If there was a bookend to the legend of Billy the Kid, it would be this man, Jesse Evans. Now I could not verify if there were any real photos of Jesse, but this seems to be the official one that pops up the most. Even if it isn't Jesse I will give it props for being one of the best gunfighter photos of all time. His expression and his lady friend holding the gun is just too perfect.

Jesse's background, like with so many of these guys, is pretty vague. Born around 1853? in either Missouri or Texas and was supposedly half Cherokee. I even read one biographical note that said Jesse was a graduate of Washington and Lee University! He was arrested along with both of his parents in 1871 for passing counterfeit money in Elk City, Kansas. At least he was raised right to be an outlaw. Jesse showed up in the New Mexico Territory the next year in 1872.

He worked as a cowboy for John Chisum, and ironically rustled cattle from him too. Jesse drifted down to Las Cruces and Mesilla where he joined John Kinney's Gang and they became very close friends. Jesse was involved in the famous bar fight where Kinney's gang killed a couple of cavalry officers from Ft Selden. Jesse also shot a man named Quirno Fletcher a few days later. I guess Jesse decided he had so much natural talent for being a bad guy that he broke away from Kinney and formed his very own gang, also known as 'The Boys'. They became the scourge of Southern New Mexico for a bit with their rustling and robberies. Possibly Billy the Kid rode with them for awhile during that period.

In late 1877 Jesse was hired by 'Murphy-Dolan Faction' in the Lincoln County War and his major claim to fame was killing rancher John Tunstall, thus kicking off the conflict in earnest. Jesse and his gang were fighting Billy the Kid and the Regulators all through the war. Billy the Kid even expressed his fear of Evans in a letter to Governor Lew Wallace when trying to make a deal for amnesty. Post the Lincoln County War Jesse did shoot and kill the lawyer Susan McSween had hired to try and get some justice for her dead husband, Alexander, who was killed in the Battle of Lincoln. That sent Jesse and his gang scrambling out of Lincoln County for good and escaping to the Presidio del Norte in old Mexico. There Jesse and his gang had a gun battle with the Texas Rangers and were decimated. Jesse went to prison for killing Ranger George Bingham. Jesse escaped but was captured a few months later and sent back to Huntsville Prison in Texas. He was released in 1882 and vanished from the pages of history in his probable late 20's.

There is an interesting postscript to Jesse's story though that takes us to 1948 when a probate investigator from St. Louis named William Morrison hunted down a man named Joe Hines in Florida who had claimed the land of a deceased brother in North Dakota. Hines also claimed to be Jesse Evans and said that Billy the Kid was still alive and kicking. This leads to a trail that ended in Hico, TX and a man named William H. Roberts, aka 'Brushy Bill', who claimed to be Billy the Kid. Morrison wrote a book about him and was a true believer. 'Brushy Bill' is a story on its own. I have read a some about him and have my doubts, but I will let that debate stay on the many Bill the Kid pages on FB, as it is a favorite topic of discussion there. It did provide the plot device for 'Young Guns 2' however. I am a little surprised Jesse did not show up in more Billy the Kid movies as a character though. He certainly had the credentials.....