You know you are a true legend when nobody knows for sure when you were born or even if you ever died. Add to that the fact that you were blamed for every act of murder, rustling, pillaging, and assorted other bad guy stuff for decades in the Southwest with very little to no proof of any of it. The 'Apache Kid' would qualify on all counts. Haskay-Bay-Nay-Ntayl seems to be the Apache name I ran across the most for the Apache Kid, though I found about 5 more. We will stick with this one because it evidently translates into "The tall man destined to come to a mysterious end." I can think of no more fitting description of the Kid's life.

Possibly the Kid was born around 1860 around Aravaipa Canyon in what was then the Territory of New Mexico. He may have been related to some powerful Apache chiefs and from a high caste, but nothing is proven. There seems to be some disagreement as to what his actual tribe was, but one story goes he was captured by the Yumas as a boy and ended up on the the San Carlos Indian Reservation. There he was kind of adopted by the Chief of the Army Scouts, Al Sieber. In 1881 the Kid was in the U.S. Cavalry as a scout and became so proficient that in 1882 he was made a Sargent of the scouts. Evidently the Kid's tracking and observational talents were off the charts. In 1885 the Kid was serving under General George Cook chasing Geronimo and other Apache renegades around Mexico when the Kid got into some trouble and started a drunken riot, a foreshadowing of things to come. The Mexican authorities were going to hang him, but Cook stepped in to save him. Good scouts were hard to come by. He paid off the Mexican officials and sent the Kid packing back the San Carlos Reservation.

In 1887 Sieber and some officers left San Carlos to do some business and left the Kid in charge. Instead the Kid decided it would be a great time to party with Tiswin, an alcoholic beverage made from corn or cactus. It was also used in Apache sacred ceremonies and was supposedly one of the reasons Geronimo went on the warpath, as they would not let the Apache brew it on the reservations. At this party the Kid's father was killed by another man and he in turn killed the killer and for good measure the killer's brother too. One problem was the scouts all came from different tribes and traditions and were often not the greatest of friends to begin with and had personal histories before they became scouts. Tensions could run high and often fighting did break out between them. Upon Sieber's return he tried to disarm the Kid and his band, but a shot was fired and all hell broke loose. Sieber was shot in his foot and walked with a crutch the rest of his life. The Kid and his followers fled and the legend began.

Two troops from the 4th Cavalry set off after the Kid, but he was elusive, as he was a highly skilled scout and knew all the tricks of the trade. But the Kid also knew it was only a matter of time before they would catch up with him, so he surrendered. The Kid was court marshaled for 'mutiny & desertion' and sentenced to death by a firing squad. That was later commuted to life imprisonment. General Nelson Miles, Cook's successor, eventually had that sentence dropped to ten years in Alcatraz. In 1888 the Kid's conviction was overturned yet again and he was released. But he still had a lot of enemies back home, both white and Apache, and again was arrested on a warrant for shooting Al Sieber and sent to the infamous Yuma Territorial Prison for 7 years. But on November 2, 1889 the Kid and some other prisoners escaped by overpowering and killing the Sheriffs Glen Reynolds and William Holmes while transporting them to prison. The Kid left one of his captors alive because he had given him a cigarette. It this case kindness paid off. That was the last official record of the Apache Kid, but the real legend just begins. The Apache Kid was busier after he was dead than when he was alive.

In an 1890 skirmish between Apache renegades and Mexican soldiers an Apache warrior was killed and said to be in the possession of Sheriff Glen Reynolds's pocket watch and pistol. He was also described as being too old to be the Kid at that time. In 1894 rancher Charlie Anderson and his cowboys claimed to have killed the Kid in the San Mateo Mountains west of Socorro, NM. This was also contested, though it seems to have become the most popular version. 1896 the infamous John Horton Slaughter, no doubt one of the best names of all the gunfighters, claimed to have killed the Kid in Chihuahua, Mexico, but again no proof. Even Edgar Rice Burroughs, the creator and author of 'Tarzan', spent some time chasing the Kid all over the Southwest as a member of the 7th Cavalry in 1896. In 1899 Colonel Emilio Kosterlitzky of the Mexican Ruales, claimed that the Kid was alive and well and living with the Apache in the Sierra Madre Occidental in Mexico, though he had no proof. Another had a cowboy named Billy Keene swinging around the supposed decapitated head of the Apache Kid in Cloride, NM in 1907 and even a rumor the skull ended up at the Skull & Crossbones Society at Yale. All in all there were 18 claims of the Kid's death and he was still being blamed for rustling and robbing up until the 1930's.

Looks like we will have to go with the grave site established in the 'Apache Kid Wilderness', part of the Cibola National Forrest. Locals said the Kid was not buried and his bones and shreds of his clothes were scattered everywhere for years.

It was also claimed he had a few children, two who ended up in care of the Mescalero Apache Tribe and one, Lupe, who was raised by Mormons in Mexico.

He did have the honor as to being the namesake of popular comic book 'The Apache Kid' in the 1950's, though the character is not really based on his life. I remember having a couple of copies as a kid....

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