The Last Load Out From The True West World Headquarters

 September 18, 2020

   We moved into the True West World Headquarters way back in 2002 when you could walk into a grocery store and actually start making out with someone. Anyone. And it was healthy!

   Those days are gone. 

   Previously, we were in a funky house in the wash behind the Goatsucker Saloon in Frontier Town. It was the late, great Bob McCubbin who dubbed it "Clantonville." 

   About two years later, I went into the Black Mountain Feed store and ran into a neighbor from down the creek, named Dave Daiss who had some building plans rolled up under his arm. He said to me as I was buying feed for my chickens, "Hey, Bob Bell, you're a creative guy. I want you to look at these plans and tell me what I should call this building I am constructing east of the Dairy Queen." So we stepped outside and he unrolled the plans on the hood of his pickup and I took one look at the falsefront Old West style look of the architectural drawings and said, "I know exactly what the name of that building is," and he looked at me kind of funny and said, "What?" And I said, "That, my friend is the True West Building."

   Darned if he didn't agree with me.

Me at my desk in the True West Building which we later began calling The True West World Headquarters.

Photo by Mort Mortensen

   Moving is such a pain. You think you are on the last load out when you spot something you missed, and then twenty loads later you are still finding crap—or treasures—like this:

A Whole Bunch of Stuff I Can't Throw Away!

   Yes, that is an original Arizona Republic Moon Landing front page from Monday, July 21, 1969. And yes, that is a publicity still for "26 Men" the short-lived, but long-loved TV show about the Arizona Rangers. And yes, that is the wild and crazy bartenders and hangers-on from the legendary Oxbow Bar on Stone Ave. in Tucson, circa 1974 doing the high kicks(just under the headline and to the left of the Hats book). And, yes, that is Frank James on the postcard and yes, that is my name tag from the Mohave County Union High School Class of 1965 Reunion. But the one thing that defies my memory is the lone key, just above the word "moon" in the headline. What does it go to? The bathroom? Carole Glenn will know.

   I have made a couple passes at my office, loading out the big stuff, the computer, the desk, but today was the last gasp effort to get into all the nooks and crannys and save it or dumpster it. Got up to the offices at seven attempting to avoid the heat and about ten loads later I got down to this stage:

Cleaned Out? Not Quite

   But then, Kathy Sue came in and said, "No, everything has to go," so three loads later, we had this.

   And then Kathy took this shot of the boy who spent many a day in this very corner, trying to get out of the proverbial corner!

   This is the end my friend, and, as the song says, those were days we thought would never end.

“I wish there was a way to know you're in the good old days before you've actually left them.”
― Andy Bernard

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            

Own A Piece of The Historic True West World Headquarters

September 17, 2020

   This morning you have a chance to own a piece of the historic True West World Headquarters.

Moving On

   Got to this link and check out the paintings that are priced ridiculously low.

BBB Epic Art Sale: First Come, First Serve

We are selling off 75 paintings that were hung in the hallowed halls of the soon-to-be-vacated offices we inhabited for the better part of the past two decades. Here's one of my favorites that is still available.

Mickey Free Straddles Two Worlds

A Sneak Peek at An Epic Sale

 September 16, 2020

   Putting the finishing touches on our big Zapata & Villa issue which goes to press this weekend. Got up this morning and tweaked an ambitious idea I have for the forthcoming book, "The Illustrated Life & Times of Pancho Villa," which will come out in 2021. This image will also be used in my editorial for the November issue.

   Speaking of Pancho & Lefty, I am left-handed but the Federales never really showed me any kindness.

Daily Whip Out:

"Mexico Reaps The Whirlwind"

  Meanwhile, here is a sneak peek at the paintings and artwork for sale in tomorrow's art auction. The actual auction will formally open at nine a.m. tomorrow morning, but if you want an edge, email me at bozebell@twmag.com and I will give you the inside skinny. Here is the artwork.

Sneak Peek at the BBB artwork

   Good luck!

"All the Federales say, they could have had him any day, but they just let him slip away, out of kindness, I assume. . ."

—Townes van Zandt, "Pancho & Lefty

The Top Secret Writer Goes All Billy On Me

 September 15, 2020

   Nobody has a better collection of Billy the Kid stuff than The Top Secret Writer.

I thought I had seen it all, but Noooo. . .

Billy the Kid Ballet, 1920s

   Billy's sugarloaf here is more accurate than most movie portrayals! There's more, but I need to save it for the book.

"For a period of four or five years I saw every film made, I sat there and I thought, well, I don't know a god-damned thing about movies, but I know I can make a better film than that."

—Stanley Kubrick

Brown Water & Studio Duress

 September 14, 2020

   Up to my eyebrows in dueling projects. This is my view of the battlefield this morning.

Studio Duress

   My biggest problem is trying to understand Pulse call technology in order to attack the Billy book and it's just kicking my old, sagging patootie.

   Meanwhile, we have an issue going out the door on Thursday and I need to finish this "Brown Water" project as well.

   

"Agua Prieta is going to be mine. I am through with them, and all and forever. Do you understand?"

—Pancho Villa

Daily Whip Out:

"Midnight Charge of The Villistas"

The End of the Cavalry Charge

   Pancho Villa was known for his furious, full strength cavalry charges, usually unleashed at around midnight for full suprise effect. After the almost complete destruction of his forces at the Battle of Celaya the previous April, by General Alvara Obregon, Villa hedged his charges at Agua Prieta. Still, 200 Villista horses were killed and left on the battlefield, so some habits died hard.

November 1, 1915

   Moving into position two miles east of Agua Prieta, Pancho Villa and a force of 8,000 soldiers spread out along a low ridge, shielding them from the fire of the bordertown defenders. At 1:37 p.m. a vigorous artillery shelling begins with Villa's big guns unleashing round after round on their objective. Several small buildings and a flour mill are hit and set afire. Under cover of the artillery barrage, Villa's infantry advance forward, which draws the fire of the Calles defenders, including their own heavy artillery.

   Incredibly, as the Villista infantry troops advance towards a slaughter house they then veer off to the border fence and beg a line of American specators for water! Ironically, Agua Prieta is Spanish for "brown water."

   By 3:15 p.m. Villa's second wave of attackers advance a quarter mile and they also went to the fence and begged for water. The main attack comes at 2 a.m. but even the darkness did not protect them as the Carranza defenders utilize search lights to light up and mow down the invaders. By dawn, no attackers have breached the mine strewn battlefield, or the town itself.

   Another attack is attempted on the west side of Agua Prieta on the morning of the second, but it too is repulsed. Villa and his troops stumble on to Naco to reassemble, but some 1,400 of his troops desert him. The battle is over and so is the cavalry charge.

News Dispatches On The Fighting

"Reinforcements for Calles have begun to arrive through the United States. . .the first of nine trains bearing Carranza troops, and equipment from Laredo [Texas] arrived late today for Agua Prieta.

". . .the Carranza garrison was sweeping from all sides of the town with rifles and machine gun volleys guilded by searchlights. Although it is believed the volleys went over the heads of the Villa forces, cheers rang out in the Carranza trenches as every volley was fired."

"The general opinion among American army officers is that Villa has fooled the Crranza forces; that he merely 'nibbled' at Agua Prieta, and finding it much tougher than he expected, will now ignore it with its much coveted supplies or provisions and ammunition, and after his army is thoroughly rested and provisioned, will strike down through Hermosilla and Magdalena to the west coast for a campaign of much greater importance."

—The Arizona Republican, Tuesday, Nov. 2, 1915

"Further information, concerning Villa forces, was given by Juan Mendoza aged sixteen, who was wounded in the leg during a skirmish at Gallardo yesterday and brought to the Carranza hospital at Agua Prieta.

   "We have had no beans or flour sine we left Casas Grandes," the boy declared. "Our food has been just. plain vaca—cow." Mendoza declared the Villa men were tired and hungry."

DOUGLAS, Nov. 1 (11 p.m.)—Corporal M. Jones, Company G. Seventh Infantry, stationed with his company near the United States customs house, was shot through both legs in a sharp firing between 9 and 10 o'clock tonight. The soldier was taken to the Y.M.C.A. building. His wound is not considered dangerous.

DOUGLAS, Nov. 2 (2 a.m.)—The fighting has commenced at 1 o'clock and has grown apace and the bullets from the Mexican rifles are flying over the southern part of Douglas. The artillery bombardment is terrific.

   H.K. Jones, a letter carrier was shot during the firing and was hurried to the Calumet hospital. [apparently, these are two different Jones, this Jones was standing in his front yard when he was hit]

DOUGLAS, Nov. 2 (3:15 a.m.)—Though the firing has abated somewhat there is every indication the fighting will continue all morning. Villa's big guns seem to have stopped and Calles' artillery appears to be, alone, active in this division."

"It was apparent at sundown that Villa had extended his lines to the south and west in an enveloping movement, striving to get to the west of Agua Prieta whence a dash could be made should opportunity afford."

   "At no time during the day did other than random bullets fall across the international boundary line. Some of these fell on the roof of the Douglas Y.M.C.A. but their force was spent and no one was injurted."

"[General] Calles reported his losses today as eight killed and 24 wounded. He claimed the dash of the Villa troops to the Agua Prieta barbed wire entanglements had been repulsed with a loss of at least 200 to the Villa troops."

One of the Villa attackers, Captain Estrella has been wounded. He crawled over the boundary "west of the slaughter house where he was found by Sheriff Harry Wheeler and taken to the Twenty-Second infantry camp hospital."

—The Bisbee Daily Review

"Tall tales make the impossible possible."

—Scott Nelson

Tall Tales Vs Hard History

 September 13, 2020

   As I head for the last roundup of all things Billy the Kid I am struck by the circuitous nature of tall tales vs. hard history. While seeking the latter, it's damn hard to avoid stepping in the former.

   Eventually, it's all "he said-she said" memory and this is undercut by the cold fact that everytime an oldtimer retells a "true" story he gets closer to the center of the stage.

An oldtimer regales the artist Peter Hurd

about the exciting days of Billy the Kid.

   After the blockbuster success of Walter Noble Burns' book, "The Saga of Billy the Kid," in 1924, many Lincoln County stalwarts got book deals, including George Coe who rode with the Kid and lost his trigger finger at the Gunfight at Blazer's Mill.

A photograph of the WPA writer Edith L. Crawford and George Coe standing in front of the Lincoln County Courthouse, shortly before Coe's death in 1941

"Chisum gave us [The Regulators] a right to kill his cattle whenever we wanted to as he knew we would do it anyhow. He said: 'Boys, always kill a heifer as I can sell the steers.' Whether we did that depended on how we felt and how far it was to a steer."

—George Coe, "Frontier Fighter" 1927

Home Is Where The Heart of The Cactus Is

 September 12, 2020

   Spied this Cactus Wren Home Security System today. 

Home, Home On The Cactus Spines

   Not too many predators are going to try a home invasion on this little duplex. Very homey inside. Back porch is a little small, but the amenities are nice.

   Cleaned out my office today and realized I haven't seen the bottom of my desk in 18 years. It's wood!

A clean desk is the sign of a warped mind

   We will be releasing the offer on my 75 pieces of BBB Original Artwork from the TW offices on a first come first serve basis beginning on Wednesday September 16.    Keep an eye on the website link below, beginning Monday.        

 https://store.truewestmagazine.com/

“Beyond myself, somewhere,
I wait for my arrival.”
― Octavio Paz

Art And The Lies of History Spinning In Their Graves

 September 11, 2020

   A day—9 •11—that will shift in infamy. I predict if you live long enough, like I have, you will see things that once seemed inviolate, become the opposite. Mark my words, this is on the way.

   Osama bin Laden has recently been declared a martyr. I would give it maybe twenty years before there is a demand to put his statue at the foot of the Twin Towers. It's coming whether you like it or not.

Too close to call. These guys knew. When BBB met The Top Secret Writer

"There are no historians in the mob."

—Dana Perino

"Nothing is more dangerous than ignorance and intolerance armed with power."

—Voltaire

A Fitting Headline for 2020

Founding Fathers Strapped Down In Graves to Prevent Further Spinning

"Art gives life to what history killed. Art gives voice to what history denied, silenced, or persecuted. Art brings truth to the lies of history."

—Carlos Fuentes

Plan de Wellton

 September 10, 2020

     Here's how we ended up in Wellton last night. For grins, Kathy put in our route from Mission Beach to our home in Cave Creek and then asked Google Maps what the half-way point would be and it turned out to be Wellton, Arizona, which is about 35 miles east of Yuma. So then she Googled out-of-the-way places to stay and, well, we ended up here.

Wellton Sunrise

   And, here's the view looking the other way.

Room #1 at The Desert Motel in Wellton

   In the Mexican Revolution Francisco Madero came up with his Plan de San Luis, giving specific goals to take back Mexico from the dictator Porfirio Diaz. Feeling betrayed by Madero, Emiliano Zapata came up with his counter plan, which he called Plan de Ayela. And, then Carranza had his Plan of Guadalupe.

   So, in that spirit, Kathy and I came to Wellton to work on our own plan.

The Three Provisions of Plan de Wellton

1. Our relationship is the most important thing.

2. Balance the vibrations of the desert with the waves of the ocean.

3. The goal is joy. Find the joy every day.

Covid Lessons Learned, So Far:

"Everyone who is more cautious than you seems insane, and everyone slightly less cautious seems reckless."

—Susan Mathews

Dining Out In The Age of Covid And Spending The Night In Wellton

 September 9, 2020

   We took off for home at ten this morning and up on the mountain we took a side road and ended up here for lunch.

Dining Out—Literally— In The Time of Covid

   This is at a barely open deli up on the mountain. Only takeout and, well, they allowed us to take two chairs out in the front yard. It looks pretty dire, but it was actually fun. Meanwhile, we hit the road again for another two hours, then pulled off to find this:

   We stopped for the night in Wellton, because, well, who wouldn't want to spend the night in Wellton, Arizona?

    Meanwhile, I'm still noodling the Agua Prieta fight and I found this:

He was a brigadier general at the age of 25 when he fought Pancho Villa at the Battle of Agua Prieta in 1915. He is also considered the most popular president of Mexico in the 20th Century.

Daily Whip Out:

"Lazaro Cardenas"

(from a photograph)

"A life lived well, is long enough."

—Elliott Dallen, 31, diagnosed with terminal cancer

The Battle of Bad Friends

 September 8, 2020

   Last day on the beach. Almost nobody here. Overcast. Just about perfect for a desert rat.

Lonely Beach

   Of course, even with no one here, I still get those looks: "How did the old man get the young honey?"

Old Man Gloats On The Beach

   Meanwhile, my idea of a vacation is to research the Brown Water fight (Agua Prieta) and so far, this is what I got.

November 1, 1915

   His fortunes in decline, and in need of a win, Pancho Villa mounts an offensive to invade Sonora and capture, what he believes to be, the poorly defended outpost of Agua Prieta and then live off the land and take Hermosillo, defeat the rest of the state and then dictate terms to that Chingasso Carranza who is making his life so difficult. Villa left Casas Grandes, Chihuahua with 40 cannon and about 6,000 men. His spies told him there were only 1,200 troops at Agua Prieta and he could take it easily.

   The irony here is that all the combatants are former allies, Villa, Obregon, Calles and Cardenas, the latter three fighting for Carranza, face off at Brown Water over the principal that no military commander should be eligible to run for the office of president of Mexico.

Combate de Los Malamigos

(The Battle of Bad Friends)

With friends like these, who needs enemies?

Pancho loses and three of them will become president of Mexico! Here they are.

   Amaro Obregon, the youngest of 18 children grew up poor (his father's estate was stolen from him) and Amaro became a successful chickpea salesman and later a military leader outsmarting Panch Villa at the Battle of Celaya where Obregon went up against 30,000 cavalry with only 12,000 infrantrymen, and won, killing 6,000 Villistas and capturing 4,000. Obregon executed all the captured officers (120!) and then lost his arm as Villa attacked again at a hacienda near Leon and a cannon shell took off his right arm. The battle at Agua Prieta will be a rematch and Pancho wants revenge.

  

Daily Whip Out: "Alvaro Obregon" 

from a photograph

When he became president of Mexico, in 1920, Obregon denied being corrupt, saying, "I am less of a thief than the others because I only have one arm to steal with."

You've got to give the guy credit for having a sense of humor.

Daily Whip Out:

"Venustiano Carranza"

from a photograph

Carranza was not a military leader but a shrewd politician who managed to consolodate the rebel wins into the presidency, but in the end he too was assassinated.

Obegron, at left, sporting his one good arm, strides along with Carranza, center,

who stood six foot six.

   Another of the Sonoran Studs who Villa ran into at Agua Prieta was this guy:

Daily Whip Out:

"Plutarco Elias Calles"

from a photograph

   General Plutarco Calles built on Obregon's experience at Celaya and built extensive fortifications around Agua Prieta with deep trenches, barbed wire and a whole bunch of Hotchkiss machine gun nests. Villa still believed that a swift cavalry charge would win the day in about five hours.

   The front machine gun nests were manned by this guy who was a brigadier general at the age of 25.

Daily Whip Out:

"Lazaras Cardenas"

from a photograph

   According to some, Villa wasn't even able to mount one of his famous midnight charges. And according to other sources, Villa wanted to continue his cavalry charges but his troops wre ready to mutiny. As a result Villa withdrew and arrived at Naco, also on the border and to the west of Agua Prieta. Even though his men were resupplied, more than 1,500 deserted his cause. Everything from there was downhill for the Atilla of the North.

"With friends like these, who needs enemies."

—Old Vaquero Saying

Labor Day Reflection

September 7, 2020

   Labor Day on the beach. The view is spectacular and the salty, cool breeze is invigorating. Here's a shot of last night's sunset.

Sunset On Mission Beach Bike Riders

Los Frenemies

    I'm doing the Battle of Agua Prieta for the November CG (Classic Gunfights) and I brought along the Pancho Villa biography by Friedrich Katz, to the beach in San Diego.

   I never realized the first half of the Mexican Revoluton was the "rebels" fighting the dictators (Diaz and Huerta) and then the second half of the revolution (1915-1920) was the victorious rebels fighting each other! Here's how Katz puts it:

"As in the history of most revolutions, the bloodiest phase of the Mexican Revolution occurred not when the revolutionaries were fighting the old regime but when they began to fight each other."

   And, then, this: "In the new civil war that now engulfed Mexico, revolutionaries would at times deal far more harshly and brutally with their former allies than they did with the federal commanders who had supported Huerta, many of whom were amnestied after their final defeat."

   So, I'm curious why the American Revolution didn't follow the same dynamics as the Russian, French and European models? So I asked this guy:

   "Our revolution was a 'conservative' revolution in the sense that they were fighting to preserve American colonial liberties that the British were abrogating after 1763. Wealthy people north and south supported the revolution as did the common folk. There was some nasty retribution in the south against loyalists but almost all loyalists moved to Canada or back to England when the war ended. Of course the winners did fight each other 75 years later in the Civil War. But, even our Civil War was a war to perfect the Union and live up to the equality promise of our revolutionary rhetoric—and then it still took another 100 years to legally insure that 'equality.' The American Revolution was the only truly successful Revolution—Russia, France, and Mexico all failed. And while we have huge disparities of wealth we also have an open and free society where anyone can prosper with hard work, smarts, and a little luck. We do not have a class based system. Even cutups from Kingman, Arizona and orphans from Frankfurt Germany can realize their dreams—and that, my boy, is why I am so in love with this country. 

—The Top Secret Writer 

   Isn't that just about the coolest answer in the world? I may dedicate my next book to him.

"There is just as much money to be made out of the wreckage of a civilization as from the upbuilding of one."

—Rhett Butler

Billy the Kid: The Final Word

 September 6, 2020

     We're hard at work updating and finalizing my third and final book on this guy.

Dan The Man's Rough of Book III Cover

The Final Word

   When I was 12-years-old I bought a bogus photo of Billy the Kid.

   That was 62 years ago. 

   I drove thru Lincoln for the first time, 42 years ago and I finally visited Old Fort Sumner and the Kid's grave, 36 years ago. I published my first book on the Kid 28 years ago and my second book, a very expanded look at the Lincoln County War and the Kid, 24 years ago. Over the past 20 years, during my tenure at True West magazine, we have covered, updated and refined virtually every aspect of the Kid's life. This newest book—my third—will be a compilation of all of the above. Is it the final word on the subject? 

   Hardly. But it is MY final word.

"Curiosity killed the cat, but for a while I was a suspect."

—Steven Wright

Local Girl Flips Out Over Conga Version of "Stairway to Heaven"

 September 5, 2020

   Saw a strange and wonderful sight last night.

Local Girl Flips Out Over Conga Version

 of "Stairway to Heaven"

   I sent this photo to my kids, and my son, Thomas Charles, replied with this response:

"That's ridiculous! Also, how do you play 'Stairway to Heaven' on the congas?"

—T. Bell

   Good question. Kathy and I were walking on the beach and I heard congas. "Where is that coming from?" I asked. The Goose said, "Up there by the sea wall. See him?" I looked up and spied him, then said, "Let's go up there and see what's going on," and your mother said, "No." And I said, "Why?" And she said, "Because it'll just be a bunch of drunks talking to a drummer." Ha. Like she would know anything about THAT!

   So, I dragged her up there and lo and behold this guy has a full set of congas set up with a speaker behind him (you can see it in the photo) and out of the speaker is coming a kind of Jack Johnson style version of "Stairway to Heaven." Very mello and slow, if you can believe that. Anyway, these three blond kids, two boys and a girl, started doing back flips off the sea wall. And I caught the girl going off.

   And your mother was right. It was just a bunch of drunks talking to a drummer. I did put $5 in his tip box, though. So I've got THAT going for me.

"There's a sign on the wall, but she wants to be sure

'cause you know sometimes words have two meanings."

—Led Zeppelin

Brrrrrr, I'm Chilly!

 September 4, 2020

   For a guy who hasn't had on a long sleeved shirt since before quarantine (March 13), it was a fantastic shock to actually be, how can I say this, CHILLY! In the daytime!!

Brrrrrrr, I'm Chilly!

   How do people survive in these sixtie-five-degree early morning climates?! I literally had to walk to a store on Mission Beach and buy a long-sleeved shirt, and they didn't open until ten and, in the interim, I practically froze my Bozers off.

   Don't get me wrong, it was fun!

   Then, as if it couldn't get any groovier, I had huevos rancheros delivered to me by a babe in a patriotic face mask.

Huevos Rancheros Bearing Babe

   Life is good. It's 110 in Cave Creek today.

"There is just as much money to be made out of the wreckage of a civilization as from the upbuilding of one."

—Rhett Butler

Hitting Yu-Mama And Moving On

 September 3, 2020

   We hit the road on Tuesday and after a four-hour run, landed in this cool spot.

Yuma, Arizona Territory, 1900

Of course, everything is weirdly changed in the pandemic, but sans the lack of people, it retains some of its charm.

Yuma Arizona, 2020

   It was a brisk 106 degrees when we pushed on towards El Centro, where it was even hotter.

"Sometimes you have to go through hell, to get to heaven."

—Old Vaquero Saying

Billy the Kid In The Land of Disenchantment

 September 2, 2020

   Remember the guy from Tinnie, New Mexico who wrote me the long diatribe—A Tinnie Tantrum—and said he feels sorry for me because my "job" is to glorify criminals and "cop killers"? Well, just for the record, he is not alone in New Mexico.

The Land of Disenchantment

   There is definitely an anti-Kid sentiment in Santa Fe, where several high up government administrators have literally rolled their eyes when I asked them why there isn't any Fort Sumner historical displays on Billy the Kid at the state park there. To them, the Navajos are the worthy subject matter and the Kid is unworthy of historic legitimacy.

   On my first research trip to New Mexico, in 1990, I stopped at the Silver City Museum and when I walked in the front door an elderly woman (younger than I am now) in a period dress asked me if she could help me and I said, "Yes, thank you, I'm here to do research on the boyhood home of Billy the Kid," and this very sweet, volunteer docent said, "There are many historical characters from this area who are more interesting than that petty criminal." Okay, I said, somewhat taken back, then tell me who they are. And, of course, the first name out of her mouth, was her grandfather.

   Sweet, but kind of moronic and pathentic, if you ask me.

   Or, since we're in the name-calling game, maybe I am the pathetic moron.

   But, I digress.

The Ladie's Man

   I want to expand on an idea I had in the first Billy book. Would we remember the Kid if he had received his pardon?

   This painfully accurate clipping, was created out of whole cloth by myself with graphic help from the very talented Rebecca Edwards. I am emulating literally hundreds of articles I have seen and read in small town newspapers all over the West. Like the pretty docent in Silver City, certainly her grandfather is more worthy of being remembered than some cop-killing cretin with buck teeth.

   Oh, and the Kid's second son, in the faux article above, is named for the Englishman, John Henry Tunstall, the only dude in Lincoln County who showed the Bonney boy any kindness.

   A memory is like a shadow passing across the moon. . .

Daily Whip Out: "The Gate Crasher"

   Shortly after we took over the running of True West magazine, we planned a cover story on the Kid's Kids. Fred Nolan wrote us up a tremendous piece on the main suspects who might have fathered children with the notorious outlaw.

   How would we illustrate that on the cover? I remembered an old True West cover from the fifties: "Is This The Funeral of Billy the Kid?" What if we ran a photo of the Kid and Paulita and their kids at Old Fort Sumner? Jenny Smith told me about her friend, Mary Hartless, who recently had bought an oldtime camera that made actual tintypes. Turned out Jenny and Mary were attending a history encampment at Tubac, that very weekend. So I left the house at four a.m. and drove the 187 miles down to Tubac, south of Tucson, in three hours. Got there, found Jenny Smith who introduced me to Mary Hartless, and, grabbing potential models and literally kids at random from the campers, we set up against a 100-year-old adobe wall and shot this.

March 15, 2000, Tubac, Arizona

The Kid And His Kids

   Mary developed the photos and Dan The Man Harshberger whipped out a cover and we showed it to the statff and our friends and they all had the same reaction: "Why would True West magazine run a fake photo on the cover?"

   Like I said, maybe I am the pathetic moron.

"What people choose to believe is a fact in itself."

—Leon Metz