Brushy Bill Roberts was an imposter. As a teenager, he claimed to be Jesse James. As an old man, he claimed to be Billy the Kid, but he couldn't speak Spanish while the real Billy was fluent, and he was too young to be the real Billy. Plus, to believe his story, you would have to believe that the two or three hundred residents of Fort Sumner who saw the real Billy laid out at his wake kept quiet, every last one of them, until they, too, joined Billy in the great hereafter. Anyone who believes Brushy Bill is as deluded as he was.