Lea McCarty Scores Major Find But IDs It Wrong

 May 23, 3036

   Here' the inside skinny on the guy who thought he scored a photo of Billy the Kid's funeral:

Billy the Kid's Pall Bearers

(actually taken in the 1920s)

   We are featuring a Classic True West article from 1960 that really excited me when I bought the issue off of the rack at Desert Drugs in downtown Kingman, Arizona. The article was written by one of my illustration heroes who went to Old Fort Sumner and took this photo of the graveyard.

Old Fort Sumner graveyard, 1960

Photo by Lea F. McCarty

   This photo of the graveyard seems a tad unkempt for that late date. And, I assume that is the "Pals" headstone in the middle background? And would that building be the museum as it stood in those days? We need to get these issues answered before we go to press next week. 

  When I first started reading True West magazine in the mid-1950s, McCarty was the big dog illustrator in that world.

"Billy the Kid" by Lea F. McCarty

   And here is my take on the prolific artist.

Lea Franklin McCarty

(1905-1960)

   Born in Los Angeles in 1905, Lea F. Franklin was a man of many interests. He started out as a drummer in Paul Whiteman's band and toured extensively. He also explored other fields such as mining, horticulture and ceramics, before creating portraits of some of the most famous Old West Gunslingers, including Jesse James, Wild Bill Hickok, Wyatt Earp and Billy the Kid. Over his career he produced over 100 researched paintings which were later compiled in his book "The Gunighters" first published in 1951. 

   His article in True West about searching for a photograph of the Kid's funeral was published after the artist's death in 1960. And even though, the photo turned out to not be a photo of the Kid's funeral—as I said, it was taken in the 1920s—but it is still a valuable contribution to the history we love.

   Whenever we are in doubt, we always go to the Kid himself for an unbiased overview of the situation.

"There's no money in it."

—Billy The Kid