The Regulators Ride & "Hello, Bob" Newspaper Account Is Found

May 4, 2023

   A couple more BtK designs from Dan The Man.

  And, just for grins, here's a Billy the Kid bookmark.

 And, relax, the coffee mug is on the way. 

   "Hello, Bob." That is the ironic greeting Billy the Kid allegedly said to Robert Olinger before the outlaw pulled both triggers on Olinger's own shotgun, sending Pecos Bob straight to hell. I was curious as to how early this salutation shows up in the record, and thanks to James B. Mills, here is the first known account from the May 10, 1881 Las Vegas Gazette, newspaper account:

   By the way, the above newspaper account is not correct on the killing of J.W. Bell. In fact, Bell's pistol was still in his holster when he fell dead in Godrey Gauss's arms. So, what does this do to the veracity of the "Hello, Bob" quote?

   My Texas kin have a saying: if you can't improve on a story, you have no business retelling it in the first place. And this is an excellent example of how history is idealized and formed through made up quotes, half-truths, exaggerations, gossip and hearsay, and then that messy stew is cooked into a juicy legend and baked into folklore. And where one begins and the other ends is a serious knot of contradicting BS. Hey, welcome to my world.

Our lives are hid; our trails are strange;
We’re scattered through the west
In canyon cool, on blistered range
Or windy mountain crest.
Wherever Nature drops he eats
And bares her claws to scratch,
From Yuma to the north frontiers,
You’ll likely find the Bach’,
You will,
The shy and sober bach’!

—Badger Clark