Thaindian News

London, Aug 7 (ANI): While a posthumous pardon is being considered for Billy The Kid, the family of the sheriff who shot him are raising their voice against it, saying it would cast doubt on the lawman’s honour.

Pat Garrett tracked down and shot Billy The Kid dead in 1881.

Now, the governor of New Mexico Bill Richardson - a self-confessed fan of Billy The Kid - is considering the pardon because the 21-year-old had been offered an amnesty before his death that was never implemented.

But three of Garrett’s grandchildren and two great-grandchildren have met Richardson to voice their objections to the possible move.

They asked the politician to sign a petition expressing opposition to the pardon but the governor declined, saying he had not yet made a decision.

“As soon as I get his signed signature on my petition, then I’ll be satisfied,” Sky News quoted Jarvis Patrick Garrett, a grandson from Albuquerque, as saying after the meeting.

The family claims a pardon would cast doubt on the veracity of historical accounts that he shot Billy The Kid, who was born William Henry McCarty but also went by the name William H Bonney.

“We have a tendency unfortunately in this country to glorify criminals,” said Pauline Garrett Tillinghast of Tampa, Florida.

“There are many people who want to do revisionist history and we as Garretts don’t want that to happen. We hear these lies. It hurts us,” added Tillinghast. (ANI)