Billy the Kid's Pretenders Brushy Bill & John Miller by Gale Cooper pdf epub fb2

Old West icon, Billy Bonney, known as Billy the Kid, and killed by Sheriff Pat Garrett on July 14, 1881, spawned almost two dozen 20th century old-timers feigning his identity, and denying his death. Best known are "Brushy Bill" Roberts and John Miller. To debunk them, Billy the Kid's Pretenders uses the author's world-class knowledge of Billy Bonney's history and the Lincoln County War period. Though definitely not Billy, these two men are interesting characters. And their lives bridged the transition from frontier days to Hollywood's mythologized Old West. Exposing the pretenders is also timely because of a 21st century hoax, named the "Billy the Kid Case" by its perpetrators, which recycled "Brushy's" and John Miller's survival claims by adding fake DNA forensics. This book spoofs the old pretenders and modern hoaxers as clowns in quest of media circuses. And it reclaims the true history of Billy Bonney's love and war, far more magnificent than their simplistic tall-tales.