Longley had more than 30 putting to death to his name before he was hanged at the age of 27 , suggesting that Longley was one of the most fertile and psychopathic triggerman in the Wild West . But was he successfully executed and swallow up in Texas ?
Longley ’s conversancy held that Bloody Bill escaped from prison before being hang and lived out the oddment of his Day as a Louisiana cotton sodbuster under the name John Calhoun Brown . Longley had miss prison twice before his recorded execution in 1878 . Did a third escape keep this notorious Orcinus orca from the gallows indefinitely ?
Although Smithsonian anthropologist Douglas Owsley claims to have proven through DNA psychoanalysis that the dead body bury in Giddings , Texas did in fact belong to the notorious malefactor , Jameson say “ all that ( DNA ) proves is that ( the body ) was a Longley relative . ” skeptic are quick to point out that a number of Longley congeneric are buried in the same cemetery and that hapless record make accurate identification of the body in question difficult .
9. Where Is Cochise Buried?
Dragoon Mountains via Wikimedia Commons
The trunk of fabled Apache Chief Cochise is bury somewhere in the wilderness of his former Chiricahua stronghold southeast of Tucson , Arizona , but the exact locating of his remains is strange to this day . Cochise and his band of Apaches occupied the orbit near the former emplacement of Fort Bowie for about 15 yr , most of which were label by extreme ferocity on both sides . Cochise died in 1874 , presumptively of rude causes , and his body was buried in a traditional ceremony along with his horse and dog somewhere near his homestead . The foreman ’s tribespeople occupy the location of the grave accent with them when they passed on themselves .
