The Four Stages of False Photo Identification

 August 22, 2025

   Sometimes it seems as if everyone I meet has an old photograph they insist on showing me that they claim is worth "at least a million dollars." 

   Ever since Bill Koch paid $2.3 million for the only known tintype of William H. Bonney back in 2010, the floodgates have opened and stayed open like you would not believe. 

BBB interviewing Bill Koch

after he won the bid to buy the Billy photo

in Denver

(the gent in the red circle is my friend Buckeye Blake)

The owners of these "priceless photos" invariably come to True West hoping we can help them substantiate their claims. These encounters go roughly like this:

   "I greatly admire you and what you have done to preserve our history and I want to show you a photo no one has ever seen before of [fill in the blank of a famous Old West character]."

   They show me the photo and I look at the photo and then I invariably say this: "It's an intriguing photo, but what is the provenance?"

   "This photo came from a prominent family and the facial recognition software confirms it is a 99.9% match."

   Well, for starters, "a prominent family" is not provenance, unless you have the paperwork showing who had the photo when and where it came from. And, for the record, facial recognition software may be good for solving crimes but it's an absolute joke when comparing facial features on historic photos. Examples to come. . .

   As soon as they find out we are not going to support their claims, the insults begin and have not stopped until this very day. In fact, it has gotten so bad, here is the blanket form response one of my Billy the Kid compadres sends out when they get an image sent to them:

Thank you for writing.

Billy the Kid's Historical Coalition can offer you no certain claims for or against this particular photograph.

If you are unable to show that the picture originated at a time and place Billy the Kid was known to have been, or that it was taken by a photographer in a similar area, etc., and have a clear line of descent and ownership, then every expert will tell you they can do nothing with it. Facial recognition software, AI, and facial similarities are not conventional standards by which the historical field establishes provenance.

We wish we could do more for you, and we agree that it's a fascinating photograph! But we can neither disprove it nor be the conduit for its authentication.

Thanks again for writing, and if you have any more information that may contribute to the authentication standards noted above, please send them on!

Thanks! 

—James Townsend

Billy the Kid's Historical Coalition

"Sometimes a picture is not even worth 500 words."

—Old Provenance Saying