Billy the Kid, Hico Texas

Our trip north from the Texas Hill Country took us along U.S. 281 through Hamilton and Hico. We noticed a small "billy the kid" museum in Hamilton but were headed for a similarly named museum in Hico that was mentioned in the Texas tourism book.

The Hico museum has a video and numerous exhibits centered around the local claimant to the title of Billy the Kid, one Brushy Bill Roberts. Billy the Kid is supposed to have been killed and buried in New Mexico, but there have been several challenges to that story. Brushy Bill of Hico appears to be one of the more credible ones.

A couple of local newspaper clippings are displayed to support the story.


There is a photo of Brushy Bill with the governor of New Mexico from 1950 when Brushy failed to convince the governor of his claim.


The museum also has a collection of artifacts from around 1900, one of them being the local jail cell.


The best website I found that looks at both sides of the evidence for Billy versus Brushy is this one. I report, you decide.